The Lost

by Sarah Beth Durst

From New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst comes a fully updated and expanded edition of THE LOST, with a brand-new ending. Against the backdrop of a desolate and mystical town, this arresting, fantastical novel explores one woman’s impossible journey—and her quest to find her fate.

"A slow-brewing, increasingly exciting, and deeply provocative fantasy world." —Booklist

Lost your way?

Your dreams?

Yourself?

Welcome to Lost.

It was supposed to be a small escape. A few hours' driving before turning around and heading home. But once you arrive in Lost…well, it's a place you really can't leave. Not until you're Found. Only the Missing Man can send you home. And he took one look at Lauren Chase and disappeared.

So Lauren is now trapped in the town where all lost things go—luggage, keys, dreams, lives—where nothing is permanent, where the locals go feral and where the only people who don't want to kill her are a handsome wild man called the Finder and a knife-wielding six-year-old girl. The only road out of town is engulfed in an impassable dust storm, and escape is impossible…

Until Lauren decides nothing—and no one—is going to keep her here anymore.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Adult, Romance, Young Adult, Paranormal

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2014

About the author

Sarah Beth Durst is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty-five books for adults, teens, and kids, including cozy fantasy The Spellshop. She's been awarded an American Library Association Alex Award, as well as a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Several of her books have been optioned for film/television, including Drink Slay Love, which was made into a TV movie and was a question on Jeopardy! She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat. Visit her at sarahbethdurst.com.

Reviews

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am lost.

But I couldn’t face the truth. That’s why I left, why I drove straight, why I left Mom alone to face the news by herself. What kind of person does that? A person who deserves this. A person who deserves to lose what she treasures. I deserve to be lost, to never see home again, to never swim in the ocean again.

This book reminds me of the song Hotel California.

"Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device.'"

I’m sure there are people out there who have always known what they wanted to be in life. Who are where they want in life. I was never that person, and I’m not that person now.

I think it is a rare person who doesn’t feel lost at one point in their life, who goes through life with the kind of ease and confidence towards which one aspires. As a child, we think the future will be so great, that adults are all-knowing, that with age comes confidence, assurance, invincibility, the belief that we can take whatever life throws as us as long as it’s not, well, a 18-ton truck. Well, as we learn, life doesn’t work that way.

Life throws lemons at us. It throws shit at us. It throws errant family members, troublesome friends, a soul-sucking job at us. It throws old flames at us, or else it steadfastly denies us any sort of love at all. Life sucks. Most of us are just living day to day, finding our way seems to be a luxury, because most of us just don’t have the time for that Eat, Pray, Love bullshit where you get to fucking jet yourself off to Italy in a complacent, self-indulgent journey of self-reflection complete with wonderful food, luxury resorts, and hunky men.

No, many of us never find our way at all. Most of us stop trying. Some of us run away from our problems, I know I do, and that’s why this book resonates so much with me. No, it’s not the most exciting book in the world, and I fucking hated the inclusion of a child character (I hate children), but overall, this book is about being, well, Lost. It is not without hope, and that’s what ultimately matters, isn’t it?

Because what else do we live for, if not hope?

The Summary:

I have to believe that I’ll escape someday. But maybe there is no hope.
Maybe it’s over.
Maybe I’m in hell.
Or purgatory.
Maybe I’m dead.
Maybe I can never return.
Maybe this is it.

Lauren made a wrong turn. She made a mistake.

Lauren didn’t intend to get lost. She’s not usually this impulsive. She’s a 27-year old firmly entrenched in the corporate world. She wakes up. She goes to work. She wears a brown suit. She wears conservative makeup. Her wild days are over, Lauren is a grown-up. This is what grown-ups do.

Only Lauren woke up this morning and just drove off. She didn’t care about her job, more importantly, she just –ever so selfishly, for just one moment—want to forget about her beloved mom who is dying from cancer, for just one morning. Just one day.

That is how she found herself in the town of Lost.

Imagine an old, washed out Midwestern US town, a ghost town, a town full of dust, forgotten dreams, and lost wishes. A town that pretty much screams abandon hope, all ye who enters here because it is barren, abandoned, withered. Except that its unfortunate inhabitants will never leave. They physically can’t. A void surrounds the town. A red cloud of dust (and of DOOM!!!!!!!). Those who try to leave will circle around the road, only to end up where they started.

The inhabitants are strange.

Behind me, the man says, “You were lost; you are found.” As if they’re one, everyone outside—the kids, the woman planting dead flowers, the man in the dirty business suit—all turn to face the diner.
Inside the diner, everyone applauds.

From adults who stare at Lauren with knowing in their eyes, with hostility, to children who come straight out of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn.

Children, as ragged as those on the outskirts of town, are crouched in the alleys between the shops. Perched on top of and around Dumpsters, they watch me, their eyes bright and hard. One little girl in a princess dress sucks on her thumb. She has a dirty teddy bear tucked under her elbow and a knife in her other hand. She squeezes the handle as if it’s as comforting as a teddy bear.

I retreat away from the center of town, back toward the motel and the diner. I hear footsteps behind me.

The children are trailing after me.

They know what’s going on. They understand Lauren’s confusion, even if she’s in denial about it. And it is denial. Lauren’s mother is dying, she can’t be there for her, instead, she’s in this godforsaken place---trapped, for possibly forever? Talk about desperation. Talk about despair.

And then it gets worse. The townspeople turn against her. There is a man, The Missing Man, and the townspeople believe that she’s the one who drove him off. The only people to come to her aid right now is the knife-wielding child, Claire, and the handsome, enigmatic Peter. Peter, who finds The Lost.

I’m the Finder. The Finder and the Missing Man, two sides of a coin, not the same. I bring them in, and he sends them on. I can’t send you home. But I can keep you alive.” He holds out his hand. “If you trust me.”

Peter, who found her. Peter, who might give her a reason to stay. Peter, who might be the person to give her hope, who prevents her from falling into utter, complete despair.

And maybe, just maybe, Lauren will find that it’s not so bad to be Lost, after all.

“Okay, that’s enough.” Peter jumps to his feet. “I’ve watched you yearn to leave. Now I’m going to show you why you should want to stay.” He holds out his hand.

I take it.

Lauren:

I try to push the ache deep down like I always do and pretend it’s enough to paint walls and collect teacups.

This is going to sound stupid, but I see a lot of myself in Lauren. It helps immensely to be able to connect to the main character, and I suspect that it’s the reason why I found myself enjoying this book so much. Lauren has a dry, deadpan sense of humor. She doesn’t crack inappropriate jokes at stupid times, but neither does she take herself completely seriously. Yet she's special, somehow. We all are.

“You don’t seem to be an interesting person,” he says. “Lost your way emotionally, psychologically, and physically. Cut-and-dried, really. There must be more to you.”

She’s a serious person. She kind of has to be, with a mother like that, with no father. She’s an adult, doing adult things, and Lauren has mostly been satisfied with the status quo, and is rather terrified at being forced out of it in Lost. She just wants to go back home.

Lauren hurts a lot. She’s in a great deal of pain because her mother is dying, and she truly loves her mother. She made a mistake for one day, leaving her responsibilities, and she feels regret, although she never constantly wallows in despair. Lauren thinks: what next? How can I resolve this? How do I get out of this situation?



Her character resonates with me a lot. I, too, have a sick mom (although not of cancer). And if I may be so self-indulgent, I’m going to say that I’ve been going through life with a lot of doubts, too. I was one of those pretentious kids who carried around books on philosophy until I realized it did me no fucking good to dwell on the negative. Lauren’s character feels…familiar. That is why I love her.

The Romance:

He lands softly beside me, like a cat, bent knees. He rises smoothly. “I told you I find the kernel of hope. You lose hope and I can’t find you. I’ll always find you. But you have to exist to be found!”

