Rating: 
Summary: A delight for those who loved to read as kids
Review: Without question, Lost is a novel designed to delight those who, like Winifred Ridge, the main character, had childhoods steeped in British literature for children. As she moves through the story, Winnie delights the reader with an array of quotes and references ranging from Charles Dickens to Kenneth Grahame, Lewis Carroll and Edward Gorey.
As with the majority of his adult novels, Gregory Maguire infuses well-known literature (The Wizard of Oz in the case of Wicked and Cinderella in the instance of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister) with modern settings and sensibilities. It may even have become his trademark. Yet with Lost, Maguire takes his thematic material further into a synthesis of multiple stories and factual events (A Christmas Carol, Peter Pan, suggestions of Jack the Ripper just to name a few) creating a richer, deeper level of story telling.
The novel is as character driven as Wicked, and again Maguire paints a touchingly human and flawed character as he created with Elphaba and I grew to love Winnie is much the same manner as I did the 'witch' of Wicked. But Lost is a somewhat more complex and ambitious work than Confessions or Wicked and it requires more of the reader. It functions as a mystery novel on both the supernatural and psychological levels and never failed to keep me entranced. Yes, the ending is thoughtfully indirect and demands a bit of detective work from the reader, but that is simply a part of the charm. I found Lost to be thoroughly spooky, captivating and enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: funny ha-ha, funny odd --- quirky
Review: Author Maguire has a very peculiar mind, yet endless fascinating. There are intriguing similarities between this and his prior work, the incredible WICKED and the awfully fun CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER, yet he heads into various new territories here. Certainly not as taut as the earliers novels, this one does meander quite a bit and by the end, author, characters, plot and reader do seem quite lost. Perhaps that was the intent. Still, this is brainy good times with endless references to children's literature and plenty of scholarly folderol, less stiffly British than diva A. S. Byatt and with Maguire's resoundingly American timbre and elan. Not one of the author's best efforts, but still quite the amusing read.
Rating:
Summary: Marley was dead to begin with.
Review: This is more than likely not going to be the book that makes you a Gregory Maguire fan, but for those of you who already are you'll find that Mr. Maguire can write stories that have never been told and he can write in a modern setting. The story starts off as being rather odd because one hasn't the foggiest idea how adoption would tie in with Ebenezer Scrooge. Still, when Winnie finally arrives in London and finds that her cousin is not at home, but 2 odd construction workers are, the reader will be hooked. The amazing thing about this novel is that Gregory Maguire manages to keep the mystery going all the way to the last page. The book does borrow from several sources and offers interesting views of the original works. Once again Gregory Maguire has created a new world, but unlike 17th century Holland and Oz, we can visit this one. I applaud Gregoy Maguire for his fabulous work and for the fact that he publishes some of the best contemporary fiction out there.
