Lost and Found

Lost and Found is a young adult novel by Orson Scott Card. Released 10th Sept 2019 from Blackstone, it's 281 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a difficult novel to review. There are elements of mystery thriller, YA themes of isolation, angst, snarky teens vs. the world, magic realism, coming of age novel, etc. On the other hand, there is some -very- dark content here that I'm not entirely comfortable finding in YA (especially teen/tween) writing. These include sexual abuse, kidnapping, murder, torture, pedophilia, bullying, abandonment, etc. On the other other hand, the target audience is exposed to these themes (and worse) every day and I don't think anyone is shielded anymore, despite what we try to do as parents.

Technically, I found some parts of the dialogue format tiring to decipher. There were many (not all) interactions where all of the characters' dialogue was relegated to one continuous paragraph, whimsically interspersed with commas and quotation marks, and lacking attributions.  The unrelenting biting sarcasm (including the adults) wore me down. I didn't find many of the characters truly sympathetic or particularly likable.

The pacing was odd, the first half of the novel seemed to drag for me. The dialogue was also oddly paced and aiming for biting sarcasm 80% of the time, seemed to miss a lot. The denouement felt rushed after 250 pages of build-up, and then drug out for another 3 chapters. There were foreshadowings that this was not a standalone novel since there are hints of future reveals and exploration of characters' micropowers.

On the positive side, OSC is a capable and experienced writer and could likely plot and write a novel in his sleep.  I just wish this one didn't read as if he had plotted and written it in his sleep. So much of this book felt like a sporadic and half-hearted effort.

Final assessment: good (possibly great) author, readable and entertaining book, weirdly plotted and paced, full of moderately annoying characters, really intriguing premise, broke my suspension of disbelief and yanked me out of the story on multiple occasions.  Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.