I adored The Wishing Game when it came out and so this review pains me to write. I had all the expectations for a beautiful, fun, and magical story and The Lost Story just did not live up to the hype for me.

Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell, known as The Lost Boys, mysteriously vanished in the Red Crow Forest and reappeared six months later. Fifteen years later, Emilie Wendell is on the hunt for the sister she never knew about, and Jeremy and Rafe are the perfect people to help Emilie find her, especially since her sister Shannon went missing in the same forest just a few years before Jeremy and Rafe. But Jeremy and Rafe haven’t spoken since they were found, and only Jeremy knows the truth of where they were. As the events of fifteen years ago come to life, so does the impossible.

The plot sounds amazing and with Shaffer pulling inspiration directly from C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, you go in already knowing the impossible is about to happen. Instead of getting a glittering fantasy with adventure though, this read like a poor imitation of Narnia and/or almost a fan fiction. I’m a huge fantasy and science fiction reader – Narnia, Harry Potter, Magic Tree House, etc were my life when I was a kid, but The Lost Story tried too hard to be what Narnia was to kids but for adults and it didn’t work for me.

The narration of the story is an interesting choice and switches between our main characters and an anonymous Narrator. I didn’t mind the switch up, but the story would have been 100% the same if the ‘Narrator’s’ parts had been taken out, so the attempt while interesting didn’t add to the story.

Our characters were just fine. Emilie was setup to be much more than she was and ended up just being there to prop up the plot. Jeremey and Rafe were a bit deeper but still neither felt terribly complex or compelling.

Shaffer is a great writer, but I think her Narnia inspiration hindered her ability to really create a captivating story and magical new land. The incorporation of Narnia ideas and comparisons were a bit on the nose, and this felt more like a YA read with some adult topics (ie: childhood trauma, kidnapping, some child abuse etc) than an adult fantasy. I know so many people are probably going to love this book, and I didn’t hate it, I just didn’t love it and it made me wish I was just rereading The Chronicles of Narnia rather than a spin off.

AMAZON | GOODREADS |★★★

The Lost Story comes out July 16, 2024. Thank you to Ballantine Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.