Customer Reviews

Lost Boy Lost Girl

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Phillip Underhill doesn't have a clue what is going on in his own home. His wife Nancy, usually a cheerful person, is getting more withdrawn by the day and the only one who notices it is their son Mark. Phillip doesn't realize that she is remembering a time when her cousin by marriage asked for help for her and her daughter and she refused to give it. When Mark isn't worrying about his mother, he is obsessing about the house on 3323 North Michigan Street.

His mother warns him to stay away from the house but neglects to tell him that once was owned by her cousin, a notorious serial killer. When Mark breaks into the house she senses it and commits suicide. Mark explores the house finding secret rooms, tunnels and staircases. He also senses the presence of someone in the house and tells his best friend before he disappears. The police think he's the victim of a serial killer but Mark's uncle Tim believes that he met with a different fate.

From the very beginning LOST BOY LOST GIRL has an eerie gothic atmosphere and as the plot moves forward the tale becomes even spookier. There are two parallel sub-plots involving a serial killer and a ghost that never intersect, leaving readers to ponder Mark's fate throughout the novel. Timothy Underhill, who also appeared in KOKO AND THE THROAT, plays a vital role in this horror thriller. He is the one who puts together Mark's actions during his last days and comes to a conclusion that is emotionally satisfying his belief system. Peter Straub continues to write great horror novels that engage his myriad of fans.

Harriet Klausner

Tim Underhill, a novelist living in Manhattan, receives word that his sister-in-law has suddenly committed suicide, with no apparent warning. He returns to his Midwestern hometown of Milhaven to be with his morose, callow brother Philip, and Mark, his fifteen year-old nephew. Shortly after Underhill's arrival, Mark disappears. Underhill is desperate to find the boy, especially when he learns that a brutal pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity. Tim's asks his friend Tom Pasmore, one of the best PIs around, for assistance in discovering Mark's whereabouts and the identity of the serial killer.

Teenage skateboarder Mark Underhill had become obsessed by a mysterious abandoned house where the killer may have taken refuge. Unbeknownst to Mark, the house, which he had never noticed before, has strong ties to the Underhill family. He and his best buddy, Jimbo, eventually break in to explore, and to unravel the mysteries of this customized building, with its secret passageways and hidden hollows. Mark finds that the house almost talks to him - whispers to him of the horrors that have taken place under its roof. And in this evil place, Mark discovers a soul mate, a ghostly girl who beckons him, coaxing him deeper into the darkness.

"Lost Boy Lost Girl: A Novel" is both a disturbing mystery and a ghost story. It is not a traditional ghost story, however, but a tale of what happens when one believes in ghosts. This is also a novel about hauntings, sinister, filled with remorse and dread. Peter Straub touches on more traditional themes also, like dysfunctional families, the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and the onset of middle age.

The tale is told from multiple viewpoints, and moves back and forth through time and space. It is all pulled together, however, by Tim Underhill's journal entries. Straub's narrative is elegant, compelling and rich. He clearly has a good ear for dialogue, especially as evidenced between the two boys, Mark and Jimbo. He has created here an atmosphere that is at once haunting, (as in a pervasive or lingering force - melancholy), terrifying and hopeful.

I was riveted by this story and found the ending to be spellbinding.

JANA

Did it all really happen, or is it a story that Tim Underhill made up to cope with the loss of his nephew?

This is a fantastic book with many layers. You could read it from cover to cover and take everything literally, and enjoy a good serial killer story. Or you could stretch your brain muscles and read between the lines.

Much like the characters in the book I believe you, the reader, should not believe everything you see, or read. A hint that Tim Underhill might not be a reliable narrator comes at the very beginning of the book. Tim believes he is a witness to a hit and run accident that leaves a man dead. However it turns out that it was just a movie being filmed and the man hit by the car is fine.

This just sets up that nothing in this book (even the book itself, in my opinion) is as it appears.

When you're done with the book ask yourself, did I really read what I thought I did, or is there more in the background?

I would love to go deep into examples of why I feel that Tim is an untrustworthy narrator, but I don't want to ruin anything for people who want to read this.

Like I said you can read this as a straight forward mystery, or you can question the narrator and see where the answers to those questions take you.

As the X-Files said: Trust No One

LOST BOY LOST GIRL is a novel that I fear is going to be lost, if not ignored, in the plethora of releases that greet the autumn season. This would be tragic, though not entirely without reason. Peter Straub attracted major audiences with novels such as GHOST STORY, SHADOWLAND and FLOATING DRAGON. He even co-wrote THE TALISMAN with Stephen King. Then, for some reason, his audience ... dwindled. Maybe it is due to the perception --- an erroneous one --- that Straub was not writing Peter Straub novels anymore. In fact, he was --- and is. But apart from a second collaboration with King on BLACK HOUSE, which is both a sequel of sorts to THE TALISMAN and a companion volume to King's DARK TOWER series, Straub has not been heard from recently. And greater is the pity that few, it seems, have noticed.