Just right. The main love interest in this book is the inscrutable Peter, and he has a very Peter Pan feel, if Peter Pan had been a grown ass man who’s sexy as fuck. Like Peter Pan, this book’s Peter has a tendency to pop into your bedroom during odd times, even though I felt like he never reached the realm of stalkerhood. And I hate stalkers, so nyah!

He’s mysterious for a reason. We all love our dark leading men with secrets, and Peter is no different. He promises a Dark Haunted Past, and I love him all the more for it. Clichés be damned.

“You can’t save everyone. Consider that your next lesson. That man died before he came here.” 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.

He is a kind person, who appears initially gruff. He understands Lauren. He literally saves her life. He encourages her. He builds up her confidence. He does not make Lauren rely on him. If I could best compare the relationship between Peter and Lauren, I would say that they are similar to Valek and Yelena from Poison Study. Peter lets Lauren have her space.

He pulls her out of her despair, he makes her take action, and I felt like he’s Lauren’s perfect foil. As for Lauren, she feels attraction, but she isn't susceptible to insta-love. To her, Peter is a tool to get out of Lost.

I don’t care what he thinks of me, so long as he helps me get home. I don’t need to make friends, even with shockingly handsome and strangely fascinating men who might as well have walked right out of my subconscious.

But it's in him that she might find herself.

I can’t help myself, so I’ll make a pun. This is a great book to get Lost in.

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax,'' said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave!'"

[Ash Wednesday · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 STARS

”Do you trust me?”
It’s a line from a dozen romantic movies, and if I were the romantic sort, this is where I would swoon, take his hand, and pledge my devotion. I’m not romantic, but I’m also not stupid. So I take his hand and lie.
“Yes.”

This one’s probably going to get a lot of dissenting opinions across my friends’ list, and if you’re the kind of reader who can latch on an inconsistency like a rabid dog to a bone, this might be a tough sell for you.

A book that is part Alice, part Peter, part Dorothy, part Twilight Zone.

Yeah tough sell.

Lost is the town Lauren Chase finds herself in when she didn’t make her usual left turn at the light. She only meant to spend the night, a brief reprieve from the final judgment on her mother’s health. Except nobody leaves Lost until The Missing Man says so. And The Missing Man will only let you go if you’ve found what it is you need. But soon as Lauren introduces herself to The Missing Man, he turns away and leaves the forsaken town and its people scouring the streets for what they need. This of course makes the townsfolk angry at Lauren, banishing her in the out skirts where she finds the unlikeliest of allies in Claire, a knife-and-teddy-bear wielding six-year old and Peter, The Finder. Determined to find a way to get through the impenetrable dust cloud called The Void surrounding the town, Lauren bides her time with her newfound friends, learning to survive and, eventually, forming bonds she never meant to forge with anyone. She only means to go home to her sick mother, but each day in The Lost living with Peter and Claire in the perfect yellow house makes it harder and harder for her to leave.

It took me a while before I got settled into Durst’s narrative flow. As I’ve read more and more, I found myself less bothered by the first person present tense, more impatient with staccato, halting descriptions with a penchant for flight of ideas. Thankfully Lauren had a dry wit and sense of humour in her to keep me focused on what she’s talking about (most of the time) but the early chapters I kept on slipping in and out of the scene. Though maybe it had a lot to do with my initial disdain towards Lauren for coming across a selfish, dependent coward. I had a lot of nitpicks towards Lauren in the beginning:

1. For a self-confessed paranoid with an overactive imagination, it took her a good long time (roughly at 40%) to actually acknowledge the circumstances in the crazy town is not normal.

2. She tries to call her co-workers, her mom, her work through a rotary phone… who remembers anybody’s number nowadays?

But clearly, as the story progressed, you realize the author intended for you to feel that towards her heroine… so you’d feel like a massive asshole in the end.

This is Sarah Beth Durst’s first foray into adult fiction, my first of hers, but the YA-hand is very apparent. From the themes she chose to tackle, to the wry humour in the dialogue, to the way she builds her characters’ personality… it was all very heavy-handed YA.

”He slept in my closet most of the time.”
“That wasn’t a metaphor, was it?”
“Nope, literally in my closet. To protect me.”
“From dangerous hangers?”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that but it took a bit of getting used to, having a perpetually shirtless, ripped and tattooed hero portrayed as a Peter Pan-Elphaba-Mad Hatter fusion character. I’ve seen it done once with Criminy Stain from Wicked as They Come, my rather adult lewd feels were followed by a moment of guilt and shame.



So. Very. Wrong.

Then it swings back to lewd again.

There was a certain degree of bittersweet, fairytale-whimsy in the idea of a town that is a landfill for all the things lost by people, including people who are lost themselves (though I’m a little unclear as to how you “lose” electricity and water and not “waste”). It was pretty clear early on that there was gonna be a whole lot of yanking at those goddamn heartstrings as the story progressed. You can TRY not falling in love with Claire, Mr. Bunny and Mr. Fluffernutter (but odds are you will fail), someone will probably find a quirky hero who likes to quote Tolkien, Milton, Byron and Dickinson in casual conversation a pretentious dick (even if he did break my heart in the end), you will probably hate the dolphin (don’t ask)… but I’d have to question what’s occupying your chest cavity if you rage on the dynamic between Lauren and her mother.

”I couldn’t have gone.” Mom smiles, the barest upturn of her lips, as if even that movement costs her. “I’m not lost. Even on the day your father left, and everything I’d planned and dreamed of went up in smoke, I was not lost. I had you. Knowing you, loving you… I couldn’t… I can’t… be lost.”

Shred my heart a little more why don’t you, Durst?

It was such a lovely portrayal of a convincing healthy mother-daughter relationship. I don’t know why but contemporary fiction hasn’t been taking too kindly towards moms.



They’re usually shoved into the role of the psychotic villain or the deserter that I was a little suspicious of a plot twist toward the end, wondering if there was catch to Lauren leaving her mother to face the test results on her own.

The romance started lukewarm and slow… just the way I like it. True, Lauren had a bit of an obsession over Peter’s physical perfection but it didn’t feel ridiculous. This had none of the nonsensical, out-of-nowhere profession of love. And if there was one thing I was a tad disappointed over, it was the lack of actual sexytimes in an actual Harlequin-MIRA book. Sometimes, I seriously believe this author forgets that she’s not bound by the PG-ness of YA anymore. I demand restitution in the form of no more than three but no less than one sex scene in the next installment (because the guilt and shame is so delectable).

Overall, this book? YES. VERY.

Not found in The Lost:
MH370
Amelia Earheart
Certain people’s sense of humor
Virginities
My patience for the next book

’All the world is made of faith, trust, and pixie dust.’

ARC courtesy of Harlequin-MIRA thru Netgalley. Quotes taken from uncorrected proof.

Also on Booklikes.

[Giselle]

DNF - 5% (I know, but dude... O_O)

This writing.. I just can't.

"The night air is warm but the breeze is nice. It tickles my neck and whispers in my ear. [...] I step over a soiled sweatshirt. There’s a wallet lying on the curb. I pick it up and flip it open to see a driver’s license and an array of credit cards. I’ll hand it in at the lobby.

I find a second wallet outside the lobby door. And a third in the cacti. I pick them up as well and wonder what sort of party involved flinging wallets and empty cans around a parking lot. I hope it’s quieter tonight.
Chimes tinkle over the door as I enter the lobby. A teenage girl lies on the counter. Her legs are crossed."

These short, snappy sentences makes me feel like I'm reading a book for 5 year olds. Maybe some will like this style but it's definitely not for me.

[Figgy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Featured on my 2014 favourites list!

