Books

Book Review: The Lost Boys by Lilian Carmine

The Lost Boys lives up to its title. By this sentence, I mean that The Lost Boys makes me feel lost. And it made me think, boy, this book isn’t as great as I expected it to be!

Warning: Ranting ahead with the occasional all caps to show my annoyance with this book.

Let’s start off with the good thing(s) about this book.

Well, Lilian Carmine is pretty skilled at coming up with names. Joey Gray? Tristan Halloway? OMG, I’m literally in love! I love how the girl’s name is Joey. I mean, come on, that’s so cool! And Tristan? So cool.

Now onto the bad.

The Lost Boys is so fast paced that Joey basically falls in love and goes to boarding school within two pages. Or around ten. Honestly, only two percent into the book, and everything’s already happened! Lilian Carmine sure wants reader to feel happy quickly. Forget about love taking time! Let’s just make everything love at first sight, so the readers will feel satisfied in ten pages!

Yeah! Every reader but me.

As for the characters themselves, I don’t know which character I like the least. (I kind of got annoyed really quickly with them all.) Joey, for one, is a whiny baby kangaroo teenager. All that she does is complain without trying to be proactive or think about what to do in suspenseful situations! Honestly, she’s one of the most passive characters I’ve ever had to read about.

Tristan Halloway, it isn’t Halloween. Not everything is dramatic, you know. Maybe that’s why you and Joey get along so well. Joey likes to whine, and you like to be overdramatic. One true pairing, you know. I totally ship you guys. Well, as much as a hater can ship.

As for the writing style, don’t even get me started. The best books are concise, with every single word being important. Most words in The Lost Boys don’t add significant meaning to the overall story. They try to fill up all 512 pages, but they can’t fill the lack of depth in the overall story. Joey’s voice is reminiscent of the girl in chick flicks who tries too hard to be popular. Joey tries too hard to be a good narrator that it backfires.

And annoys the hell out of me.

All in all, I totally suggest reading The Lost Boys. Even if you don’t like it, you’ll still enjoy the unintended comedy, so it’s a win-win situation.

Rating: 2 out of 10

Publisher: Ebury Press (September 26th, 2013)

Source: Netgalley

Length: 512 pages (Paperback)

Genre: YA, Romance, Paranormal

Valerie Zhang

Valerie is sixteen. She attends a boarding school near Boston, where she writes, reads, and attempts to be a studious student. She's too lazy to write the rest of this bio, so follow her on Twitter @torquoiseworld because shameless self-promotion is alive and thriving!