Rating: 
Summary: Suspenseful Plot
Review: I started reading this book when I was ten. It gave me the creeps, yet I couldn't put it down... Halfway through the book, I lost it somewhere in the endless piles of books that fill my room. I found it while cleaning four years later. Even with four years past, I remembered the book vividly. The story and the creepy feelings it inspired had stuck with me all that time. Generally, I don't like horror stories- I don't really enjoy the fear they bring, but I decided to finish the book anyway. I just NEEDED to know how the story ended. Actually, I wouldn't exactly label the book as horror. It is very suspenseful- the need to know drives you to finish the book all in one sitting. The feeling the story gives you overall is what is frightening, not neccesarily the individual events. I applaud the author in his ability to manipulate the audience into a state of fear without them actually realizing exactly what in the story is making them feel the way they do!!! I think the deep characters added greatly to the book... you really get to know them. Hmmmm, I should probably add my feelings on the religious topics in this book as it seems to be a factor that either makes or breaks the book for many people. There is a TON of stuff in it about the Morman religion. I personally didn't mind it... It kind of helps you to understand why certain characters act as they do. It didn't seem preachy to me... but I guess that all depends on how accepting you are of other people's beliefs (or hearing about them).
Rating:
Summary: You Can't Go Wrong With This Book
Review: LOST BOYS was my introduction to Orson Scott Card. The author is known mostly for his work in the science fiction genre, an area in which I've seen more bad than good. For science fiction, Philip K. Dick is an excellent choice, but I seldom delve into science fiction by authors who I am unfamiliar with. LOST BOYS isn't science fiction, however. It fits more closely in the horror genre, so I took a chance -- one that I'll never regret. Rarely have I seen an author do such a good job of developing his characters and the situation they lived in. Even if the central plot were removed from the story, I'd have enjoyed it. The early software business, the relationships that the boy's father had with his co-workers, family, and those around him, and an underlying theme of morality and ethics; these combined to create an environment that I enjoyed being a part of, if only as an observer, and for a little while. THE LOST BOYS introduced me to Orson Scott Card. I have since bought everything he has in print and a few that are not, and I have never been disappointed in anything he has written. THE LOST BOYS is special though, and in a way that I think goes beyond the more obvious fact that it was my first OSC novel. It is indeed a story that stays with you.
Rating:
Summary: The characters are the key
Review: I finished reading this book last night and it has affected me so strongly that I feel the need to express my thoughts about it. If you read the back cover of the book, it leads you to believe that this book is a thriller. It isn't. This book is about the relationships that matter most in the world. God, family and church. Card brings the Fletchers to life so brilliantly that I almost feel that I know them personally. Their struggles, their joys and their ultimate sorrow that left me crying my eyes out for an hour. Yes, there are some tense moments, and even though this book has a shocking ending, it is the characters that propel the plot. Since I am Mormon, I understood a lot of the terminology and culture that surround the main characters in this book, but I think that Card explains the theology enough for anyone to understand it. Read this book. It is beautiful. It will leave you with a better perspective of the blessings you have in life.
Rating:
Summary: Best So Far
Review: I am a young man of only seventeen and this book is the most disturbing and yet interesting one I have read yet. I am not old enough to have read a great deal of books, but I have read more than my fair share. The author of this book is very intelligent because he knew where to hit a reader. Anyone who has read this book will know what I mean when I say, it hurt yet I was kinda glad at the end. If you read this book then you can understand to. It's a book that I think any parent should read and for those of you who are not parents. The ones like me, you still won't regret reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice ending doesn't make up for boring book
Review: This could have been a good book, but it's too boring. Secondary characters exist only as weak suspects for the killer. The Mormon angle had nothing to do with the plot. The main plot is hardly mentioned in the first 450 pages. It's all fluff and drivel. The end is nice, but Card should have concentrated on the main story and cut the extra stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: A different book
Review: I enjoyed this book. It held my attention because of the details of the family and the Mormon religion. However, I found myself waiting and waiting for the story of the lost children and how Stevie was involved. I felt a bond to the characters in the story but was impatient for the rest. The ending was very surprising and not at all what I expected. This is the first book of Orson Scott Card's I have ever read and I found it different and interesting.
