Rating: 
Summary: A different kind of horror story than you're used to
Review: Peter Straub's last few books have been clunkers - and that's being extremely kind. For several years he has written far below his abilities. The man who wrote such masterpieces as "Ghost Story", "Shadowland", and "Floating Dragon" produced truly awful books with names such as "Mr X" and "Koko".Now, however, Straub has returned to his glory days with his latest work, "Lost Boy, Lost Girl". And while the style is typical Straub, the story is quite different than you'll be used to. Because the horror in this story is solidly based in reality - a serial killer is on the loose - but there are definite elements of a typical ghost story in this novel. The difference is, the spectral elements in this Straub novel do not have evil intentions. Selfish intentions? Possibly, but they are most definitely not evil. There are two distinct stories going on here. One is the search for the aforementioned serial killer. The other is, basically, fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill's search for the purpose of his existence. He's helped along in this, after a few false starts, by the ghost that lives in the house behind his. The conclusion of this second story is, of necessity, a sad one. It's also somewhat unfulfilling. But I doubt that we've seen the last of Mark Underhill.
Rating: 
Summary: Ambitious, unsettling, memorable.
Review: Peter Straub returns to Millhaven, Wisconsin in this, his sixteenth novel. To complement the familiar locale, he's also chosen a familiar protagonist and narrator, his alter ego/collaborator, author Tim Underhill. Tim returns to his hometown under grim circumstances, traveling to the Midwest to attend the funeral of his sister-in-law, Rachel. Wife to Tim's distant brother Philip, and mother of teenaged Mark, Rachel committed suicide by tying a plastic bag over her head and then slitting her wrists. Tragically, Mark was the one to discover her body. The situation deteriorates further when Mark, who had been behaving strangely, disappears some two weeks later. Local authorities conclude that Mark may have fallen victim to a serial killer who is using Millhaven and its environs as his stalking ground. Tim again returns to Millhaven, this time to aid in the search for his nephew. Assisted by long time friend
Tom Pasmore, Tim uncovers some truths he is loath to face. Alternating between the first and third person, lost boy lost girl contains some of the most effective and moving writing of Straub's distinguished career. At once a mystery, ghost story, romance, and thriller, it's a resonant study of love, loss, grief, and regret. At the heart of the novel is the relationship between Tim and Mark--Mark representing to his Uncle the
son he never had. Like Mark, who became obsessed with an abandoned house and with his family's history, Tim becomes obsessed with his nephew, refusing to believe in the possibility that the boy's bright light may have been extinguished. As Tim pieces together the story of the events leading to Mark's disappearance, readers are presented with a dilemma: Has the
narrator, in his grief, become unreliable? Straub provides no easy answers, the book's ambiguous ending allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. Skillfully mingling the familiar conventions of the horror and thriller genres with the larger, more ambitious visions of serious literature, Straub displays a delicate touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a deep understanding of the fragility and complexity of familial relationships. Unsettling, elegiac, and memorable, lost boy lost girl may come to be regarded as a major turning point in Straub's career--spare and intimate, this outstanding effort may win him an even broader readership. That would certainly be a welcome development, both for the author, and for those yet to discover the magic of his prose.
Rating: 
Summary: And the Climax would be where?
Review: At first i was drawn into Peter Straub's latest novel. I think all those who have read it will say that it has a very gripping rising action. I was completely in another world while i was reading it. The book gets you ready for some kind of huge, scary, mind blowing climax in the story. But then it just, well, disappoints you. And you basically end up with nothing more at the end of the book than you had in the middle. I do however have to say that it was well written, that is to say i liked his writeing style. So i will most likely read more of his work, but as for Lost Boy Lost Girl, i have to say 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A masterwork of subtle horror and very real emotion.
Review: What do writers do? They remake the world as they see it, telling a lie so convincing that for a while -- or maybe forever -- we believe that it is the truth.
Straub's "lost boy lost girl" is a perfect example of this. It's the shortest book Straub has written in years -- just short of 300 pages -and yet it is at once his most unnerving and most poignant novel. And it gives a whole new meaning to the critic's cliche about a book "working on different levels."
Tim Underhill, a character who has appeared in several of Straub's other novels, including "Mystery" and "Koko," is returning to his hometown of Millhaven, Wisconsin. His sister-in-law has just died (only later does Tim realize that she committed suicide), and he is concerned about the well-being of his 15-year-old nephew, Mark.
That concern takes on an even greater urgency, when Tim learns that Millhaven is being plagued by a serial killer whose victims are all teen-aged boys.
(...)
Straub has incorporated into this short tale elements of just about every kind of thriller -- serial killer, ghost story, haunted house, the great detective, the master criminal, crimes of the past affecting the present -- and the sense of reality within this novel keeps shifting with subtle and disquieting shudders, as the atmosphere of the scenes fluctuate and point of view changes.
