Reviews

What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

samc67's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

sintari's review against another edition

4.0

Children are unreliable narrators it's difficult to write one well, but What Was Lost pulled it off in the character of Kate Meany. Also kudos to the author for keeping me interested after the POV and time period abruptly changed. It didn't have that jarring, "But I thought this was going to be the main character... :(" quality that some books have. (I think the most jarring I can remember was Edmund in "The Sunne in Splendour" by Sharon Kay Penman. I was so ready to give him my heart, but he was gone too soon!) The innocence of the Kate - described as a "hive of industry" - contrasted well with all of the grown up things going on around her, as well as the apathy and inertia of the adults in the book. This was a tidy little more-than-a-mystery and a quick, enjoyable read.

timna_wyckoff's review against another edition

5.0

Amazing. Oddly fantastic. This was really good, but describing what it's about won't do it justice. It's definitely a super well-written mystery (the story is revealed at a perfect pace, in really interesting ways), but it's also lots of character development about slightly pathetic retail workers and customers at a UK mall....doesn't sound that great, but somehow it works really well.

elnaann1313's review

5.0

"All the dogs had psychological problems: hatred of children, hatred of bikes, hatred of paperboys, hatred of black kids, hatred of white kids, hatred of fast-moving objects; some hated the sky and barked and leaped at it all day. The happy thing for the dogs was that there was always another dog who shared their psychosis and whom they could join in a gang. the housing development was patrolled by these packs of like-minded dogs, wandering the walkways and quadrangles like incontinent, limping support groups" p. 36

This would be good paired with The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight. Both feature quirky kids.
A mall is built on the grounds of a former factory. Explores a societal shift from industrialism to consumerism. Aresenal Mall (Watertown, MA) was also built on site of a former factory.

candacesiegle_greedyreader's review against another edition

5.0

Brilliant. I was torn between wanting to find out what happened and not wanting the book to end.

I came at "What was Lost" in a backass sort of way. I read something or other about it, reserved the book at the library, and had totally forgotten everything about it by the time it came in. As a result I was captivated from the start and <1>really surprised when the second section began. Not a bad way to approach a book, I think!

Catherine O'Flynn is an author to watch. I look forward to what comes next.

balinkili's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

mysteryspouse's review

mysterious

• Strong character development? No

2.0

debs4jc's review against another edition

2.0

This book kind of confused me. At first I thought it was a story about a girl who likes to play detective. Sure she had problems since her dad died but her efforts to hone her investigative skill while toting her stuffed monkey around seemed kind of cute. Until the story suddenly did a fast forward in time and started following the employees of a mall called Green Oaks. One of the security guards seems to see a lost little girl on the security monitors. One of the employees finds a stuffed monkey in the staff corridors. It turns out the little girl who liked to play detective, Kate Meany, suddenly disappeared years ago. The book then turns into an examination of how her disappearance ties in with the Green Oaks mall and the sad lives of the people who work and shop there. Lots of sad, bizarre, and disturbing scenes made this a less than enjoyable read for me. It also didn't seem to flow well in audio form, I don't know if the print book gives you more clues but the sudden shifts in time and narrator were hard to follow in audio. The British accent of the narrator did help establish the setting, and the central mystery kept me listening to the sad ending. If you don't mind a moody tale full of detailed examinations into the futility of people's lives, give this one a try.

therealkathryn's review against another edition

3.0

This starts strong with the story of Kate, a precocious and engaging girl who spends much of her time detecting at the mall. The second half of the book kind of fell apart, it felt disjointed and I'm not sure what the point of the views of the mall was. A much better observation of malls and the odd culture within them is Barry Maitland's Silvermeadow.

amotisse's review against another edition

4.0

Lost and lonely.
People plodding along, questioning, not questioning their existence.
What is like to feel invisible?
Maybe we are the ghosts and we haunt ourselves...
Touching and charming and sadly real to life.

'All the lonely people where do they all come from...where do they all belong...'