I Was Lost in Lost

Ok, Wicked, loved it. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, loved it. Lost, I have no idea if I liked it or not. Probably not. I am intrigued by Maguire's concepts, going one step further than the original fairy tale went. So, when I read the concept for Lost, I was intrigued. I expected to find out the real story of Scrooge. Instead I got a story with more twists, turns and I don't know whats.

The first thing I learned from this book is don't always believe what the back cover has to say about the story.
The back cover told me that this story was about the great grand-daughter of Ozias Rudge (the historical figure that Scrooge was based on) and her dealings with a ghost that might be him.

Ok, interesting, right? Well we learn that Winnie Rudge is a novelist researching her next book. And, that she is related to Ozias Rudge the person on whom Scrooge was based. We first find her in a meeting for couples looking to adopt international babies. Ok, she's researching that topic for her book, nope she's researching Jack the Ripper. So what's she doing in this adoption meeting??? Ok.

Then she flies out to England to research her book and stay with her cousin John. She gets there and John is no where to be found. So she spends weeks trying to find him and deal with a ghost that's walled up in his chimney. He's got crazy neighbors that she has to deal with along with other interesting characters (an Indian widow, John's former girlfriend, a fortune teller and a fellow American).

She finds out John's been ducking out on her. Why you might ask? Well throughout the novel there are sections of different fonts which I thought were bits of Winnie's next book, but are in actuality her memories. She was married, and she tried to adopt a Romanian child. John went with her and they ended up sleeping together (she always had a thing for him) and were snowed in their hotel. Finally they were able to get out and try to get this baby. By the time they got there the baby was dead. Leaving her depressed and alone. Her marriage dissolves, her relationship with John goes nowhere.

At the end of the novel we find out that the walled up ghost has ended up possessing one of John's neighbors and Winnie volunteers her body to it. But I won't reveal the ending.

This book was horrible. I don't even know where this book ties in with Scrooge. Wicked and Confessions at least made sense and brought you into a deeper angle of the original tales. Lost goes nowhere. Maybe it's meant to but I wouldn't recommend losing yourself in it. The tale goes nowhere and is very confusing. I will wait for Maguire's next one and see if he goes back to his wonderful original style.