A review by sreddous
Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid
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...).