Lost Boy

by Rawiri James

Overdue assignments.
Overbearing parents.
Overactive hormones.

Being sixteen sure does suck sometimes.

Yet Mike DeVelli Jr. knows he is destined for greatness. His mother always told him so - at least, until the unfortunate day an overdose took her to an early grave. As grief befalls the DeVelli house, Mike's father retreats to the liquor bottle, while Mike throws himself obsessively into exercise. All this, while avoiding the pitying gazes of the students at school whom he always struggled to fit in with.

It's not all bad, though. He has his best friend Joey, a loyal and quick-witted kid who's raging libido brings its own troubles; and he has Nicole, his girlfriend of nearly two years. Sweet, strong Nicole. She knows Mike even better than he knows himself. Lately, he's been acting different. Distant, weird, with an arrogance even his newly-formed six-pack doesn't warrant. Nicole has noticed. And she's not the only one.

Mike catches the eye of popular It Girl, Priya, at school. Flirtation spills over and they agree to meet, but she fails to show, and Mike feels rejected yet again. Priya is soon reported missing and Mike becomes a lead suspect in her disappearance. As the town of Flatbush searches desperately for Priya, the investigation mounts, with many residents under the magnifying glass of Inspector Peter McCall and Officer Espinoza. The evidence continues to point in Mike's direction and with the help of Nicole and Joey, the three teenagers decide their only option is to uncover the identity of the real culprit.

Getting closer to the truth, he learns that his seemingly ordinary family tree has supernatural roots, and as he comes face to face with a hungry, eveil enemy, he discovers a power inside himself that will create a wave of change in the world.

Touching on themes of addiction, loss and racial identity, Lost Boy is an engaging coming-of-age story, an entertaining superhero origin tale, and a suspenseful mystery thriller, all in one.

221 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 4, 2019

Reviews

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thanks to the author Rāwiri James and BookTasters for a review copy of this book.

Lost Boy is a young adult mystery/thriller novel that also delves into issues affecting teens and their daily lives, and also aspects of race and culture. At the centre of our story is Michael DeVelli Jr or Mike who lives with his parents Mike DeVelli Sr who runs a shoe store and Anna, a housewife, in Brooklyn. He is just about to start sophomore year in Lafayette High School with best friend Joey (who is a little too obsessed with girls), and girlfriend of two years, Nicole, an intelligent young woman with her head firmly on her shoulders. Alongside, Mike is dealing with issues of weight and diet, subsisting on only protein shakes and intense workouts and shunning everything else, a result in part of his mother’s obesity.

But things change for the DeVellis drastically on the first day of school as Mike returns home with his mother’s birthday cake to find that she has died (because of her weight). Both he and his father struggle to cope and while Mike Sr takes to the bottle, Mike tries to run away from it all and ends up cheating on Nicole with another girl at school, Priya. Sometime later, he makes a date to see Priya at a park but when she fails to appear, he feels betrayed and returns home, only to discover the next day that Priya has gone missing. Before long, Mike is the main suspect. As the police pursue their investigations, Joey and Nicole want to help and with a sympathetic teacher, Mr Nguyen, begin to look into the matter. Alongside, a mysterious character, Artie Gray, is going around targeting young women.

Another thread of the story relates to Mike having some unusual dreams about two little boys out near a lake. One day, after his mother’s death, he finds among her things a Polish newspaper with the picture of a little boy who looks very much like himself. His father gives an explanation that fails to convince him, so he becomes curious about his own past. Both threads of the story move side by side and weave in together towards the end.

Lost Boy was somewhat of a mixed read for me, with some aspects that I enjoyed but also some things which didn’t work as well for me. By and large I enjoyed the mystery–thriller plot in the book; Mike feeling lost after his mother’s death which leads to his involvement with Priya, and then the twist with Priya vanishing from just where was to meet him. This was both exciting and somewhat scary because one wonders who it could have been that kidnapped her and whether she is even alive. Mike seems to have been the last person to speak to her and foolishly (though not unbelievably) keeps this from the police, making things look all the worse for him. But while aside from the police investigation, things don’t proceed quite like the typical mystery/thriller, Joey and Nicole do begin to look into what could possibly have happened to Priya and make progress. On the other side, we are also wondering what the mysterious character, Artie Gray is up to, and whether it is him who is responsible for taking Priya.

Besides the mystery around Priya’s disappearance, we also have the mystery or secret from Mike’s past which keeps one wondering what the story could be, and the explanation was certainly not one I saw coming, as indeed was the case with the mystery around Priya’s disappearance. In fact, the resolution of that tied into the other thread of the story so unexpectedly that I was quite taken by surprise.

The characters too, were fairly well done; one feels for Mike and the issues he is dealing with despite the mistakes that he makes. I liked how Joey and Nicole stood by him as well. Mr Nguyen helps them despite having to deal with troubles and accusations against himself. Additionally, I also thought the background of school and its pressures, the issues of weight, health and appearance, drugs, relationships, grief and coping were indeed all relevant to what people/teens have to deal with every day.