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Summary: Not a Sci-Fi fan, very moved by this book
Review: Truth be told this book caught my eye because I thought it was a Stephen King, yet when I saw it wasn't, it still compelled me. I am not a Sci-Fi fan, and can't say this is Sci-Fi either, but I was very moved by this book and have since started another of Card's stories. Mystery/drama/fantasy/horror all rolled into one well-told tale that you won't soon forget.
Rating:
Summary: Mormons, computers, and bugs, oh my!
Review: This novel was expanded from a short story by Card, and it shows; theplot, at its core, is simply this: a Mormon family moves to centralNorth Carolina, has some troubles and makes enemies, all the whileboys are going missing in the neighborhood. They find out what hashappened to the boys. That's it in a nutshell, and as my husbandremarked, this novel is obviously taking the background of a shortstory and pushing it into the foreground. That does =not= mean it'sboring or lagging; Card uses this opportunity to create afully-fleshed family, enmeshed in various communities (the MormonChurch, a computer software company, a medium-sized southern town), sothat the plot has overall personal meaning. On a personal note of myown, having grown up in medium-sized southern towns with a father whoworked for IBM when the IBM PC came out, I was brought back to mychildhood, when my favorite fast food place in the Savannah Mall wasDer Weinerschnitzel, when I was disappointed in my Commodore VIC-20and its tape drive, when I had to battle through swarms of bugs justto get to my backyard swingset. Card nails the details perfectly,especially the kind of resentment one can get as a gifted childgrowing up in "advantaged" circumstances; I had noMrs. Jones in my past, but I very well could have. I've seen otherchildren treated as Stevie was, and there's little a child can doabout a teacher who hates children. On another detail note, I'm surethe episodes with the bugs were intended to be creepy, and I'm sureCard thought the armies of bugs that greeted him in Greensboro weredaunting, but I just had to laugh about it. My lord, I used to eatSouth Carolina =dirt= as a child, which is full of dead bugs. I'msupposed to be scared by a bunch of crickets pouring through a rottenbaseboard? Seriously though, there are so many moral triumphs in thisbook, in which parents under extreme pressure try their best toprotect their family, in many cases succeeding and in many cases andin a few, not being able to do much about the external world, butachieving a moral victory nonetheless. It also gave me ideas in how todeal with certain people, so literature can actually be useful now andthen! Card has always presented one of the most accurate pictures ofhow religion acts in people's lives, especially from the point of viewof a person of faith. In particular, I enjoyed learning a little moreabout how the Mormon social structure actually works, which of theduties people actually follow up on, and which they let slide (Sundayservices and classes seem well-attended, but things like home teachingwere given short shrift). Being a Catholic, I know how comforting aChurch with an international structure can be -- instant communitywhereever you go -- but some of the duties can be shortchangeddepending on local attitudes. I spent much of the book wondering howmuch autobiography was in this story, as the actual origin of thisbook was a bedtime story Card made up for his son, Charlie Ben, who isechoed in the birth of the Fletchers' son Zap. Card had grown up inthe west, done mission work in Brazil, and moved to Greensboro, NCwhich looks (to me, a Raleighite) alot like the fictional Steuben,NC. Card has been one of my favorite authors for so long, I wassomewhat distracted by so much I could tell came directly from his ownlife. I can tell what a personal book this was, and anyone reading itfor the human story will be well-rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: Broke my heart
Review: I finished this book in an airport, tears streaming down my face. There was so much anguish throughout, but the ending broke my heart.Read this book. It changed me into a sadder and more apprehensive father who is nevertheless more appreciative of my own little boy. I spend every hour I can with him even as I try to avoid crowding and overprotecting him (I hope).
Rating:
Summary: I'm never very good with titles, so "surprising" will do
Review: I picked up this book becaue I'm a Card fan. At first when I was reading it i wasn't quite sure if I liked it or not. I found it interesting, but kind of wondered where it was going. Not that I didn't like the book, I loved the characters. Though I can say that I loved all of their personalities, I loved how real they seemed. It's not exactly the fastest moving book, but the story moved pretty well. I have a few complaints, but nothing too serious to mention. At this point I would have given the book maybe 3 stars, but then came the ending. The ending was good enough for me that it boosted the rating up to 6 stars. After I finished reading this book I wa left with it on my mind and it's still there. Very few books have done that and it seems that Card has quite a knack for it. Though the ending may have a been a bit odd, it doesn't really mater. The point of it is what matters. This is a book worth reading.
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