Customer Reviews

Lost: Secret Identity - Novelization #2

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is actually less than 170 pages long, so calling it a "novel" is a bit of a stretch. It's even shorter than "Endangered Species", the first "Lost" novelization published a few months ago. I bought this, as with the first book, solely because I am an unreformed "Lost" freak and wanted to give the book series every chance to be as interesting as "Lost" the TV show before I gave up on it.

As with "Endangered Species", the lead character here is not a character from the TV show, in spite of the huge blurry close-up photo of Matthew Fox on the cover. The protagonist is Dexter Cross, an Ivy League student from a rich family who awakes from the Oceanic 815 crash with strange gaps in his memory, a missing girlfriend, and a doppelganger stalking other survivors on the island. Although his story is predictable, Dexter is at least more sympathetic than Faith from the first book.

Where "Endangered Species" utterly lacked any sense of "Lost"'s inventiveness, "Secret Identity" successfully borrows many of "Lost"'s core mysteries. Indeed, the book even ends with a couple of unanswered questions. The action takes place primarily between scenes from episodes 2 and 3, as Dexter interacts with most of the TV characters, primarily Shannon and Boone. This book also takes advantage of the extended TV cast; Arzt particularly has a lot to do. Odd-numbered chapters take place in the present, and even-numbered chapters flash back to Dexter's past. Amusingly, there are 23 chapters; I'd like to think that is not a coincidence. There's a joke about Hurley looking as if he just won the lottery, and Kate even obliquely references the title to episode 3 ("Tabula Rasa").

"Secret Identity" is never going to be mistaken for a novel by E.L. Doctorow, or even by Michael Chabon. It is a modestly successful time-waster that you can read in precisely 60 minutes on Wednesday night when "Lost" is in reruns... although you'll still learn more from the rerun.

I picked up this book because I didn't think the LOST novels were anything more than a rumor, and didn't realize "Endangered Species" was the first one. At any rate, "Secret Identity" is a big time waster if you're a rabid LOST fan looking for an interesting show based book. Dexter Cross essentially is nothing short of an annoying character that has no interesting back story, and most of the time on the island is devoted to him obsessively mulling over whether he should take a look in the fuselage for Daisy or not or passing out from dehydration, while his backstory is nothing more than a drawn out story of how he lied to his girlfriend of what he really was. Big deal. You have no emotional attachment to the character, and worse yet, the writer forgets to actually describe him! I kept picturing a 30 something year old character that was more akin to looking like Artz than the young man who "didn't quite look like Boone and was probably a little younger". Worse yet, the writer was overly descriptive to the point of exhaustion; I don't need to know precisely all the graphical designs on the box for the grills that fell on his cranky aunt. This woman needs to stop writing, because she obviously can't.

Lost: Secret Identity introduces the reader to another of the Lost survivors, Dexter Stubbs, a/k/a Dexter Cross. Dexter is an interesting character indeed and I found that his background story was much more compelling than the story of his existence on the island.

Dexter Stubbs is introduced as a high school student, from a non-affluent family, that does not necessarily fit in with the crowd. When his Aunt wins a large personal injury settlement, Dexter has the chance to go to an Ivy League school. Once there, amidst the affluence and perceived superior attitude of the other students, Dexter begins to reinvent himself. Starting off with minor things at first, he finds it spiraling out of control as he attempts to gain the affections of a girl that he is interested in. We also see Dexter struggling with his independence from his overbearing Aunt. Eventually, Dexter winds up in Australia and the truth catches up with him.

It is interesting to see the struggle within Dexter as he tries to balance his desire to fit in with his desire to tell the truth. Even on the island, Dexter tries to reinvent himself now referring to himself as Dexter Cross. In typical Lost fashion, Dexter is prone to the powers of the island which make him come to some stark realizations.

The typical Lost characters are present though there is only minimal interaction with them. All in all, the story is good and this should be good filler between seasons.

This book is good for what it is. The first LOST novelization was horrendous: poor writing, bad plot, unlikeable characters. This one is leaps and bounds ahead of that. The writing is good, the plot is not exactly gripping, but you get along with the character much better. It has cameos by the show character we know and love, and those are fairly well done. All in all, a goo read for 5 bucks if you are a rabid LOST fan.

After reading the first novel in the series, Endangered Species, my expectations were pretty low. But this one managed to be really captivating and turned out to be a pleasant surprise. This time around, we're given a much more believable character. His name is Dexter, and he's struggling to get through his first year of college. His aunt has paid for his tuition with ill-gotten money, but the Ivy League school is his only escape from her.

When he reaches the campus, he forms his alter ego, SuperDexter, and begins spouting lies thinking it's his only way of making friends. He must learn to balance the lies to both his family and friends. This is all ocurring during the flashback (even) chapters, but on the island, he finds himself confused and struggling to remember things.

The flashbacks are much more interesting than the island chapters, but neither would really work without the other. Rather than just use characters from LOST as cameos like in the first novel, they play an integral part in Dexter's story. Still, sometimes it seems as if the author was forced to include all of the main characters, because some of them seemed like they were just thrown in there for the sake of having them in there.

Overall, not a bad novel. For $6, it's well worth reading if you're a big LOST fan. If you're not interested in LOST, then definitely skip it, because there are many better novels out there.

I loved it. Every other chapter was about Dexter's life on the island and every other chapter is about Dexter's life before crashing on the island. You know you love the book when after each chapter you don't want to read about either being on the island or back home cause what you just read was so good you want to keep following that specific storyline. Cathy Hapka is awesome!

Not recommended for those who are looking for more form the series. It does not have the same spirit at all (independently from the the fact that the characters are not the same ones, which should be good)...

I love this show, its the best on TV. I've also found this book to be very good also. Now I'm going back and watching all the seasons over to find secrets and clues that I may have missed.

One of the things LOST introduced me to was the Twilight Zone which J.J. Abrams was inspired. Besides this book, I recommend one other also on Amazon.com. THE TWILIGHT ZONE: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams. Together, both books open the skies for cult television.

Hapka had me going and had an interesting plot in the working for the first Lost book, but had changed drastically in the second. I had the feeling that in Secret Identity Dexter was ultimately going to find first hand the punishments of his untruthfulness, but also see what was going to happen between Kate and the cop and relize he needed to enjoy his own life. This book was a major let down. Sounds more like a bedtime story or short stories, definately not a novel done by a esteemed writer. Pass on this, but read the first one if you are a die hard Lost fan.

I am not sure why everyone is stating that this book was an improvement over the first book. I thought of the 3 paperbacks, this was by far the worst! It was just a terrible storyline, the encounters with the characters from the show are cheesy and/or too coincidental, and it was too much in the way of flashing back. Every other chapter was a flashback. I was very dissappointed with this and I did not feel it supported the series. I am a big lost fan and I found this to be a poorly written story. If more of these books are going to be released, I would hope the ABC lost writers would have some input and perhaps review them thoroughly before releasing them.