Lost Boy Found Book Review

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A few months ago, just as I was getting ready to leave town, my mother handed me the book Lost Boy Found and told me that I just had to read it and tell her what I thought about it. She said not to read the back cover, but to start it ASAP because she really wanted to hear my reaction to it.

My mom and I don’t usually read the same types of books, but I was willing to do this at her request. Little
did I know that this book is connected to a podcast episode, and that I'd end up listening to two other
podcast episodes immediately after I read the last page.

Here is my no-spoilers review of Lost Boy Found by Kirsten Alexander.

My First Impressions of Lost Boy Found

The entire story is based around the disappearance of a young boy in Louisiana in 1913. The event happens
within the first few pages, so I'm not spoiling anything. You never even get to know the child, only the
circumstances around the day he goes missing.

You'd think that a missing child in the first chapter would get this book out to a rip-roaring start, but I
actually thought that the first quarter of the book was a little slow.

One of the things that made the story slow to unfold was the number of characters introduced. Many
secondary and tertiary characters enter the canvas, but none of them really moves the plot forward.

What the Book is REALLY About

The first third of the book is all about searching for the boy. There's speculation and some outlandish ideas
about what could have happened to him, but what really makes this part of the book (and really the
the whole book) interesting is the descriptions of life in the early 1900s.

The more I read, the more I realized that the story was more about society back then—the racism, classism, and male dominance that ruled every part of life, especially in the American South.

Eventually the story takes a turn—part three is called Found—and we start to make our way towards a discovery and a resolution, but even that resolution is heavily weighted by all the societal quirks of the time.

The Podcast Connection

A reminder: my mom told me not to read the book description on the back cover, so I didn't. But just as I
was about to finish the book, I glimpsed the author's photo on the book flap and I read her bio.

That's when I discovered that Kirsten Alexander was inspired to write Lost Boy Found after listening to
an episode of the This American Life podcast back in 2012. (I should mention that this podcast connection is mentioned in an Author's Note at the very beginning of the book, but I somehow missed that when I started reading.)

After hearing the podcast episode about a missing boy in Louisiana in 1913, Alexander did some research on the story and decided to fill in the gaps by writing a fictionalized version of the story.

I couldn’t believe it! This information was new motivation for me to finish the book—I was dying to go listen
to the podcast!

My Reaction to the Ending

The ending of Lost Boy Found shouldn't have been so shocking, but it was. If I had really been paying
attention to the characters, their motivations, and the powers in charge, I would have seen it coming.

After reading the last couple of pages, it took me zero seconds to realize why my mother wanted to talk to
someone about it. But instead of calling her, I grabbed my phone and fired up my podcast app.

I didn't actually listen to the This American Life episode that author Kirsten Alexander had heard. I
happened upon a two-episode version of the story by the Unexplained Mysteries podcast, instead. The
episodes did an amazing job of explaining the true story that Lost Boy Found is based on, including very
recent updates.

And let me tell you something: the true story is even more shocking and unbelievable than the book. This
is jaw-on-the-floor type stuff, prompting me to call my mother for a long chat!

Why I Recommend The Book

I gave Lost Boy Found 3 stars on Goodreads, which means I found it well-written and entertaining. But the book alone did not knock my socks off. It is really the true story that fascinates me.

So why would I recommend the book? Because without the book, the podcast episodes would have left me confused and skeptical.

The first episode about this story from the Unexplained Mysteries podcast is heavily based on newspaper articles from the time. They are factual (and a little sensationalized), but they don't show me what life was like in the 1900s in Louisiana.

And they're not supposed to. Newspaper articles report summaries of current events. The people reading
them in real-time are living in the town, during that time. They don't need the social dynamics explained to
them. But if you use this type of documentation to tell a story, you're missing some of the more
colorful information that makes the story plausible.

Lost Boy Found is where you get the color. The book paints a picture of the society of the time—in particular
the problems of class and race—in a way that the newspaper articles don't. Even though the characters are
only based on real people, and the dialogue and details are made up, you can better understand aspects of
the real-life case.

The podcast episodes are full of stunning, hard-to-believe details, while the book develops characters
and emotions to help you to understand how something like this could actually happen.

I thoroughly enjoyed the journey that I went through with this book. From not knowing that it was inspired
by a podcast, to being shocked by the ending, to being even more shocked by the true story when I listened
to the podcast episodes…it was a real roller coaster ride!

Where to Buy Lost Boy Found

You can buy Lost Boy Found pretty much everywhere books and audiobooks are sold. Here are some links to help you get this book ASAP.

Buy Lost Boy Found in print

Not an audiobook person? I still think this book is so well-written that it's worth the read. You can buy the paperback on Bookshop.org (your purchase will support local, independent booksellers) or Amazon.com.

Related Podcast Recommendation

UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES: EPISODE 1: The Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar

Have you read Lost Boy Found? What did you think? Post a comment below (no spoilers, please!).

Don't forget to check out my list of favorite book podcasts, and some additional independent book podcasts (so many podcasts about books!!!

Want more book ideas? Check out my list of books by podcasters!