nyo's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
anniejillb's review against another edition
5.0
4.9999 stars. This book was almost perfect. I don’t know if it’s because I read it on a road trip, or have dreamed about spending my life constantly traveling, but I loved it.
meimeimeike's review against another edition
3.0
It was nice and light and an enjoyable ride (literally). I thought it was often too clichéd, too nicely wrapped up and there were multiple eye-roll worthy moments.
It does have a diverse cast of characters which I liked and it's nice to see how Leila connects to every one of them and how it all comes together in the end.
It does have a diverse cast of characters which I liked and it's nice to see how Leila connects to every one of them and how it all comes together in the end.
sweetcreature89's review against another edition
4.0
I've already told the story of how I came into possession of the hardback of this book in review for Never Always Sometimes, so I won't repeat it here. But I will say that it was a big deal for me and, therefore, these books hold a special place in my heart. That being said, I didn't really enjoy Never Always Sometimes very much so I was a little nervous going into Let's Get Lost. I was afraid that I was going to end up being disappointed again. I was also nervous because this audiobook, which is the version I'm reviewing, has the same narrator as Never Always Sometimes and I was definitely not a fan of her performance in that book.
I am so relieved to say that this book and it's narration were soooo much better than Never Always Sometimes. I thought the story for that book had a lot of potential but fell kind of flat. This one, however, was a great story that actually held my attention and made me curious about what was going to happen next.
Though I wasn't expecting it, I loved the constant change in point of views. Each character in this book had their own story to tell and needed their own chapters to really express the importance of Leila's affect on their lives. Each of them were beautiful and raw and pretty realistic in their issues. For this reason, I really enjoyed Let's Get Lost. It's story of how one person can change the lives of those around her and I thought it was a beautiful adventure.
Also, Stoner Timmy was a bright and shining star.
Rating: 4 stars
I am so relieved to say that this book and it's narration were soooo much better than Never Always Sometimes. I thought the story for that book had a lot of potential but fell kind of flat. This one, however, was a great story that actually held my attention and made me curious about what was going to happen next.
Though I wasn't expecting it, I loved the constant change in point of views. Each character in this book had their own story to tell and needed their own chapters to really express the importance of Leila's affect on their lives. Each of them were beautiful and raw and pretty realistic in their issues. For this reason, I really enjoyed Let's Get Lost. It's story of how one person can change the lives of those around her and I thought it was a beautiful adventure.
Also, Stoner Timmy was a bright and shining star.
Rating: 4 stars
sreddous's review against another edition
2.0
The idea: "a chance encounter with a stranger can change your life" is really romantic and has a ton of creative possibilities.
The problem is, these chance encounters are told in essentially short-story form, and for most of the characters, it's not effective in showing how they apply the lessons they learned from interacting with Leila. Hudson's story was nice and wholesome at the start, and I was on-track to be swept away in a not-necessarily-realistic-but-still-fun impulsive love story. But then when things go wrong, Hudson is a jerk for blaming -his- decisions and mistakes on Leila, and Leila is a jerk for acting like this is what he wanted all along: to stay in this hometown he clearly loved and not go to college. The problem with this is, we do indeed see that he loves the hometown, but it's not effectively shown that he DOESN'T want to go to college! So how can she claim stuff like that? You can go to college and come back! (I did!). College is only like 4 years, it's...definitely possible to go to college, then return to your hometown if that's where you want to set down roots. THAT kind of framing is what makes their relationship feel shallow and frustrating instead of dreamy IMO. I wish we saw more of how Hudson really, actually didn't want to go away to school.
Bree's story, in my opinion, was the strongest. Bree is actually pretty similar to Leila in that they're both dealing with family problems and not knowing how to cope with trauma. So the way that Leila and Bree interacted, communicated, and got into trouble together, was all believable and well-built up. Frankly, I wish the entire book was just about these two, because the "a chance encounter with a stranger can change your life" framing could still apply with just one story WHILE we watch these two deal with their bad choices and their traumas. I don't love that Leila manipulated the front desk team into giving out the sister's hotel room -- I worked for a hotel's front desk and, yes, absolutely you do not hand out a guest's hotel room information, what??? How do you know that the sweet-looking girl asking the information isn't an abuser and you're putting the guest in danger? So that was hard for me to get past. Why didn't Leila and Bree just...sit in the lobby for a few hours until it was daytime and they were allowed to call the sister? But, fine, the rest of the way this story worked out is satisfying.