THIS is what a quirky, dry humoured character SHOULD be.

4.5 stars rounded up because I couldn't bring myself to give this a 4.

This is one of my favourite new reads so far this year.



Plot: Lauren Chase didn't make plans to travel into the desert, she just decided not to turn at the traffic lights on her way to work and kept on driving. Until she was lost. Until she found herself in a town called Lost. Where the people are crazy, the dust storm never ends, and everything that's ever gone missing goes to be found.

This book was incredibly well written, and at no point did I find myself thinking that things were unrealistic, at least for the world they inhabited. Of course some things were unrealistic, they're in a town where lost things go, but it all felt so very real.


Ok, before I gush all over the place, let's have a look at the things that bothered me or weren't explained properly (YET! There's hope for the second and third books to do so):

The person in room 12: This is something that comes up right at the start of the novel. Room 12 at the motel has a longstanding lease of sorts, and there's someone in there, someone we're not meant to bother. But we never do find out, in book one at least.

Her infatuation with Peter: Every single time she meets him for the first half of the book, she mentions how beautiful he is:

"His chest is decorated in a swirl of black feather tattoos, and he's almost unbearably beautiful."

"He is as stunningly beautiful in the darkness as he was in the storm."

"Her reminds me of light on the water, flashing and changing and unpredictable and beautiful."

I get it, he's gorgeous. And you know what, when faced with a gorgeous mysterious guy like Peter, I would probably keep thinking those things too. I think my problem was that we were reminded every time we saw him. Like "Here's Peter, he's the mysterious, gorgeous one."



For the record, I'm a little bit in love with Peter too, Lauren. I've never really used the term "book boyfriend" before, but...

The ambiguous explanation of Lost: Everything that's lost goes to the town by the same name. Car keys, leftover food, dreams, houses. And at one point the character wonders if something in particular will show up in lost. Then she remembers how she threw it away, didn't lose it, so it can't.

But... Do people really "lose" the last bit of their cheeseburger? An apple with a bite out of it? I understand that these things needed to show up, because otherwise the people of Lost wouldn't be able to eat, but it bothered me a little.

Also, when it comes to things like houses, some seemed to have been lost to foreclosure, some to murder, and so on. I'm guessing they could only be figuratively lost, like "the memory of home" was lost. When a house is foreclosed it still exists in the real world, usually, it just doesn't exist for its previous owners.

The Missing Man: I'd like further explanation of why The Missing Man did what he did why he walked away. I like to think I know, but it was never explained. Is The Missing Man her missing father? There were some things he said that led me to believe he was. But I never found out for sure.


Despite these things, I LOVED this book. It could be the contrast between the book I just struggled through and this, but I never found myself pulling out my hair at how stupid someone in the book was, or at how bored I was reading about them.


Some of the things I loved:

The Writing: It felt witty, punchy, natural, and like a breath of fresh air after some of the really forced writing I've read of late.

The Concept: This was a slight twist on the old trope of a town you can never leave, as well as that old seriously, spoiler "was it real, or was it all a coma dream?" chestnut. However, the power of the story wasn't in its twists on cliches, but rather in its people.

The Characters:

I liked Lauren's method of telling the story, but I also loved the people she encountered:

Peter, the completely gorgeous guy who talks in riddles, fairytales, and nursery rhymes. Who is reminiscent in ways of J.M. Barrie's original lost boy, and so ancient and tired in others. Who has a habit of being there when you really need him, but never gives you a straight answer. Who is damaged in his own way by this town he calls home.

“Why are you here, Little Red?” he asks. “Not the universe here, but here here. Or perhaps the universe here, since that would explain it.”
“Just trying to get home,” I say.
“Poor damsel. You’re doing it wrong.” He sounds amused.

Claire the little girl who "lost" her parents, and has had to learn to scavenge and survive in the town called Lost. A lot like Peter in that she still has childish fun, but knows when to put down the toys and pick up the knife. The little girl who just wants to be a part of a family again.

“It’s not a nice song, is it? Babies shouldn’t fall.”
“It’s not nice,” I agree.
“Wonder why it was written that way. Much better, ‘When the bough breaks, the cradle will fly, and up will go baby, into the sky.’”

Lauren's Mother, has cancer and she's come to terms with it, though Lauren has a hard time even saying the word "dying". Having accepted her "fate" Mrs. Chase sees the funny side to everything, and doesn't dwell on the negativity. This makes for some very touching scenes between Lauren and her mother, and just adds to the heartbreak of the situation.

“Everyone makes exceptions when you’re dying,” Mom says with satisfaction. “It’s as if every statement I utter is a last request that has to be honored. I’m thinking of asking for something completely ludicrous, like for the entire staff to dress in medieval garb.”
“There might be rules against that.”
“Who would think to make a rule about not wearing medieval garb? I’m betting that it hasn’t come up before. After me, they might make a rule about it. Maybe they’ll name it after me. I’d be immortalized in the hospital employee handbook.”

Each of these people(even the guy who often talked in riddles), and some of the others besides, all felt incredibly real to me. They all felt like there was more below the surface that we were just starting to see. At one point I yelled at something that Lauren had done, which earned me a confused look from my boyfriend, and later on I was in tears and then laughing, and sometimes both at once. These characters forced their way into my heart and refused to let me go, and I want to meet them.

For the duration of the book I was interested, for the duration of the book I was entertained, and when I found myself all out of duration, I didn't want to leave Lost.

I would like to immediately lose my memory of this book so that I can go back to the start and read it all over again. I will be buying the physical copy, and the next two books, but can NOT wait six plus months for the next installment.

Commence impatient nail biting, now.

This ebook was provided in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin.

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this through a Goodreads giveaway.

This was an interesting idea. I even had a dream stemming from this book. Alas, the idea was not executed to its full potential.

There were endless different kinds of lost items and a fair description of the town of Lost, and yet it felt so much was missing from the narrative. Everything in this book was somehow lacking. The passing of time was glossed over. The threat of people trying to kill the heroine didn't feel at all urgent or, well, threatening.

Also missing, for me, was an emotional connection and a reason to believe in the romance.

The romance ... God, the romance. That's pretty much what killed it for me. Where was the buildup? Random stuff happens, the heroine thinks the guy is handsome without ever giving the reader a clear description of him, and suddenly they're kissing with absolutely no heat whatsoever. "It was like kissing sunlight" and "like kissing the ocean." If I wanted sappy, weakly poetic shit like that, I'd read YA, which this might as well have been. Adults don't even think stuff like that, not even if you're an artist, like the heroine. At least I don't think so. Anyway, who wants to kiss the ocean?

The writing was ... serviceable. Not terrible, but nothing special. But I swear to god, if I have to read first person present one more time I might shoot myself in the foot. Unless the writing is amazing, and unless there's a really good reason to do this, I pretty much want this writing style to die. (Another "adult" book where it was done not-well: Archetype.)

I did like the way the book ended. I think it could work fairly well as a standalone, though it does leave some open ends. I have absolutely no plans to continue with the series, however.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things I've lost:

A dozen chapsticks
24 dragon bookmarks
A library book by Poul Anderson that I never finished
Several bags of candy intended for Easter baskets

Things I've found:

That Sarah Beth Durst is one of the most creative and astonishing writers working today.
That I enjoy the hell out of every one of her books, though at times they are so intense that I have to just put it down for a minute and breathe.
That even though I'm not a romance person, there was not nearly enough kissing in this book.
That I'm going to need the second one ASAP.

[Rashika (is tired) · Rating 4 out of 5]

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

“To quote a certain cat, ‘we’re all mad here’”

The Lost is pretty hard book to review. I want to say so many things about it but at the same time I don’t know where to start and how to even express my feelings for this book.

