The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst Review!

     

Title : The Lost
Author : Sarah Beth Durst
Pages : 352
Published : June 1st 2014
Publisher : Harlequin MIRA
Source : Netgalley

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 by an impassable dust storm, and escape is impossible.... 

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

My Thoughts : 

Lauren gets in the car as usual and drives to work but instead of taking the turn that will take her there, she keeps going straight. Her mother got results back from the doctor and Lauren just wants a few hours escape before she has to hear them. 

When she enters a dust storm Laurens car stops. She decides to wait out the storm and turn back then, but she sees a stranger in the storm. He stares at her before pushing her car to the outskirts of a town called Lost.  Little does she know that this town is no ordinary town but that its a place where lost things or people go. There's no way to leave until you have found what you've lost and then only the Missing Man can help you. 

When Lauren meets the Missing Man he asks her name. When she tells him he turns tail and leaves. He leaves town and doesn't come back and the people of Lost blame her.  Will she survive?  Will she be able to find the Missing Man and go home? 

I'm so glad I got a chance to read this because I loved it!! Sarah Beth Durst has such a flair for writing and she never disappoints. 

I loved Laurens character. She is a normal girl. She just wants a little bit of time before she hears her mothers news so decides to take a few short hours away from everything. When she gets to Lost she thinks the place to be very weird but she has to spend the night before returning home. The place may be weird but the people are weirder. When she is told what Lost is she just thinks she has landed into a town of crazies. She decides to leave and prays her car starts. Thankfully it does and Lauren drives out of Lost and into the dust storm again, but she finds herself constantly driving past the sign for Lost! She knows she drove straight and never turned so what is going on? When she runs out of petrol she starts to believe the people of Lost and realise she may never leave. The whole time she is in Lost she has the spark in her to go home no matter what. She was spunky but also sweet, kind and a really nice girl.

The mysterious stranger that pushed her car is Peter. He is The Finder in Lost and "found" Lauren in the dust storm. Anyone left in the storm too long just fades from existence so its his job to find them. Peter for me was the best character. He was mysterious and handsome but a little weird. Lauren has no idea what to make of this person dressed in a trench with no shirt on. He is covered in tattoos and quotes things to her, yet she knows he may be her only hope of finding the Missing Man and going home. 

Plot wise this reminds me of The Twilight Zone my parents used to watch. You enter a town and every time you try to leave you end up back where you started. Then this town is no ordinary place but a place for all Lost things. I loved the whole mystery surrounding the characters and the town. Each person who enters Lost has to find what they are looking for before they can go home. Each character has a story to tell and we only get a glimpse of some of them. Being book 1 we are left with a lot of unanswered questions like who is the Missing Man? Whats in room 12? Who is Peter exactly? All these questions and more just make me want to read the next book more. 

Overall, I loved The Lost. The authors style of writing and her imagination are phenomenal. This just sucked me in and didn't let go. In Lost you never know whats around the corner nor who you will meet. Its an odd place but there's a dark side to it as well. Between the feral dogs and the people who live on the outside of town, there's always a dark undertow. The author really makes you fall in love with the peculiar characters and the mysterious place. Her descriptive writing grabbed me and made me part of Lost and I cant wait to return to Lost when The Missing comes out! Highly recommend!!! (I still think Lost is real and that's where all the missing socks go :) )