I wasn't a big fan of Lost Boys, even though I seem to love everything OSC writes.

The family unit in this story is strong. After I while, I just wanted to scream at the book "I get it! This is a strong family! Can we move on with the story, please?" I understood the family dynamic after the introductory car ride, but I had to sit through DOZENS of small and sometimes large arguments or conflicts, with the same result... a strong, reasonable family decision. It got to the point where I couldn't understand why I had to sit through yet another "you're putting words in my mouth" argument, as they never seemed to move the story forward.

The story would have been better told through the eyes of Stevie, not through the eyes of his parents. The most interesting parts of the story were the parts he was involved in. Sure, the mystery would be different, and the payoff would have to be different, but I came to loathe the long explanations of the wife/husband dynamic, wanting rather to focus on the poor, lonely kid.

But still... I gave it 3 stars because I was enthralled with the story, eventually. I really wanted to solve the mystery despite the annoying over-explanation of family and Mormon dynamic. Even though I thought that my imagined ending (who Boy was and where the Lost Boys were) was more exciting, I was still thumbing through the book after, trying to find the clues that would have gotten me the correct solution. Good mysteries do that, make it so that you COULD have seen, if only you knew what to look for.

I read Ender's Game and thought it was fantastic. But then I read the other Ender books and The Homecoming series and Alvin Maker series and thought all that was sorta bland. So I put off reading anything more by Card, even though I've bought every one of his new releases and just sorta shelved them. Am I am happy I picked this book of my shelf and finally gave it a go. This is as good of a ghost story/horor novel as any Stephen King has done.

I admitt I am an ex-Mormon. But I did grow up a devout Mormon, went on a two year Mormon mission, graduated from BYU, and even got married in the Mormon temple. So I found it easy to relate to everything the young Mormon couple and thier family face in this novel. Card does a masterful job of capturing the exact apprehensions and worries and feelings that regular Mormons face everday. To those of you who know nothing of Mormonism, titles like Relief Society, Home Teaching, Elders, Stake President, and Ward House, along with a million other terms Card uses, may not make a lot of sense. And Card gives you zero explanation of these things--trust me, if he had, this novel would have been ten times longer. Still, knowing these terms is not important to what he is trying to say with this story. I think that even if you know nothing of Mormonism this is still a very fullfilling and moving book.

But if you are Mormon (or even an ex-Mormon like me) then you will find an entire level of deeper thought running through this novel. Things that i never imagined a devout Mormon author like Card would dare explore.

As the reader follows this young Mormon family in thier move to North Carolina, the reader gets a sense early on that the young husband and wife are not totally sure that they have made the right choice in moving. In fact, as the novel progresses, we see them second guess every single choice placed before them--should I take this job? should I not take this job? should we have just stayed in Indiana? Should we go back to Utah? They spend so much energy and time agonizing over the notion that they may be going against God's wishes at every turn. They then begin to agonize that perhaps they've been praying and praying too much and are just missinterpreted God's wishes. It begins to twist at thier minds.

And in the midst of all this turmoil, the young couple soon notices that thier oldest son (who is turning 8) starts talking to imaginary friends. This is alarming and so they agree to send the boy to a psychiatrist--or however you spell it. Well the docter anylises the boy and quickly points out to the parents that thier son's speaking to imaginary friends about his everyday problems is no different than them speaking to God about thier everday problems. After all, the boy is only doing what he sees his parents do--talk to an imaginary person. The young couple (especially the mother) does not much care for the docter's diagnosis and puts a stop to the docter visits.

At this point in the novel you begin to see the irony of religion and you would think this novel was penned by an athiest who is out to stick it to Mormonism and religion in general. But Card takes the story in a different direction than that. I wont spoil the ending (an ending that will suck the breath right out of your chest) for you here. But this is a brilliant theme for a novel. Or at least i though it was. And it renewed my interest in reading the rest of Cards novels that have been collecting dust on my shelf. I realized that here was a man who would tackle some rather deep issues involving Mormonism in a very neutral way, not sugar coating the issues for the faithfull Latter Day Saint audience, and not bashing the issues to death for the Anti Mormon audience. Card plays very fair with these topics and that is a rare thing indeed.

