The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for review. My opinions are my own.

5/5 stars

I cannot gush enough about how much I LOVED THIS BOOK. I was enamored by the description on NetGalley, touting it for fans of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” And it is, my friends. It absolutely is. It seems to be very loosely modeled after “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” with a LGBTQ+ twist.

This is light on romance (and definitely closed door), heavy on fantasy and world-building, and big on friendship and found family.

The ending is set up in a way that there could be a series. My hope is that there is a series modeled after “The Chronicles of Narnia” - please 🙏

TW: there is some mention of child abuse but the author weaves this in skillfully. I do recommend that this is addressed as a TW in a forward at the beginning at publishing.

The Lost Story, set in West Virginia, follows two boys who mysteriously go missing during a school field trip to Red Crow State Forest. The boys, Jeremy and Rafe, reappear unharmed six months later, and become estranged from one another once settling back into their routines.

Fifteen years later, Emilie entrusts the help of the boys to relocate her missing older sister, who disappeared from the same forest many years prior.

This was a quick and easy read, with a small cast of characters, short chapters, and minimal world building to digest. You get sporadic callouts from a “storyteller” giving this book a classic fairytale feel.

Similar to the Wishing Game, this is a whimsical story - while it has more of a YA tone, difficult situations are discussed and addressed.

I devoured the first 25% of this book, but things really slowed down for me from that point on. It takes nearly half of the book for the crew to return to the forest, and what was initially presented as the “mystery” of the story (finding Emilie’s sister) isn’t really a mystery at all. The back half of the book relies on the romance subplot to carry it along, rather than adventure and magic,

If you liked the Wishing Game, I think you’ll also like this story - while it was cute, it just wasn’t a home run for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this eARC!

The Lost Story centers on the disappearance (and reappearance) of two boys lost in the forests of West Virginia. Only one boy remembers the truth of what really happened to them and the magic kingdom they visited. Too bad he can’t tell the other boy any of it. Now, 15 years after reappearing, they must join together to help a girl find her lost sister, who disappeared in the same forest.

This story grabbed me from the very beginning. I loved the use of the storyteller to give insight into the story and provide some comic relief at times. The pop culture references seemed written just for me and I thought they enhanced the story perfectly. This book made me laugh out loud, cry, and feel my heart warm.

You will love this book if you loved The Princess Bride & The Never Ending Story!

Such a sweet story 🥹 lovable characters in a unique setting with a little bit of romance and mystery mixed in with fantasy. If you enjoyed The Wishing Game, I definitely recommend picking this one up because I enjoyed it even more!

This story should have stayed lost. As much as I loved Shaffer’s last book, The Wishing Game, I disliked this one. It was a cross between a fairy tale, Peter Pan and a homosexual love story. It did not come across for me as whimsical but weird and trippy. It covers topics such as abductions, homosexuality, abuse by parents, and suicide. The jest of the story is two previous “lost” boys go back to their kingdom to help reunite two sisters. Even typing out the premise of the story is strange. This book lacks the magic and whimsy of the Wishing Game and even the connected story telling component.

Jeremy was once a missing boy who disappeared in a West Virginia forest with his best friend Rafe while they were on a school trip. 15 years later he has committed his life to finding lost girls and women and is eerily successful in finding them. Emilie is a young woman who finds out after her mother dies that she has a sister who went missing in the same forest, never to be found, and she seeks out Jeremy's help. Emilie's goal is to find her sister's remains and put her to rest but when Jeremy hears the details of her case he knows it is much more complicated than Emilie knows. Jeremy must reunite with Rafe to help Emilie and face what had happened 15 years prior. Based on, or as an homage to, the Chronicles of Narnia this tale has magic, adventure, loyalty and most especially love as these young people face their demons and put everything on the line to help each other. I loved it and will be highly recommending.

