"The Lost Story" by Meg Shaffer is a slow burn but hang in there. Once the story is set we're off! This is portal fairytale that digs into some emotions.

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5/5)

Calling all portal fantasy lovers! This book is basically Narnia meets adult romantic drama, but make it emotional trauma edition. And honestly? I'm conflicted.

The quick plot: Two high school besties vanish in West Virginia for SIX MONTHS, return mysteriously stronger (with memory gaps), then drift apart for fifteen years. One becomes a famous investigator, the other a reclusive artist. Enter: vet tech searching for her missing sister in THE SAME FOREST, plus one very important fancy rat.

The breakdown:
⏰ First 40% = slow burn setup had me checking my watch
🦄 Second half = MAGICAL MAYHEM - cyclops owls, silver mermaids, unicorns OH MY
🫂 Themes: Found family, queer romance, healing, forgiveness

What hit different:
🎨 Rafe's artistic soul journey resonated HARD
🌈 Whimsical worldbuilding that still tackles serious themes
🧠 Unexpected depth about trauma, mental health, chosen family
🐀 That fancy rat deserves a spinoff series

Real talk: That slow start nearly lost me. But once we cross into magical territory? The transformation is WILD. Suddenly magic isn't just sparkles - it's confronting real-world pain.

If you love portal fantasy with adult sensibilities and can push through a sluggish setup, the payoff is worth it. Patience is key, but sometimes books teach us that waiting yields rewards.

I really enjoyed The Wishing Game and this had sort of the same whimsical feel with some deeper themes intertwined. Very enjoyable and definitely recommend, although The Wishing Game is still a bit better in my opinion. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this E-ARC.

Thanks NetGalley and Megan Whalen for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Lost Story! From 'Once Upon a Time' to The 'End', The Lost Story was a delightful and thrilling adventure that managed to pay homage to its' predecessors while still feeling new & unique.

After reading The Wishing Game, and falling in love with Meg Shaffer's ability to write a story that played on the magic of reading fantasy as a young adult while expanding it to involve adult themes, I was overjoyed to read The Lost Story. From the beginning, I found passages and descriptions that felt taken out of my own heart, especially as a Folklore nerd who is constantly looking for fairy tale tropes and hidden meanings in names. For the most part, I was easily embedded into the worlds and into the mystery Jeremy, Rafe & Emilie need to solve. While I preferred The Wishing Game, as it felt more like a book for adults than The Lost Story which, at times, felt more like a YA book that happened to have adult themes, the characters were equally as lovable and the world-building equally as enchanting.

[minor spoiler here] Similarly, while I personally found the Storyteller asides unnecessary and, at certain points, hindered the story's ability to show instead of tell, in the end I didn't find they detracted from the story. All of this it say, while I didn't fall as deeply in love with The Lost Key upon my first read as I did with The Wishing Game, it is undoubtedly a book I will return to again & again--and I know, each time I'll find new details and moments that make me love it more & more. My only wish is for more books from Meg Shaffer that feel like love letters to my ten-twelve-fourteen year old selves, and proves that just because we grow up doesn't mean we can't go home again.

Loved the atmosphere for this one, and the characters were well developed. I enjoyed her first book as well and this one wasn’t quite as good but still held my attention the whole time.

With Narnia-esque vibes, this one was magical for my adult heart. I didn't find it quite as wonderful as her debut novel, but it was still an enjoyable, magical read.

This was a heartfelt blend of fantasy and emotional depth. Meg Shaffer masterfully weaved themes of friendship, love, found family, sacrifice, and courage into an enchanting tale filled with magical realms and forests as well as mystical entities. While it offers whimsical adventure and humor, it also bravely tackles darker, more mature themes such as child abuse/trauma, homophobia, and mental health, elevating it far beyond a simple children’s fantasy.
The dynamic between the three main characters is compelling, and the supporting cast is thoughtfully portrayed. The progression of the story sometimes felt like riding a roller coaster and the additional albeit smaller storylines felt a smidge overwhelming, however the story still remained impactful and beautifully told. I truly enjoyed this charming, emotionally rich fairytale. Read this if you love C.S. Lewis, T. J. Klune and fantasies with heart and substance!

This was a beautiful story. It was truly an adventure. The world reminds me of Peter Pan rewritten. I loved the lost memory and the knowing how to get back was a fun twist.

2 out of 5 stars not a favorite for me it was definitely hard to get through. It says it’s based on chronicles of narnia but with a forest and it’s nothing related I wouldn’t recommend

This was quite a story. There’s a magical world that the characters visit. There’s a lot in the story involving relationships. Family, sisters, friends. There are new relationships formed and old relationships repaired.

