The Lost (ARC) by Sarah Beth Durst

The Lost:
Lost your way?

Your dreams?

Yourself?

Welcome to Lost.

It was supposed to be a small escape. A few hours driving before turning around and heading home. But once you arrive in Lost...well, it's a place you really can't leave. Not until you're Found. Only the Missing Man can send you home. And he took one look at Lauren Chase and disappeared.

So Lauren is now trapped in the town where all lost things go-luggage, keys, dreams, lives-where nothing is permanent, where the locals go feral and where the only people who don't want to kill her are a handsome wild man called the Finder and a knife-wielding six-year-old girl. The only road out of town is engulfed by an impassable dust storm, and escape is impossible....

Until Lauren decides nothing-and no one-is going to keep her here anymore.

Sarah Beth Durst has created another masterpiece with her debut adult publication. Completely unique and utterly unlike anything I have read before, The Lost kept me riveted from beginning to end. With rich descriptions and robust characters,  this book has layer upon layer of intense storytelling that pulls its readers into the pages: from the simplest enlightenment to the most complex of landscapes. I think everyone can relate to this book; everyone at some point in their lives has lost something, and that is exactly what this book is about. It’s about finding what you lost, even if that is a part of yourself. Sarah puts so much emotion into her storytelling, by the end of this book I felt I had been through each ordeal personally. While this was truly Laurens story, each and every character played just as big of a role as she did. Lost is more than just a place where missing things end up, it is a town filled with complicated people and even more obscure rules. The people who end up in Lost have lost or misplaced something in their lives, and they cannot leave until they find it. Surrounding the town of Lost is an indescribable ‘void’ and if you are not found by the Finder, you will fall unto despair and simply cease to exist. The Finder (Peter) brings you to Lost saving you the fate of disappearing, and the Missing Man helps you to find what you’ve lost in order to send you home.

Lauren is slowly losing her mother to a vicious cancer, but that is not what brings her to Lost. While trying to discover exactly where she is, she comes across some very strange people who guide her to the Missing Man. At their introduction the Missing Man appears to be afraid of Lauren and disappears. The townspeople become an angry mob and force Lauren from town, even though Lauren has no idea how to survive in Lost. But thanks to a little girl named Claire she escapes the mob and is introduced to the Finder. Only he cannot help her find what she lost. Scavenging over mountains of waste that cover the outskirts of Lost, Claire, Peter and Lauren make a home for themselves. As time passes, Lauren discovers that she has the ability to enter the void and exit on her own unscathed, and this means that she can help others find what they’ve lost; she might even be able to send herself home. But Peter doesn’t want Lauren to leave, only she must return to her mother before it is too late. …This is where I’m going to stop, because otherwise I’d be giving away too much. I will say this though: The Missing canNOT be released soon enough.