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    Lost Boys: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Lost Boys: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Lost Boys: A Novel
    Ebook599 pages9 hours

    Lost Boys: A Novel

    By Orson Scott Card

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    For Step Fletcher, his pregnant wife DeAnne, and their three children, the move to tiny Steuben, North Carolina, offers new hope and a new beginning. But from the first, eight-year-old Stevie's life there is an unending parade of misery and disaster.

    Cruelly ostracized at his school, Stevie retreats further and further into himself -- and into a strange computer game and a group of imaginary friends.

    But there is something eerie about his loyal, invisible new playmates: each shares the name of a child who has recently vanished from the sleepy Southern town. And terror grows for Step and DeAnne as the truth slowly unfolds. For their son has found something savagely evil ... and it's coming for Stevie next.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 2, 2013
    ISBN9780062284488
    Unavailable
    Lost Boys: A Novel
    Author

    Orson Scott Card

    Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University. He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.

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    Reviews for Lost Boys

    3.5/5

    354 ratings19 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This book left me with mixed feelings. The story seemed to slow moving, lots of random things happen in the life of the main family of characters, emotional toward the end but left so many loose ends.
    • 3/5
      The more I read of Orson Scott Card the more I think he just figured out how to game the system. In the Lost Boys, his story is pretty simple - boys disappearing, job struggles, family move. But the boys disappearing barely pops up in the story for the first 3/4 of the novel. Instead, it's a weird cast of characters introduced to get the reader wondering who did it. Except from very early on, it was too obvious who did it. And then the ending was just there to manipulate reader emotions to save the wreck of the rest of the book. Only reason I gave it a three star is because I cared enough to be upset. But then, if I wasn't a parent and didn't get the understanding of the attachment, maybe it would have been more like a 2 star.
    • 3/5
      Can't remember much now, but it was OK.
    • 3/5
      Heartbreaking.
    • 3/5
      A Morman computer programmer and his family move to a new town. They all have difficulty fitting in, but one of their sons has a particularly difficult time. He starts telling stories about imaginary friends. Creepy and depressing.

      Even as a teenager, I could tell that the main character was a sort of authorial stand-in. The characterization is precise and believable, but the character's actions are just a little off. There are a few too many exchanges that read as wish-fullfillment, where the main character is oh-so-reasonable and erudite and godly and his opponents are so very prejudiced and unreasonable. It annoyed me when I read it, but I was caught up in the story (and additionally, wasn't aware of how closely Card's life mirrored the main character's). Looking back, it's both a serious weakness of the novel and one of the reasons the story works. Because Card identified so closely with the main character, the point-of-view is kept very narrow, and the mystery is able to build just out of conscious sight.
    • 3/5
      I quite liked this book by Card. I read it last when I was a religiously active Mormon, and I found it profoundly moving. I do think Card is a good story-teller, but I'm not sure he's a writer after my taste. This is one of those read-it-in-two days books that you can't put down. I find that the sort of book I want to read and re-read requires a bit more of me.

      This story jumps right in and uses the language of Mormonism in such a way, without calling attention to itself, that it makes me wonder how much the average reader will get. There's an interesting picture of LDS life portrayed behind the gruesome details of the missing boys.
    • 3/5
      I prefer Card when he stays out of the realms of spiritual (Lost Boys, Treasure Box) and sticks with Sci-Fi. The ending was well done and very touching, but I agree with the reviewer who said the book was too long. His author's note says it started out as a short story, and while the ending may not have been as powerful that way, you probably wouldn't have missed much.
    • 3/5
      When I found Lost Boys on the shelf at the library, the synopsis on the back of the book was intriguing enough that I decided I was willing to try one of Card's non-Ender novels. The book's plot summary gives a creepy description of a child's imaginary friends and vague promises of terror and evil; I haven't done a good horror novel in a while, so I was looking forward to reading it.Except it's not really a horror novel. For about 500 pages, it's really just about a family. I read about their move to North Carolina, the father's new job that he hates, the mother's pregnancy, their involvement with their church, and their three, and later four, kids. Nothing really happened - there are some crazy-ish people who provide small diversions, but it's really just 500 pages of a year in the life of the Fletcher family. It was interesting enough, and went by quickly, but it wasn't what the back of the book advertised at all.Until the last 26 pages or so, which provided the punch-in-the-gut ending reminiscent of a Twilight Zone episode. Which was great. But just like the one season of TZ that had 1-hour episodes, there was just far too much filler on the road to the ending. Apparently this was originally a short story, which makes the TZ comparison especially apt; when Rod Serling stuck to 30-minutes per story, the pacing was just perfect. I imagine that the short story Lost Boys is based on felt a lot more perfect, too. Even if he wanted to expand it to novel-length and build up the reader's emotional connection to the Fletchers, he did not need to take 500 pages to do it.
    • 2/5
      Decided not to read. Apparently his attempt to write a horror novel, and I just couldn’t read it currently.
    • 3/5
      I love most of what Orson Scott Card writes, despite my repulsion towards several of his personal beliefs and quotations. However, this one really tested my waters more than his sci-fi works. It was interesting to learn more about how Mormons live day-to-day, but extremely frustrating how every part of the book was laced with religion and every choice every person made was motivated by religion.

