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Spellbook of The Lost and Found
By: Moïra Fowler-Doyle
Publisher: Penguin Group Penguin Young Reader Group
Pub Date: 8/8/2017
When three young girls find a spellbook what can possibly go wrong?
I almost felt like this one needed notes from the beginning. There are so many characters it was hard to keep them straight. I think it would have been smoother and less confusing if we weren’t trying to flip the POV narration constantly between 3 people. The plot is exciting and keeps you moving through the book.

This was an interesting concept, but a dry read that didn't live up to its potential. I liked the list of items that each girl lost at the beginning of the chapter, but I started skimming quickly and realized that I wasn't invested in the book.

This book just didn't work for me. I couldn't get interested in the characters or the situation. It all just seemed like a bunch of whining teenagers who didn't know what they wanted, and settled for drugs, alcohol and sex to fill the emptiness of their pathetic lives. I just couldn't find it in me to care. And I read YA all the time, it's my favorite genre.

The title drew me in initially, made me want to read it. Too bad the book didn't live up to the title.

I really enjoyed this book. It was different from anything I've read before. I will be recommending it to friends and family

This would have been 4 stars, but I was having trouble with the switching perspectives. It was a little too jumpy for me. It was also a very slow read for me. It was good, but it felt like slow through the whole thing. There was no point where I couldn't wait to read what happened next. I had no problem putting the book down and picking it back up later.

Fascinating, engaging, skillfully crafted. Love the haunting, mysterious aspects of the plot and characters. I'll definitely recommend this to my library teens.

This was kind of lackluster compared to the first book by this author. It had all of the quirky, creepy, magical elements that I loved from The Accident Season, but this one was far more confusing and generally hard to follow. I almost DNFed this at 28% but I pushed through a little longer and I finally felt comfortable enough with the characters to start to differentiate between them all. I struggled between giving it a two star or three star and I decided to settle with a three because the plot twist was pretty good and I do overall like the weird atmospheric quality this author has.

This book had such a promising beginning, and I made it more than halfway through before I finally abandoned it. The writing is lovely, hence the two stars, but the story was meandering and slow. The jumping back and forth between sets of characters who seemed interchangeable made this very difficult to follow.

This was an interesting story of a found spell book and dabbling in witchcraft. Set in a small town in Ireland, it is the story of friends who wake up after a wild party to discover they are losing things valuable to them. Their story mirrors that of three other friends who are finding that found things are appearing to them. A little confusing, a little time-hopping, yet still a really good story. Great twist at the end when a lost truth about the spell book becomes clear.

Mesmerizing. A book told in diary entries and narrative, with many voices and threads to follow. I loved the Irish setting, the stormy weather and stormy moods, the diversity of romantic entanglements, the unreliable narrators, and the confusing nature of the way the story unfolds. Truly magical in many ways, and a wonderful mediation on things lost, sought, and found. A young adult or new adult book with plenty of crossover appeal.

Loved the writing style! I was often confused though. There was just too much going on at any given time.

Is it magic? Or is it coincidence? When something needs to be found, first something must be lost.

This book was enchanting - the weaving of the two stories, the complexities of the characters, the magic, the mystery, everything.

Two sets of girls, a spell book, things lost, things found, all set in Ireland - I was hooked by the description of The Spellbook of the Lost and Found. However, I found keeping track of which girl was telling the story in each chapter a bit confusing. As the story lines converged, the identity of the girls involved became clear. A magical tale indeed, but less confusion would have been welcome.

I really loved this book. I don't know if it was the beautiful Irish accents that I listened to telling the story or just the magical way it was all woven together. I wanted this to be a series, but I'm really glad it's not. A series would have taken away from the story and stretched it out too long.

There is so much going on between the characters in this story, but the plot is very simple: people keep losing things and it all seems to be tied to a magic spell that was cast to find things.

The characters are very relatable to most older teens, but a few of the characters have traits that are not often touched on in young adult books. One character wears a hearing aid. A few others identify as bi-sexual. Two of the characters are homeless-runaways.

The book as a whole just has a feel of magic to it that I really enjoyed. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys modern fantasy and magic in foreign lands.

This was a really enjoyable read. It gave me some Halloween and Autumn vibes which are perfect for this time of year so I was in the right mood for this kind of story. I liked the magical elements and it managed to still feel fully grounded in reality which was fun. Seeing the story play out and some of the creepy elements unfold after the spell was done was fantastic, I was feeling the slightly scary side and I really liked that. My main complaint is just the sheer volume of characters got a little confusing. There was so much switching around between narrators and so many different groups of people that it was hard at times to figure out where I was in the story and who I was looking at. Especially because the voices of the three narrators were pretty similar it got kind of confusing to remember who each person was and their story. This made the beginning a little hard to follow but past that, the story was a lot of fun to read.

I whole-heartedly believe that Moira Fowley-Doyle is an author to watch. Her novels are not only incredibly thought provoking, but she also does such a tremendous job of creating a reading experience that feels almost eerie and ominous. One that can't help but extract an almost physical response from its reader. She was able to accomplish this in her debut novel, "The Accident Season," and her latest novel is no different. Ivy, Hazel, Rowan, Olive, and Rose all felt like real people to me - they were all so uniquely different and well-developed that I found that I really cared about what happened to them and how each of their stories unraveled. Additionally, Fowley-Doyle's ability to tie their stories together was done seamlessly and with such care. Honestly, I don't want to give too much away. I almost feel like it's better to go into this novel knowing as little as possible because it makes each reveal, each item lost and then found, each moment of suspense, each chapter all the more captivating and intriguing. I will say. that while, yes, this definitely has some serious undertones, there is a fine balance of humor as well. This is due large in part to Olive and her family (who truly are spectacular!) and this balance of straight humor and weightier issues adds another level of realness to a story that could have easily felt too contrived in the supernatural.

All-in-all, this is a must have for YA collections, one that will challenge and delight teen readers looking for something a little darker, yet gorgeously written with characters they'll instantly fall in love with. Can't recommend this one enough!

This book reminded me a lot of Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, but with magic.

That was one spine tingling book! It's been awhile since I last read something so original or that surprised me so much with its plot twists. I must also applaud this book for having such diverse characters, primarily in terms of sexuality. Prepare to be drawn in, and to be a little bit afraid of the dark.