Book Blurb:
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived. Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest. Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories. Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
My Review: 4 stars
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer is a magical and fantastical story that will ultimately feel like a trip to an adult’s version of Narnia, but through a forest, rather than a wardrobe.
Going in, I had no idea that this book would be mostly fantasy. I’m a mood reader and I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get into this genre when I started reading. Luckily, Shaffer is a skilled storyteller and was able to let me just, well – go with it. I’m so glad I did.
I found myself most intrigued by the three main characters and the growth of their friendship. Rafe, Jeremy and Emilie were a trio to root for, even before they went on a search for Emilie’s sister. Their banter was spot on, and they fell into a comfortable ease with one another. Jeremy’s skill at finding things and Rafe’s artistic ability seemed so amazing until they went into the forest and the reader learns some of the other things they excel at.
This book read more like a YA (young adult) novel than adult fiction. I can’t put my finger on why, maybe the lost boys? I’m not sure. I appreciated the LBGTQ angle and felt like it worked perfectly in the story. I think many Narnia fans will love this book, or fans of any type of magical worlds.
Quotes I liked:
Joy is quieter than people think it is. Especially the joy of getting back something you thought was lost forever.”
“All his anger at Jeremy, all the bitterness, which was simply another name for loneliness, fled like shadows at the touch of the sunlight.”
“All books are magic. An object that can take you to another world without even leaving your room? A story written by a stranger and yet it seems they wrote it just for you or to you? Loving and hating people made out of ink and paper, not flesh and blood? Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is.”
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