A review by cupiscent
The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

4.0

All the reasons why I enjoyed this are probably also the reasons it doesn't seem to have set the world on fire. From the book description I sort of expected a standard-ish YA book about a girl against the system, about identity and choice, probably with a love triangle of the old environment's boy versus the new environment's boy. But it's actually a lot more complicated, more about grief and conforming to expectation, responsibility and self-determination. The heroine is noted as "reckless", but I found her far more sensible, introspective and aware than I'm used to in a YA heroine (so it was really interesting to watch her wrestle with her impossible situations). And that love triangle is a far murkier thing.

It wasn't all wine and roses. There are some brow-furrowing elements of the world. Some aspects of the Loom's operation seem logistically impossible (my major concern being

Spoiler

how on earth do you have short-haired echoes, of either gender, when they must not reveal what they are, but they're all marked on the back of the neck?

) and the Weavers throughout manifested an "ineffable immortals playing games with the lives of men" that never quite came through in genuine plot intrigue. But I feel like this was meant to be a series and sadly never got to be, so perhaps those things would've been unravelled further if given space.

Probably more like three-and-a-half, rounded up because I'm generally feeling benevolent towards this book.