Elliot's story really squicked me out. I think this story is the reason why I don't want to rate this book three stars. The premise is that Elliot needed to learn how to communicate and really go for his dreams, which would be triumphant in most framings -- but it isn't triumphant when the "dream" he's achieving is that he's trying to convince a woman to change her mind about not wanting to date him. He did, actually, confess his feelings, and she said, politely and clearly, that she didn't share them. ........so the entire story, everything else all the characters in this story did, was about coming up with the most bombastic way to go around a woman's boundaries. That isn't romantic.
Why didn't this story open with Elliot NOT actually telling his feelings? This choice is baffling to me -- if Leila's goal here was to help Elliot have confidence and communicate his feelings, the story would have accomplished that goal if Elliot simply chickened out from telling his friend his feelings at first, and the whole story was about helping him tell her for the first time. But, no, as-is, the story is about overriding her decision. I wanted this story to end with Maribel saying, "I resent that you were willing to put me on the spot with getting all the other kids and strangers who don't know me to pressure me into agreeing to be with you, when I already communicated that I don't share the same feelings you have." (kind of spoiler: it doesn't end like that.)
Sonia's story was fine, I like the way Sonia resolved things. This story did a good job of bringing in the "this is a travel novel" logistics of dealing with borders and passports and such, which was cool. Leila's own story was fine too. I don't love the fat-shamey descriptions of the, quote, "sloppily overweight" park worker guy who's only described that way because he's a jerk. But I overall like her time in Alaska; I like that Leila actually finished the trip but had the "a chance encounter with a stranger can change your life" formula help her have some different ways she wanted to think about the trip too. It was a pretty sweet way to wrap up her trip.
But, then, she leaves Alaska and goes home.... and this is where I'm lost again. If the valuable lesson Leila learned in Alaska is that she needed to find the true meaning of family, (being generic to avoid spoilers) why didn't the book actually...end with a focus on Leila's family? It ended in a way that almost makes me want to think that the lesson is, "Hey, if you run away and go away from your home/family, you'll find cool stuff" and...that's.... fine, but that doesn't seem to be what the framing is going for. Like the way her chapter in Alaska ends doesn't really imply that what she's missing is a hot impulsive boyfriend. Her caregivers are such minor characters, what I think is missing is more time with them after we've spent time with all the strangers that Leila got to meet.
Overall, I find myself frustrated after finishing this, not sure what I really am supposed to take from the experience. There are some nice descriptions and the narrators' voices are easy to follow, but that's all I really could get into flow with. Each character gets roughly the same amount of time with Leila, but Hudson is the only one she's actually thinking about in the last chapter for some reason (did her time with the others matter to her less? Left less of an impact on her and her trip? I don't like thinking that this is the case after all that time we just spent with them...).
The problem is, these chance encounters are told in essentially short-story form, and for most of the characters, it's not effective in showing how they apply the lessons they learned from interacting with Leila. Hudson's story was nice and wholesome at the start, and I was on-track to be swept away in a not-necessarily-realistic-but-still-fun impulsive love story. But then when things go wrong, Hudson is a jerk for blaming -his- decisions and mistakes on Leila, and Leila is a jerk for acting like this is what he wanted all along: to stay in this hometown he clearly loved and not go to college. The problem with this is, we do indeed see that he loves the hometown, but it's not effectively shown that he DOESN'T want to go to college! So how can she claim stuff like that? You can go to college and come back! (I did!). College is only like 4 years, it's...definitely possible to go to college, then return to your hometown if that's where you want to set down roots. THAT kind of framing is what makes their relationship feel shallow and frustrating instead of dreamy IMO. I wish we saw more of how Hudson really, actually didn't want to go away to school.
