The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

Review of The Lost Girl

Title & Author:
The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna
Publisher:
HarperCollins
Publication Date:
August 28, 2012
Pages:
432
Source:
DAC ARC Tours

Eva’s life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her “other”, if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it’s like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything she’s ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she’s forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva. – Amazon

Reading The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna was like going away on a vacation and not wanting to go home, ever. I loved every second of The Lost Girl and I never wanted to put it down.

The characters – Amarra, Ray, Mina Mia, Ophelia, Neil, Alisha and basically every other character in The Lost Girl – were wonderfully done. Even the side characters were developed, they had lives and personalities and they weren’t just there to add plot. The side characters were a part of The Lost Girl.

But Eva and Sean…I just loved this so much. Eva was stubborn, she was human, she wanted to live her own life and not Amarra’s life and I love a protagonist with spunk, with the balls to stand up for herself. And Sean! Talk about a swoon worthy love interest. His depth of affection for Eva was so evident and his determination to keep her alive… I just loved them together and I have a feeling that they’re definitely on my top couples of 2012 list.

And the STORY. Usually I am a very character driven girl –if I don’t like the characters, I don’t like the book. But even if the characters in The Lost Girl had sucked (which they didn’t), I would have been so captured by the story. There were so many elements of The Lost Girl that worked for me.

The Lost Girl was a very sci-fi ish book – I mean, echoes created of people and the possibility that when the person dies, their soul is transferred to the echo – not really realistic, right? But The Lost Girl was so modern and that made the whole thing realistic for me. I mean, Eva still used a cellphone – there were no wacky technologies of the future, just a modern teenage girl.

And the range of emotion that I felt while I was reading The Lost Girl…I felt the hope of Mina Mia, the grief of Alisha, the anger of Ray….not to mention the helplessness Eva felt to the strong determination she felt. And I sobbed. There were several moments while reading The Lost Girl that I choked up and had to take a deep breath because I couldn’t continue, but I had to continue.

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna is a beautifully written book with a story and characters that are guaranteed to break your heart and fill you with hope at the same time.

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna is easily one of my favourite books of 2012. At the top of the list, even. I highly recommend The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna to anyone – if you love dystopian, if you’re burned out on dystopian, if you love romance and swoon, if you’re a fan of kickass protagonists or a fan of sci-fi – it doesn’t matter. The Lost Girl is the book for you.

While you’re here, you can subscribe to my feed :)