"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." - C.S. Lewis

ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

There are no words for how sad I am that I didn't love this book. Everything about it seemed like it was created for me, but unfortunately the brilliant concept and the execution of said concept are two very different things.

The Lost Story was an overly ambitious novel, that attempted to fit an expansive story into 330 pages, whilst also struggling to ride the line between mature and whimsical. There were moments when this was successful, when the intention of the story was so clearly felt and realized that I knew I could have adored this book if things had been different.

Unfortunately, they were not.

I struggled with the characters. I struggled with the dialogue. I struggled with the pacing. I struggled with the world-building or lack thereof (which gets explained at the very end, but by that point, it felt like it was being thrown in there so we didn't question the lack of world-building.) I struggled with the timeline (acting like the characters were there for years when it was only 6 months, felt weird). I struggled with the relationships between each of the characters. I hated the interjections from the Storyteller.

I say I struggled with many of these aspects because - for most of them - I could see what the author's intention had been, I could see that I would have liked them if they had been executed differently. As it was, attempting to create a contrast between the maturity of the characters and the magic of the enchanted world by having the characters say things like "Magical horses are whores for berries." did not work for me.
It made the story feel strangely like it was written by a homeschooled child trying to create an edgy story with how they think adults speak. (I can say that, I was homeschooled.)

This might be considered a spoiler so if you consider romantic relationships a spoiler, I wouldn't read this next paragraph.

Rafe and Jeremy's relationship was another one of those things that I could have loved if it was done differently. I appreciated the queer rep and how meaningful it was that the enchanted world was a safe haven for them to finally be their true selves. However. When the entirety of their relationship is built off of a year they spent together when they were fourteen (half of which one of them can't remember), and the reader is consistently reminded that they're a.) both nearly 30 and b.) how physical their relationship was at 14, on top of them being called brothers within the narrative... it made it really hard for me to feel much more than a topical concern for them.

This review is getting too long and at the risk of just becoming me ranting, which isn't what I want to do at all. Despite all of my criticism, this was an easy read and there were things I really liked about it.
I appreciate what Meg Shaffer was attempting to do with this book and I'm grateful for the ARC, but unfortunately, The Lost Story missed the mark for me.