Perhaps I should start off by saying that not everyone will love this book and the major reason for that, I believe, is the writing. The writing is weird and choppy and so confusing at times and it took me a while to get used to as well but as I started getting used to it, I started to realize how fitting it was in terms of the book. It fits with the kind of character Lauren was and just the general atmosphere of the whole novel. It helped create this eerie atmosphere that was goose bump inducing at several points.

This book starts with the main character trying to escape from receiving bad news. Her mom’s cancer may or may not have come back but she isn’t ready to face that possibility so she runs away. She drives and drives and drives until her fuel gauge gets closer and closer to empty and she find her way to a town named Lost.

Lauren isn’t always a likeable character. I am not sure why that is but when I look back I can remember so many times when I wasn’t her biggest fan. With that said, she was a great character. One that was realistic in many ways and relateable in others as well. She has an overactive imagination and is paranoid but her fear and her need to delude herself is quite understandable.

The Lost is one of the most original books I’ve come across in a while. The concept of this whole book is just so unique and intriguing. Lost is a town where lost people tend to find themselves. They have lost something and cannot find their way back until they have found what they had lost but Lost isn’t a town that only caters to lost humans, when something gets lost, it has a way of finding its way to the town through the void. The void that feeds on the hopelessness of people who live in this town. There is no sense of time in this town, you could have been there for days or years but you’d never find out. This all adds to an atmosphere that is already eerie as a result of the writing and really gets you thinking.

“Never ask a gentleman his age”

Peter takes the cake though. He is kind of like a grown Peter Pan but he is so weird and creepy! At times I didn’t like him, at all, he seemed so childish and while that is cute for a while, it can only be cute for so long but there wasn’t anything to worry about because as the book progressed, you found out that he had a hidden depth to him, he still remained a mystery throughout the novel but there was a hidden depth to him. Perhaps we will find out more about him in the sequel. I don’t think I’ve encountered a love interest like him in a while. He will keep you on your toes and it’ll take a while to get used to him but then you’ll see how wonderful he really is and all you’ll want is to cuddle with him.

Another seriously noteworthy character would be Claire. Claire broke my heart. No six year old should ever have to live through that and really, it was  just hard breaking to see that Claire, at six, knew how to use a knife and was so independent and strong on her own and then her vulnerabilities would show up and it would shatter your heart. At six, she was more courageous than our female lead at times and that just broke my heart even more. A six year old show have the freedom to be a child but Claire's childhood got snatched away from her the day she became lost.

The romance was one of my few qualms with this book. At first I was impressed by how even though Lauren continuously described Peter as beautiful, she seemed to be afraid of him at the same time, she was vary and she was cautious because she knew nothing about him but then over the course of weeks as they became closer, things happened. You’re probably wondering what’s wrong with that, and there is NOTHING wrong with that, the romance was developed but my problem with the romance was that development was not reflected very well in the romance, it was more like a switch went off and that was that. I have to say though, if you’re reading this book for a good romance, don’t, the romance is more in the background and not the focus in this novel. The most intense thing that happens in this book is kissing.

This book is slow but the last couple of pages make up for it. This book is packed with the feels and wonderful world building that kind of just makes up for that fact that this book can be slow at times.

The ending is a heartbreaker.. or those moments before the ending I should say. They tear your heart out and shred it into pieces and all I am going to say is “WILL SELL SOUL IN EXCHANGE FOR SEQUEL”. If you’re worried though, the good news is that the following two books in this trilogy will come out in less than a year. The sequel, The Missing, is set to be released in November.

And it better be November because there are still so many things to be answered. This book, I hope, was only just the tip of the iceberg and I hope that there will be more answers in the sequel.

This is sadly not a book I can recommend to everyone because even though I wish the whole world would read it, it will not work out for many readers (which is evident from all the mixed reviews), but I will say this, if you want eerie, give this book a shot.

Note that all quotes have been taken from an uncorrected proof and may be subject to change.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

** Kindle version on sale for $1.99 **

Has now been optioned for TV or film: http://variety.com/2017/film/news/sel...

The premise of finding oneself in a mysterious unknown town, especially one you cannot leave, is always an interesting one to me.

TV shows like Haven, Persons Unknown. Books like Pines.

The Lost is another with this intriguing premise, although it's very different from the stories mentioned above. The mystery regarding the town is fairly unique and kept me interested. The MC, Lauren, is much more fun to spend time with and learn about than many YA protagonists these days.

I also liked the fact that although there is a love interest that develops, Lauren keeps reminding herself to not become distracted from her important goal, and even when faced with a very difficult choice, she isn't. I also found the romance much less eye roll inducing than is typical, and developed from friends who learn to trust each other and depend on each other. AND that it did not become or overtake the plot.

Overall, very much enjoyed this story. It works as a stand alone, there were two sequels written, but due to publisher issues have not been published (rumor is they may be published by another publisher at some point.)

[Liz~In~Colorado · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEW OF LOST (updated and expanded edition)
By Sarah Beth Durst
Not yet published.   Expected Nov 2025

From New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst comes a fully updated and expanded edition of THE LOST, with a brand-new ending.

➡️The Setup:
Lauren just wants to get lost for a while, as she tries to come to terms with her mother’s medical problems, so she decides to stop for the night.  Confused, she sees a sign that says, "Welcome to Lost," and decides to find a motel for the night before heading back to her mother. 
There, she meets Tiffany, a motel clerk with a strange  demeanor, dressed from decades ago.  As she visits a local diner, Lauren is confused by the townsfolk and their cryptic sayings.

The next day, when she tries to leave, she finds herself driving in and out of a bizarre dust storm she cannot escape. Regardless which direction she drives, she sees a sign "Welcome to Lost".   Out of gas and now trapped, she meets Peter,  "The Finder," and a six-year-old girl named Claire, who carries both a teddy bear and a knife.  So Lauren is now trapped in the town where all lost things go—luggage, keys, dreams, lives—where nothing is permanent.

➡️By and by they "find" a home, and Lauren begins to learn about Lost's peculiar ways and how to scavenge for survival. The townsfolk tell her she must speak to the "Missing Man" to find what she's missing, in order to return home.  However, when he hears her name, he runs away, and the town turns against her, forcing her to hide with Peter and Claire.  The reason for this is a mystery.  (I guessed long before the end.)

➡️The Atmosphere/World:
This book had a real feeling of weirdness, and remoteness... an 'Alice in Wonderland vibe' the way that Lauren was stuck somewhere strange, where the normal rules didn’t apply. It is a kind of a meandering story of her learning how to "find" useable things to survive, and her interaction with the various town characters. 

One major character was "the Finder"- Peter- who becomes her "Lost love interest".  I wasn't a big fan of Peter, who is described as beautiful, from his almost storybook face to his tattooed chest (mentioned a bit too often).  He seems a not quite grown imaginary man who speaks in riddles and quotes from books. I couldn't get past the idea of Peter Pan! 

The story reminded me of Twilight Zone episodes.  In this  alter-universe  you can't go home until you find what you 'lost'. And even then you need the help of the mysterious Missing Man)who has gone missing-- in order to go home.

➡️My Thoughts:
First-  Just FYI-The story is told in first person present tense narrative- I have no problem with that, though some reviewers do.
Much of the book is Lauren wandering around, hiding or scavenging, wishing she was home, and Peter whining about how she shouldn't want to leave. 

As we follow Lauren explore Lost and desperately try to figure out how to leave, I felt that there was so much room for either the characters or the 'world' to be explored much more than they were. 
The threats of people trying to kill the heroine didn't feel very urgent or breath catching.

The romance was calm; I didn't feel much emotional connection or a reason to believe in the romance... suddenly they're kissing with absolutely no heat whatsoever: "It was like kissing sunlight" or "like kissing the ocean??? I get the reason, as this is also a YA level book, however it just didn't help Peter feel real in that universe.