This is disappointing, because LOST BOY LOST GIRL is a novel that succeeds on so many (occasionally) contradictory levels that it has the potential to quietly become a classic over time. It may well be one of those novels that "bubbles under" saleswise, never really breaking into the all-important "charts" yet sailing along for years and years without ever going out of print. In this age of categorization, it is difficult to comfortably place LOST BOY LOST GIRL. It is, possibly, a ghost story, or a romance, or a mystery, or a thriller, even a domestic novel. Certainly it touches all of those genres and perhaps others. It is so enigmatic a novel that one almost overlooks how beautifully, wonderfully and fearfully told it is.

Much of LOST BOY LOST GIRL is told from the viewpoint of Timothy Underhill, a writer of some renown who leaves his home in New York City and returns to his hometown of Millhaven. Underhill's sister-in-law has committed suicide and his return to town for the funeral opens fresh wounds in his tenuous relationship with his brother, Philip. Philip is difficult at best, a man who seems to be, though not actively evil, wholly without redeeming social value. Mark, Philip's son and Timothy's nephew, is described as a beautiful boy, a fifteen-year-old on the cusp of adulthood and apparently unaware of the quiet magic his appearance and presence has upon people.

Mark's disappearance a week after the funeral is like a second death. Timothy returns again to Millhaven to doggedly search for Mark, either to find him or to learn his ultimate fate. He quickly learns that other boys have disappeared from the area and that Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house in his neighborhood, so Timothy is thinking that there is a connection between the house and the missing boys. There is also some indication that a mysterious figure, somehow connected to the abandoned house, had been quietly stalking Mark in the days preceding his disappearance. Timothy slowly but painstakingly learns that Mark was discovering a connection between the house and his own heritage, and that his obsession with the house is awakening dangers from the past and the present.

LOST BOY LOST GIRL is a novel that needs to be read and reread. This may well be the best book of Straub's already brilliant career. The ending is an enigmatic one and, I think, very deliberately so. Straub has neatly crafted this tale so that any one of a number of conclusions may or may not be correct. LOST BOY LOST GIRL is a tale that will fascinate members of book discussion groups, college seminars and, most importantly, you.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Peter Straub returns to Millhaven, Wisconsin in this, his sixteenth novel. To complement the familiar locale, he's also chosen a familiar protagonist and narrator, his alter ego/collaborator, author Tim Underhill.

Tim returns to his hometown under grim circumstances, traveling to the Midwest to attend the funeral of his sister-in-law, Rachel. Wife to Tim's distant brother Philip, and mother of teenaged Mark, Rachel committed suicide by tying a plastic bag over her head and then slitting her wrists. Tragically, Mark was the one to discover her body.

The situation deteriorates further when Mark, who had been behaving strangely, disappears some two weeks later. Local authorities conclude that Mark may have fallen victim to a serial killer who is using Millhaven and its environs as his stalking ground. Tim again returns to Millhaven, this time to aid in the search for his nephew. Assisted by long time friend
Tom Pasmore, Tim uncovers some truths he is loath to face.

Alternating between the first and third person, lost boy lost girl contains some of the most effective and moving writing of Straub's distinguished career. At once a mystery, ghost story, romance, and thriller, it's a resonant study of love, loss, grief, and regret. At the heart of the novel is the relationship between Tim and Mark--Mark representing to his Uncle the
son he never had. Like Mark, who became obsessed with an abandoned house and with his family's history, Tim becomes obsessed with his nephew, refusing to believe in the possibility that the boy's bright light may have been extinguished. As Tim pieces together the story of the events leading to Mark's disappearance, readers are presented with a dilemma: Has the
narrator, in his grief, become unreliable? Straub provides no easy answers, the book's ambiguous ending allowing readers to draw their own conclusions.

Skillfully mingling the familiar conventions of the horror and thriller genres with the larger, more ambitious visions of serious literature, Straub displays a delicate touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a deep understanding of the fragility and complexity of familial relationships. Unsettling, elegiac, and memorable, lost boy lost girl may come to be regarded as a major turning point in Straub's career--spare and intimate, this outstanding effort may win him an even broader readership. That would certainly be a welcome development, both for the author, and for those yet to discover the magic of his prose.

Let it be said right now; lost boy lost girl might very well be Peter Straub's best effort since Floating Dragon. The book is pretty simple in itself and yet, it hits you as hard as a hammer on a nail. It's sweet and dark, affecting and touching, invigorating and a real page-turner.

