Hi friends! So today I'm going to be doing a review on "The Lost Story" by Meg Shaffer. This review is going to be short and sweet (like the title suggests) and spoiler free (however there will be the Goodreads synopsis in this and sometimes it can contain spoilers so please keep that in mind!)
"Inspired by C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles Of Narnia, this wild and wondrous novel is a fairy tale for grown - ups who still knock on the back of wardrobes - just in case - from the author of The Wishing Game.
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 as Rafe and Jeremy.
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 buying 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 they can get back everything and everyone they've lost."
I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley, however all opinions are my own.
So the reason I wanted to read this book is because the synopsis sounded amazing and I saw that it was under the LGBTQIA category and we all know how much I love queer storytelling so I applied for it. I'm not going to lie friends, the start of this book is a little slow because it is getting us to learn more about our 3 main characters but please give this book a chance and power through it because the ending is so worth it. This book honestly made my heart so happy and took me out of a little reading slump that I was having. One of my favourite things about this book was the "storyteller's corner" and I've never seen something like that implemented in a book before and I found it so fun to read through. This is the first Meg Shaffer book I've ever read and I will 100% be picking up her other book (as well as this one) when I next go to the bookstore because her storytelling is stunning! It was nice to have a mixture of mystery and fantasy and so much happened that I was just not expecting. Other than the slow beginning, I loved every moment of reading this book and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a good mystery/fantasy!
I gave this book a 4/5 star rating on Goodreads!
This book is already out!
What did you think of this book? Who were your favourite or least favourite characters? Do you have any books you'd recommend for me to read and do a review on? Please let me know down in the comments below!
Have a wonderful day!
Love, Doe!