What I was not so sure of in the plot was the tying of the two threads together—while the way it was done was unexpected and I enjoyed the surprise, since the two belonged to very different realms—the worldly and something of the supernatural—I wasn’t quite satisfied with the fact that we have insufficient explanation of the supernatural/fantasy aspects, unless this is something that will be explored in further books.

Another issue for me was the explicit language and content which was not to my liking; also if this is a young adult, perhaps a bit much for the intended audience.

Also, the names of the Indian-origin characters threw up a minor issue—the girl who disappears is called Priyanka Nashad—her surname is not a typically Hindu name while her first name is; again her siblings are called Navjyot and Jasminder which are more typically Sikh names; so it felt a bit odd, but again, this might be just me who was bothered by it.

Overall, this was a book in which the mystery elements both of this world, and the fantasy ones kept me reading despite the aspects that bothered me. 3 stars.

[Paige · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this e-book from the author. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Lost Boy

Author: Rawiri James

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 1/5

Diversity: Italian American/Indigenous MC, POC characters (nothing was very concrete about their race), Jewish side character

Recommended For...: (note: I can’t recommend this for younger than 18 readers because of the way the material in this book is written) paranormal, mystery

Publication Date: October 4, 2019

Genre: YA Paranormal Mystery

Recommended Age: 18+ (Sex, Cheating, Sexual content, Language, Disordered eating TW, Parental Death, Bulimia TW, purging shown TW, Underage alcohol consumption, Grief, Pressuring Sex, Religion, Alcoholism, Abelist comments, Drug use, Racism mentioned, Homophobia mentioned, Child abuse mentioned, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gore, Romance, Rape of a minor mentioned)

Explanation of CWs: Sex, pressuring for sex, and sexual content is shown and mentioned, including the talk about pornography. There is romance and cheating in the book. There is a lot of curse words in the book. Disordered eating is shown, fatphobia is in the book, bulimia is mentioned, and there is purging and excessive working out shown. Parent death and grief are shown. Underage alcohol consumption and drug use is shown in the book. Religion is briefly mentioned. Alcoholism is shown. There are some abelist comments in the book, including the R word being said, and there is racism and homophobia mentioned in the book. Child abuse is mentioned in the book. There is emotional abuse shown in the book as well as violence and gore. There is rape of a minor mentioned in the last bit of the book.

Publisher: Indie Published

Pages: 310

Synopsis: Overdue assignments.
Overbearing parents.
Overactive hormones.

Being sixteen sure does suck sometimes.

Yet Mike DeVelli Jr. knows he is destined for greatness. His mother always told him so - at least, until the unfortunate day an overdose took her to an early grave. As grief befalls the DeVelli house, Mike's father retreats to the liquor bottle, while Mike throws himself obsessively into exercise. All this, while avoiding the pitying gazes of the students at school whom he always struggled to fit in with.

It's not all bad, though. He has his best friend Joey, a loyal and quick-witted kid who's raging libido brings its own troubles; and he has Nicole, his girlfriend of nearly two years. Sweet, strong Nicole. She knows Mike even better than he knows himself. Lately, he's been acting different. Distant, weird, with an arrogance even his newly-formed six-pack doesn't warrant. Nicole has noticed. And she's not the only one.

Mike catches the eye of popular It Girl, Priya, at school. Flirtation spills over and they agree to meet, but she fails to show, and Mike feels rejected yet again. Priya is soon reported missing and Mike becomes a lead suspect in her disappearance. As the town of Flatbush searches desperately for Priya, the investigation mounts, with many residents under the magnifying glass of Inspector Peter McCall and Officer Espinoza. The evidence continues to point in Mike's direction and with the help of Nicole and Joey, the three teenagers decide their only option is to uncover the identity of the real culprit.

Getting closer to the truth, he learns that his seemingly ordinary family tree has supernatural roots, and as he comes face to face with a hungry, eveil enemy, he discovers a power inside himself that will create a wave of change in the world.

Touching on themes of addiction, loss and racial identity, Lost Boy is an engaging coming-of-age story, an entertaining superhero origin tale, and a suspenseful mystery thriller, all in one.

