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A review by ofpensandswords
Where the Lost Ones Go by Akemi Dawn Bowman
4.0
Where the Lost Ones Go, by Akemi Dawn Bowman, follows Eliot, a girl who becomes obsessed with ghosts and paranormal activity when her grandmother passes away. When her family moves to a small town and she hears rumors of ghosts in a nearby house called Honeyfield Hall, she immediately tries to investigate. She finds the ghosts she is seeking, learning that they are trapped between worlds and need her help to move on, enlisting the help of Hazel, Honeyfield Hall's owner's granddaughter, to do so.
I really enjoyed this book! I don't always love ghost stories, but the promise of a middle-grade novel dealing with memory and grief while also featuring a queer romance was too good to pass up, so I'm really glad I gave this a try.
This is fundamentally a story about grieving and coming to terms with the death of a loved one, so if you're just looking for a paranormal mystery then this probably isn't the book for you. If you're looking for a poignant and touching story that happens to be set amid a mystery, however, then I think you'll really enjoy this book.
Eliot's relationship with her Babung is truly at the heart of the story, and I think that that was done really well. There are some books about grief I've read that truly don't flesh out the relationships enough for the reader to truly invest themselves in it, but that's absolutely not the case here. You truly fall in love with all of the characters, even those who aren't present.
I also really appreciated the low-key queer representation between Eliot and Hazel. I know that seeing casual queer rep in middle grade books would have meant the world to me as a middle schooler, so I'm really grateful to see that becoming more of a thing.
My only criticisms about the book are the fact that the plot could have been a bit better placed (it felt quite slow at times), and the fact that Eliot desperately needs a lot of therapy, but her parents aren't really coping with their own grief, much less helping her. Overall, though, I'm giving this 4/5 stars and highly recommend it for anybody looking for a thoughtful middle grade novel.
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I really enjoyed this book! I don't always love ghost stories, but the promise of a middle-grade novel dealing with memory and grief while also featuring a queer romance was too good to pass up, so I'm really glad I gave this a try.
This is fundamentally a story about grieving and coming to terms with the death of a loved one, so if you're just looking for a paranormal mystery then this probably isn't the book for you. If you're looking for a poignant and touching story that happens to be set amid a mystery, however, then I think you'll really enjoy this book.
Eliot's relationship with her Babung is truly at the heart of the story, and I think that that was done really well. There are some books about grief I've read that truly don't flesh out the relationships enough for the reader to truly invest themselves in it, but that's absolutely not the case here. You truly fall in love with all of the characters, even those who aren't present.
I also really appreciated the low-key queer representation between Eliot and Hazel. I know that seeing casual queer rep in middle grade books would have meant the world to me as a middle schooler, so I'm really grateful to see that becoming more of a thing.
My only criticisms about the book are the fact that the plot could have been a bit better placed (it felt quite slow at times), and the fact that Eliot desperately needs a lot of therapy, but her parents aren't really coping with their own grief, much less helping her. Overall, though, I'm giving this 4/5 stars and highly recommend it for anybody looking for a thoughtful middle grade novel.
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.