Known for his oversized novels (his Rose trilogy and Floating Dragon, as well as The Talisman and Black House with Stephen King), Straub comes back in full force with this very small effort that is full of soul and emotion. When Mark finds his mother's dead body in their bathtub - an obvious suicide - he knows that his life will never be the same again. He also knows that the old delapidated house behind their own had something to do with his mother's death. But what? When he begins investigating the house, he uncovers deep-buried secrets that are just waiting to resurface.

Told through flashbacks, diary entries and e-mail conversations, the book meanders throught time in amazing ways. Not many authors can weave such an intricate plot together. The sections that are set in the present are told from Mark's uncle's point of view, an author of mystery novels who's never been close to his brother. But now that his nephew has disappeared, he has to tried and patch things up with his brother in order to be able to face the harsh reality of the situation.

Is it a ghost story? Not really. A murder mystery? Not really. A romance? Not really. The book is more like a mix of all these things and more. You never really know where the book is headed or where it will take you. And saying that the book ends on just the right note would be an understatement.

I've just finished the book and I'm tempted to start it again. Straub has a way with words that will take your breathe away. This is the kind of horror novel that will stand the test of time. I'm sure that, ten years from now, lost boy lost girl will be remembered as one of Straub's best, if not his best.

Once again Peter Straub weaves a complex tale about murder, secrets, spirits, and their connection to a traumatic past. Author Tim Underhill, in the aftermath of his sister-in-law's suicide, attempts to track down his missing nephew. While his estranged brother Philip and the police suspect that the boy has fallen prey to the Sherman Park Killer, Tim searches for the reason why his nephew was so fascinated with the abandoned house just behind Philip's home. As with all of Straub's books, the point of view shifts focus and the timeline is disjointed - jumping from the past to the present, seemingly at random - yet it all serves to create a rich and twisted tapestry that leads to an emotionally rewarding conclusion. Its classic Straub, highest recommendation.

I consider myself to be a pretty openmided reader, and so I got this book and started it with an open mind however.... you would have to have a mind as open as the grand canyon to follow the circles and turns that this book takes you in. After drudging through it... and working past the fact that no one even cared about his dead mom, whose life was so boring, and sad, and left unexplored. I mean why did the ghost girl appear to her,as a young tattered little girl, but appear to her son as a hot dead chick... which by the way is still considered incest in some states I think. I thought I was finally getting somewhere about the middle of the book...only to learn that there was no climax and that my young protagonist, Mark, had disappeared to an unknown island with his ghostly second cousin.... that had seduced him to another realm? There was no real explaination... there was no satisfaction for his annoying dad... and his "Unc Tim" kept getting cryptic emails that somehow satisfied him? All I could say was "What the hell did I just read?"

I wanted to like it... but you can't like something that you can't follow..... at the end I was lost too!

I found Lost Boy Lost Girl engrossing, tight and entertaining while I was reading it. But after finishing it, I realize I wasn't satisfied. So much opportunity seemed unexplored, and there were some glaring editorial missteps. Nancy thinks of Lily as her niece--she's not, she's her cousin's daughter. And there were two contradictory mentions of when Philip arrived home after Nancy's suicide. They should have been easy to spot while editing, but neither were, and that bugged me. It made me wonder if those mistakes indicated some kind of laziness or disinterest. That might explain the book's length, lack of depth, and lack of exploitation of the richness of character in new young hero, Mark, as well as old favorites Tim Underhill and Tom Pasmore.

I felt cheated by the way Mark's relationship with Lily was completely skipped over, told only through Tim & Jimbo's recollections. The eeriness of that house, alone, should have demanded that the reader see Lily and judge for himself whether she was good or evil.

The villain seemed forced, too easy to find. Lily's change--from seething spirit who blamed Nancy to loving teen who Mark went crazy for--was never explained. And Tim's recollection of his father's view on women...if the reader is to assume, which I did, that his Pop's dire warning about the "third type of woman, the one who wants to get inside you" describes Lily's relationship with Mark, why, then, did the internet message from Mark to Tim seem so upbeat, almost a "happy ending" to the story. Tim remembered his father's words...so why wasn't he bothered when this happened to Mark?

Finally, I had to conclude that though it had some of Straub's most wonderful writing in places, and the atmosphere of that house completely terrified me, this book was a failure for me. I can't help wondering if it was lazy and forced rather than tight and concentrated. In either case, it can't compare to the richness of Ghost Story, Floating Dragon, or Mystery. Or even the overbloated The Throat, or the horrific The Hellfire Club.

I did not really enjoy his writing style, something was missing for me. Another problem for me was that the book was all over the place. I was busy trying to figure out where I was, what did I miss and where was he headed, he jumped all over the place. The ending wasn't that great either.

I'm going to try Ghost Story, hopefully I will enjoy that more. If not, I don't think I will read anything else by this author.