“The Lost Story” is an adult fairy tale by Meg Shaffer. I know this book is to be a tribute to the Narnia books, but having never read beyond “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe,” I didn’t really see the connections. I liked the queer representation between Rafe and Jeremy, their story was lovely and really felt like “love is love is love.” I found Emilie and Skya basically both there to start the story and then move the story along, but they really felt like secondary bit players in this story. In some ways this book was really well done - I liked the overarching idea, the “magic” slipping into “the real world,” and the power of love. In other ways, this book was okay - there was a lot of build-up to the main story (interesting but I’m not sure how much was necessary) and an ending I predicted (meaning the ending ending - which was like Narnia, but with a twist). I didn’t love the book and I didn’t always enjoy the book, but it was a fine book! I just wish that I’d felt as enchanted as the cover and synopsis had me hoping I would be. Would I recommend this book? Yes - though think of this book not as an homage to Narnia, but more an adult fairy tale (sometimes it felt more like a nod to the adventures in Neverland). I will look forward to Ms. Shaffer’s next book; not all books by an author you like are 100% loves, but there’s always hope for the next one.

Book: The Lost Story
Author: Meg Shaffer
Rating: 5 Out of 5 Stars

I want to thank the publisher, Ballantine Books, for providing me with an ARC. Meg Shaffer, the author of The Wishing Game, is quickly becoming a new favourite author. She has this way of creating these magical worlds and making it impossible to put them down. She crafts characters whom we cannot help but fall in love with. It’s what I am looking for in books.

In this one, we follow Emilie, Jeremy, and Rafe, who have had some bad things happen to them. For Emilie, it is the loss of the only family she has ever known and her quest to find the missing sister whom she has never met. For Jeremy and Rafe, it’s about trying to uncover what happened to them fifteen years ago. They went into the woods of West Virginia and came out six months later unharmed and healthy. Rafe cannot remember what happened to them. Jeremy now has the power to find anyone. They fell out of touch and out of contact. Now, Emilie has asked Jeremy to find her sister. Jeremy knows that he needs Rafe’s help, but they have not spoken to each other for fifteen years. It will take some work. Plus, it means that they will have to return to where it all started fifteen years ago. It is the only way for them to find all that they have ever lost.

This book is marketed as an adult version of Narina. For once, I do agree with this. We have two men who when they were teenagers were taken to this magical world, one that was more of a home than their real homes. They built a life there and were happy. Most importantly they had each other., I think you know that they were more than friends and that this typically does not go over well with certain West Virginian circles. Rafe has an abusive father and just wants to get away. Jeremy, who is British and lives a rich life, just wants to be with Jeremy. Somehow they find a way do so. When they return, people question, but the boys don’t tell them what happened. Rafe can’t remember at all and starts to do things that end up having him put in a mental hospital. As an adult, he ends up shutting himself off from society. Jeremy becomes a famous tracker. Yet, they still cannot let go of what happened to them. No matter how bad it is, they still find themselves being pulled by the magic. Both of them are lost and need to go back to get rid of that feeling.

While we do have three main characters, this is Jeremy and Rafe’s story. Don’t get me wrong. Emile does play an important role in the story, but it is about second chances. Now that I think about it, all of the characters are getting second chances. For Jeremy and Rafe, this is their second chance at being together and reuniting. It’s about moving on from the past and coming together for the future. It’s about letting go of the ghosts that have haunted them their entire lives and shutting that door. For Emile, it’s about healing after her mother’s death and finding the sister she never knew. It’s also about finding the life that she longs for and needs. She wants a family, she wants that connection, and, most importantly, she needs it. All of them were looking for something that they could not find in their sense of reality. They needed to let go of their reality and uncover what the forest truly had to offer.

The writing is what makes all of this happen. Meg has this way of creating characters and putting them on the page that makes you fall in love with them. They are regular people who need a little bit of magic in their lives. They need something. Most importantly, they are real people who we can all see a little bit of ourselves in. Emile wants a family and to feel like she belongs. Jeremy and Rafe want a second chance at what could have been. All of them have hit rock bottom, even if some of them don’t realize it, and need this. You can feel their heartbreak and just how lost they feel. They need something to happen to bring life back to them. It’s hard to put into words, but they are the type of characters with whom you want all of the good things to happen.

Anyway, I had a great time with this one. I am looking forward to more from this author.

