Alex Shearer’s interesting novel “The Lost” is written at a good quality. The title of the book instantly makes you think that a character in the book will be ‘lost’ somehow. In this story, many people are ‘lost’ in a variety of different ways. Many genres are included in “The Lost” such as mystery, horror, and adventure.
It’s like a 3 in 1. Joe and Jonah, the two main characters, were walking on their way to school like ordinary kids when a fire engine passed by. That is one of the major turning points in this story.
Then, Jonah starts to follow the red and yellow truck but never stopped then eventually disappeared over the hill.The atmosphere was very mystical and adventurous and I think that there should be a sequel to the book. On the other hand, the book was quite predictable on what was coming next in the story. Also at the end, it didn’t say what happened to Joe and Jonah. However how the story unfolds is quite remarkable. I also noticed that truck led Jonah away like the Pied Piper did to the children of Hamelin.Within the course of the story, perspectives of characters changed between the two main characters. Flashbacks are also included to show the change in viewpoints between Joe and Jonah.
There were also several weird but wonderful places/objects included such as Ouija Boards, Mystic Moments ( a shop) and glass/crystal ball which support the mystical atmosphere.”The Lost” also includes red herrings which aren’t very effective. It mentions them once or twice then goes back to the plot not mentioning anything about them later on.
Maybe they should have continued a bit more on the red herrings to make our false suspicions stronger to take us away from the idea of where Jonah may have disappeared to. The structure of the novel is very well laid out. The story includes perspective changes, flashback, different atmospheres and the plot all weaved together cleverly.Overall, “The Lost” was an outstanding novel written by Alex Shearer. Even though this book did have some little things that it could improve on, I would recommend this book to anyone who would love a good mystery