Review: Oh boy, this was… a book. I feel bad for this because the book had a lot of promise, but it fell flat for me. The positives? The character development was good. However, that’s the only thing that I felt was good about the book unfortunately. The book has a lot of promise, but there’s a lot of work to do on this book to make it good. The POV of the book keeps switching and it’s very disorienting to the reader. One second we are following Mike and then we are following his girlfriend Nicole and then we’re following some random guy in a completely different place that’s unconnected to Mike and then we’re back, but following a teacher. It’s so weird and it would be good for a TV show manuscript, but not for a book. The writing got weirder in the book with the weird and random flashbacks that would happen and the random interjections of different characters doing different things than what the plot was calling for. The powers and supernatural themes in this book didn’t come into play until the middle of the book and there was no build up to it nor was there any conclusion to it. It just kind of happened and then didn’t. I was also sad to see a lack of world building and I was confused by how some of the characters were written. This is definitely a more mature young adult book, but it feels like Mike is being written more mature than what is the norm in YA. I am very pro-sex positive in YA books and it should be normalized, but there’s a level of care that happens when you write YA books with the intention of young children as young as 13 reading them. I also am concerned that while there are POC characters in this book, the book doesn’t describe these characters until very far into the book or just off-handedly about 70% through it. I felt very confused by the writing of this book.
I also want to talk about what felt like a lack of research on police procedures with juveniles from what I saw as a former Juvenile Clerk. This is not indicative to all states, but how the two I’ve worked in have handled juveniles and how their laws were. The main character mentions that he is a sophomore in high school, but then is not treated as a juvenile when arrested. When a child is arrested by the police they should NEVER be questioning them without the presence of a parent, legal guardian, or legal aid especially after they say they wanted to speak to their attorney. All communication stops there about the case at all and they are kept waiting until an attorney is present. Children are also not kept in general population when arrested. They are taken to a juvenile detention center or to a special segment of a jail/prison where none of the adults can talk or touch them. Juveniles are also placed into correctional uniforms when booked in as well, not left with their clothes and just without their shoelaces, that’s sometimes a mental institution that does that. Juveniles also see a Judge within 24 hours on business days and on Monday by noon on weekends. Juvenile Judges also usually go into a juvenile detention center on holidays to make sure that the kids don’t spend holidays in detention centers. Within 24 hours, the next day by noon, our MC should have been in front of a Judge. The way that Mike was treated during these passages really feel like he was being written as an adult rather than a kid.
Finally, I had tremendous issue with the way that the mother was wrote. She’s fat at 350 pounds, which is fine because I myself am 300 pounds, but she is described in the most fatphobic way that I’ve ever read in my life. She’s described as lazy and unable to move because of the weight she has. She dies from “overeating” as described by a character later. The author even goes on to describe how some characters were concerned at the mother’s funeral because they were concerned about how to lift a 350 pound woman in her casket. I will say that, reading this on a treadmill actively doing cardio as apart of a book challenge I’m voluntarily participating in, I felt very insulted by these words. Even if I misread the weight that the mother was, I would still feel insulted because this is NOT how you talk about fat characters in books. The book doesn’t stop with the mother when it comes to fat shaming however. The book constantly talks about the food that Mike is eating or won’t eat. A part of the book is about Mike’s eating disorder and I’ve read books that have talked about eating disorders before. However, the way that the food is described is incredibly insensitive and given how the POV is written it feels like the author is fat shaming and impressing disordered thinking about food on young readers.

Overall, I’m just very confused and hurt by this book. I had an idea of what would happen in this book, but it was completely different and badly executed. I think there’s some promise of this book, but it will take a lot of work to fix it.

Verdict: Not for me, but maybe for you? Definitely needs work though.

[Megan Rivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading this book. Mike overcomes many obstacles in this book. This book has a lot of twists and turns in this action adventure story. This book was captivating and I enjoyed reading it.

[I.G. Fleu · Rating 2 out of 5]

*I graciously thank both the author and Booktasters for the opportunity to read and review this book. This is my personal opinion based on my read.*


Lost Boy feels a little bit like a literary equivalent of a “Mary Poppins’ bag”. The book throws up at you every single troubling issue (and cliché) there might be present in a young adult’s life, as well as different genre’s elements in an attempt to make the story better. The result is a book without sense.
The story follows a teenager in Brooklyn, Mike, who lives with his parents (two individuals with compulsive behaviours). There are not real family bonds, and we notice that everyone lives their life, without looking at the other or considered the consequences of their actions. It’s not a surprise, then, that the mother dies very early on due to her excessive consumption of trans fat, and we notice how everything goes down for the two remaining members of the family.
Up till here, it might seem like a story on how to overcome grief. There might be a couple of details that (for me) are totally unnecessary and out of place (they would have fit a script, but not a book), but it’s still a story that *could* develop into something and show us how a stronger young man can be rebuilt from the ashes, or how two grieving people can join forces, or even how grief can very adequately and perfectly destroy every single relationship and thing you care about… there are thousand variables for the author just there. That gives them a very rich story with a sensible trigger.
Yet the “Mary Poppins’ bag” keeps expelling and expelling topics and situations at us. This, may I add, in a very graphic way. I’ve said it above, and I will write it again. Sometimes, the language and descriptions are better fit for a script. I’m guessing this has something to do with the author’s past in the screen, but, whereas that experience might be useful to show viewers things, it’s not helpful to create a literary work, where “show, don’t tell”, is a better fit. And that’s another thing that bothered me. I honestly don’t need to know that someone is sad, cold or hungry. Show me that they’re hurting, that they’re cold, that they can’t take it anymore without nourishment. Lost Boy, though, tells you everything, and by doing that, it spills out all its secrets at once as well. This makes do for a story that not only robs the reader of their fantasy, but also for a predictable line of events, where you are able to pick out the guilty individual from early on, to know who will go missing and why, how things will play out, etc.
Now, Mr. James introduced his novel to me as a “supernatural story”. I’m afraid I fail to see how it qualified to fit the genre. There’s a couple of details that *could* be better explored (Mike’s talent), but as long as it’s not consistently done, it’s just adding extra sugar to an overly sweetened cake.
The ending is rushed and inconsistent with the characters and their personality (although I don’t think I saw a lot of differences in them; that’s an issue I keep seeing in new writers, some tend to put their characters together in groups: baddies, youngsters, etc. The author doesn’t know them well, so they just use them).
The book is not suitable for children or teenagers. It includes graphical depictions of sexual intercourse between minors, masturbation, mental disorders, children abuse, substance abuse (alcohol and more), frequent swearing, racism and race issues, ableism, pornography, and, in the end, the rape of a minor as well as the abduction of another one (more sexual abuse).

