LOST AND FOUND BOOK REVIEW
MELANEY SMEDE

These days everyone's a critic. Any amateur with an Internet connection can whip up a review, so here I go. Over the past few weeks I read Brooke Davis’s debut novel “Lost and Found”.

The protagonist in the novel “Lost and Found” was 7 -year -old Millie Bird. sShe wears red wWellington gumboots that colour co-ordinate with her curly locks. Millie has an unhealthy obsession with dead things and a peculiar way of thinking. After the loss of her father, Millie's mother abandons her in a department store to never to return. This was unexpected as I thought the child had suffered enough. Millie is accompanied by eighty two 82-year -old, meticulous Agatha Pantha and eighty seven 87-year -old, daring Karl the touch typist, in a quest to find Millie's mother.

“Lost and Found” had an unpredictable plot which led to a hard -to -follow story line. While this novel was supposedly the writer’s view on the real world, most of ithes eye -opening events appeared to be over -exaggerated. I found Davis’s portrayal of the elderly and their actions rather childish and cartoon like. I understand that this could have been a humourous approach, but in my opinion, it was infantile.

Brooke Davis’s writing style really appealed to me. I loved how each character's thoughts were included on whatever the circumstance., Aand that as a reader, I was given an insight on all of the chairacters backgrounds. I appreciated how Brooke Davis intertwined three unlikely characters despite their ages and personalities to form an everlasting bond.

After my experience, it is clear that this novel is aimed at young adults roughly from the ages of 15-18, as I could not find it within myself to appreciate the sex scenes or banter. Obviously “Lost and Found” is not suitable for younger children because of the sexual and death references and I would not recommend this novel to most adults as it may bore them and come across as far -fetched and unbelievable.

It would be a compliment to say that Brooke Davis concluded her novel with a mediocre ending. The characters abandoned their search for Millie's mother after Millie’s attempt to jump off a cliff, and as predicted, Karl and Agatha caome to her rescue. Without even proposing the idea of returning home in, the author, as if in a drunken stupor, wroites the characters into a car and they droive home, starting a new chapter of their lives together which wais sure to be short lived. While this book may appeal to some, it left me pondering the idea of joining Millie on that cliff.