Lost and Found: Oliver Jeffers

Product Information

I would like to thank NetGalley, HQ and the author Phaedra Patrick for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. This may give encouragement to people who are trying to heal their own wounds from growing up in more or less dysfunctional households. Martha comes from a dysfunctional family in which there were secrets that are finally revealed to her.

You eventually get to the secret she had been holding onto (I guessed it) and then the choices she made and why. When Martha thought to herself (and there was LOTS of instances of her thinking to herself) she kept thinking all she did was take care of others. The drama that unfolds is ho-hum, nothing I haven't read or seen in novels or television shows before.I do like Owen, tho, and wish less time was spent earlier in the book on self-pity, and that some development of the implied after party with Owen had been considered. Martha starts investigating the origins of the book and in the end finds out more than she imagined. This review would not be complete if I did not mention the amazing setting of the library, and how much Martha loved it there. Martha sets out to solve this mystery — where did the book come from, when was it published and why is Zelda writing after her death.

The usual tropes apply here, Martha's annoying sister knows some of the family secrets but insists Martha leave well enough alone. I am delighted and pleased with myself now for sticking with it, as the last few chapters ushered in a totally unexpected, stoical, laconic, and quietly observant hero, as well as writing so poignant that my vision was inexplicably blurred and an odd wetness seemed to be leaking from my eyes while I simultaneously experienced an uncomfortable squeezing in my chest and the sensation of several hot rocks in my throat. Our lives do indeed deserve and reward the kind of honest, gentle, brilliant scrutiny Schulz brings to bear on her own life. It was dreary to spend several chapters with a brutally selfish Father and appallingly voiceless Mother. But the dedication inside the book states that it was written three years after Zelda (Martha's grandmother) had died.Just a few pages in, Martha discovers a book which features her stories as well as other family tales.