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A review by jampsonn16
Fragments of the Lost by Megan Miranda
2.0
Sadly this was just not for me. Maybe if I'd given Miranda's adult novels a try first, I could really get into her writing style and slow development of the story, but unfortunately this didn't work for me here. In short, this story is not really a thriller - it's teenage romance drama that has an air of mystery, all of which isn't really explored until 3/4 into the book. If you don't like slow-moving plots and jam-packed endings, this may not be for you either.
One of the worst things about this story was the relationship, which is unfortunately the main part. Our two lovebirds, Caleb and Jess, date for a year, break up, and then two months later Caleb is presumed dead when his car goes over a bridge during a stormy night. Jess is tasked with cleaning out his room by his mom and she has all these flashbacks of their time spent together as she goes through his things. All you need to know is that majority of this book is Jess looking through Caleb's things, finding a pencil, then having a 15-20 minute flashback of the pencil's history and what it meant for their relationship. In general, Miranda spends a lot of time detailing this relationship and explaining the memories, yet I still was never invested in it, nor did I believe it enough to understand Jess' motives throughout the story.
I'm sad this didn't work for me because it had all the pieces for things to have gone right!
But books that start this slow and don't get you invested by the halfway point are not typically going to redeem themselves in the last few chapters. I'm not writing Miranda off forever, but this book was a huge swing and a miss for me.
One of the worst things about this story was the relationship, which is unfortunately the main part. Our two lovebirds, Caleb and Jess, date for a year, break up, and then two months later Caleb is presumed dead when his car goes over a bridge during a stormy night. Jess is tasked with cleaning out his room by his mom and she has all these flashbacks of their time spent together as she goes through his things. All you need to know is that majority of this book is Jess looking through Caleb's things, finding a pencil, then having a 15-20 minute flashback of the pencil's history and what it meant for their relationship. In general, Miranda spends a lot of time detailing this relationship and explaining the memories, yet I still was never invested in it, nor did I believe it enough to understand Jess' motives throughout the story.
I'm sad this didn't work for me because it had all the pieces for things to have gone right!
But books that start this slow and don't get you invested by the halfway point are not typically going to redeem themselves in the last few chapters. I'm not writing Miranda off forever, but this book was a huge swing and a miss for me.