Lost and Found

by Orson Scott Card

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of Lost and Found through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Orson Scott Card is at it again. Here he’s made a whole new world for us to follow. Or rather, all-new characters and abilities, set on earth (for a change). It’s marketed as a young adult novel, full of teens with powers. But it does have some darker subjects to be aware of (see below).
Ezekiel Blast is a finder. He can find things. Or rather, lost things tend to just find him. That has caused him all sorts of trouble in the past – from being accused of theft to nearly being arrested for trying to return something he found.
But all of that is about to change, as he learns to control his micropower in hopes of finding a little lost girl. And to think, none of it would have happened if a police officer hadn’t given him a chance and tried to make him do something with his gift.

“You know that I’m the school leper. Why would you walk with me?”
“I’m not walking with you. I’m walking inside your shunning bubble.”

Warnings: Lost and Found has some seriously dark elements hidden within. There are kidnappings, mentions of beatings with no consequences, bullying, child pornography, and (spoiler warning here) details about a body decomposing. I’m not going to say much on the latter, because it is a big revelation later on, but things get dangerously dark around that point. Consider yourself warned.

Lost and Found was an interesting concept; a kid with micropowers being forced to learn how to deal with them. Ezekiel Blast hasn’t had an easy life, with having lost things show up around him, only for people to accuse him of theft should he dare return them. That little twist did make his plot a lot more interesting, I’ll give you that.
I loved the concept behind the micropowers. It was fun to see powers used in a significantly smaller scale. My biggest regret is that we didn’t get to see more kids with them – just a handful, and even then we didn’t get to see too much of them.
I will say that I felt like this novel is marketed in an odd way. It’s written for a younger audience – the writing alone made that very clear. But there are some very dark subjects and themes running throughout this book, from the kidnappings and child pornography to Beth’s whole plot. It might be a little much, given the target audience.
I can’t help but notice that Orson Scott Card seems to have a pattern when it comes to his main characters. Ezekial is brilliant, young, underestimated and misunderstood. Sound familiar? It should. This cookie cutter character did break the immersion a bit. But maybe a younger audience (which is the target audience, remember) won’t know as much of his other works yet?
On the whole, I think that Lost and Found actually did have a great premise. It was just the follow-through that ultimately was a letdown.

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