On a side note, this book was written in 1992ish. The movie The Sixth Sence came out in 1999ish. I think M Night Shamylan stole a big idea here. Clearly Card pulled this rabbit out of the hat first.

brian d

First, let me say that I love OSC. I am a true fan. I believe Ender's Game is one of the top 5 sci-fi books ever written. I have an (almost) complete set of signed, first edition of the entire Ender series. (Yup! Read em and weep, people!) I've read em all. And, I, too, am familiar with OSC's injection of his faith into his books. But there is a difference between alluding to your faith, and blatant outright proselytizing. If I had wanted to learn the complete heirarchy and workings of the Mormon Church, I would have gotten a non-fiction book. It's akin to the Left Behind series for Christians. (i.e. he doesn't say "they prayed" - he includes the entire prayer. He doesn't mention the topic of a Sunday school lesson, he includes the entire lesson with biblical references.

And, how many times can you throw in our collective face that Mormons strive to be kind and forgiving spouses? For example, the chapter where he found out his wife had been manipulating him and treating him like an idiot was simply excruciating - his reaction is (I kid you not), "Lord, help make me the kind of husband that she doesn't feel she has to trick." And then she bursts into the room, crying, and confesses, apologizing for being such a bad wife, and they both tearfully forgive each other and have a prayer session. It's endless. Praying, asking God for help, showing how superior they are to everyone else in the book. (Did you notice the only other even DECENT people in the book were Jenny, who was a bad mother who had thrown up her hands, and the person at the church who appointed our heroes to their many positions?)

Another problem is, the religious aspects are completely unnecessary in the "horror" plot about Stevie. If you compare dedicated pages, I think you'll find that the plot about Stevie is a slim fraction of the number of pages dedicated to the Church. And in the end, the church was a red herring. The actual plot as it was told, could have been a short story. It was religious fiction, with a small, thin supernatural subplot.

People rave about the ending. I think it was horribly done. Ask anyone with kids how they would react to discovering that their eldest child is dead. Then compare it to how the parents in THIS book reacted -- calmly, matter of factly... No screaming and crying or renting of clothing -- just "oh, we'll miss you." I figured it was supposed to show us how Mormons are superior because they aren't afraid of dying. No matter what, however, it's completely unrealistic, and silly. it felt like a Monty Python take on death. "Oh, you're dead? How dreadful. Sorry, old chap! Oh well, it could be worse!"

And, for god's sake, who in the world calls this a "horror" book, or a "thriller"??? The fact that someone dies doesn't make it horror. The fact that someone must have "done it" doesn't make it a thriller. The ultimate false advertising.

I love OSC, and I hated this book. I almost put it down half-way through -- something I would have sworn I would never do with an OSC book, if you'd asked me. For the first time ever, I can say: Do not read this OSC book unless you want to read religious fiction. And there is a lot of religious fiction that is better than this. It's terrible.

[UPDATE: I learned it WAS a short story first, after I wrote this review. May I just say I'm not surprised, and that it should have STAYED a short story. And, today, I gave my copy of Lost Boys to a local used book store. It's the only OSC book I have ever ejected from my library. A sad day, for me. Well, we'll always have Ender!]

I always been a fan of Orson Scott Card since reading Ender's Game. What I love about him most is his ability to flush out his characters. All of them are deep and real and end up stealing a bit of my heart as I read the book caring about what happens to them.

Card also has a great ability to build suspense, both in story and in dialogue. In fact, I'd even venture to say that he is one of the best.

Some of Card's books can miss the mark a bit but this one completely nailed it on the head. It is engrossing and suspenseful. Throughout the entire story you could tell it was building up to something, and that something does not disappoint. Also, these characters are so real that, after reading the book, I had to make sure that this wasn't biographical or autobiographical in some way (it isn't).

What made me relate so much to this story is that I'm an LDS (mormon) computer programmer, as is the main character. I was actually pretty impressed with Orson Scott Card with how well he understood certain facets of programming. He must have really done his homework to make this character real and believable to somebody like myself. It wasn't the fact that he made this guy a programmer, it was that he expressed extremely well the nuances a programmer deals with in his day-to-day work. I did think Card needed to brush up a little on contract law, but I'll forgive him.

But you don't need to be a Mormon or a programmer to enjoy this book. This is a book that anybody who enjoys a good suspense or character fiction book will enjoy. This definitely isn't Ender's Game, but I would rank it as one of Orson Scott Card's best writings.

It has been a number of years since I read this book, but I thought it was really beautiful, and will make you cry. I wrote an email to Mr. Card telling him how much I loved it, and I actually got a reply. Such a thoughtful man, and of course, great writer.