Long Lost

This book, without a shred of doubt, ranks in my top 5 of books so far this year. It's creepy, perfect for a variety of ages, and beyond that it explores the meaning of stories and how they shape the very world we live in. West, you truly wrote a gem - though the MC is 11 (and I'm in my 20s), I connected and related to her just as much as I assume any teen reader would. There's chills, emotional bits, amazing characters, and more. An absolute gem to read!

Sometimes it's a little hard to review middle grade books because they're not meant for an adult audience. Some parts of the story may feel flat or predictable, but those parts wouldn't necessarily feel that way to the intended audience. I always have to remind myself of that when I read these books. The reason I go back to them is for the simplicity and pure fun that they give. Usually, the middle grade books I pick up are fantastical, and I just love the pure imagination I find.

Long Lost is about Fiona Crane who has to move away from her old life to Lost Lake with her family. She's very unhappy about it and jealous of the attention her older sister, Arden, receives for being a figure skater. The story takes place during the summertime, so Fiona has to find something to do with her time. She turns to the local library and discovers a mysterious book. This leads her on a hunt for truth.

I highly enjoyed reading this book. It's about Fiona and her family, but it's also about the mysterious book she discovers, which is also about two sisters, Hazel and Pearl, who lived about a hundred years ago. The story of Fiona involves her reading this story, and it's hard to say which story is more interesting. At first, I thought it was going to be a frame story, but Fiona gets interrupted in reading the Hazel and Pearl book. This brought some intrigue since you, as the reader, wanted to finish it with Fiona.

I personally don't like too much detail about the books I'm going to read, so I'm not going to give away much more details. But the adventure Fiona goes on is so much fun. I quickly read through the second half of the book, when things really started taking off. As I stated at the top, some things do feel flat and predictable, but that's more on me. I'm not the audience for this. Even so, those few small things don't kill the book. The overall story is a joy.

There's many characters throughout the book, and most of them are pretty distinct. I can't say the writing was anything special. It was all pretty straightforward, just telling us what we need to know, but there were a few pretty phrases. However, I think middle grades are more about the story instead of pretty writing. I've never read a book my Jacqueline West before, but the imagination in this book really impressed me.

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I remember reading one part where a boy mentioned, “You must know my family, they have been here since the town's founding”, and then another part where he is giving Fiona directions, like “so you turn onto Swan Road...you know where that is, right?” as if she's supposed to have every road memorized. And then I thought, This reminds me so much of where I live, the town of Red Wing. And then, I remembered, Jacqueline West lives here–she must have based the book's setting on it!


And that was so cool. Seeing an author take some of my least-favorite aspects of my hometown and use it to enhance the atmosphere of a fictional town.

The rest of the book was good. I was expecting Fiona and Arden to end up in the same roles as Hazel and Pearl, and one of them would end up doing something horrible to the other, but instead we got a happy sugar-coated ending. I'm not complaining, but the other route would have been more interesting.