Lost Boys : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Horrible ending ruins an otherwise interestingly creepy book
Review: A young Mormon family moves to North Carolina and struggles with the adjustment. The father, Step (short for Stephen), works in an awful job, the wife, DeAnn, is pregnant with their 4th child, and financial troubles don't leave them many options. The one with the biggest problem adjusting, however, is their oldest son, Stevie, who is about 8 years old. His school teacher treats him horribly and he has no friends, except for an increasing group of imaginary boys. Obviously, these turn out to be the same kids who've gone missing in town recently, but the parents don't make this connection until it's too late.

This book does NOT have a happy ending. The characters are well-written and it's easy to relate with their struggles, and Card's perception of membership in the Mormon Church is rather interesting (as a member myself I wasn't sure if he was trying to portray it in a positive or negative light!). And while the story develops slowly Card is quite masterful in creating and building an overall 'creepy' feeling. But he honestly couldn't have come up with a more horrible ending. I saw no "spark of light" or uplifting message here. It left me feeling sick and empty and awful and if the book had been mine I'd have thrown it in the fire right then. As a parent of young children I really don't need the additional worry and feeling of helplessness this book leaves you with.

I read novels to be entertained, and the ending of this book was NOT entertaining. I only want to forget it.

Rating:
Summary: Mormon family trials in the small-town South
Review: I have read a lot of Orson Scott Card and I have enjoyed almost all of it. This book is no exception. This book was quite a bit different though. It is not in OSC's usual genre of Sci-fi or Fantasy. Nevertheless, I had no trouble finding myself deeply immersed in this family's problems. I could relate 100% as a father and employee. Very well written and will keep you entertained to the end.

I particularly the intra-ward wrangling. While I have never been in a ward quite like that, there are some real characters in every congregation.

Rating:
Summary: My first Card Book
Review: This was the first Orson Card book I ever read, I found it in a second hand book store in Bakersfield. As I read the story and the LDS (Mormon) elements fascinated me as a convert to the LDS church myself. As I read further into the story I almost wondered if this was set as a piece of anti- Mormon propoganda.. As it laid the bad out with the good for you to examine. The story so much shows what it's like to be a mMormon in a Non-Mormon town it's scary. However as I finished the story I realized it shows how the faith of our people affects our life for good and ill. The wonderful story of a loving family in a completely different horor story is not to be missed. So if you like ghost stories, if you like family stories, or If you are interested in how different cultures fit together, you will love this story. I've read it several time since and still get misty eyed each time I finish.

Rating:
Summary: 2 different books, 2 different ratings
Review: This is a strange book for Mr. Card. It has a horror/thriller story of ghostly friends and disappearing children with a nice selection of potential bad guys, but it is interwoven with a story that could be titled "Diary of a Morman Family". OSC explains how the characters are roughly based on his family members, but does not state whether his family is Morman. The second story is an attempt to sell Mormanism by showing the family as a good hearted American family of Mormans, and uses secondary characters to allow the principals to down play some of the common criticism of Morman doctrine. It comes across as a definite propaganda piece on Mormanism. This may be one book that would be better listened to in an abridged audio presentation. If the horror/thriller elements were left in their entirety, and the propaganda filtered out, you would have a good, fast paced story. I give the horror story a five and the propaganda a one for an average of three. The only reason I give the propaganda a one is it might have merit in a classroom on the study of religious proaganda.


Rating:
Summary: Powerful, suspenseful
Review: This is great mystery and suspense. If you like being held to the edge of your seat without gore and blood, this book will scare you and simultaneously keep you turning every page. Card writes great believable characters. Parents of you children may find this too close to home to read though.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting end, but largely predictable and mostly dull
Review: The end of this story has quite a twist that will give you chills. The problem is, the very end is the ONLY part of the book that is suspenseful or chilling. To get there, you have to get through long and very UNexiciting depictions of everyday family life and Mormon values. To be fair, these depictions are very well-written. The glimpse into Mormon life was interesting (for a while). The characters were likeable and I worried about their welfare as the story went along. However, their marital spats and moral wranglings and daily routines got quite tedious by the end. The author managed to be impressively unoffensive with his religious preachings, but there IS quite a lot of preaching as the book goes along, which also got tiresome. The whole long build-up was a complete mismatch for the sudden ending. It was obvious all along that Stevie's "imaginary friends" were the ghosts of the dead boys, and the parent's failure to question their child enough to figure this out was maddening. There are several candidates for the "bad guy" and the initial obvious choice is of course not the right one, but the initial "red herrings" are exposed long before the end so that the real bad guy is no surprise. The end gave me a chill and wrenched my heartstrings, but it was a cheat-- after lulling me into boredom it then slapped me awake barely in time to watch it end and be done. There was no catharsis. Orson Scott Card could have (and has!) done much better.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing, but a good read
Review: Its interesting to see some of the parallel stories within Card's books. When I first read Lost Boys, for some reason I saw many similarities with his book Lovelock, co-authored by Kathy Kidd. But you could make the same argument for Ender's Game. In many of his stories, you have this tragic hero, and at the end of each you have overwhelming loss...with a little bit of light. And yet that flicker of light is strong enough to stand against the darkness of the loss. That is how this book made me feel - that underneath everything that goes amiss in your life, there is still that spark of light.

