The Lost Story: A Novel

the reader

WHAT A GOOD IMAGINATION AND SOME GOOD ESCAPIST LITERATURE

"Two young boys fall in love. In this time and place it wasn't allowed. But it did happen. To go away to another world and not be judged. Yes, this is a fairytale. Since I was a small child I listened to fairy tales. I grew up on them. I enjoyed reading the Storyteller's Corner and liked her comments. I read the reviews on this book about the two boys and knew I needed to read this story. The book takes place in West Virginia. Two boys disappeared from a school trip. They were searched for for months. Never found, people gave up after a long time. They must be dead. Six months later the boys came back. In good health. One boy becomes an artist. He painted and carved animals, trees, flowers, skies and oceans that were so beautiful that were never seen on earth. Jeremy began finding lost girls and women. People missing their lost ladies paid him to find them. He was so good at his job. Jeremy and Rafe. Fifteen years later when the two were almost thirty, the two got back together. Jeremy had gone back to England, then decided to look up Rafe. Rafe lived in an old shack which was decorated, painted, and carved to look so beautiful and unworldly. He was a recluse. A young lady, Emilie, 23. hired Jeremy to look for her lost sister, Shannon. Emilie had been adopted by a wealthy woman and had everything she wanted. Shannon, coming home on a school bus, was dragged from the bus by an evil man. His body was found dead, eyes picked out. Shannon's body was never found. Emilie's mother was dead, badly missed. No relatives. Emilie needed to have her sister buried, a tombstone, not forgotten as though she never was. Off to a beautiful world, a magic world, a fairytale world. This part of the book takes this reader far away to this place. Beautiful animals, horses, dragons, unicorns which fascinated Rafe when he first saw a unicorn. There is a bright red crow, Aurora. She is the queen's friend and spy. The evil Bright Boys, who liked to start problems. An interesting bunch, all of them good and bad. There are a few secrets. A world of danger. Imaginative. Adventure. Great read for those who like fairy tales. The trip to Shanandoah was my favorite part of the book. ["

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July 30, 2024 Verified Purchase

acl036

Princess Bride meets Chronicles of Narnia

"I love Meg Shaffer’s writing. I have read everything she’s written- even those books under her pen name and I am convinced she could write the phone book in a way I would find fascinating. This was a very different genre for her books. I would characterize it as Magical Realism/Fantasy and describe it as a cross of The Princess Bride and The Chronicles of Narnia. Set in West Virginia, two boys (Jeremy and Rafe) go missing in Red Crow State Forest and return months later with no explanation of where they have been and why they returned in mostly perfect health. Jeremy is not saying anything and Rafe doesn’t remember anything and that is where we start our story. Jeremy is a missing persons investigator and has a special talent in finding lost girls. 15 years later he meets Emilie who needs his help to find her sister, who went missing years ago in Red Crow State Park. Jeremy needs Rafe’s help in order to find her sister, but the two have not spoken in 15 years. What comes next is a discovery into what happened when Jeremy and Rafe went missing, and where Emilie’s sister is. I truly enjoyed the descriptions and pictures painted of Shenandoah and I loved the magical parts to this story. I wasn’t as overly fond with the narrator’s interruptions. It was very The Princess Bride like- but I found it kind of jarring. When I am reading a fantasy book I want to be engaged fully in the story and I don’t want to be pulled out of it by a narrator piercing the veil or whatever. Overall, this book is a love story to books (and Fleetwood Mac.) It has a lot of childhood nostalgia and wistfulness - while also taking on some serious topics. The end, while not a cliffhanger, was left sort of open ended so it would not be a surprise if we got another book- and I would definitely be excited to read more about their adventures. This was a pretty fast read and I enjoyed it very much. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. ["

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March 7, 2026 Verified Purchase

