A review by gentlellama
The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay

4.0

When I picked up this book, I thought it would be one of those "fluff" books you take on vacation with you (which is exactly what I read). It is, however, everything but "fluff." While I knew this book was about books, I did not know how highly allusive it would be. Hay references many other works in The Secret of Lost Things, sometimes obviously (as seen in her excerpting of parts from Melville's Moby Dick and his letters to Hawthorne) and sometimes quite subtly (having read this book a week ago and began another highly allusive book, I cannot think of specific examples, unfortunately). The protagonist Rosemary is well-developed, but her coworkers are left much more flat and one-dimensional (for example, Arthur and Pike). My biggest problem was Oscar, who behaved as expected in every scene of the novel, though Rosemary seems to be the only person unable to predict him. Still, the book was very enjoyable, very literary, and quite well-written. I loved Hay's writing style, but I found this to be more of a coming-of-age story than the book-lover's mystery it was packaged as being.