So what is the book actually about? Originally written as if was Card's own family story, its about a neighborhood murderer, and how their son tries to help the young victims. There really isn't a happy ending here, folks -- its a clear departure from his previous works, and its my understanding that this book is one of the first in a line of stories created with the intent of being made into film. This would definitely make a good movie - something with a Silence of the Lambs feel, though.

Rating:
Summary: Great book by a great author
Review: This book does very well, though the story starts slowly the characters are put across believably and comfortably. The depth of development with each person and their relationships is done nicely and the twisted side of a person comes across well too. But the clincher for me in this novel is the ending which is well written and surprising to read. He's done well for himself again.

Rating:
Summary: A Painful Lesson in The 'MUNDANE '
Review: The Lost Boys is advertised as being a suspence/ horror novel the tradtion of Stephen King or Dean Koontz, instead we are treated to one of the most tedious and painfully mundane novels ever published in the modern era.
It begins predictably enough for books of the thriller genre. A family of five struggling with the everyday hum-drum ups and downs of suburban life in America. Okay, we can all relate to that right? No problem there. We spend time with the Fletcher family, getting to know them and thier problems, intimitcies, history, and daily routines.
From this point the story should take off. After we've become comfortable and familar with the Fletcher clan the author, Mr. Card, should take the reader on the wild, white knuckle, pulse racing, edge of your seat ride that we've come to love about the horror suspensce universe.
Instead the Fletchers simply shuffle about thier painfully boring lives. There's no passion, no gamble, no daring in any of them. They whine about the carpet of thier new home, worry about paying the bills, debate over who should take the eight year old to school, battle crickets that infest thier bedrooms, join the local church, the husband,Step, hates his new job and boss, Deanne the wife, obsesses neurotically over her pregnancy and annoying nieghbors.......
I'm not kidding folks, this is as exciting as it gets. The novel drifts along like a dead whale on the open ocean for over FOUR HUNDRED PAGES! Mr. Card takes the reader to a previously uncharted abyss of boredom.
Then comes the religous nonsense. The Fletchers(much like Mr. Card and his family I bet) are Mormons. They drone on tediously about the Gospel and who is or isn't rightious in their local church. Whole chapters are dedicated to who will sing in the chior or read jingoistic dogma from the bible at next Sundays service.
Then the eight year old, Stevie, begins talking to imaginary people and has problems at school. The Fletchers feel it stems from a teacher who gave him a C on a project instead of an A. So, Step decides to conduct his own investigation ala' Woodward and Bernstien to root out and uncover the corruption that has infected his sons second grade classroom.
So he confronts his sons second grade teacher with a tape recorder hidden in his shirt and interogates her with a ferocity not seen since the Spanish Inquisition, terrorizing her until she is brought to tears and nervous breakdown.
Isn't this guy a Morman? you ask. Doesn't he believe in love and compassion? You sure wouldn't know it the way the Fletchers condemn and ridicule anything and everything non Morman from pop songs to a shrink who tries to help Stevie from his various neuroses.
At page 414 something actually interesting actually occurs. A cop shows up and says little Stevie has some type of special power that allows him to communicate with chidren who have been recently abducted. The problem is, at this point in the book, I was so bored I was far beyond caring.
Look, in a nut shell let me explain this book. Lost Boys is religous xenophobia trying to pass itself off as popular fiction. The deadliest threat the free world faces today is religous extremism whether it be Christian or Islamic. This book not only promotes extremism it revels in it.



Rating:
Summary: card's worst
Review: First off, Card is my favorite author period.

I read an essay of his where he states that Lost Boys is his best work. Sorry, but I couldn't even finish it...it bored me to tears. He should have left well enough alone with the short story (which was absolutely perfect).