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A review by allyurie
The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna
3.0
"But maybe that’s what the dead do. They stay. They linger. Benign and sweet and painful. They don’t need us. They echo all by themselves."
The Lost Girl was a fantastic read especially when one is recovering from a slump (like myself). The story is so well written as the world is very structured and is not dissimilar to our own. The novel follows the journey of an echo - people fashioned as clones, who are replacements in the case of the original's death - as she is teetering on what seems to be both the crossroads and breaking point of her life. 'Amarra', a girl who is the polar opposite to her other has felt her life passing by with no identity of who or what she is. The very thought of taking over another's life; living with her family, hanging out with her friends and loving her boyfriend, makes Amarra conflicted as what worth is her life if she can't do was she was created for.
**************SPOILERS AHEAD************************
Her life is far from a walk in the park or a ride in a tuk-tuk, each day she risks exposure and very soon she is entangled with facing the lie she has been feeding when Amarra's boyfriend, Ray discovers Eva's identity due to the obvious differences between the two and reveals the truth to all at school (a douche move). Many times he has put Eva in the eye of danger but somehow if given the proper amount of time and circumstance I am pretty sure they would have fallen in love. Yes, I shipped them although I still loved Sean but I think that his and Eva's relationship is a bit cliché but it is satisfied the element of love of this story without it becoming a major theme in the novel. Familial love plays a more central theme throughout the story with Eva's relationship with the most powerful character in the novel, Mina Ma (I loved her so much) and her attachment to Amarra's family especially Nikhil (I wish more teenagers were as wise as him, heck I even some adults I know are stupider than him).
“I want to be human so badly it hurts.”
This novel was very thought-provoking as it posed many questions regarding what a person could consider a sense of self. Many times Eva questioned, "Am I human?" "Am I a monster?" and "Who am I but a copy?" This story was a one of survival, self-discovery and self-preservation in a world which is far too young to comprehend echoes and the Loom - what they consider as a violation of ethics rather than a second chance for grieving families. These questions were also major discussion points to the topic of cloning in our very recent times.
I highly enjoyed this book and being of Indian descent all the cultural references were highly relatable. Personally, I wish that the ending was not so ambiguous as we will never know if she really went back to Bangalore after being emancipated or ran away with Sean. The ending of the book was left at a good place for a sequel novel but alas to my dismay this is not to be. My fangirl heart deep inside is screaming "I want her and Ray" but sometimes the heart never gets what it wants just like Eva when she is forced to leave for India.
The Lost Girl was a fantastic read especially when one is recovering from a slump (like myself). The story is so well written as the world is very structured and is not dissimilar to our own. The novel follows the journey of an echo - people fashioned as clones, who are replacements in the case of the original's death - as she is teetering on what seems to be both the crossroads and breaking point of her life. 'Amarra', a girl who is the polar opposite to her other has felt her life passing by with no identity of who or what she is. The very thought of taking over another's life; living with her family, hanging out with her friends and loving her boyfriend, makes Amarra conflicted as what worth is her life if she can't do was she was created for.
**************SPOILERS AHEAD************************
Spoiler
Sheltered her whole life Eva can count on her hands how many people she has encountered in her sixteen years of existing. She is alive but has not lived, her only source of the outside world comes in the pages of her other's, "Amarra's" journal which she has been drilled to memorise daily. Woven by the Weavers at the Loom, Eva has prayed that her other would live a long prosperous life and never need her but as always the universe is not in her favour. The nightmare of Amarra's car crash means Eva has to adjust to a new reality when she has already found the startings of her own. This news couldn't have come at a worse time when she slowly falls for her guardian, Sean. She is delivered to Bangalore under the guise of secrecy as her very existence is threatened by India's Echo Laws and the overhanging dangers of hunters.Her life is far from a walk in the park or a ride in a tuk-tuk, each day she risks exposure and very soon she is entangled with facing the lie she has been feeding when Amarra's boyfriend, Ray discovers Eva's identity due to the obvious differences between the two and reveals the truth to all at school (a douche move). Many times he has put Eva in the eye of danger but somehow if given the proper amount of time and circumstance I am pretty sure they would have fallen in love. Yes, I shipped them although I still loved Sean but I think that his and Eva's relationship is a bit cliché but it is satisfied the element of love of this story without it becoming a major theme in the novel. Familial love plays a more central theme throughout the story with Eva's relationship with the most powerful character in the novel, Mina Ma (I loved her so much) and her attachment to Amarra's family especially Nikhil (I wish more teenagers were as wise as him, heck I even some adults I know are stupider than him).
“I want to be human so badly it hurts.”
This novel was very thought-provoking as it posed many questions regarding what a person could consider a sense of self. Many times Eva questioned, "Am I human?" "Am I a monster?" and "Who am I but a copy?" This story was a one of survival, self-discovery and self-preservation in a world which is far too young to comprehend echoes and the Loom - what they consider as a violation of ethics rather than a second chance for grieving families. These questions were also major discussion points to the topic of cloning in our very recent times.
I highly enjoyed this book and being of Indian descent all the cultural references were highly relatable. Personally, I wish that the ending was not so ambiguous as we will never know if she really went back to Bangalore after being emancipated or ran away with Sean. The ending of the book was left at a good place for a sequel novel but alas to my dismay this is not to be. My fangirl heart deep inside is screaming "I want her and Ray" but sometimes the heart never gets what it wants just like Eva when she is forced to leave for India.