➡️Over all:
In the previous version that Ms. Durst is attempting to update,  the ending was left open as to Lauren's fate, since it was meant to become a duology or trilogy. I just wished this tied it all up a bit better.

I'm still holding mixed feelings about the somewhat predictable development, because I find "this was just another dream/coma" trope,  and "just my opinion"--- her choice at the end wasn't justified. The Missing Man issue was also a bit easy to see the outcome ahead.

That said, The story provides an interesting representation of what finding  your way back from the feeling of being lost and feeling despair could look like. It highlights the need for hope,  and the ability to be lost and found all at once.

Sarah Beth Durst is one of my favorite authors!  I adored Spellshop, as well as the offshoot of that- Enchanted Greenhouse,  and the 3rd part of those coming next summer!  While the author gets a lot of bonus points for her imaginative, creative and unique world that her book is set in, I feel its so-so and didn't live up to a great premise.   This doesn't  seem like the same author. The original was released in 2014, over a decade ago, and her writing has developed in leaps over this time! I  just do not see enough changes (other than ending) from the first release.

⭐I wish I could give it more than 3.5*/5  But I'm eagerly awaiting Sea Of Charms (Spellshop #3) in 2026.. They can't all be winners.     Thank you to Net galley for providing me this early release, my thoughts are my own.

[Colleen Houck]

I've never read a book like this one before. The setting is so vivid and real. I love the idea of a place where all lost things go. The ending was perfect.

[Nafiza · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lost presents a familiar premise where a daughter decides that she would much rather get in the car and go driving in an unfamiliar direction than go home and find out whether her mom’s cancer is back. She drives through a dust storm and ends up, officially, in Lost: a place where all things and people who are lost go.

The novel is certainly innovative but I have come to expect that from Sarah Beth Durst whose novels I may not always like but always appreciate for their originality.

I began this book expecting a teenaged protagonist so I was more than a little surprised to find an adult instead. This led me to adapt my expectations accordingly. I found Lauren a bit difficult to get used to because she’s a bit abrasive, I’d say, but I was completely with her as she tried once and again to leave Lost and failed. I also really liked the little girl who befriended Lauren and Finder, who has a dreamy quality to him that I liked very much.

I also really liked the world of Lost. It is restrictive and I’d probably rather die than be stuck there (no new books unless they are lost, nothing new at all) but I love how vividly Durst has built it. I also really enjoyed the family Lauren creates for herself and the dynamics between the characters.

The conflicts that Lauren faces and overcomes are well done and logical (though of a fantastic nature) and the romance is suitably slow. The ending is heavy and the appearance of another side of a love triangle is interesting because it gives Lauren another choice. I fully agree with what she decided to do in the end but I liked that she had a choice.

It feels like I’m being overly cryptic about everything but honestly, the book is something that needs to be experienced. It’s fun, it’s engaging and it’s thrilling. It is also quite sad at times so keep a packet of tissues nearby. Recommended.

[Tanja (Tanychy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review also posted at Ja čitam, a ti?

There are books that dance on tightrope between reality and imagination and all I can say for this one is - it's quite a dancer. I have no idea which genre to put it in. For me this book was everything I needed without knowing so. It captured me and took me to another world I did not expect to see.

Welcome to Lost! One sign, one city which changes everything. Without giving away too much it's a city of lost - dreams, hopes, lives and rebuilding and recreating them. It's a city where Missing Man residence and he is the only one who can send you back. Only Lauren doesn't seem to be in his good graces. She is not alone, though. It's a city full of Lost people, who are expecting to be Found. The trick is that they don't know what they are looking for. Then there is also Claire, a girl who was older than her years gave away and of course Peter aka the Finder who helps people to be found.

Questions, questions! Well now you all might ask me for a place, or significance of this city and I wouldn't be able to tell you more than you assume. The Lost is all you want it to be, it can be a dream, metaphor, another world or reality you are well aware of. You can see it as a place you want to escape to and find yourself again.

Final thoughts. To say that The Lost surprised me would be an underestimation. Everything about it was new, unexpected and original - characters with different lives and ideas, to the world building which took my breath away. But at the same time this book is not for everybody. Those who need to be familiar and grasp the story might be a bit let down, as many things here are left unanswered and there is a veil of mystery still covering it.

If you like that kind of book and looking for something different and new, then you should go for this story and I'm sure losing yourself for a few hours will be worth it.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lauren is running away. Literally.

From her life. From her Mother. More so, from her Mother’s diagnosis… especially now that she’d been in remission for a while. She just cannot do this. Her Mom is getting the news back TODAY. And, Lauren needs to be there! But she just can’t face it. So she goes for a lllooonnnggg drive. And appropriately, gets LOST. In a dust storm. Out in the middle of nowhere. In a town by the name of …. Wait for it…. Lost!

But it’s a very strange place. When she goes into the diner to eat, they won’t take her money.
And it’s weird, because she’s finding a lot of strange things strewn around…. Wallets. Keys. Stuffed animals. Pennies.

When she tries to get a room at a hotel, same thing. They want to barter with her. But what does she have? Nothing. She was just going for a drive. To clear her head. To get away. To try to escape for just a little while.

And then, when she tries to leave, she realizes that she can’t. She ends up right back in the middle of Lost! With no way out.
Along the way she meets Clare, a little girl with a teddy bear and a knife!
And Peter, known as The Finder.

And everyone keeps telling her she needs to find The MissingMan. He’s the ONLYO E who can help her to get back home! But when she finally meets him and states her name… he goes running off!

The author does a phenomenal job with character building, and world building. I felt like I was right there with them in this magical place/space! And it broke my heart on several occasions… 😳🩷

And the way she rallies, so hard, to try to get back to see her Mom, who is so sick…it really tugs at your heartstrings…

This is a powerful look at life, family, friends and your place in the world. And how sometimes, we take for granted, things that really shouldn’t ever be taken for granted….

#TheLost by @SarahBethDurnst and narrated beautifully by @CaitlinDavies.
Of note: I believe this is a re-release with an updated ending. I wonder how the original ended???

4 huge, happy, sad, poignant, beautiful, heart-wrenching stars for me!!! 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This one has already been released, but I was lucky to get an ALC of it recently! Look 👀 for it on shelves now!

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #HarlequinAudio for an ALC of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

You can find my reviews on: Goodreads,
Instagram: @BookReviews_with_emsr and/or
My Facebook Book Club: Book Reviews With Elaine

Thanks so much for reading! And if you ‘liked’ my review, please share with your friends, & click ‘LIKE’ below… And, let me know YOUR thoughts if you read it!! 📚⭐️

[Jana (Nikki) · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

-----------------------------

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. ;)

--

There were books involved...

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was honestly blown away by this book. The whole premise is just… genius. It’s one of those ideas that grabs you right away and somehow feels both strange and completely believable at the same time. I loved sinking into this world…it’s eerie, emotional, and so well thought out.

What surprised me most, though, was how heavy it hit emotionally. There were moments that caught me off guard in the best way, because underneath all the surreal elements, there’s this raw, human ache running through the story. It stays with you.

Beautiful, clever, and unexpectedly moving. I loved every second. And I know I will definitely think about it for a long time to come! Because aren’t we all lost in some way…

[Beccabeccabooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome to Lost.

It's an oddball town, a hodgepodge of things that don't make sense. Think of it as a dumping ground, one full of lost and forgotten items. Keys. Luggage. Your lunch. Toys. Hopes. Dreams. Yourself.

Here for a break? Well, rethink your travel plans. Once you are Found in the dust storm, you can't leave. Not without the Missing Man, who has the power to send you home. The same man who looked at Lauren Chase once and ran.

