Book Review: Long Lost by Jacqueline West

Long Lost

by Jacqueline West (j West)

 

Definitely a page turner, this suspense-filled juvenile novel by Jacqueline West has the reader racing to find out who-dun-it and uncover the secret of the village of Lost Lake.

 

Two sisters move to town. Eleven-year-old Fiona has always had to play second fiddle to her older sister Arden. It’s always all about Arden. Not only does Fiona give up the friends it took so long for her to make to move to Lost Lake for Arden’s skating career, but Fiona has to miss out on her own plans because of Arden’s skating competitions. And that’s when Fiona isn’t freezing at Arden’s skating practices after school and in the early hours. The only good thing that Fiona has found in town is the library. The old mansion was once owned by a wealthy family. Now it holds volumes of promising books. Tucked up on the third floor Fiona discovers a mysterious antique green-leather-bound book obviously not part of the library’s collection.

 

The book tells the story of another pair of sisters. These sisters were best friends and inseparable. But something happens to the older sister. No one knows for sure. Was she taken by an evil dark shadowed Searcher in the forest? Fiona is left guessing because the book ends abruptly with blank pages not yet written. Hoping to someday become a historian, Fiona delves into the story and the town’s history to discover the story about the set of sisters who lived in the library mansion. But as she asks questions and revisits sites from the book, Fiona fears she may have stirred up old ghosts. Even worse, she may have reawakened the Searcher itself.

 

Will something happen to this set of sisters, as well? You will race to the end of the book to find out what haunts the community of Lost Lake and if the ghosts of what happened will ever be laid to rest. Great read for students who love a scary mystery.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try A Touch of Ruckus by Ash Van Otterloo, or The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursa.)

 

( official Long Lost and Jacqueline West web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

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