The premise of this story was intriguing to me as The Narnia series has been one of my all time favorite books. I was hooked on the synopsis when I realized that this book was set in a magical world for adults.

While I did enjoy the setting and most of the book I found myself skimming about half way through.

This is the second book I have read by the author and given 3 stars so I am not sure that I will pick up another of her works.

I love the fantasy aspect of Meg Shaffer's books. They are a bit more than magical realism and less than full fledged fantasy which is a nice balance. I like her character development and truly wanted to know the truth.

Meg Shaffer returns with another magical tale for adults to escape into , yet one that is distinctly different from her previous novel. The author alludes to C.S. Lewis and his crafted worlds and it’s easy to draw comparisons and feel a touch of Narnia with Shaffer’s own Shanandoah inspired creation. But make no mistake this is definitely a fairy tale for adults dealing with very real themes and mature content including childhood trauma and violence to name a few. Not only is THE LOST STORY Shaffer’s love letter to fairy tales and imaginary worlds like Lewis’s Narnia, but it’s also a celebration of the gorgeous mountainous and forested terrain of West Virginia. Shaffer has definitely established herself and carved a niche in this particular genre with her second book.

This was a very enjoyable easy almost whimsical read for me. I really enjoy how Meg weaves reality in with fantasy into our everyday world. The characters were great, and I enjoyed the setup of the story. I liked how our two MCs had been through it. They had gone hiking in the woods when they were younger to escape and ended up missing for months. They had a deep friendship and because of a pact (unbeknownst to one of them), they could not reconcile once they were back in the real world. I liked the added mystery of what happened to the boys. Where had they gone all of those months? Why did they look so much older than when they got lost? I appreciated how Meg introduced Emilie, who without her, Rafe and Jeremy would not have reconnected. I really enjoyed the romantic piece between Rafe and Jeremy too. Their love story kind of broke my heart and made me smile SO big at the same time. I think Rafe was my favorite- there were just so many layers to him, and I appreciated how Jeremy helped add to the layers.

Emilie is on a mission. She is determined to figure out what happened to her missing sister all of those years ago. Truth- she didn't know she had a sister until recently. So her she is in the woods trying to get Jeremy Cox's attention. See he is the master of finding missing people. When she pitches it to him, he shoots her down. But to her surprise he comes back. He comes back saying he will help but there are rules. Jeremy has to ask Rafe for help. She can't ask a lot of questions, and she has to trust him on where they are going. She has to trust that he knows where her sister is and that she is alive. What follows is an experience that she never thought possible with a reunion she never knew could happen.

Rafe has been living in the past. He has never really been able to move on since being found in the woods all those years ago. His best friend left him the next day with no answers and no word since. And now he is at his doorstep asking for his help. Rafe says no way, but it's JEREMY. HIS JEREMY. He has been dreaming about talking to him just once again in this lifetime. So of course he caves and says yes. He is drawn to Jeremy like he has always been. Jeremy won't give him answers about the past, but promises he will get them if he follows. Which is how Rafe learns that Jeremy and him lived in a magical world in the woods. They had a life together. They were known. They were loved. They were a THEY. They gave it up for the right reasons. Rafe feels more seen and validated than he ever has. But there is a battle brewing. One that will make him fast his past. He is ready to do it since he has the love of his life at his side and now knows the truth.

This was a very easy story to read. The pacing was great. I had a hard time with the transition from reality to the magical world. It was like they just jumped back and things happened pretty quickly after that. I really enjoyed Rafe realizing the truth about him and Jeremy and what they were to each other. I also appreciate how though there were hard subjects in her involving family, Meg handled them with such care. She showed us what we do to hide from the truth AND what we do to become stronger from it once we learn it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The premise of the story was really interesting but I just felt like the first half of it dragged on for so long you didn't get to enjoy the time that they were in Shanandoah. More of the story should have been told there and about Rafe recovering his memories of his time there with Jeremy.

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I loved the relationship between the 2 boys. I adore found family type novels and this had just the right tone. Recommended to my reading group.

A Chronicles of Narnia retelling…. Hello, sign me up. “The Lost Story” offers a blend of magical realism and adventure, appealing to readers who enjoy fairy tale references and explorations of human connection.

What happens when you take the Christian allegory out of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, modernize it and add a little queer joy and some millennial/gen-z humor—I'm not lying I legit rolled my eyes at booping death on the nose? Meg Shaffer's The Lost Story is what happens and it was a delightful fantastical journey that I very much enjoyed.

The publisher reached out with a review copy in early 2024 and I finally got around to it just over a year later and it was worth the wait.* When I got to the passage that the publisher included in the outreach email I gasped and was like "THIS is why I requested it!" (I 100% did not re-read that email before starting this on vacation, I just knew exactly what it was and verified it afterward.)

