Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst
289 pages
Finished 10/27/07












I first heard of this book a few months ago - I was browsing some website (who knows which one!) and found a list of books that were the new phenomenon - books based on reality TV. Since I am a complete reality TV addict (ooh, just gave me an idea for another post!), I added this to my amazon wish list...and then did what I always do, which is skip over it when I'm ordering books.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was browsing the website of Jen Lancaster (author of Bitter is the New Black and Bright Lights, Big Ass - she's hilarious) and I saw that she had posted that her favorite book of the year was Lost and Found. That moved the book to the top of my TBR pile.

The book is mainly about 4 teams that are competing in a reality TV show that is essentially like The Amazing Race. To be quite honest - I didn't really find any of the characters all that likable. I understand the part they were all supposed to play (the joking brothers, the already-famous team, the gays, etc), both in the novel and on the reality TV show, but come on - it's one thing to see it on TV, it's another for it to be put into novel form. I think it ended up translating to characters that I felt no empathy for. And don't get me started on the ending! Worst part of the book.

The funny thing is, I still ended up liking the book some. I think it was the reality TV that did me in, especially the behind the scenes bits. It had me thinking - is it really like this? Is that how they do it?

In the end, I gave the book three stars.