The Lost and the Found

A family thriller that tackles one of the darkest subjects. The Lost and the Found is a pacey read told through the eyes of Faith, the sister who wasn't taken. Now seventeen, she misses her sister and hates what Laurel's disappearance did to her family, but she's also tired, fed up and cranky. Then Laurel returns. It's the miracle they were always hoping for. They can finally have what Faith has always wanted: a normal, boring family. But the press won't leave them alone, and what's worse, Laurel and her mother are inviting them in. What makes this story so gripping is that uneasy sense throughout the book of something being Not Quite Right. It could be merely a teenager's resentment and jealousy mixed with her happiness that her beautiful older sister has returned home. Or it could be something more. Despite it's dark subject matter, The Lost and the Found is never oppressive or gloomy. A fantastic read.

The Lost and The Found by Cat Clarke is an emotionally-charged, poignant and harrowing tale of one girl’s disappearance and her return. After 13 years, Faith’s missing sister has come home. Laurel’s endured physical and emotional abuse and this story follows her journey back into “normal” life, but told through the eyes of her younger sister, Faith. Faith’s grown up in the shadow of her missing sister, and now Laurel’s back she’s once again the focus of everyone’s attention. I’m a massive fan of Clarke’s books and I eagerly picked up The Lost and The Found with high expectations. For most of the book I was thinking this was a 3 or 4 star book. For me it lacked the “heartbeat” of Clarke’s other books—that is until the 80% mark. Then I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough as my suspicions were confirmed about the major twist. This was such a relief to know I was right, and this is definitely one of those books where I believe that working out what the twist is going to be is a good thing. It doesn’t mean the author failed, rather we as readers are rewarded for our close reading skills. Faith is a great character. She’s real, relatable, and she acted just how I think I would’ve acted had I been in the same situation. Her narrative voice was markedly different to Clarke’s other narrators. We’re less “in the moment” with Faith, and instead there’s a lot of telling and glossing over days or weeks at a time until we’re at the next important event—but, crucially, it never seems like bad telling. It’s just carefully managed. There’s less action in this book too compared to Clarke’s other titles, and this was something that I found a little slow at times—but it suits the plot. Faith is adjusting to her life now that her missing sister has returned, and this book is very much focussed inwardly on Faith’s feelings and emotions on this (as well as her relationship with her boyfriend and her best friend, and how she’ll manage them now her sister is back). Because the ending of this book is truly superb—I’d worked out the main twist, but the final page hits you with another twist which I hadn’t seen coming—I want to keep this review as spoiler free as possible as part of the magic of reading this book was in my wondering whether I would be right. I purposefully didn’t read any other reviews of this book in case I stumbled across a spoiler. And I do just want to talk about that final final twist—it is poignant and gut-wrenching and now I’m looking back at much of the rest of the book in a different light. For me, this is the sign of a really good author, and it’s this that makes the book a solid 4 stars. One of the things I really loved about The Lost and The Found is the relationship between Faith and her boyfriend Thomas. Clarke doesn’t shy away from showing a more realistic relationship that’s rarely found in teen fiction—Faith isn’t always wildly in love with Thomas, as times she believes she doesn’t care much about him at all, and she doubts their future a lot. This really resonated with me, especially the line where Faith wonders whether this is what a loving, true relationship is like and people just don’t publicise the uncertainty, the doubt, or the negative parts. Spoiler: Faith and Thomas do break up, after multiple betrayals of trust (one of which is revealed later to not actually be a betrayal), and they remain broken up. This is my only sore point about the book as I was hoping for a reconciliation between them to show that yes, relationships are difficult and require work and communication. To me, leaving them broken up risks the idea being portrayed that their relationship was never “true” and that the doubt Faith felt was real. For the anxiety-prone among us, I’d have liked a better ending here. Yet I can see that then remaining broken up also is realistic—rarely do teen couples/first loves stay together. I also love the family dynamics in this book. Michel, Faith’s father’s new partner, following his divorce to Olivia, was a great character and seeing how Olivia gradually came to accept him as part of the family was great. The Lost and The Found, in summary, is a great read. A little slow at times but the ending is well worth the wait.

I love this book. I was gripped from the very beginning. I couldnt put this book down. Cat Clarke is an amazing writer. The first novel by Cat Clarke I read was girlhood and i loved it so I started reading this one. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery novels. Lauren's sister went missing at the age of 6, Now 13 years later laurels life revolves around her sisters disappearance. The ending of the book made me question everything i had just read, it really shocked me. This book was written really well. loved it :)

The book had such good plot twists, extremely well written book that wasn't ober done or repetitive. I loved the ending but all the way though it was a real page turner. There was some romance but not that much which was a refreshing change from other YA books

Faith Logan’s childhood has been dominated by her sister Lauren’s abduction, so thirteen years later when a girl turns up at the Logans’ old house holding Laurel’s old teddy bear, it’s like a miracle has happened. But things aren’t always as they seem and as Laurel’s behaviour gets more erratic, Faith starts to get paranoid. I really liked the writing style throughout the book - Faith had a slightly sarcastic narrative that took the edge off a pretty depressing subject matter - but I did find that the first third of the book dragged. It was kind of setting the stage and I liked the background to Faith’s home life and how Laurel’s abduction impacted her family, but not much really happened. Faith’s best friend was pretty cool, but her boyfriend sucked. He was literally the worst book boyfriend I’ve ever read about. He was physically unattractive, and okay looks aren’t everything, but he had questionable personal hygiene and was a total knob to boot. There’s a plot point that relies on him being a tool, but honestly it made me respect Faith a whole lot less for being with him. I got that she was attracted to him because he had no interest in Laurel’s abduction, but I’d have respected her a lot more if she’d chosen to stay single. Things changed in the second half of the book. I started to get the distinct impression that Laurel wasn’t all she seemed. She started to get really creepy and Faith started to get really suspicious and stalkery. The tension ramped up and I started to plough through the remaining chapters. The author also had some interesting commentary about how kidnappings are publicised and the role of the press. It felt like the book stemmed from the author wondering what would happen if Madeleine McCann suddenly turned up. The press furore surrounding Laurel’s abduction was remarkably similar to the McCann case: attractive blonde child with parents who know how to play the press card getting all the headlines, while hundreds of other socially disadvantaged missing children barely get a paragraph written about them. The ending felt a little rushed, but it was a satisfying conclusion. All in all a pretty good read. 3.5 stars

I did enjoy this book although i guessed the twist in the plot about halfway through. An interesting variation on the theme of lost, stole, kidnapped children and what happens to them and to their families.

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