Suddenly, Lauren is facing a mob of feral residents and no way out. Her only hope is the mysterious Finder and a knife-wielding six-year-old.

Lauren must survive another day so she can search for a loophole, any exit point. Because she can't stay. Someone is waiting for her beyond the Void. And she's willing to do anything to escape.

The Lost is one of Sarah Beth Durst's earlier works and it's just as good, if even better than her recent stuff. Expect a Fantasyland to build in your mind. The magical elements are a treat. A romance will brew. A daughter, running away from reality will find herself and her potential over and over again.

I was enthralled by the sheer creativity and uniqueness. Gah, everything about this book is beautiful.

If there's a second part, please point me in the direction.

4.75 🌟

[A Dreaming Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for providing me with an ALC.

This was a nice cozy fantasy (it does have somewhat dark/sad themes though). I liked the way Lauren dealt with each of her emotions and some of the side characters were nice as well. The characters were all typical of the standard romantasy -- muscular, mysterious man with a dark past. I'm starting to get tired of this trope. The romance felt a little weird to me because they kept referring to him as The Finder for a decent chunk of the book so I ended up imagining him as a faceless silhouette-like character. That's kind of on me but it ruined it a bit for me. The plot itself is typical of cozy fantasy but I think the emotions were done well. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a cozy fantasy about feeling lost and finding your way again.

The narrator did a great job of expressing all the emotions and conflicting feelings. Definitely would recommend the audiobook!

[Aggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so glad I came across this book! I devoured it and will stay with me for a while. Highly recommend.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

You never know what Sarah Beth Durst is going to do next. Fairy tales mixed with science? Vampires and unicorns? Gods taking over human bodies? Creepy carnivals? She’s done all of that and more, and with The Lost, Durst begins another story that, just like her previous novels, is completely different from what has gone before.

Lauren Chase took to the open road to get away, just for a little while, from the prospect of bad news about her mother’s health. Instead she found herself caught in a dust storm and then stuck in a town called Lost. People and things that are “lost” to the outside world find their way here, and no one can leave until the Missing Man allows them to go home. But something goes terribly wrong when the Missing Man meets Lauren, and now the townspeople of Lost are convinced Lauren has driven away their only hope. Now, with most of Lost’s population hostile toward her, Lauren has to find allies, survive, and somehow figure out how to get home. Along the way, she learns that she might have an unusual talent…

Lauren is a character who is easy to root for; she’s flawed but sympathetic, and her situation is so confusing and creepy that the reader really feels for her predicament and wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. The setting is ingenious and Durst explores all sorts of possibilities in terms of what kinds of things might be lost, and thus available to Lauren while she’s there. Later the novel takes a poignant turn, and there’s also a palpable sense of “Lost feels more real than the ‘real world’” that appears late in the book and works really well.

Unlike most of Durst’s previous works, The Lost is the beginning of a series. Durst resolves one major plot but leaves many mysteries to be solved, and the reader wanting more. I look forward to reading The Missing, scheduled for November of this year.

The Lost is billed as Durst’s first foray into adult fiction, with her previous books having been categorized as YA. So far, other than the heroine being older and having started a career, it doesn’t “feel older” than the other Durst books I’ve read, especially since Lauren is quickly separated from most of this daily-life stuff and dropped into a world where it doesn’t really matter how old she is, and you don’t think about it much. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to a teenage reader on the basis of content (the romantic subplot is chaste to this point), though adult readers will also enjoy exploring Lost’s mysteries.

[All Things Urban Fantasy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.

From an initial, chilling fall into darkness, Sarah Beth Durst brings hope and magic to a horrific, almost apocalyptic landscape. Don’t pick up this book unless you have time to make it through at least the first half of Lauren’s journey, as her grief and circumstances will make it painful to leave her until she finds her footing.

Of course, “finding her footing” probably implies more hope than is warranted. Lost is a chilling place populated by lost souls and forgotten objects, with a pitiless magical nature that pits inhabitants against each other and themselves. THE LOST is a story of people cut off from the world, alone in the decaying remains of their civilization, with a dose of ALICE IN WONDERLAND magic and madness thrown in. While the despair that initially drove Lauren to Lost was foreign, her practical disbelief in the face of uncanny town was spot on. And just when she starts to believe, she has to run for her life.

Sarah Beth Durst’s stories always include the consequences and practicality of fairy tales, while weaving a world all her own from scratch. As terrifying as it was to visit Lost, I now find myself anxious to go back. The living embodiment of grief and healing, THE LOST is a riveting series opener that you won’t want to miss.

Sexual content: Kissing.

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was definitely drawn into this book but the back cover. Sadly, this is another book that is deceiving. It started out ok. Laura is driving and decides to stop for the night in the town of "Lost". The next day, Laura is leaving town when a strange sand storm appears out of no where. Laura survives the sand storm only to find herself reentering Lost. Every time she tries to leave, she gets stuck in the same sand storm and ends up right back where she begins. Sounds like an episode of the Twilight Zone. This could have turned out to be as good as the Twilight Zone but it was lacking personality, depth, engaging characters, and good writing. I found the repeat sentences and choppy style a turn off. I tried to stick with the book because the world that the author built was interesting and I wanted to know more. The author seemed to forget that her readers did not know the back story as well as she did and the author left out pieces about the world and how to tie it all together. I quit about a third of the way in.

[Lea]

Really, I just want to read this because of Drink, Slay, Love. Plus, the premise looks interesting and Khanh rated it 4 stars.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This and other reviews can be found on My Friends Are Fiction

The Story:
This was my first novel to read by Durst and I had no clue what to expect. I had hit that request button on Shelf Awareness because I was drawn to the cover. When I started to read I’d heard nothing about this book so had zero preconceived notions or expectations. I was in for quite the surprise because I adored this book and now desperately need to read more of this author’s work.

I quickly became completely immersed in the story and the main character, Lauren. From the beginning I was swept into the world and found it to be richly described and highly original. There wasn’t much time wasted before we are journeying with Lauren into the town of Lost, full of abandoned things and surrounded by dust and the desert.

The town of Lost was quirky, whimsical and had a very creepy feel to it as well. It brought to mind Neverland, Wonderland and even a bit of the recent novel Nil by Lynne Matson. I could see all of these elements as well as a subtle Labyrinth vibe. If you’ve been deprived of seeing this 80′s classic you sorely need to watch it sooner than later. Labyrinth not only features the prolific and beautiful David Bowie but it also has Jim Henson’s creatures. Anyway, there was scene where a goblin resides over a junk city where all the lost toys and forgotten items disappear to…

junkcity

As I read about Lost and how lost and forgotten items showed up I immediately pictured the junk city from Labyrinth. I loved that I could easily picture the ‘junk lady’ living in Lost and I kept imagining which area of the city she would be living.


I see figures scurry over the piles. They’re kids, scavenging like feral cats in a dump. One girl in a torn and stained velvet dress holds up a find: an apple. page 46 of the ARC

I loved that Durst gave her world a sense of time by making it go from day to night. I thought that gave an otherwise unbelievable setting a realistic touch. The changing and movement of time also gave the book a higher sense of urgency since Lauren was needing to get home to be with her sick mother. I’m really doing a poor job of expressing how I felt about this book. It’s such a clever and unique book it really would be best if you find the idea intriguing that you read it for yourself.

The Characters:
I really enjoyed the main character, Lauren. I felt that she had significant growth throughout the story and her trials were easy to relate to. I loved her relationship with Claire, a young girl surviving in Lost. Lauren’s motherly tendencies with Claire were heartwarming and done incredibly well. I loved that Claire was realistically a young girl but also far too mature for her age. She was a successful scavenger in Lost and had a strength of character though still exuded vulnerability.

