From best-selling author Orson Scott Card comes Lost and Found, a touching and quirky novel. This story was a quick page turner about bizarre “supernatural” abilities, missing people, and it handles some real issues facing teenagers and families.
So back to those “supernatural” abilities. This book calls them “micropowers” as the abilities are too odd and useless to be deemed “superpowers”. Ezekiel Blast has such a power. His micropower means he finds lost things and will always know who they belong to and how to return them to their owners. However, finding lost hair ties and scrunchies leaves him looking a bit odd, and at worse, finding missing bikes and toys leaves him looking like a thief. He has earned a bit of a reputation at school and finds himself alone and distrusting of adults. One day, he meets another outcast named Beth, who insists on walking to school with him. It appears he has met his match, and he cannot shake her. She talks and talks and probes him with questions. The two of them try to look at his micropower and dismantle and analyse it to see just how it works, whilst wondering if Beth has one of her own. When Beth goes off the radar, Ezekiel is faced with the challenge – is she missing, lost, or something else? Can he find her?
On the surface, and when first starting the book, it seems hard to get connected with moody teenager Ezekiel, as he is a loner with an attitude, and can be quite sharp with his words. However, what unfolds is a novel which looks at anxiety, loss, bereavement, and friendship. It is handled with gentle humour, but with raw honesty too.
The thing that was different about Lost and Found than other stories with “powers” in, is that the first part of the book is where the micropower is discussed at length and tested and evaluated by the characters. The readers are finding out about how this all works along with them. The reader will also come across a character that can make people yawn, as well as a someone who knows whether a person has an innie or outie bellybutton – useless micropowers right? After this, comes a mystery type story with a few shocks and turns.
It was my first time reading something by this author and I was surprised by this book. It starts off as something sweet, but soon turns sinister and parts were quite sad, but there was always some form of wit, humour, or hope to keep things from becoming too dark. At first, I thought the story would be good for younger teens, but after finishing it, I would say it is more in the young adult genre due to some of the subject matter (child abduction, trafficking, and death). I didn’t think I would like at first, but there were parts that got me right in the feels.
You’ll find lots of dialogue in this book, including plenty of back and forth banter between Ezekiel and Beth. There are sniping and playground insults, it seems like they always have to have the last word. Ezekiel argues with everyone and I think he uses his sass as a defense mechanism. Some of it seems childish, but you have to remember that Ezekiel and Beth are young teens. I sometimes felt there was too much banter and meandering conversations, and readers may feel parts of the story are about to go off tangent, but it goes with the style of the book, and to be honest, it made a change for me to read something like this and not lots of prose. I don’t think this style will be to every reader’s taste, but it does ease up halfway through.
A special mention must go to Mr Blast, Ezekiel’s father, as it is good to see a parent taking a positive and supporting role in a YA novel. He’s a real hero and I really liked the tender scenes between father and son.
I would recommend this to all YA fans, plus anyone who is going through a hard time at the moment, feeling lonely or lost, or missing someone, or who just wants to read a book and escape for a while and go through a whole range of emotions.
Read this and come back and tell me…What’s your micropower?
Lost and Found is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
“Are you really a thief?”
That’s the question that has haunted fourteen-year-old Ezekiel Blast all his life. But he’s not a thief, he just has a talent for finding things. Not a superpower–a micropower. Because what good is finding lost bicycles and hair scrunchies, especially when you return them to their owners and everyone thinks you must have stolen them in the first place? If only there were some way to use Ezekiel’s micropower for good, to turn a curse into a blessing. His friend Beth thinks there must be, and so does a police detective investigating the disappearance of a little girl. When tragedy strikes, it’s up to Ezekiel to use his talent to find what matters most.
Master storyteller Orson Scott Card delivers a touching and funny, compelling and smart novel about growing up, harnessing your potential, and finding your place in the world, no matter how old you are.
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