Stephanie McCall

I Think It "Lost the Plot" Somewhere

"After enjoying The Wishing Game, I was eager to read more from Meg Shaffer. I became doubly so when I learned her next book had "roots" in the Chronicles of Narnia. The reality of The Lost Story doesn't stay true to those roots. If I'm honest, I'm not sure what kind of world or message Meg was going for with The Lost Story. As I said, it "loses the plot" at times. But there is some good stuff in this book, so let's start there. I enjoyed the characters of Rafe, Jeremy, and Emilie as people, as adults trying to find missing pieces of themselves on a YA-esque fantasy adventure. Other reviewers have complained The Lost Story gives off too much "YA energy," but for me, it worked because this trio had legitimate unfinished business with their younger selves. Because of that, the blending of their adult and adolescent personas usually hit the right notes. I could believe that even as adults, they needed to be a princess, a prince, or a knight, in Shanandoah and our world. This part did hearken back to Lewis for me, because even though Narnia and Shanandoah are "for children," I think Meg Shaffer and C.S. Lewis succeeded with the message, "There is someone or something bigger than you out there. You are more and better and braver than what you believe." Meg also succeeded with the growth of her characters, at least to a point. The growth has layers--not as many as it should have, maybe, but they exist. That is, you think The Lost Story will be about Emilie finally finding her sister, or Rafe coming to terms with his homosexuality and "dad issues," or Jeremy coming to terms with walking away from the one person who ever understood him. Yes, those plot threads exist, and at times, they get repetitive. Beyond those though, you get explorations of bigger concepts like love casting out fear, or whether "magic" and "reality" can ever mix, or how different people handle grief, pain, and secrets. Emilie, Rafe, Jeremy, Skya...everyone handles different combinations of these themes. They handle them separately and as a team, and for the most part, it weaves into a story that has a lot to say about universal truths. Finally, I want to give Meg some brownie points for her settings, both West Virginia and Shanandoah. I grew up in Appalachia and know people in WV, so those scenes gave me a nice, warm cup of nostalgia and familiarity. (For instance, yeah, you do *not* drive on mountain roads if you wanna get somewhere on time unless you absolutely know what you're doing. And yeah, the boys and some of the girls in every high school class treat the first day of deer season like a national holiday. Just for a couple tidbits). As for Shanandoah...wow. I loved every bit of it, even the wicked Ghost Town, because it's written so vividly. Meg Shaffer truly has a gift for world-building. I want to take a class or seminar and learn from her. Every bit of Shanandoah from the Ghost Town to the Moonstone Palace to the Valkyries to Aurora the Red Crow felt entirely real. I was there, in every sense except physical, and wanted to stay. I understood exactly why an adult would want to come back there, especially if he or she had been a kid who hadn't wanted to come home or had needed safety. Little Shannon/Skya was my mini-me, and I could picture myself both writing a land like Shanandoah and running off to find it. Okay, so with all that praise, what's the problem? Well, unfortunately, this is a case of a lot of little problems adding up to big ones. For instance, these characters are solid, but they also lean two-dimensional. Another reviewer described Emilie as "loving Stevie Nicks and very little else." I wouldn't say it's quite that bad; we know she's the kind of vet tech who'd risk everything to save a rat, and we know the adoption of her baby sister haunts her. But yeah, she does read immature a lot, and she absolutely disappears from the story at times. Often, she reads as a damsel Rafe and Jeremy have to rescue. This works, kind of, because we're in a fairy tale, but considering the small role Emilie plays otherwise, well....meh.... Rafe and Jeremy are somewhat luckier, but not much. They function more as a unit than individuals, so I don't feel like I knew them as three-dimensional men. Jeremy in particular reads as a satellite to Rafe almost 100% of the time, down to Rafe being the prince while Jeremy is the knight. (Hello? A kingdom can't have two princes? Or, they couldn't both be equally courageous knights)? As for Rafe, he struck me as a stereotypical gay character, in that his arc revolved around "classic" tropes like an abusive father, a lack of interest in "boyish" activities, a ton of angst over how he felt about Jeremy, and so on. Obviously, some gay men do go through this kind of thing and that's fine, but I've seen it in fiction and real life, a lot. And making Jeremy and Emilie satellites to it, again, didn't work. I also got a bit "lost" on Skya's role in the story. She's a great character, don't get me wrong. And I did like where Meg tried to go with her toward the end, where she told Emilie what she thought about why Shanandoah "chose" her. But here's the thing: We never really know how or why Shannon got into the position to be "chosen." I don't mean the attempted kidnapping. Some people are sick like that, and that's all there is to it. I mean, Shanandoah was Shannon's story, but she also had no control over it, but she also did, and it also saved her, but she can't "save" others through it the way she wants to, and on and on. Even as I write this, I'm confused again. I identified heavily with Shannon/Skya, but if she were real, I would definitely ask her, "What was or is the point of all this? If you have no control, why are you essentially playing God? And if you do, why put people you care about through this angst?" Add in the fact that Shanandoah is heavily tied to schizophrenia at one point, and--ugh. Yeah, Meg, did you have to go there? What started out as a tribute to Narnia became a plateful of written spaghetti. And speaking of tributes, yes, I need to go here. The Lost Story does not work as a tribute to Narnia, C.S. Lewis, or the fantasy genre. Now, no, it is not because these characters aren't Christian, and it's not because two of them are gay (although I don't know what good old Clive would say about that. I imagine he wouldn't want any romance of any kind in a story inspired by him). The Lost Story doesn't work as a tribute to epic fantasy because I don't think Meg Shaffer was brave enough to commit to it. She tries, valiantly, and that's where the good stuff comes from. I did find the beginnings of some solid Lewis-type messages in there, such as when Skya discusses what real love and courage are. But then everything gets bogged down in discussions of whether Skya can write a new story, repressed abuse, a quest to find a book of memories that's not the real quest--it just becomes primordial soup. Throw in some half-hearted attempts at philosophy or theology, a lot of gay kissing (which, we wouldn't have needed straight kissing, either), and a hefty dose of profanity, and the fantasy becomes too muddled and gritty. Overall then, I wouldn't call The Lost Story a horrible book. I'm not glad I read it. If anything, I'm disappointed because I know Meg Shaffer can do better. And I'd say that if you're like me and are a big fan of Lewis, Tolkien, et. al, or certain parts of this story don't line up with your views on relationships, skip it. I would say though, to keep an eye on Meg Shaffer because what she does well here, she does really well. Hopefully, she returns to more of her Wishing Game roots in the next book. ["

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August 20, 2024 Verified Purchase

Sue O.

All books are magic

"I've loved this authors alter-ego books for years now but this is my first under this pen name and I absolutely loved it. If only we could build a world that feels safe when we fear like this. It would be my kind of heaven for sure. Was it a perfect story? A perfect fairy tale? Probably not to most but I've generally outgrown most fairy tales and this brought me back to the wonder of true happily ever after unlike the insane we currently find ourselves in. When you feel lost, how do you find your way back? Is it the sun or the moon? Is it a sign? Is it a compass (or GPS)? Or is it just love that brings you back to yourself. Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy set out on a journey to find a person but end up finding themselves. I hope this isn't the end of their story. (And yes....there is a boy who loves another boy - don't get all twisted up about it...it's about love and it exists in the real world too) "All books are magic. An object that can take you to another world without even leaving your room? A story written by a stranger and yet it seems they wrote it just for you or to you? Loving and hating people made out of ink and paper, not flesh and blood? Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is." ["

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September 18, 2025 Verified Purchase