Lost Boys: A Novel

Features

• Cover Type: Mass Market Paperback with 544 pages
• Published by: HarperTorch January 25, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0061091316
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0061091315
• Book Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 10.1 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
A withdrawn eight-year-old in a troubled family invents imaginary friends who bear the names of missing children in this absorbing thriller.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Science fiction writer Card ( Abyss , Pocket, 1989) turns to suspense with this offering. Step Fletcher, his wife DeAnne, and their children have just moved to Steuben, North Carolina, where there has been a rash of mysterious disappearances. Plagued by various problems, the religious Fletcher family slowly adjusts to the community. Eight-year-old son Stevie, however, spends all his spare time with his imaginary friends. Preoccupied with settling into their new home, Step and DeAnne fail to understand the connection between Stevie's friends and the young boys' disappearances. Almost too late, Stevie makes the ultimate sacrifice to convince his family that his imaginary friends are real and to reveal the boys' murderer. Card skillfully uses terror as a background to everyday family life. For Stephen King fans and those who like their suspense mixed with the supernatural.
- Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
Every so often I see a film or read a book that 'disturbs' me for several days. Symptoms including a dazed/off-center mental state and a distraction from 'reality' possessed me in the days after seeing. 'Schindler's List', 'The Sixth Sense', and reading Malachi Martin's 'Hostage to the Devil'. This 'disturbance' has its good and bad qualities. Best of all, it is stimulating, helps clear my mind and provoke deep thoughts. So I was surprised when 'Lost Boys' affected me the same way. If you're a parent, this book will disturb you in many ways. OSC puts in writing every nightmare a parent has over the sanity and safety of his/her kids--- kids getting lost, adjustment problems at a new school and town, creepy people whom you're not quite sure to trust your kids with, the evils of computer/video games, child predators... On a par with 'Ender's Game', 'Lost Boys' has good plot and fine 3-D characters. For you Ender fans, OSC spins a different kind of story here---one about the mundane issues of everyday family life. However, as you turn the pages, you care more and more about what happens to the family, while suspense and creepiness build higher and higher. Card skillfully moves the story and mood along. You also get an interesting and frank look at husband-wife relationship dynamics that portrayed each's side very well. Some OSC readers (or the uninitiated) may criticize the way he weaves 'Mormonness' into his work. I always found the tie-in of his Faith to his books as interesting and informative adjuncts to his story, and not as 'missionary work' for his Church. 'Lost Boys' is no exception. Faith and Family are important elements of this story, and Card gives us a little more than a peek at what Life-As-a-Mormon is all about. I agree in part with the reviewer who loved all but the ending. True, the pace is sluggish for the first half, and then increases steadily. The ending comes hard and with a jolt. But that's not all bad. Because at the end, that 'disturbed' feeling hit me, and I reflected long and hard about things I hadn't seriously thought about before.