Peter, one of the most interesting inhabitants of Lost, was one of my favorites. He was mysterious, a touch strange and even a little creepy at times. I happened to love his mix of weird and felt that his character could be explored a whole lot more. I really hope we get more of his backstory as ‘The Finder’ and who he was prior to living in Lost.

Not only were the main cast of characters well executed but all the denizens were such a highlight of the book. They all verged on pathetic yet creepy. I got some zombie vibes at times and I actually feared their mob mentality at times.

Final Thoughts:
I found The Lost to be a captivating, fast paced and touching read. I had no clue I’d get as emotionally invested in these characters when I started this novel. I finished and was in tears. I’m so happy there will be a sequel to quench my curiosity and need to see these characters again.

[Krystle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for revised version (12/2/2025):

Honestly, I can't quite remember much of what happened in the original book but I do remember how much I thoroughly enjoyed the premise. The finding and searching for items you lost, connected to your memories is so fascinating to me, and was a key component in people learning to accept or move on from things in this story.

I feel like the romance is more prevalent in this version and also that there were more scenes of Lauren with her mother, which I thought were beautifully written and well done.

The ending sort of wraps everything up now and doesn't leave us on an open ending to make it clear that this is a standalone (I think? Although you definitely could set more stories in the world she built up).

Some of the side stories didn't capture me and I didn't pay as careful attention to it but, overall, Sarah's books are always lovely. They give a whimsical, uplifting feel which I turn to when I feel a bit in a rut.

About the same star rating as I gave it the first time. 3.5 stars.

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3.5 stars.

I really liked the ending.

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Here’s Sarah Beth Durst’s first foray into adult fiction, something I had a keen eye on as to how she would transition into the new field as well as pull it off. I’ve read a good many of her books and love her innovative story ideas and writing style so I had good confidence this wouldn’t let me down.

The set up behind this book, while simple, is quite intriguing. I really liked how she crafted this little world and how it functioned overall with both the population living within it as well as how it interacted with the outside. The idea of lost objects, lost people, and the people who have lost their way all ending up in one place is pretty cool. Each character is lively and vibrant and I really enjoyed finding the backstory of the lost things people were searching for.

Lauren was a bit of an annoyance, the constant denial of her situation and her circumstances for about half of the book drove me batty. It was to the point where she disregarded the other characters’ feelings and wishes, but you know, the denial and avoidance of the issue at hand is strong in this one. However, her slow gradual realization and acceptance of her value and identity in life made the second a lot stronger and palatable. Lauren’s newfound discovery of her powers was enjoyable and a slow, gradual process that wasn’t overbearing at all. I’m not too sold on the romance, but I enjoyed the relationships she developed not only with her love interest but with the other people in town, as she overcame her standoffish behavior and began to understand and trust.

The scenes with her mother were very well done and I felt just as sad and hollow as Lauren did. While the plotting wasn’t swift and meandered for a bit, it certainly pulled itself together in the last bit. The ending while predictable, took a path that I didn’t see, which surprised me in the way it was delivered. Although not a total cliffhanger it doesn’t leave me antsy and ready to rip my hair out.

One problem I had was her writing style. I’m not sure if she stripped it down or altered it specifically for her adult audience but I miss her luscious and beautiful wrapped sentences that described emotions superbly and did it with delicious prose. It lacked her usual punch and I wish she’d go back to her real writing style.

I can totally see many of her already established fans picking up this work as it’s very easy to delve into and doesn’t stray that far from a YA voice or plot formulation. It’s a nice work, worth a try.

[Valette M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as heroines go, Lauren Chase is nothing special: no prophecy about her future, no strange powers since birth. And because of this, she is incredibly relatable. I fell in love with her as she struggles to come to terms with her new world and the mother she's losing. Her motivations ring true and she feels real, clever and sturdy, with no moping about but a matter-of-fact view on life. But, however fantastic she may be as the lead, the character that takes the cake for me is Peter (the Finder in Lost who rescues lost people from the death grip of the void). With cat-like grace and a somewhat mischievous streak to him, it's entrancing to read about him. I agree with Lauren completely when she describes him as a grown up Peter-Pan. He pops in and out of scenes perfectly representing what a man of that past would be, but does it so well that he sweeps all the stereotypes away and practically reaches the status of archetype. If he was the only good thing in the book, I would still gobble up the sequels. Thankfully the entire book is quite good.
Characters: 5 Stars

It is a very rare author that can take a simple idea -- say, a place where all lost things go -- and flesh it out into such a thoroughly satisfying mix of thriller, romance, and self-discovery. Right from the beginning, Durst's delicious prose paints a disturbingly hypnotic view of a town that exists apart from time, where all lost things go. And all lost people. People who have lost their way in life do not make for a very stable citizenry. Feral dogs roam the streets in packs and bands of ragged scavenger children armed with knives comb through frequent junk piles in a world built on the barter system, all surrounded by a dust storm called the Void that sucks the hope from those that enter until they become nothing more than dust themselves. No one and nothing can leave Lost until they find whatever it is they have lost. But even then, the Missing Man is the only one who can send them home. He refuses to help Lauren, and disappears. Struggling to simply survive, Lauren is forced to face her own despair head on to discover what she's lost. And the Void creeps steadily closer. In this well-brewed tale the stakes never stop rising. This book will rip your heart out and stomp on it every which way. Thank goodness it's the start of a series! And you'd better bet I'll be counting down the days until I can get my hands on the next one.
Plot: 5 Stars

Sarah Beth Durst is very good at what she does. Her rich descriptions and hearty characters bring the story alive with such oomph it will leave you gasping. I tried, goodness knows how I tried, to read this book slowly, to savor every mesmerizing word, but it ended far too quickly. A strong start to a very promising series. Stunning. Transfixing. Captivating:
Style: 5 Stars

[Addie_bookbanter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic book from Sarah Beth Durst! I spent most of the book not entirely sure what was going on, but I loved every second of it. The story was beautiful, strange, and completely captivating. It made me feel everything—sadness, joy, even laughter.

I couldn’t put it down, even when I wasn’t sure where it was taking me. And honestly, that made the experience even better.

[Tim Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have seen jokes all my life about where socks go when they are lost in the dryer or elsewhere. I am sure people from time to time wonder just where other items that are misplaced – an umbrella, a sweater, a paperback book, change, keys, a wallet or purse – go. Did they end up under a bed, on a seat at a restaurant, or behind a bookshelf or some other bit of furniture?

What about lost people, those who vanish without a trace? Particularly people who wander off, having experienced real loss in their life, perhaps the loss of a loved one, an opportunity, or meaning in life, not paying attention where they are going, lost in both the physical sense but also the spiritual sense, what happened to them?

In Sara Beth Durst’s book _The Lost_, they end up in a town (and the surrounding lands) called, appropriately, Lost.

Our protagonist is a late twentysomething professional woman named Lauren, a woman who dreading what she fears (and deep down knows) is bad news about her mom’s cancer, decides instead of driving to work one morning, just keeps driving. She doesn’t want to know the truth about her mom’s test results, wants seemingly at first just to not to have to think about them, and just drives for no reason at all.

Having started with taking a different direction at a traffic light she uses every day she commutes, she just continues to drive from her southern California home and heads east. She drives and drives, going deep into the desert, unsure if she is in New Mexico or Arizona, but journeys until she comes to a peculiar community called Lost (it even has a sign).

It doesn’t take Lauren long to discover a few peculiar facts. One, Lost is a rundown town, a collection of eclectic buildings, all in need of repair, inhabited by people who look eccentric at best, like homeless people with deep mental illnesses at worst. Two, the town is full of seemingly random litter – discarded shirts, pants, odd bits of junk, coins everywhere, lots of wallets that no one seems interested in retrieving or even noticing as they walk by – but it doesn’t look like trash per se. Three, there is nothing in the town that can help her communicate or get out. There is no gas station to fill up her car, now with a completely empty tank. There is no internet. There is no phone. Her phone certainly doesn’t work.

