Rating: 
Summary: Very Entertaining
Review: I enjoyed LOST. I am a huge Gregory Maguire fan. WICKED and CONFESSIONS... are two of my favorite reads. Now with LOST, this is Maguire's first real journey into creating characters from the ground up, not basing them on previously told stories (but still adding in flavor from classic work, this time Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge). And he succeeds admirably. I don't think there's been such a three-dimensional flawed main character from any other book I've read that lives so vivdly in the mind with all of her internal torment, angst, and unconscious railing. The whole time you're reading, you want to shake her and yell, 'what's the matter with you?'And of course, like any good book, just when you think you've got her torment completely figured out, LOST has turns you didn't expect. Really great writing. Of course, I have to admit, it wasn't what I was expecting after having read the previous works by Maguire, but I was pleasantly surprised at this latest effort. He's branching out, he's growing as a writer, and doggoneit, I'll go with him.
Rating:
Summary: "Lost" is no Hum-bug
Review: At first I was disappointed with "Lost." It has a slower start than Maguire's other novels and, at first, it did not seem to be a revision of a classic tale. The book concerns Winifed Rudge, a children's book writer and distant relative of the man claimed to be the basis for Dickens' character Scrooge. When we first meet Winifred, she is a fairly dislikable character. She has no sympathy to spare for anyone; there is no generosity in her. In fact, at one point in the book, another character refers to her as "Winnie-the-Scrooge." This is the point of the book. Rather than retell the story of Scrooge in Victorian times, Maguire has placed his Scrooge in modern times and asks some pertinent questions. What makes a person a Scrooge? What is it like to be a Scrooge? How do you stop being a Scrooge? As usual with Maguire's books, the answer to these questions is very interesting and unexpected. It is a novel well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: My first Maguire book...
Review: Left me wanting more! Perhaps it was to my advantage not having read any of his previous books, as I found "Lost" difficult to put down. There are indeed many layers to the plot, and more than one lost soul involved in the story. Part of the enjoyment for me was untangling the plots and sub-plots, to form a total picture of Winifred's reason for being the way she is.
Rating: 
Summary: if there was a "no star" rating...
Review: this book would get it from me. Like many other reviewers here, I too read "Wicked", and "Confessions..." and found them to be entertaining and creative. "Lost" however has to be the worst book I have ever read to date. I found myself getting increasingly annoyed just trying to get to the torturous end of the story, and when I was done I wanted to throw the book away! I actually feel I lost brain cells reading this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Maguire extends his reach and dazzles.
Review: I really loved both Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and when I received "Lost" for Christmas I was very pleasantly surprised - I had no idea it even existed. I put off reading it for nearly 2 months but when I finally started, I found I had to keep reading. As much as I liked his other two books, I am really happy that Maguire has not settled for simply reinventing another fairy tale. This is not an easy book, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of the various layers and themes but it is a very clever book with a protagonist you really learn to care for. Anyone who learned to love reading as a child will appreciate all the references to the British world of childrens books but the story is a serious one about human weakness, need, desire and despair. What disappoints me is the number of very negative reviews that appear here for what I feel is an excellent book. I am reminded that I really don't enjoy hearing people carry on about what they hate or what they think is ugly or stupid. I would much rather hear them tell me what they like and what moved them. If I don't like a book, a movie or music I cut my losses and stop wasting my time and I also don't want to spend a lot of time dwelling on how much I disliked it. This is not the retelling of A Christmas Carol - its a whole lot more - a story not easily forgotten.
Rating: 
Summary: what a change compared to his 2 other works...blah
Review: I have read both Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I found them both unbelievably good and quite entertaining and well written.
When I read this book, I was profoundly dissapointed. The story dragged and dragged, the settings were indistinct, and it seems that the first 40 pages served absolutely no purpose. The characters are dry and work against their 'personalities'.
I struggled through reading this book. The only reason I gave it 2 stars is because I like the author.
Rating:
Summary: lost
Review: I just finished reading this book and I have to say that "Lost" is the perfect title for this book, if you're referring to the reader. I read Gregory Maguires first two books and loved them. Wicked is by far one of my all time favorites. So I have to say I was so excited when I had heard he wrote another. This is by no means his best work and I thought a waste of my time, but needless to say if he writes another I will go right out and by it in the hopes that it will be as great as the first. I think he has to have something better than this. I'm not giving up on him yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best.
Review: I first read Wicked and thought it was an absolutely fabulous book - our entire book club did as well. So, like other reviewers, I was excited about reading his new book. While I agree that there were many plot threads, and things wandered a bit, I was also extremely curious to finish the book and find out what was going to happen. Gregory Maguire is still an excellent writer and the book, while not anywhere near as rich as Wicked, was worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Lost should be considered lost
Review: I thought this work was pathetic compared with Maguire's other works. I had become a big fan, but I had to struggle to get through this novel that had so much potential. Several teaser plot lines were set up, but none of the interesting ones were followed. What a shame.
Rating:
Summary: Lost Left Me Feeling Very Much So
Review: I wouldn't feel so disappointed in this book if I didn't find his previous two novels, ("Wicked, and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister)so creative and original."Lost" just seems to be bogged down by it's own ambition. Leaving behind the fairy tales of his previous books, Maguire sets his story in present day with a very vaguely drawn protagonist named Winifred Rudge. A writer who has stumbled out of the gate with a case of writers block, she goes to England to visit her cousin and do some research on her book. The cousin however is nowhere to be found, and instead she's confronted with two frightened contractors who while renovating the cousins house believe they have come upon something supernatural behind the walls of the chimney.
Maybe it was supposed to be suspenseful and nail biting. I didn't get it. I think alot of the problem for me was a woman I couldn't get a handle on who was the center of the story. Was she mean, nice? It's never really clear. Later a plot point is introduced (that I won't give away), that in another novel could be great,yet here it just baffled me even more in regards to Winnie. It was a bummer to get to the end and think: Who cares? If you've never read Maguire I'd suggest not starting here. Both "Wicked" and "...Stepsister" are much more interesting reads. "...Stepsister" is also being made into an ABC television movie of the week with Stockard Channing.
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