[Pratip Vijayakumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

***Note: I received a free copy of this eBook from [Booktasters](https://twitter.com/BookTasters) in return for an honest review***

Thrillers are one of those fascinating Genres which always keep you hooked, be it a Murder mystery or others. I haven’t had read much of YA Thrillers, most importantly YA thriller books with Supernatural elements attached to them. So, when I came across this book on Booktasters, I immediately grabbed to read it.

***Author:** Raiwri James
**Language:** English 
**No. of Pages:** 319
**Format:** eBook
**Genre:** Thriller, Super Natural*

Lost Boy, is a Supernatural YA thriller book that revolves around the teen Mike DeVellie Jr and his friends. He is so much obsessed with his health that he fat-shames his own mom (Fatphobia). He doesn’t eat proper food but sticks to the so-called “Healthy foods” and protein powders. His close allies are his girlfriend of two years Nicole and his best friend Joey.

Mike’s happy life takes a turn when his mom passes away, he couldn’t stand the grief of his mother, unable to show that, he runs away from his own Mother’s funeral alone and stumbles upon his Schoolmate Priya Nashad. The book gets weirder from this point and becomes a confusing mess.

I guess, the Author decided to write something but mixed it up with something else. Apart from the character arcs of the leads, the Author seemed he isn’t sure where he want to take the story. Towards the mid of the book, the author introduces a new character, just graphic images of that person killing many, and all of a sudden they go missing. When this person goes completely out of the picture our Hero Mike starts experiencing Supernatural powers and he doesn’t have any answers or reasons to understand them.

Within a short span of time, Mike gets hold of his Superpowers, we don’t know how he could do that nor anyone for that matter. Usually, when people get such Superpowers, they usually do some stupid things to test it and usually miss a couple of times (I mean that’s *human nature)* and our hero doing that right in the first couple of attempts seems odd (Might be my personal bias).

So, the Author’s idea of writing about the Outsiders Series is interesting but he seems to have got a couple of things wrong atleast in my perception. Getting fit is great, no one questions that but in order to do that one needn’t fat shame others or be obsessed about it, that’s also an addiction. Secondly, the Author could have brought the Supernatural element for the hero during his grieving period maybe but bringing in when he couldn’t meet someone he doesn’t know much seems weird but I can also see the connection, it might be to save the person.

Most important of all, it seemed like the Supernatural element was added last minute just for the sake of it but it didn’t seem to have naturally grown through the course of the story. Maybe the Author could have completely avoided that and have simply left it as a YA Thriller, would have been better. Even the outsider angle seemed a last-minute addition, didn’t sit well with the course of the story. The Author tried many things in his first books and it seemed very confusing for the reader. A little more work in tightening the story would have done justice. Otherwise, it is a decent thriller book, which kept me hooked throughout and I kept guessing the perpetrator, A great job with that.

So, here I end the last blog post of this year. I wasn’t specifically saving it but somehow this Happened. Happy New Year 2022 everyone. 😇

I will meet you next year, Until then Ciao 🤓

[Francisco Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is pretty good and it has a lot of potential. However, I was unable to fully enjoy it because some things didn’t seem to make sense. I will mention the three main points to develop:

1. It covers too many topics. This might be the greatest flaw of the book, since it tries to cover too many topics (alcoholism, mourning, teenage issues, eating disorders, infidelity, crimes), which doesn’t allow for a proper development of any. It would be better if it was focused on just one or two of those topics. As a mental health professional who mainly works with teenagers, I truly believe there were better ways to approach the issues faced by the protagonist.

2. The fantasy elements appear too late into the book. When I read fantasy stories, I expect fantasy elements to be included since the beginning. With this book, this was not the case, so I expected it to be just a simple story about teenagers, drama, and eating disorders. The book should include more magic and fantasy, so I imagine that the author was trying to portray everything as realistic as possible, but got so focused on specific events, like crimes, that fantasy got pushed to the background.

3. The ending feels rushed and forced. At least that was the feeling I got throughout the last chapter. I believe this part of the story would have fitted better as part of a sequel. It is possible that its purpose was to leave the reader intrigued, since most of the mysteries surrounding the main character’s past haven’t been solved. This could also be very positive in the long run.

Did I like it? Yes. It kept me entertained and engaged; otherwise I wouldn’t have continued reading to the end. I think the story has a lot of potential, the development of the characters is good, and the whole context and family history of the protagonist is intriguing. Another thing worth mentioning is that reading the book while listening to the album by the same author makes for a great experience; something that breaks the mold. It is more common to find references to well-known songs by popular artists in books, so finding that there is music which was made specifically for the book is very exciting and innovative, and another positive point for the book, which I really liked.

