• Essential Maps for the Lost

  • By: Deb Caletti
  • Narrated by: C. S. E Cooney
  • Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

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Essential Maps for the Lost  By  cover art

Essential Maps for the Lost

By: Deb Caletti
Narrated by: C. S. E Cooney
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Publisher's summary

There are many ways to be lost.

Sometimes people want to be lost. Madison - Mads to everyone who knows her - is trying her best to escape herself during one last summer away from a mother who needs more from her than she can give and from a future that has been decided by everyone but her.

Sometimes the lost do the unimaginable, like the woman - the body - Mads collides with in the middle of the water on a traumatic morning that changes everything.

And sometimes the lost are the ones left behind, like the son of the woman in the water, Billy Youngwolf Floyd. Billy is struggling to find his way through each day in the shadow of grief. His one comfort is the map he carries in his pocket, out of his favorite book, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

When three lives (and one special shared book) collide, strange things happen. Things like questions and coincidences and secrets, lots of secrets. Things like falling in love. But can two lost people telling so many lies find their way through tragedy to each other and to solid ground?

©2016 Deb Caletti (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Billy and Mads' romance is tender and sweet, and Caletti's lyrical, sometimes witty narration pulls readers close to both teenagers' tangled emotions in a complex exploration of grief, mental illness, the redemptive power of storytelling, and the hope found in unexpected places." ( Publishers Weekly)

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Be ready for some deep stuff

I was a little hesitant when I started this one. This was a book club pick, and I had heard mixed reviews going in. Overall, the story was a decent mixture of silly/quirky situations with lots of depressive/suicidal moments. The author does a great job of making you really feel what is going on inside Mads’ and Billy’s heads. Their truth is so relatable to others that experience these kinds of thoughts. It really makes you stop and think rather than judge those who experience these things on the regular.

It was very different than what I normally read. I appreciate that it makes the reader think and reflect. I also enjoyed that the characters were able to bond over a book, which is something that I find myself doing more so. Finding the strength to move forward after trauma can be hard, and the author showed that it may take time but it is possible one step at a time.

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