      Also, I became annoyed pretty quickly at the fights between the husband and wife. Maybe this is because I was listening to a male narrator portray both characters and, understandably, the fighting was a little bit whiny. Either way, I wanted more substance to the fights--it isn't realistic to me that every fight goes nowhere and that people forgive within five minutes and call back to apologize and tell you they love you...brb...okay, I'm back from answering a phone call where someone told me I am always right and they love me.

      I'm sure I am not the only one to say this, but HELLO, Bappy is a creep show from the get-go. And in a "not so huge" town, 7 boys disappearing is HUGE news. OSC is trying to tell me that every person in town was not having at least one conversation about the missing kids EACH DAY? I think not. They should've made the connection to Stevie's friends' names about four months earlier. And the Bappy thing--well, don't get me started.

      I liked listening to the book, as usual for OSC's work, but this one just didn't do it for me. 2.5 stars.
    • 4/5
      audiobook from the library - Not bad, but not really my cup of tea. But then at the end there was a short interview with OSC, in which he said it wasn't his cup of tea either. I think that made me like it more. It's a little heavy on computery stuff that I don't understand because it takes place before I was born, but I did catch a few of the jokes about everyone hating IBM but knowing that it was the future. It was also a bit heavy on the Mormonism, but I thought that was more interesting.I liked the plot, though it was pretty slow at first. The characters who were supposed to evoke reactions in the reader did so. The twist was good, though it was partly spoiled for me by reading the tags on the work page. I won't spoil it here; I'll just say that OSC is great at blending reality and fantasy seamlessly.All-in-all, I recommend it, but I wish it had been shorter.
    • 5/5
      The Short of It: A touching, moving, all-around great read. A perfect package. The Rest of It: Set in the early 80′s, Step Fletcher and his wife DeAnne move to Steuben, North Carolina to begin his new job as a technical writer. With them, are their three kids, Stevie (7), Robbie (4) and their toddler sister Elizabeth. DeAnne and Step are expecting baby number four and life looks promising. Except, that the job isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and Step’s real passion is designing video games. Having previously been self-employed, Step finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. You see, he’s been hired as a tech writer, yet his real job is to audit code behind his boss’ back which is really, an impossible situation to be in. On the home front, DeAnne is trying to find her place in this new neighborhood, and since they are of the Mormon faith, they are immediately accepted into their new ward. However, that’s not as perfect as it sounds, as this particular ward has some colorful characters who set out to make things difficult for the Fletcher family. Stevie has an increasingly hard time in school and cannot seem to find his place. The house they live in is plagued by insects (no one knows why) and there is the quite a bit of debt hanging over them all, which forces Step to work in a place that he truly hates. This novel is classified as a horror story, and I must say, it took quite a bit of time for the horror to sink in but when it did, it took my breath away. It’s not the type of horror that is obvious. It’s the slow realization that something is desperately wrong. While the Fletchers try to settle into their new life, little boys begin to disappear one by one and then it becomes obvious to both DeAnne and Step that Stevie is not quite right. I loved this novel so much that I turned right around and listened to it on audio. The audio version is read by Stefan Rudnicki who is absolutely fabulous. I’ve never read anything by Orson Scott Card so I had no expectations while reading this book but I don’t think it could have been more perfect. You must read or listen to this book and then tell me what you think of it. Since it was originally published in ’92, the references to computers and video games is quite dated, but since I work in technology, where everything becomes outdated in just three months’ time, I found this to be quite entertaining. Also, don’t let the religious undertones scare you away. The Mormon faith plays a big role in this novel, but it’s not preachy in any way.
    • 2/5
      I found it a hard read. What was supposed to be the main thread of the story (ghosts, horror, evil) was for most of the book extremely well hidden behind a layer about the hardships of moving, balancing life and family - and most of all - an extra-strength dose of how great it is to be a Mormon.The only reason I read all the way through is that I wanted to be able to justify writing a review here (my first)
    • 2/5
      Good premise, but would have worked better as a short story. And if the world hadn't already seen The Sixth Sense. Alas, I now know WAY more about Mormons than I ever wanted to.
    • 2/5
      I should love this book. Card is my favorite author. This is widely regarded as one of his greatest novels. Why couldn't I get into it? Even I'm not quite sure. The writing is suberb, as always. It just felt like the novel was building and building to something that was taking far too long to reach. I kept feeling like this was an interesting insight into the life of a family, but when was something amazing going to happen? By the time it did, I was no longer on board.
    • 4/5
      Good book. Interesting, not what I expected.Thought I had it figured out, but still surprised me.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the few books granted a rating of five that I will never read again. Damn you, OSC, for being able to draw me in so completely.This is a story that allows the reader to see a family's life, the small details that might seem unconsequential, the large issues that most would like to keep covered, the love and the frustration that comes from having so close a connection with other humans. It wraps you up in the relationships, and it ends up ripping out your heart.Be forewarned, as I was, when my husband read it first, finished it, and came to me with tears in his eyes. Read it anyway, as I did. It is worth it.
    • 5/5
      Fascinating and disturbing tale.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed the suspense and twists in this book. Like all his works, it is very creative and original. I never find myself comparing him to other authors.