This was a cute follow up, but I didn’t find it as engaging as the first. The audiobook narrator was great, but I think there was an issue with the audio—when listened to anything above 1x speed, it echoed.

Thank you to Hachette Audio, Little, Brown & Company, and NetGalley for this ARC of Less Is Lost.

“In real life, there are no protagonists. Or rather, it’s the reverse. We are all protagonists.”

This line from the end of Less Is Lost captures what the structure and theme of the book seemed to me: many unrelated stories within one story.

I love the voice of author Andrew Sean Greer, with its detailed intellectual witticisms and cultural observations peppered in to its narrative, but this particular story’s structure seemed all over the place in that it was not really one story.

I also feel a bit, well, lost, about the eventual discovery of a parallel protagonist, a black Arthur Less. A trope about different versions of individuals within a collective civilization, I suppose, but it seemed just tacked on to the story. The author does frequently in this book touch on American approaches to race, age, love, and sexual orientation.

I loved the first book, Less, and I read that one vs. listened on audiobook as I did with Less Is Lost, so perhaps the disconnect I experienced is the fault of my reading vs. listening focus.

Either way, I would still always read anything by this author. I enjoy LGBT authors and book subject matters, as well as road trip adventure stories. Both broaden my horizons as it were.

Three stars

This just didn't have the charm of Less for me. You can understand a character whose life has fallen apart and struggles to pull things together, but in this book, I got frustrated with Arthur.

I thought Less was a perfect novel, and I was worried at first that this sequel wouldn’t live up to the original.

Less is Lost, however, was as warm and charming as the original, and it was such a pleasure to be back with the narrator—both the character of Freddy Pelu and the actor, Robert Petkoff, who performed the original novel so beautifully.

This time around, Less is traveling the United States, in part with fantasy author HHH Mandern, in a desperate attempt to earn enough money to pay 20 years of back-rent. There isn’t a lot of plot here, but plot isn’t what made Less successful in the first place. The original was a novel of humor and heart, and so is this sequel.

I would recommend it for readers who have already read Less, but it could be enjoyed as a standalone novel.

The second Less book was even better than the first. I love the characters and all the crazy stuff Less got into. I will tell everyone to read this wonderful book.

Wow, this was really great!! I honestly did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Less for me is a complicated character who I have a hard time rooting for. The first book in this (series? duology?) was a struggle for me to get through, and I expected the same with Less is Lost- but man was I wrong. The narrator is of course fantastic, but what really makes this book special is the funny voice that Freddy (Freddie?) adds to it. I found the start pretentious and trite, but quickly warmed to the narration style and feel readers will do the same. A great showing.