Bree's story, in my opinion, was the strongest. Bree is actually pretty similar to Leila in that they're both dealing with family problems and not knowing how to cope with trauma. So the way that Leila and Bree interacted, communicated, and got into trouble together, was all believable and well-built up. Frankly, I wish the entire book was just about these two, because the "a chance encounter with a stranger can change your life" framing could still apply with just one story WHILE we watch these two deal with their bad choices and their traumas. I don't love that Leila manipulated the front desk team into giving out the sister's hotel room -- I worked for a hotel's front desk and, yes, absolutely you do not hand out a guest's hotel room information, what??? How do you know that the sweet-looking girl asking the information isn't an abuser and you're putting the guest in danger? So that was hard for me to get past. Why didn't Leila and Bree just...sit in the lobby for a few hours until it was daytime and they were allowed to call the sister? But, fine, the rest of the way this story worked out is satisfying.
Elliot's story really squicked me out. I think this story is the reason why I don't want to rate this book three stars. The premise is that Elliot needed to learn how to communicate and really go for his dreams, which would be triumphant in most framings -- but it isn't triumphant when the "dream" he's achieving is that he's trying to convince a woman to change her mind about not wanting to date him. He did, actually, confess his feelings, and she said, politely and clearly, that she didn't share them. ........so the entire story, everything else all the characters in this story did, was about coming up with the most bombastic way to go around a woman's boundaries. That isn't romantic.
Why didn't this story open with Elliot NOT actually telling his feelings? This choice is baffling to me -- if Leila's goal here was to help Elliot have confidence and communicate his feelings, the story would have accomplished that goal if Elliot simply chickened out from telling his friend his feelings at first, and the whole story was about helping him tell her for the first time. But, no, as-is, the story is about overriding her decision. I wanted this story to end with Maribel saying, "I resent that you were willing to put me on the spot with getting all the other kids and strangers who don't know me to pressure me into agreeing to be with you, when I already communicated that I don't share the same feelings you have." (kind of spoiler: it doesn't end like that.)
Sonia's story was fine, I like the way Sonia resolved things. This story did a good job of bringing in the "this is a travel novel" logistics of dealing with borders and passports and such, which was cool. Leila's own story was fine too. I don't love the fat-shamey descriptions of the, quote, "sloppily overweight" park worker guy who's only described that way because he's a jerk. But I overall like her time in Alaska; I like that Leila actually finished the trip but had the "a chance encounter with a stranger can change your life" formula help her have some different ways she wanted to think about the trip too. It was a pretty sweet way to wrap up her trip.
But, then, she leaves Alaska and goes home.... and this is where I'm lost again. If the valuable lesson Leila learned in Alaska is that she needed to find the true meaning of family, (being generic to avoid spoilers) why didn't the book actually...end with a focus on Leila's family? It ended in a way that almost makes me want to think that the lesson is, "Hey, if you run away and go away from your home/family, you'll find cool stuff" and...that's.... fine, but that doesn't seem to be what the framing is going for. Like the way her chapter in Alaska ends doesn't really imply that what she's missing is a hot impulsive boyfriend. Her caregivers are such minor characters, what I think is missing is more time with them after we've spent time with all the strangers that Leila got to meet.
Overall, I find myself frustrated after finishing this, not sure what I really am supposed to take from the experience. There are some nice descriptions and the narrators' voices are easy to follow, but that's all I really could get into flow with. Each character gets roughly the same amount of time with Leila, but Hudson is the only one she's actually thinking about in the last chapter for some reason (did her time with the others matter to her less? Left less of an impact on her and her trip? I don't like thinking that this is the case after all that time we just spent with them...).
menomica's review
I known it’s really bad practice to dnf a book less than 10% of the way through but I seriously could not care less about Hudson and his stupid straight boy crush on the random pixie dream girl he randomly mean
nargleinafez's review against another edition
3.0
didn't connect much with the book. I like the story of Hudson but I wish it was written whatever happened to everyone else after. I just think this book lack some things and if it didn't it would've been better.
jayceebond's review against another edition
4.0
I don't know how to review this book as a whole because I didn't enjoy Hudson's part so much, it felt rushed and a bit too cheesy. However, all the other parts felt more grounded in Leila's character instead of the manic pixie dream girl Hudson made her out to be (). I also liked the different kind of adventures each character had. Though, my one critique, besides Hudson's part (which I really think is mostly because Alsaid wasn't sure how else to start the book), Not sure what else to write about it. It was good. I enjoyed it.