The Lost

by Sarah Beth Durst

"It was only meant to be a brief detour. But then Lauren finds herself trapped in a town called Lost on the edge of a desert, filled with things abandoned, broken and thrown away. And when she tries to escape, impassible dust storms and something unexplainable lead her back to Lost again and again. The residents she meets there tell her she's going to have to figure out just what she's missing--and what she's running from--before she can leave. So now Lauren's on a new search for a purpose and a destiny. And maybe, just maybe, she'll be found..."--

• ISBN10: 0373803591
• ISBN13: 9780373803590
• Publish Date: 22 October 2013
• Publish Status: Cancelled
• Imprint: Luna Books
• Edition: Original ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Beth C.]

I have never read any of Sarah Beth Durst's novels before, so I found myself in a strange new world. A place where the unreal has the capacity to seem as real as the air we breathe, but where we have the capacity to fix ourselves if only we find what was Lost. A place that, strangely, I didn't really want to leave - where the place was just as alive as the people within it. A story that had me looking up the sequel, ready and willing to buy it immediately (having forgotten that this is a new book). It's unusual that I feel this way about a book, especially with money being tight right now.

While I had never read any of her books before, Lost has me convinced that I must rectify that shortcoming immediately in order to experience more of the strange and fascinating worlds she has created.

[jnikkir]

This review can also be found at my blog, There were books involved...

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Actual rating: 4.5 stars

When I first heard about The Lost, I was a goner. That is to say, the blurb appealed to me like CRAZY, and I knew I had to have this book in my life. Why? Well, did you read the blurb?! It's about a girl who finds herself stuck in a town made up of lost things and lost people and lost dreams. I don't know about you, but that premise alone was enough to have me dying to read the book. The potential in that idea is huge... and for me, The Lost totally delivered.

I immediately connected with the main character, Lauren, who's at a place in her life that I found really relatable. She's in her mid-twenties, out of school, but still in that period of just-figuring-things-out. Her voice was really easy to connect with. She's snarky, but not too snarky - she just came across as very real, to me.

"Work is the daily activity that sucks your soul but pays your bills. It's the path your feet walked down while your head was stuck in the clouds."

- The Lost, ARC, pg 20

Tragically, though, Lauren is slowly losing her mother to cancer. And one day, dreading the news from her mom's latest tests, she's on her way to work - and she decides to just keep driving, and driving... (Check out my interview with Sarah Beth Durst, where she explains where she got this idea!) Eventually, Lauren finds herself in a strange little town, stays at the motel overnight, but when she tries to leave in the morning, she can't. She drives away from town, but just ends up headed straight back into it, over and over.

After being shunned and all but run out of the town after a strange encounter when she first arrived, Lauren ends up befriending a couple of the locals. Peter, the Finder, is a fixture in Lost - he finds people and brings them out of the dust-storm-like void that surrounds the town. Claire is a six-year-old who mostly tags along with Peter, in the times she isn't out looking after herself. She and Peter teach Lauren what it takes to make a life in Lost.

The town of Lost itself is sprawling - a mix of whimsical and creepy, charming and run-down, beautiful and dangerous. Which I suppose is to be expected. Lost things are lost for a reason, and they're usually not brand-spanking-new. But one man's trash is another man's treasure, and as Lauren begins to learn how to survive in this run-down, forgotten town, she learns to appreciate its beauty, as well.

I feel light-headed and giddy. [...] Peter is looking at me with an unreadable expression. "What?" I ask.

"'The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.' Still think this place is so terrible?" He sounds wistful.

"It has its moments," I concede.

- The Lost, ARC, pg 185

The town of Lost has a very fairy-tale, sort of Wonderland/Neverland-ish quality to it, both in the setting and in the people and attitudes you find there. It's a strange place, full of strange people, who go through extremes of hope and despair. The scenes when Lauren is in the real world stand in stark contrast to her time in Lost, gray and plodding compared to the fantastical and ever-changing nature of Lost.

There is a bit of romance in The Lost, between Lauren and Peter, and I loved it to death. This is in no way insta-love, though Peter is definitely immediately intriguing. But Lauren takes a long time to finally come to trust Peter. And as Peter gets to know Lauren, he slowly starts to open up to her. And through it all, while Peter very much wants to protect Lauren and keep her safe, he also has faith in her to look out for herself when she can.

Peter is probably my favorite character in the book, because he reminded me so much of a grown-up Peter Pan, only, a lonely one, without his troupe of Lost Boys... Peter is just as strange and whimsical and mysterious as the town of Lost itself. He's a mercurial enigma, stunningly truthful at times, and tantalizingly mysterious at others.

He's like Peter Pan. A dark, mysterious, sexy, grown-up Peter Pan, who can somehow be dangerous and charming at the same time.

- The Lost, ARC, pg 110

Much of what Peter says is made up of quotations from poems or fairy-tales, which always seem to fit the moment perfectly. (Seriously, Peter and all his quotes is one of my favorite things about the book.) Most of all, Peter has a sense of otherness to him; he's often boyish and beaming, but he also has moments that age him, and I love that quality in a character.

He's earnest in a way I've never seen him, eyes intent on mine. I imagine I see a flicker of... what? Sadness? All the childlike play is gone, and I see a man who looks as though he's lost more than I can imagine.

- The Lost, ARC, pg 121

In conclusion...

This book is awesome. It's a seriously unique premise, wonderfully executed... The Lost just perfectly delivered on what I wanted it to be. The town is a super cool, sort of grown-up/darker version of Neverland, run down but beautiful. Lauren is an excellent main character and I loved her first-person narration a lot. Peter is... Well, he's a grown-up Peter Pan, which tells you enough about him to know why I adore him so much.

Also, I didn't mention this earlier, but there was one section of the book where I was just sobbing... seriously, I was crying so hard. And any book that can make me do that is always one of my favorites. It means I was invested in the story and the characters, and that they were able to crush my heart to little pieces. And I love it (and hate it!!!) when that happens. ;)

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There were books involved...

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

I really, really enjoyed The Lost. It has such an imaginative premise, and thankfully, the story was great, too! Instead of meeting her mother, Lauren drives away. She has no destination in mind. She just drives. Eventually she decides it's time to turn around, head home, and hear what her mother has to say about her health. But, Lauren ends up stuck in a tiny town named Lost. It's a strange place with wallets scattered about, a man on a endless search for pennies, and talk of the Missing Man. Soon enough Lauren learns that there's no leaving without the Missing Man's help. Too bad he disappears after hearing her name.

The Lost immediately made me think of Gort's house in Halloweentown 2. You know, the troll who ends up with everything that is lost in the mortal realm? The town is made up entirely of things that have been lost, and there's a dust storm parked around it that constantly spews random objects, including houses. I did have to wonder how you lose a house, but not everything has been physically lost. Some things have just been forgotten. I adored this set up, and it was fun seeing all of the things Lauren found when she learns to scavenge.

I don't want to give too much away because a lot of the fun of The Lost was discovering things along the way, but just know that I really liked it. There's mystery, and a little romance, plus a heart-wrenching mother-daughter relationship. There's also a little girl with a knife, and she's not afraid to use it! I have a theory about Lauren and the Missing Man, and I was bummed that it wasn't confirmed or rebuffed, but that's because there's a sequel! I do think The Lost works really well as a standalone, with the exception of a few lose ends, but I'm ecstatic that there will be more!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.