Reviews - The Book of Lost Friends

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The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

1.42k reviews for:

There were parts of this book that were extraordinary, and then there were parts where I wanted to reach through and slap the characters. The entire segment of the book during 1987 made the character Benny seem like an entitled, spoiled brat who did not understand the people or the culture that she chose to work with. The 1875 story of Hannie was remarkable and what redeems this book.

kendal_marie's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

morganic11's review against another edition

2.0

I tried so hard to like this book but it was so boring in the beginning. It’s slow and the reviews said to stick with it but I just can’t muster up the motivation to do that. I only read the first 100 pages or so and then I gave up. Really wish I could have gotten more into it.

sheeena's review against another edition

2.0

I was a huge fan of Wingates’ previous novel Before We Were Yours.. For some reason I just couldn’t get into this one. I do love how much research she does and how she manages to make history alive. The beginning was just too dry for me and I almost quit. Useless description and very repetitive. Honestly I was bored to death and it almost killed me to finish this. This was also an audiobook so you’d think it would’ve made it easier. Every time I pressed play I felt like I was torturing myself.

Sorry Lisa

tanja_alina_berg's review against another edition

4.0

This book gathered dust in my audio library for a while, before I finally got to it. It’s a poignant reminder of how close the horror of slavery still is. The plot has two points of view and two timelines, one at the end of the 19th century and one from 1987. I struggled to see how the plot lines would finally connect, but they did.

The former slave girl is torn from her family as a child and goes looking for them in her teens. Along the way she discovers that there is a paper advertising for lost family members.

It’s heart wrenching to think of losing all your people, children, brothers, sisters, father, mothers and your home too. Having been moved between countries and continents several times as a child, it hits close to home. I kept my nuclear family, but lost everything again and again and again. “The lost friends” was like a social media of the 19th century, the author comments at the end. I have to admit that Facebook, for all its faults, at least has shown where ‘my people’ ended up - while I could still remember their names and faces.

This book attempts to show that knowing your history is important and gives meaning to things that you have taken for granted.

agiangregorio's review against another edition

5.0

History Comes Alive

I really enjoyed this book. It goes back and forth between the life of a young woman who is a teacher in Louisiana in the 80’s and Hannie, who was born enslaved on the same property where the teacher lives. It follows both on their unique quests- Hannie’s quest to find her family and survive as a young black woman and the teachers quest to connect with her students and community. This book is about discovering the past and embracing it rather than hiding it, it’s about connecting with people and the drive to stay connected.