[Kalpanaashri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so grateful to have received this book from the author Rawiri James. Thank you Bookstasters for this opportunity.

Genre:
YA Fiction, Fantasy/Supernatural

Plot
Michael DeVilli Jr. (Mike) is leading a typical life of every sixteen-year-old – overbearing parents, steady girlfriend, a goofy yet super supportive best friend and a penchant for doing push ups. A seemingly ordinary life changes overnight when his mother passes away due to OD. Dad drowns himself in alcohol, Mike throws himself in working out more and more. After he manages to capture the attention of the popular girl at school Priya, she goes missing. With the charges of abduction and sudden discovery of supernatural powers, can Mike get out of his problems?

Review:
This book is very fresh and interesting. Honestly right from the beginning it keeps you hooked. The author builds the story slowly and steadily. The situations faced by Mike and his friends feel very realistic. Be it the friendship between Mike and his close friend Joey or the romantic relationship with his girlfriend Nicole – the impact his mom’s death has on their relationship feels authentic. The communication gap between DeVilli men has been explored beautifully.

There are right number of characters to take the story forward. Each character has their own role to play. Although time is given to Mike and other characters, there are parts where more time could’ve been devoted in developing the characters.

The supernatural part of the book is explored briefly, and I expect that it shall be explored further in the next book in the series (Outsiders).

The book however tries to cover all the issues faced by the society – be it through the characters or the discussions in the school. The author tries to get portray different points of view which can feel slightly heavy. The ending felt slightly rushed and could have been dealt better.

The author was also kind to send me the link to the album of same name Lost Boy and he named the chapters after the song titles. The songs were really good! Especially the songs Bottle Down and How I got over! I would recommend checking out the songs too:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gMZU...

Overall, it is a good book, and I am curious to see what happens next! Please do grab it!

[Tonie Thimble · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you think Die Hard is a Christmas film, this is the Christmas book for you. To be fair, it does happen over several moths and starts in summer but the climax is around the holidays season. This was the book that made me look forward to Christmas this year, which is saying something as I was really apprehensive of the festive time because of my impending divorce.
This book made me forget and be a teenager again. It comes with its own soundtrack under the same name from the same author. I listened to the music first and thought contained spoilers for the book. It did not. The chapters of the book have the same names as the songs, but they aren't related. Not much anyway. The book talks about a fitness obsessed boy with what I would call an eating disorder not specified (or anorexia athletica), so if this is an issue for you, dear reader, beware.
It deals with substance abuse and bad decisions made under the influence. The main character's father is also an alcoholic and might have a good reason for that (grief) but Mike does try to get his dad help. It's a serious topic but dealt with in a way I can only approve of. The portrayal is realistic, does not glorify anything and it shows bad consequences as bad.
Without giving away much of the plot, there is a fantastical element as well. Superpowers make an appearance and I love that other characters decide to think Mike started learning magic instead of believing he has abilities. It's fresh and fun for the superhero genre that Marvel turned mainstream.
There's also a baddie in the story. Several actually. One is supernatural, the other a sexual predator.
The ending of the story left me wanting more. We learn way too little of the supernatural aspect in this story and if this were a standalone, I'd be disappointed. As it happens, Lost Boy is the first of a series and I can't wait for the rest of the story to unfold.

[Alisha Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally posted to https://tinyurl.com/yb8r97ek.
When Mike looses his mother due to her obesity he begins dealing with his feelings towards her weight in an unhealthy way. The weight loss he is experiencing is not the only change in him, however. In fact, there are things that seem to just get stranger around him since that day, including a news clipping from another country with a picture of a boy that looks just like him in it as missing. However, what is happening to him is soon put on the back burner as the girl he cheated on his girlfriend with once is now missing and she was supposed to be meeting with him at the time of the disappearance. Is it possible that the two things are connected?

This book took a different turn than what I was expecting, but all in all it was a good book. I did not expect the protagonist to be quite the way he was, although I did suspect who he was from the first time the issues began. That being said the book itself has some minor typing and grammatical errors, however nothing major. The book is a teen paranormal fiction to say the least, but we all know this is something that I enjoy. If you are in the mood for a different Young Adult novel this should be one that you check out.

[JL Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the synopsis, but the genre spanning thriller, and fantasy, completely hooked me in. The book was written clearly, and with a good solid pace that carried itself, making the story flow easily. The book introduces themes that most teenagers will experience, but also the darker side of loss and grief. Issues such as the loss of a family member, racism,  and diversity.

The characters were nicely introduced and all felt necessary to the flow of the story. They were also properly formed and three dimensional, making them all the more credible. I liked Mike and saw some of my teenage self in him. I too was quite cocky, but without much reason to be, but also Vulnerable. So well written was he that I felt genuine feelings of loss on his behalf, the feelings of confusion as others aimed suspicions in his direction, and also the experience of having real friendship with Joey and Priya. Mike's relationship with his father was enviable and heartwarming in equal measure.

