The Lost and the Found

The Lost and the Found
by Cat Clarke
Crown, 2016, 355 pages, Young Adult Fiction

THE LOST When six-year-old Laurel Logan was abducted, the only witness was her younger sister, Faith. Since then, Faith's childhood has revolved around her sister's disappearance—from her parents' broken marriage and the constant media attention, to dealing with so-called friends who only ever want to talk about her missing sister.

THE FOUND Now, thirteen years later, a young woman is found in the front yard of the Logans' old house, disoriented and clutching the teddy bear Laurel was last seen with. Can her sister finally be back? Faith always dreamed of her sister coming home; she just never believed it would happen. But soon a disturbing series of events leaves Faith increasingly isolated from her family and paranoid about her sister's motives. Before long, Faith begins to wonder if it's the abduction that's changed her sister, or if it's something else. . . .

This book grabbed me pretty early on. While there are a lot of stories about people being abducted, you don’t hear much about what a family has to deal with once that person has come back. Clarke does a good job of depicting the joy and relief, and also the adjustments and pains that come with dealing with such a dramatic event. Although all of the book blurbs I’ve read talk about Faith’s suspicions of Laurel’s behavior, much of this doesn’t come to light until the last third of the book. By this point, the book had me well in its clutches and I stayed up far too late in the night to see what would happen next.

MB