Reviews

The Beautiful Lost by Luanne Rice

the_3bs's review

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

syndi3's review

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 A story about a depress girl having a road trip, with a cute boy in tow? I am in. And i do not disappoint. This book is cute. It has minimum drama. Focusing on finding urself during the road trip and overcome ur fear. 

Maia the despress girl, runs away from home to find her mother. Just based on snippet email she get from her mother, she is set in adventure. Billy is a boy in the tow. He too also wants to escape from his group home. And as result their journey is one of a kind. Throw in a mild romance, then u have a wonderful book. 
The healing journey not only come from the romance but also wisdoms from people they met during their journey. Also sone whales. 

I feel like i want to grab my bag and just run. Run away with or without boy in tow and explore the world. 

jazzyjan94's review against another edition

3.0

I liked the first few chapters and I loved getting to know the main characters, Maia and Billy. However after the first few chapters, I didn’t really enjoy this book, even though I was curious enough to finish it just so I could see what happened. I felt like there were several main characters that could have also been better developed such as Astrid (Maia’s step-mom) and Gillian (Maia’s mom), especially since these two characters seemed to be foils to each other. I did like how the author dealt with mental illness throughout the entirety of the novel, however I felt like it was dwarfed with all the different issues/themes she tried to tackle which really did not have much to do with the main plot – I felt like these things detracted from everything else. 2.5/5 Stars.

willowshelter's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

francescaelizabeth's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

gladysreads's review against another edition

4.0

I really liked this book because Luanne Rice really shows how depression is present all the time. After she stopped taking her meds, Maia felt like she was on Cloud 9 because she was with the new found love of her life and she was really happy but she also had a few episodes of her illness seeping through. I'm really happy it wasn't one of those "they meet a person and their depression suddenly disappeared" kind of stories. Although I was kind of upset Billy left her near the end he did it because she was unstable. At that moment I felt like Maia and I were one. During that point of the story I honestly wanted to yell at Maia's parents that if they didn't leave her alone she'd kill herself even though it was irrational I felt very strong emotions at that moment. I honestly got really mad when I say that she got back to the institution but it seemed to have made her a better person.

A little thing I liked was that she talked well about French Canadians, I like the historical story about Innus (expect she wrote ta coeur instead of ton coeur, a typical mistake for English speakers). Also when black people appeared in the story she deliberately said "black people" instead of African American because 1. they were in Canada and 2. people always think it's racist or bad to call black people black but as a member of the black community we have no problem with that. At all.

In conclusion, it's a great story over all and now I have a love for whales. This is a great piece of literature.

ky_brown03's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

librarygirlreads's review

dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

paovilchis25's review against another edition

4.0

“Sometimes you have to go the opposite way to get where you want to go”

I started reading this book because I was kind of in a reading slump and I wanted and easy and quick read to help me get through it. However, this is not a quick and easy read at all, but it did help me get through my slump.

In The Beautiful Lost we follow Maia who struggles with depression ever since her mother left. Maia and Billy, the boy Maia is in love with, embark on a road trip to try to find Maia´s mother, who is convinced it´s the answer to all of her problems.

Like I said this is not an easy read, Maia struggles with severe depression, which in my opinion is very well represented, so it is not easy to read about her everyday struggles. In the book we are in Maia head so we see first-hand how depression affects her and the people that surround her.

This book is very well written, it is emotional and it touches upon very important themes without losing the innocent feeling to it. This book is powerful, it has great characters and I believe this is an essential read for most teenagers. The Beautiful Lost is romantic, heartwarming and such and inspirational read.

I loved the fact that this wasn’t a case were romance “cured” Maia´s condition. She thinks she is better but Billy does not cure her depression.

“What people do matters way more than what they say”

My only problem with the book was the age of the characters, I know everyone is different and probably Maia and Bill had to grow up very fast, but it was not believable that two 16 year old´s could just run away on a road trip to Canada. I could not in a million years imagine me at that age running away, but like I said, everyone is different and just because I wouldn’t do it doesn’t mean others won’t.

I really enjoyed this book, it was a fantastic story that kept me engaged and it was thrilling to read. I loved reading about the road trip and the problems they face along the way. I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a quick important read.

“We sometimes forget to appreciate what we have a lot of”

jazzybellz_'s review against another edition

4.0

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review:
I honestly loved the character arch the h took in this novel. At the beginning, she was starstruck with the H and it was a little concerning how much she liked him even though she didn't know him at all. Throughout the journey that these two characters take, they learn more and more about each other and the h slowly learns that the H is a human and learns to like him as one too. The H also helps the h with her depression and when the h gets has a panic attack towards the end of the book, he does the right thing even if it meant that she would hate him forever.