Overall, this book touches on subjects that will resonate with young adults and older adults alike. I enjoyed the read, and would definitely recommend it to anyone. I gave Lost Boy, by Rawiri Jones, four stars, and look forward to reading more from him in the future.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover was the first thing that drew me to this book, but when I saw which genres it spanned, YA, thriller, fantasy, picking it up was no brainer. This book begins with Mike DeVelli Jr and the loss of his mother. Mike is instantly likeable; a bit cocky but not without his vulnerabilities; a typical teenager I guess! Although flawed, I loved the relationship between him and his father. And his best friend Joey is hilarious. We go on to hear about his crazy adventures with his friends, Priya, and a few other characters too - I won't say any more, I don't want to spoil the story!

I loved the clean, easy-reading language and the attention to detail in the author's writing, especially when new characters entered the narrative. It meant that I got to know them all really well, really quickly, and I harboured strong feelings towards them, both positive and negative. I particularly loved the diversity of the characters; this book is inclusive without being tokenistic. There was a lot going on in this book and not everything was resolved (I don't think) so I think there may be a sequel in the making? I hope so. If I had any criticism, the end felt a little rushed, I could have read another 100 pages easily. All in all, a very strong four stars and I will certainly be picking up this author's next book ★★★★

[Nipun Bamania · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story begins with a family of three, Mike Develli Sr, Anna who is overweight and a teenaged son, Mike Develli Jr, who is a fitness freak, unlike his mother, and at the cusp of adulthood where hormones keep on playing tricks. He has a friend Joey, whose hormones always overpower him, and a nice girlfriend, Nicole. After his mother's untimely death, Mike Jr accidentally discovers that he has powers to control water. His unsteady mind after his mother's death leads to a one time fling with a college hottie, Priya Nashad, who has half Indian origins. His sense of guilt over the fling leads to his break up with Nicole, but suddenly one fine day, Priya disappears. The remaining plot becomes an interesting one where school teachers and other peers including Mike Jr are suspects. The climax takes a little horror turn and keeps the reader hooked. A cool book that could have added a chapter or two to give detailed view on the power of Mike Develli Jr and made it more interesting. Overall a good one.

[Kez Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story was easy to read and has you hooked from the start. There are enough twists and turns to the story to keep you reading until the very end. The characters are written very well and are typical teenagers (there is quite a bit of swearing!). The book is a mixed genre of a coming of age YA/thriller novel and aspects that you would find in a science fiction or fantasy story so it could appeal to many fans of these genres. It does work to a certain extent but maybe the science fiction/fantasy elements could have been introduced sooner in the story; once they come in it felt a bit jarring. Overall a very interesting read. Hoping for a sequel.

[T.M. Drechny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling read.
Sixteen year old Mike DeVelli is an adolescent boy with body image issues constantly working to improve himself. When he discovers his mother dead on the evening of her birthday, his life begins to spiral out of control. Then comes the discovery of an ability he cannot explain. When the girl he agrees to meet up with turns up missing, he is drawn into an investigation and events that threaten all he has known and everyone he has loved.
Rawiri does an excellent job of bringing his characters to life, weaving realistic scenes and situations with adding elements of the fantastical to create a story line that keeps the reader spellbound.

[Thatiane Rezende · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of this fantasy/thriller novel is good once I couldn't figure out who the villain was until the end.

The fantasy was also good, but I guess he could have explored more at the beginning of the book. I felt the explicit language and "hormone problems" were unnecessary, that would be more interesting to see the development of Mike's power in the story instead of teenagers' problems.

[Trigger Warning Database]

Trigger & Content Warnings

Ableism & ableist language
Racism mentioned
Rape of a minor mentioned
Cheating
Child abuse mentioned
Alcoholism
Eating disorder (bulimia)
Disordered eating & purging, on-page
Alcohol consumption
Drug use
Death of parent

[Noa Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked it, it's well written and the cover is beautiful. I received this book from the author. The characters are good to understand and it was easy to read

[Joni Martins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review

Basic Details:
Book Title: Lost Boy
Subtitle:
Author: Rawiri James
Genre: Teen and Young Adult, Mystery
Part of a series? No
Order in series:
Best read after earlier books in series?
Available: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Overall score:
I scored this book 5/5
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Short Summary of the book:
Mike is like any other 16-year-old boy. He goes to school, has a girlfriend and tries to keep up with his studies. His father has a shoeshop and his mum is a stay-at-home mum.
But then, disaster strikes. First, he finds his mother dead in the chair. Can you ever get over something like that?
Then a girl from his class disappears. What has happened and why? And when Mike becomes a suspect in her abduction, life really becomes difficult.
What I liked about the book:
The book is action-packed, and full of suspense with an unexpected twist.
What I didn’t like about the book:
I enjoyed the entire book.
My favourite bits in the book:
I enjoyed the entire book.
My least favourite bits in the book:
The book was enjoyable in its entirety.
Any further books in the series? Any more planned by this author?
This is the first book I’ve read by this author.
What books could this be compared to and why?
This is a mystery full of suspense.
Recommendation:
In summary, I would recommend this book for the following readers:

Children No
Young Adult Yes
Adult Yes

If you like suspense, this book may be the book for you.
I look forward to reading more by this author.
Book Description by Author:
Overdue assignments.
Overbearing parents.
Overactive hormones.