One can read "lost boy lost girl" as a dark fantasy, and come away from it completely satisfied. But that's not the very simple and tragic story really being told in "lost boy lost girl."
At one point, one character reacts to the fantastic aspects of this story by saying, "Yeah, that happens all the time. In books, maybe."
To which Tim Underhill, the novelist, replies, "Exactly."
And that's when you realize that what you've been reading maybe is not what you thought it was, that just as Mark Underhill tries to deal with his mother's suicide by delving into what might be a haunted house, so does his uncle try to create a story that relieves, or at least forestalls, the real horror of what has been going on in the city of Millhaven.
That's also when you realize that, in "lost boy lost girl," Peter Straub has written a masterpiece to rival his classic "Ghost Story."
Rating:
Summary: A minimalist masterpiece
Review: Straub's work in lost boy, lost girl is a brilliant synthesis of Henry James and Jorge Luis Borges, with characters and setting that are uniquely Peter Straub. Coming in at around 85,000 words by rough estimate, Straub still manages to incorporate the mulitiple levels of meaning and rich characterization that I have always admired in his work. It leaves me shaking my head in admiration. It's an intricate puzzle of a book with some of the most unflinching looks at the dark complexities of familial ties that you're likely to read. The mystery in which the story is framed circles around and around the central relationships in a troubled family, riffing on them like a Coltrane solo. With moments of genuine terror, this is one of the best books of the year, and well worth your time and money. I look forward to reading it again.
Rating:
Summary: Great storytelling
Review: This is storytelling at its best. Very few authors can carry off this kind of material, but Peter Straub does, and does it with great wit and style. You'll find yourself literally pulled into this great book. The premise of the novel is great, but even greater is Straub's execution of the material. When you hear people talk about page turner, this is what they're speaking of. Als recommended: BARK OF THE DOGWOOD by J.T. McCrae
Rating:
Summary: Bloom is off the Blue Rose
Review: I was a little disappointed with Peter Straub's latest "Blue Rose"-inspired novel, LOST BOY LOST GIRL. For the most part, it just doesn't rise to the occasion, and ultimately comes off too effervescent and vague for its own good.
When the novel was released last fall amid a flurry of positive press (including a glowing review in Entertainment Weekly) I was only too eager to rejoin Tim Underhill and company among the grimy, troubled streets of Milhaven, scene of the previous "Blue Rose" novels KOKO, MYSTERY, and THE THROAT (three of my alltime favorite novels) for another go-round.
This time out, unfortunately, not that much happens. The story involves the writer Tim Underhill's teenage nephew, Mark, and details the youth's obsessive fascination with an abandoned Millhaven house. As the young boy digs into the mystery of what went on in that house, the hard edges of reality get blurred and you find yourself wandering, along with Mark, along the dark twisting paths of the psyche that come seeping in from the edges.
The writing is pure Straub elegance, and as always, is a pleasure to read. Straub also revisits many of his usual themes here (exploration of the past, plumbing the inner well of guilt). The problem is that there aren't enough external goings-on in the story to hang the mantle of ephemeral spookiness on, and you end up with a feeling of much-ado-about-nothing.
If you're a devoted Straub fan, it's certainly worth picking up a copy of LOST BOY LOST GIRL (though you might want to wait for the paperback). Otherwise, I suggest you check out KOKO, the excellent beginning to the "Blue Rose" series.
Rating:
Summary: Not His Best, But Still Engaging
Review: Peter Straub is an outstanding writer. He simply can't write a bad book. He doesn't have it in him. However, like the rest of us mortals, I think sometimes he just gets tired, and can't rise to the level of master of horror that he nearly always obtains. A book like "Lost Boy, Lost Girl" is the result of Peter Straub on an off day. It's a good book; but not excellent like "Koko" or "Floating Dragon". The plot jumps a bit -- some things are not explained as well as they should be. Again, we have a "haunted" house; I wish sometimes he would move beyond this metaphor. We have a few character types that we have seen before as well; for example, here in this book we have another "Davey". Yet this book is still a million times better than most of the other horror novels on the shelf these days. Read it, but don't expect TOO much. It's very light.
Rating: 
Summary: Another fan of Straub's Blue Rose and Tim Underhill
Review: Good idea, lots of potential but it reads like an outline, a first draft. It was like eating chinese food. Needed a little more depth. The story needed a strong or stronger bond between Underhill and the boy Mark to of made it work.
Rating:
Summary: A review from Jamian Snow, author SHROUDED INSANITY
Review: Lost Boy, Lost Girl is a chilling tale and a suspense-filled page turner. This is one of the real scary ones!! A MUST READ!!
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