Lost & Found Review

Title: Lost & Found

Author: Brooke Davis

Genre & Age Group: Contemporary, adult

Goodreads Synopsis:

Millie Bird is a seven-year-old girl who always wears red wellington boots to match her red, curly hair. But one day, Millie’s mum leaves her alone beneath the Ginormous Women’s underwear rack in a department store, and doesn’t come back.

Agatha Pantha is an eighty-two-year-old woman who hasn’t left her home since her husband died. Instead, she fills the silence by yelling at passers-by, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule. Until the day Agatha spies a little girl across the street.

Karl the Touch Typist is eighty-seven years old and once typed love letters with his fingers on to his wife’s skin. He sits in a nursing home, knowing that somehow he must find a way for life to begin again. In a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes.

Together, Millie, Agatha and Karl set out to find Millie’s mum. Along the way, they will discover that the young can be wise, that old age is not the same as death, and that breaking the rules once in a while might just be the key to a happy life.

Source: School library

How I Found Out About It: By browsing through books at my school’s library

Okay. First things first. I know this book is not YA.

The thing is, at my school’s library, they don’t sort the books by age group- just by author’s last name. So, going into this book, I had no idea that it was meant for adults. And actually, I didn’t care because it still looked like such an interesting, coming-of-age read.

Honestly, with this having been one of my first forays into adult fiction, I think I should wait a bit before picking up another one. There were many references in this book that went over my head, and it was a bit too morbid for my liking.

For a quick synopsis, Lost & Found is about three very different main characters: there’s Millie, a 7-year old girl who is fascinated by death, but she was left in a store by her mom one day with no sign of her returning. There’s also Agatha, who is eighty-two and has lost everyone who she loves, and her only dream is to find someone to love again. Lastly, there’s Karl, who is eighty-seven and has just escaped from a nursing home. When the three meet, they are all so different, but they bond very well, sharing the same mission of finding Millie’s mom.

The only character who I could really stand in this book was Millie. She was super adorable and innocent, and I just wanted to give her the biggest hug. I couldn’t believe what she had to go through at such a young age, but I still found her to be so brave. I could barely relate to Agatha or Gary, though. They are both around six times older than me, so they have lived for much longer and breathed in much more air. I felt terribly for them regarding their circumstances, but then again, I wouldn’t say that they were a pleasure to read about.

This book boasted a quirky writing style- one that did not fly very far with me. The sentences seemed fairly chopped up and there was a lot of weird language used, so it pretty much turned me off.

Overall, as one of my first adult reads, I was expecting this to be astonishing, but unfortunately, I was let down. I know there was probably a deep meaning to this story that the author wanted us to get, but being a young high schooler, I found it difficult to grasp. If you’re over high school age and want to take your reading to new heights, then sure, try this one out. I’m sure you’ll love it! But for those teens who are most comfortable reading YA, then I’d recommend that you stick with YA and skip this one for now.