Being sixteen sure does suck sometimes.

Yet Mike DeVelli Jr. knows he is destined for greatness. His mother always told him so - at least, until the unfortunate day an overdose took her to an early grave. As grief befalls the DeVelli house, Mike's father retreats to the liquor bottle, while Mike throws himself obsessively into exercise. All this, while avoiding the pitying gazes of the students at school whom he always struggled to fit in with.

It's not all bad, though. He has his best friend Joey, a loyal and quick-witted kid who's raging libido brings its own troubles; and he has Nicole, his girlfriend of nearly two years. Sweet, strong Nicole. She knows Mike even better than he knows himself. Lately, he's been acting different. Distant, weird, with an arrogance even his newly-formed six-pack doesn't warrant. Nicole has noticed. And she's not the only one.

Mike catches the eye of popular It Girl, Priya, at school. Flirtation spills over and they agree to meet, but she fails to show, and Mike feels rejected yet again. Priya is soon reported missing and Mike becomes a lead suspect in her disappearance. As the town of Flatbush searches desperately for Priya, the investigation mounts, with many residents under the magnifying glass of Inspector Peter McCall and Officer Espinoza. The evidence continues to point in Mike's direction and with the help of Nicole and Joey, the three teenagers decide their only option is to uncover the identity of the real culprit.

Getting closer to the truth, he learns that his seemingly ordinary family tree has supernatural roots, and as he comes face to face with a hungry, eveil enemy, he discovers a power inside himself that will create a wave of change in the world.

Touching on themes of addiction, loss and racial identity, Lost Boy is an engaging coming-of-age story, an entertaining superhero origin tale, and a suspenseful mystery thriller, all in one.
About the Author:
Addict. Advocate. Author. Artist. These are just some of the words used to describe Rawiri James.

Born and raised in New Zealand on superhero comics and hip-hop and R&B music, the multi-talented entertainer left a jet-setting career in management consultancy to become a full-time story-teller.

The release of his debut solo album, Lost Boy, drew comparisons to Frank Ocean for its throwback beats and progressive lyrical confessions. Singles like the moody mid-tempo 'Bottle Down' and cautionary party record 'Trip the Alarm' have helped streaming numbers top 150,000 across multiple formats.

During recording sessions of the record, James was inspired to take the themes of addiction and identity and explore them through different perspectives. The result is his debut novel, also called Lost Boy. With the chapters named after their album song counterparts, the book tells the story of 16-year-old Brooklynite Mike DeVelli Jr. and the gradual realisation that within him is a superpower that will change his life forever.

Lost Boy is the first in the planned Outsiders series, bringing spotlights and microphones to those who feel on the outside - people of colour, the LGBTQ community, the differently-abled and mentally afflicted.

[Julie Porter]

Spoilers: Sometimes a book works when you combine several genres. You are reading about cowboys then all of a sudden, oops, a dragon appears! A couple goes out on a date, then suddenly he sprouts fangs and that chick lit romance you are reading suddenly heads towards Dark Fantasy Land.
Then there are times when crossing genres doesn't work so well when one half of the genre so overwhelms the course of the book, that the other genre becomes intrusive and almost unnecessary.
The latter situation is the issue with Lost Boy by Rawiri James. This book is an attempt to combine a coming of age YA and suspense novel with a science fiction/fantasy along the lines of X-Men. That isn't a bad premise in and of itself. The central idea is intriguing and the various aspects could work together. But in this case, they don't.

Mike DeVelli Jr.’s life seems to spiral out of control lately. His mother has died and both he and his father are having trouble coping with the loss. Mike Sr. retreats into alcohol while Mike Jr. becomes obsessed with constantly working out and eating very little. Mike Jr. alienates both his best friend, Joey, and his girlfriend, Nicole, to find solace through clubbing with school bad girl, Priyanka. Things go from bad to really bad when Priyanka goes missing and Mike is considered a suspect.

All of that would work as a coherent plot, but James also adds that Mike finds a newspaper article from another country that implies that he may be adopted. He also shares memories that he never had before and suddenly discovers that he has the ability to control and manipulate water.

Lost Boy has enough great things going for it that is a shame to take it apart but take it apart we must. The Coming of Age and suspense angles work so well that when the book veers towards the sci-fi and superhero, those aspects become jarring and take the Reader out of the rest of the book.

This book is filled with many different subjects: parental death, alcoholism, drug addiction, eating disorders (with a male character no less), interracial dating, pedophilia, child molestation, false accusations against a teacher, and child abduction. Anyone of these could just as easily remained the main focus of the book. Even Mike Jr. discovering that he was adopted could lead to an interesting subplot about what it's like to be a displaced orphaned child from an impoverished war-torn country.

However, the science fiction aspects get introduced in the middle of the book almost too late for it to be any importance to the rest of the story. Then, it takes the lion's share of the climax so what begins as a realistic kidnapping becomes a mano-y-mano match between a superhero and supervillain.

If maybe the superhero plot had been introduced earlier or became instrumental to the rest of the book (perhaps Mike's mother could have been killed by a former adversary instead of heart failure), the book may have succeeded. But there is just too much going on with too many plots that don't work together.

