Lost Night

Lost Girls #0.5

by Kate Ellison

Sapphire knows she has to avoid trouble if she's going to survive in Neverland, the seedy neighborhood of Cleveland she now calls home. Other girls here have gone missing when they didn't play by the rules: the "lost girls," she calls them. Like her, they're all runaways - no one to notice if they vanish for good.

And Sapphire knows, too, that falling for Bird is only going to cause trouble. She just doesn't know how soon, or how bad... And whether that trouble will come from the dangers of Neverland or from Bird himself.

All she knows is that this will be their last night together - or the night she's lost forever.

Unknown Binding

First published May 5, 2015

About the author

Kate Ellison spent a lot of time as a child, in Baltimore, pretending to be things she wasn't: a twin, a telekinetic, a benevolent witch with a box full of magical stones, a spy, a soccer player. She trained as an actor in Chicago and has walked across the entire country of Spain. She is a painter and jewelry-maker, and has at least one artist friend who really does keep his true name a secret from the world. He told her, but don't ask her to tell you—she's not gonna do it. Kate lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Butterfly Clues is her first novel.

Reviews

[Beth Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I openly admit to being a middle-aged woman reading YA fiction. Maybe it's not written for my demographic, but nonetheless, I have read some great stories I would otherwise have missed. This is not one of those. I am being generous with three stars. First, this prequel needed tighter editing. Secondly, the two main characters, Sapphire and Bird, are wholly unlikeable. I get they've had crappy lives and they live in poverty, surviving on strip club dancing, theft and drugs. THAT'S the parts I can forgive. What I can't condone in this prequel is the complete FU attitude. You owe me so I'll take and do anything I want. They have no remorse - they are entitled to their bad behavior. They are entitled to walk into a supermarket and (direct quote) "We'll eat our peaches before we pay for them, thank you very much." And then run out of the store laughing at all "the jealous old ladies" They're not jealous of stupid badly-behaved children attempting sex in public places, they're disgusted their tax dollars are supporting them! I can't say I've never found myself in similar situations (and on both sides), but I never had any assumptions that because my mother was an alcoholic I could treat everyone else like s***! I was looking forward to reading "Lost Girls" (previously published as "The Butterfly Clues". It's been on my Wish List forever. Now, I think I will probably skip it. The writing of this prequel is not bad in itself, but the attitude behind it leaves a lot to be ashamed of. I work with the public in retail and I see this every day - it's pervasive and a whole generation of like-minded people will either die young and stupidly or amount to very little unless they overcome their circumstances and more importantly, themselves. I understand Sapphire is the murder victim in "Lost Girls". To mirror her own POV: good - I hope they got her before she procreated.

[Louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading this story, it was s good, but hard because I knew that things couldn't end well.