This book comes out on July 16, 2024.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/AwESIj96_cM

If you loved The Wishing Game, you will LOVE this book. Inspired by? Influenced by? The Chronicles of Narnia. However, this book is so beautiful, richly written, stunning, captivating, transporting. I loved this book so much and did not want it to end, but it had to end. However, the story, like The Wishing Game, made me cry. Now, I normally do not cry in books. But I did in this one and I am so not embarrassed because I am proud of reading something so touching and I absolutely loved this book. It's hard to describe this book, because anything I say will not do it justice. But I will tell you right now if you want to read the next CLEAR hit/BookTok sweetheart, this will be in and RIGHTLY so. Pick this up if you love fantasy, stunning books, or just something sweet.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Story follows Emilie, who reaches out to Jeremy for help finding her half sister who disappeared years ago. Jeremy has an uncanny ability to find lost people, and he claims it’s because he and his best friend Rafe were lost in the woods for six months as teens. Initially, Jeremy tells Emilie he can’t help her, but then comes back and tells her he will help her, but only with the help of Rafe, who he hasn’t spoken to since their reappearance.

Emilie questions why he changed his mind, and Jeremy tells her that he and Rafe saw her sister when they were lost, but Rafe is the only one who can find that place again. Rafe is convinced that if someone else is missing in the woods, then he needs to help them. He doesn’t understand why Jeremy thinks he can help, as Rafe has no memories of their time lost. We learn that the boys stumbled into a magical realm and were happily living there, instead of being lost. So, the team returns to the woods, and hope to find the door to the world, and Emilie’s sister inside.

I so very much wanted to love this story, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. The writing felt very YA, except for a lot of sexual innuendos that felt like they were intended to make the characters seem older. Our main three are in their 30’s, but as the book went, they read younger and younger until it felt like reading from the perspective of older teens. All the relationships were very insta-bestfriendship without showing up how that relationship was built, so I didn’t find myself caring about any of the outcomes.

Based on the synopsis, it felt like we were going to spend a lot of the book in the Narnia-esque world, but we don’t arrive there until 60% or more through the book, and then get quick and dirty worldbuilding that left me wanting more. The main antagonist and conflict were incredibly obvious, and if this was a YA book I wouldn’t have minded, but it was unsatisfying for an adult novel. Overall, I was left feeling like this book was a draft, and needed a lot more character, relationship and worldbuilding, because all the element of the book felt incomplete.

If you are looking for a cozy, cute book, this did hit all of those notes, but if you want more fantasy elements, then I would give this one a pass.

As I was completely surprised by the fantasy pieces woven into the story, I was afraid I wouldn’t want to finish the book. I was wrong! I loved the way the story wove the lives and worlds of the characters. I had to read every bit of the story! For all fantasy readers, as well as a reader who can suspend judgement.

When they were fifteen, Jeremy and Rafe were the best of friends. Then they vanished for six months in Red Crow State Forest. They reappeared in perfect health, apart from Rafe’s amnesia. He turned into a hermit, Jeremy became a professional finder of lost girls, and neither spoke to the other for years. Then Emilie approaches Jeremy to help her track down her sister, who vanished twenty years ago in Red Crow. Their quest will take them deep into wonder, peril, grief, and love. A heartwarming tale for anyone who thought Narnia needed sharper teeth and more kissing.

Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s series, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” Meg Shaffer’s new fantasy novel called “The Lost Story” is one of wander, mystery, and old flames.

Follow the story of three characters as they search for a missing girl in a magical world, full of enchantment, danger, and memories that were loved and long forgotten.

The characters are charming and unique, like old friends you haven’t seen since childhood, and the fantasy elements are made of dreams and fairy tale books. As a writer myself, I felt myself recognizing the author’s passions pieces - quotes she must have written down years ago, or premises that have bloomed more and more over the years into breathtaking scenes.

While this book was a fantastical journey with characters the author must have loved dearly, the dialogue did seem to pull me out of the story often. The conversations were not very realistic, and every character was unnaturally witty (something that my husband and I have discussed is one of our pet peeves in writing - ie, Gilmore Girls).