Lost Boy ends with the promise of a sequel. Here's hoping that there will be a better handle of combining the real and the unreal.

[Debbie Viscosi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mike DeVelli, Jr. is facing all the stresses of your typical teenage boy. He has school, a girlfriend, and ambition. He works on his physique hoping to trim up. When he comes home after school one day, he finds his mother had passed away. Mike and his father struggle to cope with her loss. His father turns to alcohol and Mike seeks solace with another girl.

The girl Mike spent time with disappears. He claims not to know her, eventually their connection is finally discovered. Does Mike know where she is? How will his girlfriend react to the news? Mike struggles to prove his innocence. Oddly, he also discovers that he has a superpower. Mike can control water. Does this help him as he works to prove his innocence? Will Mike’s secret be discovered?

This is a coming of age story complicated by parental death, alcoholism, body image, and supernatural events. Mikes story is compelling but gets complicated by the addition of water control. It is an unnecessary detail that distracts from Mike’s story. Why does Mike suddenly have these powers? How does this discovery help with his life? More needs to be done to smoothly add this concept to the story line.

This is a good story for YA readers and the message will provide worthwhile discussion.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

When high school student, Mike DeVelli Jr., loses his mother, he had no idea what lay ahead for him. Friendships, girlfriends, and unexplained abilities, that leads to kidnappings, arrests, and deaths, the book is packed with interesting topics. At one point I thought I was going to encounter an alternate universe, but instead it left me with more of a superhero-type character, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Regardless, I can state with certainty, that it was a great read. I love a good mystery, and this one had a little bit of everything in it. I would not mind seeing a series of these types of stories. This book was a real page turner, and I could not wait to see what was in store for Mike. The ending gave me closure, but at the same time made me want more, which is what any good book should do for its reader. The only thing I will state is that there is a lot of cussing, so although it is intended for young adults, that may need to be established up front if you want your child to read this book or not. The cussing is no worse than and R rated movie though, and if you allow your child to view those, then this book is totally fine.

[Miann Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, Lost Boy was put together by using a lot of complex social issues that we have in our society now. It is a good read for young person trying to see that the dysfunctional family is kind of common and that they can end in despair. This book takes so many turns so, that you have to keep up in order to get to what the writer really wants you to see. You have family issues. Boyfriend girlfriend issues. You also have what is now common with most families, several different types of disorders. All in all it is a fabulous read and I believe that it should have a part 2 to show you has happened to these people that survived and moved in a different direction in their life. What was the direction, was it more emotionally stronger. I did love this book and I read it as a gift from the writer through Book tasters. Without them I would have never had the joy of reading this novel. Really worth reading.

[Casteel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay Ignore my rating —

I have it as 2 due to the amount of time it took me to read. I actually give this a 3.5/5 I think. I’m still considering. The story was very enjoyable but the pacing was hard for me. At times it seemed to be incredibly slow and at others way way too fast. The plot began to feel messy due to this type of pacing and with the constant new elements being added. I love an action packed book but a lot of it felt out of place. I think the book would be more enjoyable if these elements had been expanded upon. I had a lot of questions while reading it. I just would have liked more details to make the story flow better.

Did I have fun? Yes absolutely.
The ending was good and I liked the way it was wrapped up. The MC definitely had a lot going on throughout the story.
Enjoyable read overall but for me it was a little hard to get through.

[Ilyssa Guerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable book! It was a pretty quick read! James captured the perspective of a teenage boy quite well and accurately! It dealt with a lot of important, serious issues, such as addiction and body image. I love when YA books focus on important, realistic issues while also navigating science fiction or fantasy elements. I enjoyed the character development. It also did not have many editing or grammatical errors, which I have noticed in a lot of books lately. It's not the most unpredictable book I have ever read; however, I enjoyed it very much overall!

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a GREAT book!!
The amount of detail through out is amazing, makes you fully understand what the characters are feeling and the situations they are in. I could picture so many scenes and characters so well it felt almost magical. However, It starts out with quite a bit of swearing in speech but it isn’t reliant on it the whole way through which is okay. Overall the book was actually so good! Would totally recommend reading.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a great read. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and the musical Spotify playlist that runs alongside it. This tells the story of a young boy called Mike dealing with the loss of his mum and trying to find his place in the world whilst coping with his own body image issues and some strange goings on. Then when a school friend goes missing things take a very dark turn. this book turned out to be a surprised hidden gem.

[Kiona18 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed this book by Rawiri Jones. I wasn’t sure about reading at first but really glad I gave it a read. It covers a variety of topics that all teenagers will face but with a dark theme included. The story builds up the suspense and was not disappointed but the outcome. Looking forward to the next realease by Rawiri James

[Hayley Cooper-Towers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of these books where I stuggled to both keep and finish reading. Whilst the charecters were great and the plot a good premise. the pacing/timing was extremely slow building and didnt keep me interested enough to continue reading the whole book.

[Liana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book. There was a lot going on in the plot to keep me hooked. Would definitely recommend. The end is set up like there is going to be a sequel.