And three, Lost is surrounded by a never ending, impenetrable permanent dust storm. Attempts to leave Lost either have Lauren literally lost in the dust, unsure of where to go, or bring her right back to where she started.

Lauren, as is every other soul in the town, is trapped.

Lauren, at first thinking she imagined the man, later quite sure of his existence, is saved from the dust storm by a handsome individual, fond of flowing black robes, a bare chest, and lots of tattoos. Bringing her back to the town of Lost per se, she soon finds out he is the Finder, a man who brings in people from the dust if they don’t make it out themselves, because apparently if you spend too much time in the storm, you fade into nothingness. Blamed by some for being brought there, others finding his odd habits perhaps too quirky, he is stand offish and enigmatic at first, though later becomes an important character to Lauren.

We find out that the Finder is but one side of some strange coin of this realm, the other side being the Missing Man, a dapper, older gentlemen in a suit with a cane. While the Finder brings in people to Lost and at least temporary safety, the Missing Man sends them home again…once they found whatever it is they lost.

Lauren meets the Missing Man very early on in her stay in Lost. The Missing Man takes one look at Lauren, exclaims something in angry disbelief, and just leaves. Forced to leave the town proper because the one possible lifeline the townsfolk had was angry at her, they grow angrier still as it becomes evident he may have left indefinitely.

I don’t want to go too much more into the plot, but it does involve Lauren developing a family of sorts in Lost (or the outskirts, as she has to avoid the town proper), made up of herself, an interesting child by the name of Claire (when Lauren first meets her, she has a teddy bear in one hand and a knife in the other), and the Finder, who she comes to know as Peter (and interestingly, is already friends with Claire). She learns the rules of Lost, more about the strange eternal dust cloud that surrounds this weird land, the nature of the items she finds strewn across the landscape, and if she can ever leave again. As a constant thread interwoven through the story Lauren worries about her mom, what she must be going through, what her fate will be, and if Lauren can ever return to her in time before she dies (if she must die soon from cancer).

I enjoyed the book, it read very fast and had a great pace. The descriptions were pretty vivid and the strange nature of the many odd objects in Lost never became dull or uninteresting. There was something of a prophetic fate for Lauren in the book, but it felt original and not at all predictable. Lauren herself had some depth and Claire and Peter both became fairly deep characters. Owing to Lauren leaving the town itself pretty early on we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with the eccentric townsfolk but we did get to know several to varying degrees.

I had relatively few complaints. Some reviewers didn’t like the “first person present” style of writing, with Lauren describing things as she was experiencing them, as if was just then doing them, that was odd at first but I quickly grew used to it. There were a few descriptive aspects of Lost that felt as if they weren’t quite polished or rounded out enough; for instance, it was mentioned that a red balloon continually floats over the town, but it was briefly mentioned once and not mentioned again until very late in the book. It was just atmosphere, didn’t mean anything, but I never really pictured it again until its brief mention in the text until the very end. A small thing to be sure.

Claire went from creepy child to adorable child to rather smart for her age ally in Lauren but this didn’t bother me, as Lauren herself noted that time passes differently in Lost and Claire might be many years older than she appears.

It was sometimes hard to decide what to think of Peter. I didn’t mind him having a hard time relating to Lauren or developing any relationship with her, given his odd position in the town, his apparent great age (though he didn’t look old at all), and the fact everyone he knows at some point does in fact leave Lost. What I didn’t always care for was the way he felt like he sometimes stepped out of a Young Adult novel, with Lauren continually describing him as handsome (a word perhaps used too much), as mysterious, enigmatic, and basically dreamy to her. Lauren and Claire came off as feel more real and grounded than Peter was at times, at least in Lauren’s mind, though there are hints in the story that Lauren might be idealizing Peter, as he might be a proxy for not having any serious relationships back in the real world.

I understand that there is supposed to be a sequel to this book, perhaps even a trilogy. Given the ending that would be odd but I would be interested in reading more.

[ᒪᗴᗩᕼ · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE DETAILS⇣
⇢ 3½ ✰STARS✰
⤏ THE LOST SERIES #1 OF NOTHING...SO FAR
⤏ THE REST OF THE SERIES ISN'T GOING TO BE PUBLISHED
⤏ WHY'D I LISTEN TO THIS...IF BOOK #2 & #3 ARE NOT BEING PUBLISHED
⤏ AND YET IT'S A COMPLETELY UNIQUE CONCEPT
⤏ FANTASY/MYSTERY
⤏ FELT LIKE A MASH-UP OF SO MANY MOVIES/TV/BOOKS
⤏ LENGTH OF AUDIO - 11 HOURS, 4 MINUTES
⤏ I LISTENED ON AUDIBLE THROUGH AUDIBLE ESCAPE

MY THOUGHTS⇣

Race the Sands is the only book by this author that I've read/listened to and I loved it. Unfortunately, I was about a third of the way through this unique story when I noticed on GR that it is a series...only it still hasn't been published yet, and this book came out in 2014. I searched around on GR and the internet and near as I can tell Harper Collins bought out Harlequin and they decided not to publish it...but this was a few years ago and supposedly they gave them back to the author and who knows what's up with up the two other books now...😞

I read this through Audible Escape (free trial)...and basically, my rating is heavily influenced by the fact that the next two books are not ever coming out...or don't seem to be...it has been six years after all...but if they do, that'd be cool. So, if Sara Beth Durst sees this post, could you please release the next two books already...especially if they already been written.

The narrator, Charlotte North, could use some help with varying voices...all her characters sounded the same...but otherwise she had good inflection...and I would listen to her again.


BREAKDOWN⇣
Narration Rating ⇢ 4 STARS
Plot ⇢3.8/5
Characters ⇢ 4/5
The Feels ⇢ 3.8/5
Pacing ⇢ 3.5/5
Addictiveness ⇢ 3.8/5
Theme, Tone or Intensity ⇢ 4/5
Originality ⇢ 4.3/5
Flow (Writing Style/Ease of Listening) ⇢ 3.7/5
World-Building ⇢ 4.3/5
Ending ⇢ 2.8/5
Summation ⇢ 3½ STARS

[Collin Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was unfamiliar with Sarah Beth Durst’s game until getting my hands on this work of art, and wow—was it a Mona Lisa.

In short, this book follows a girl who finds herself in a mysterious town after driving away from her anxieties, but the layers that peel back afterwards are absolutely teeming.

The Lost captured the juxtaposition of desiring an escape but feeling claustrophobically homesick all in the same breath. The speculative and fantastical elements were *chef’s kiss*. Like—it was eerily whimsical yet managed to make me shed a tear or two (okay, three.) by the end.

If you’re looking for a story that is the epitome of the phrase “sometimes you have to get a little lost to find yourself”, look no further.

I could not have enjoyed my time with this book more.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade & NetGalley for the arc!

[Melissa Jacobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating 4.5

So Apparently I had no clue what this book was actually about when I bought it haha. For some reason I thought this was a post apocalyptic sci-fi book but it most certainly is not. This book fall more on the paranormal\maybe sci-fi side? I am very confused about this books genre but I loved it nonetheless. Sarah Beth Durst is such an imaginative author and I loved this. This felt very twin peaks meets peter-pan with some magical realism/maybe sci-fi popped in there. Yet again I have no clue if this book is magical or sci-fi. I guess I will have to read book two to finally figure that out! That aside I highly recommend this kooky and entertaining read. Easily one of Sarah Beth Durst's best books that I have read from her so far.