This was my only critique though, as the characters felt real in all other aspects - their ambitions, secrets, internal conflicts, and grief. I feel that the book could be categorized as “Young Adult Fantasy,” for the themes and chapters are so reminiscent of stories that start with the words, “Once upon a time…”

“The Lost Story” is beautiful, and a tale worth escaping reality every time. Run away to a hidden world this summer, as this novel will be available to buy on July 16, 2024!

I absolutely loved The Lost Story" by Meg Shafer. It was captivating storytelling and well-developed and loved characters. I immensely appreciated the immersive world-building and Meg’s ability to keep me entertained and engaged throughout the plot. It felt, like a warm hug when I used to watch fantasy movies as a kid. I dont want to spoil it, but I can honestly say it honestly has one of my most beloved characters of all time, for which I will spend future time comparing over others I will meet on other reading endeavors. If you like an intriguing plot and amazing characters, and enjoy reading fantasy, this is a most read.

Joy is quieter than people think it is.”

I don’t really even have words for how much I loved this book. I laughed, I cried. I felt all of the feelings. @meg_shaffer has a way of creating a fun whimsical story that is grounded in real emotion and depth. She did it with The Wishing Game and she’s done it again with The Lost Story.

This has all the elements of a classic fairy tale. Heroes and villains. Fantastical creatures. Magical landscapes. But underlying it all are characters you’ll root for and who feel like family by the end.

This is most certainly a five star read and a favorite of the year 💛

I put off reading this book for a while because I was a little leery that I wouldn’t like it. I started reading this, and I had a hard time putting it down. First off, it’s at times a very whimsical book with real life problems thrown in to bring you back to the real world. I really liked the characters, but I wish I had gotten to know them better. The descriptions of the world are a little more vivid than the characters, but I was still drawn into this tale even though I am not a huge fan of whimsical. However, all that said, I was engrossed pretty much the whole book and was only drawn out when the storyteller spoke…which was a teeny, tiny bit annoying. A well-written modern whimsical fairytale. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

Fun book to read. Lots of Narnia vibes so I did have to be in the right mood to read this book. It was the story of best friends that disappear for 6 months and then reappear. This is the story about what happened to them and how they help someone else find another missing person.

I loved Meg Shaffer’s last book so I was excited for this one! This was definitely more fantasy than her last book which isn’t really my typical go-to. This story does suck you and makes you wanting to read more and more. I liked the storyteller point of view as well.

4.5 stars!

Such a fascinating and well-written story! It truly matches its description of an adult fairytale and was definitely one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. I will definitely be recommending this to people.

It felt like it took a while for Rafe, Jeremy, and Emilie to get to Shanandoah, but I get that Shaffer wanted to spend time focusing on what the outside world was like for them (especially Rafe and Jeremy) and the consequences of going to a fantasy world then having to come back. Once they were there things felt very fast-paced. I was actually pretty surprised by how the events happened in this book, it felt like there was a major climax at 75% and then you’re told a bunch of things happen until there’s another climax around 90%. It felt a little strange but also the narrative structure being unique was something I appreciated in this particular story. The ending felt a bit open and I wish there had been an epilogue further in the future maybe, but I also understand the point of it ending how and where it did.

I loved the relationship between Rafe and Jeremy. Their journey with their relationship felt so sweet and beautiful. I loved how they came apart and back together. I also loved seeing the bond between Emilie and Skya. The characters’ individual journeys were also great. This book does deal with heavier topics like parental abuse, trauma, grief, etc. but in my opinion it was done well.

I also loved the actual writing in this. The descriptions of Shanandoah were so beautiful and detailed. I loved the narration from different points of view. I also enjoyed the narration interludes from the storyteller.

Four stars! I adored this book. It just might be the perfect writing of a modern day fairy tale. The main characters are delightful! The mystery, the love story, and the quest are woven together so wonderfully. Honestly, even though I adored the banter of the characters throughout the chapters, my favorite parts were the pauses in between for ‘Storyteller Corner.’ I could have read the whole book from this point of view. Meg Shaffer has written a gem! I hope she decides this world needs another book and I will be first in line to read it!

Thank you to Meg Shaffer, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Net Galley for the digital ARC.