My mom gave me Lost by Gregory Maguire last summer. She had been reading it a few days and said she just wasn’t getting into it but thought maybe I’d like it. Yesterday, in my (depressed, low, tired, overworked trying to figure out how to be a better human) state of mind, I needed a new read that wasn’t going to make me think, something simply fun, so I grabbed it off the shelf and settled into my spot with giant cup of coffee.

Ok, it wasn’t a “giant” cup, it was my usual travel thermos one. I like to sit and sip coffee, hot, but ceramic mugs (as much as I love the pretty ones I see on Instagram) let the coffee cool off too quickly and then I slurp the rest down and get another… and another… and another… By noon I’m a frantic mess! My travel thermos keeps my coffee hot for about 30 minutes, allowing me to slow down and keep it to three cups a morning.

You know you NEEDED to know that.

Back to Lost! I’m lost reading it. I’m not sure what’s happening most of the time, and I think it’s written that way on purpose because I keep reading trying to figure it out. The main character is a writer. She’s successfully published a few children’s books, but is now working on her first novel, when she visits her childhood home in London and embarks on a mystery.

I love the way the character keeps bringing up her writing, or more like her character keeps popping up in her mind to say hello, and she has to pause and write it down. I’m not sure if she identifies with the character or not, maybe an alter ego or suppressed memory.

But it’s certainly spooky and I’m dying to know what happens. If my mom weren’t here visiting, I’d sit with this and finish it all in one or two days. It’s delicious so far!

Question: On the cover of my edition, there is a picture of “scrooge-like” man framed by the front cover. When I looked up the book on Amazon for a link, the cover frame has a woman in it. It’s got me wondering… Who is “lost?”

Lost… in my overactive imagination