Rating: 
Summary: i'm lost
Review: lost is extemely disappointing... maguire's other novels were based on other tales, and focused on giving them freshness via different perspectives. "wicked," maguire's absolutely amazing retelling of "the wizard of oz," was not only a twist on perspective, it was also a commentary about racism, xenophobia, and beauty. the wizard was a terrifying orwellian character similar to big brother. "confessions of an ugly step sister" is the equally compelling retelling of cinderella, and focuses on issues of class and social expectations. "lost" lacks both a central tale and a social context. it is supposed to be a mix of scrooge, peter pan, and jack the ripper -- somehow though it barely relates to any of them and gets "lost" in its own rambling. i hope maguire will have more focus and social criticism in his next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak threads a weak tapestry make
Review: So many contemporary novels make use of the multi-threaded narrative, layering the reader with seemingly irrelevant stories whose intertwining becomes visible at the end in a shocking twist or three--Eco, Palliser, Byatt, Pears come to mind. They are laced with literary references--Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Dickens, Browning, Trollope. Intertextuality itself becomes a character every bit as discrete and integral as any postmodern hero can be. Meaning is teased out from in-between the narratives, until they collide with pyrotechnic force in a wildly satisfying ending. Surely this was the type of novel Maguire was hoping to write. And as surely as setting forth all these elements doesn't in itself ensure a good book, he has failed. From the novel's central conceit--a novelist struggling to write a novel--you feel immediately that the author may be identifying with her all too well. Every semester, a creative writing professor once complained, someone writes about someone struggling to write. What we get is a ghost story, which at times has its pull. This pull is mitigated by the onslaught of utterly irrelevant and unconvincing literary and historical references: Jack The Ripper, Scrooge, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland. The problem is, they are labored; they feel inserted. In other novels of this genre, the references insert themselves--take Aristotle out of Name of the Rose, and what do you have? Take the literary sensibilities of the Restoration out of An Instance of the Fingerpost, and what is left? Dull melodrama. Drop all of the references out of this book, and it is fundamentally unchanged, because they turn out to be no more than underdeveloped red herrings. Subtotal after tax? Dull melodrama. The ending, which is particularly unsatisfying, has all the insight of a made for TV movie--and I don't mean HBO here. No, rather what makes sense of this multilayered, cross-century ghost story of love and betrayal is nothing other than a crassly cheesy Freudianism, dumbed down for the masses. This book is not entirely without value. It has good ideas, and at times there is interesting dramatic tension. What is frustrating is that these ideas seem to be wasted, as they are just not developed or are resolved too briefly. (...) the only way you can have this much going on and maintain coherence is if these subplots are connected by a conspiracy or secret or some other enigma. Instead, it seems to be a stream of accidents, whose connection is incidental--the experiences of a self-indulgent whiner of a protagonist. In the end you just don't care.
Rating:
Summary: Lost My Money
Review: IF YOU ARE EXPECTING A BOOK ABOUT SCROOGE FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK...Unlike Maguires other works which brillanly retell familiar stories from "the other side," Lost is a self-fulfilling prophecy...The story of Scrooge and why he is saving money could have been very witty, clever and interesting...however the mish-mash (Peter Pan, Scrooge, Jack the Ripper, yada yada yada) of story lines in the end leave the reader wondering...I wish my nightstand had come alive, shaking or my on-line shopping basket would suddenly start bleeding as a sign warning me DO NOT BUY THIS book...Instead I recomend you go try "Wicked" it is worthy of a read....
Rating:
Summary: Lost in the shuffle?
Review: This is the first Maguire book I have read, to be honest, so much of what I'm about to say could be construed as the limitations of a neophyte. While I enjoyed the numerous "red herrings" found in the novel, I think the glut somewhat dissipated the head of steam that the novelist was building up. Essentially, the first two thirds of the novel were absorbing, but because of the careful construction of storylines --the adoption agencies, the gay couple, the relationship that John and Allegra have/not, the trials and tribulations of Rasia, etc.-- the denoument comes about as an afterthought.
Rating:
Summary: A THINKING PERSON'S BOOK
Review: Maguire"s LOST can easily be looked at as having a mixed up story line . After reading this book and thinking through the main elements, it is a great story that brings out the ways guilt is often dealt with. Our thinking often brings out ghostly
thoughts that disguise the truth. Read this with some thought and you will appreciate what the author is trying to say.
Rating:
Summary: Lost
Review: Gregory Maguire's books 'Wicked' and 'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister' were wonderful, great reads. However, I found 'Lost'a gread disappointment! It was uninteresting and boring.
crc
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I ordered this a couple of weeks ago and I just finished it lately. This is my first and probably last Gregory Maguire book. Since you have already read the above reviews and know the basic plot information I will skip that and give my thoughts on the book. This book is supposedly a ghost story. It did nothing to frighten you or give you that "creepy" feeling a good ghost story does. I did not empathize with the heroine. In fact, I found her annoying and not at all sympathetic. In a good thriller you should feel that the hero is in some sort of imminent terrible danger sometime during the story. I never felt that the heroine was in danger. And finally, the ending was just too convenient, like a made for TV movie.
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