The Lost Story takes place in rural West Virginia, but also in Shanandoah (not Shenandoah—the national park/forest) a magical world reached through doorways in trees. The two protagonists Rafe and Jeremy spent six months here when they were teens, and the world thought they'd been kidnapped or murdered. They only go back, or even consider going back, when Emilie contacts Jeremy, who has made a name for himself finding lost girls, to help her find her long lost half-sister who went missing in the same forest 5 years before they did.

The story picks up pace dramatically with their return to Shanandoah and we find out why Rafe can't remember anything, why Jeremy spent so many years staying away from Rafe, and what really happened around the time they went missing. Without giving too much away it was young love (whether they knew it or not at the time) being quashed by Rafe's dad and societal standards and once they escaped into Shanandoah they found themselves, with their roles reversed—Jeremy the posh well-off Brit becomes a knight and steward; and Rafe, poor and "redneck" from rural WV, finds himself a prince due to his prowess with archery—and each other in a fascinating magical society.

There's a light spoiler in the next two paragraphs, skip over if you don't want to see it. The third one is safe and is probably the biggest for me.


The three largest critiques I have of the book is that it was slightly too predictable, that I wish the reason for their having gotten lost in the woods and not coming home wasn't what it was, and that the narrator between chapters was less. The predictability is expected, with the genre and following in the steps of Lewis and even J.M. Barrie (or at the very least the directors of the films) in using real life characters as the magical villains. The one that bothered me was Jeremy and Rafe being forced to flee a final time from Shanandoah, but given when and how it was created it makes sense that what they needed wasn't there and the fact that Emilie stays and wishes for what she wishes for opens up their possible return and/or a sequel.

The other one I thought we'd left behind in the 1990s and early-2000s. I mean I know it still happens, society sucks and queer people are in danger everywhere especially these days, but the amount of joy that's reached in the end of the novel doesn't necessarily need that to be the why. It does to create the big bad, but Shaffer could've been more creative about it or come up with another angle, and she does lean more into the spousal aspect of it and reiterates that it was mostly emotional and psychological, but I just wish she'd have come up with something else.

The biggest critique by far was the interludes from the narrator. I get why it was there and it did make me laugh a few times (especially the "this isn't that kind of story" fade to curtains note when Rafe and Jeremy reconnected), but there were times when that came up that I just wanted to skip over it. Thankfully, for the most part they were very short and did add some information or color, but overall it felt like a crutch. That being said, when you find out the where and the why of what you're reading it makes more sense, I just felt there could've been more hints in that considering how predictable the story was at points.

Recommendation: I very much enjoyed this C.S. Lewis inspired story of queer love and sisterly affection. It wasn't at all what I expected and I was quite glad Shaffer left it open to a sequel in the end. There were parts I wasn't the biggest fan of (the predictability, the reasons behind the running away, the narrative intrusions), but the pros definitely outweighed the cons for me. Reading this definitely made me want to check out Shaffer's debut novel, The Wishing Game.

*I received a copy of The Lost Story via NetGalley in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: ""

Closing Line: "" (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

I have no clue why it has taken me a year to write this review. This book was just plain magical to me that I was left just wanting more. The story that was built made me want to run away to a fantasy land myself. The only reason why this is four stars is because I wish it was just a tad bit longer so we could connect more with the characters. While the world felt complete the characters felt a little lacking in certain places that I still can't put my finger on. Despite that this book has lived rent free in my mind for so long that I just can't help but love it.

"Joy is quieter than people think it is. Especially the joy of getting something you thought was lost forever."
~ Meg Shaffer,The Lost Story

Fifteen years ago, two boys, Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell, disappeared in the West Virginia forestland, then reappeared six months later without explanation.

Rafe, seemingly traumatized, became a reclusive artist with no memory of what happened. Jeremy, remembering everything, became a well-known missing persons investigator who has agreed to help Emilie Wendell locate her sister, who disappeared in the same forest.

Jeremy has held the secrets of those lost months from Rafe. Believing it is where Emilie's sister is now, he must share the truth with Rafe by returning, along with Emilie, to the magical place they once called home and retrieving what is lost...

"The Lost Story" is a story for adults, inspired by "The Chronicles of Narnia", that proudly stands up to the fairy tales of one's youth. It is beautifully written, engaging, and expertly weaves the right balance of brightness and darkness.

There is a sense of wonder and adventure you feel through Shaffer's storytelling and in the primary and secondary characters. Key themes explored are the strength of friendship, family and belonging, hope and resilience, and healing and moving forward.

"The Lost Story" is Meg Shaffer's sophomore novel, and I enjoyed it even more than her debut novel, "The Wishing Game". Her storytelling is quite magical!💫

4.25⭐

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books and Meg Shaffer for the DRC via NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.