Book Review of The Lost & Found by Katrina Leno

I borrowed The Lost & Found by Katrina Leno from the library because I loved Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid and Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff (the two authors whose blurbs were on the back cover). I find blurbs to be a very hit-or-miss way of finding new books I enjoy: just because an author whose work I like also liked a particular book, that doesn't necessarily mean I'll like it. Usually, I have to read 2-3 things recommended by a certain author before I can get a feel of whether or not that author's reading preferences mesh well with my own. There are authors whose writing I love, but whose reading recommendations I consistently don't enjoy, and there are authors whose writing I don't like, but who give great book recs. Unfortunately for me, if our opinions of The Lost & Found were any indication, my reading tastes don't match up with Michelle Falkoff's or Adi Alsaid's. I was mostly disappointed by this one. The cover, while quite appropriate to the story, was very meh.

Frannie and Louis meet on a web community for teens dealing with trauma. After years of exchanging messages with no identifying information included, each one suddenly and miraculously receives a letter leading him or her from opposite sides of the country to Austin, Texas, where they decide to meet face-to-face for the first time, bringing their respective best friends--cousin Arrow and sister Willa) along for the ride.

...which all sounds like it could be the making of a good YA novel, if a little too convenient with the double letters arriving at pretty much the same time plot device, but whatever. Leno used up most of my suspension of disbelief of random things happening just because they were convenient for the story with those two plot points aligning. So, when very poorly written elements of magical realism that feel like one deus ex machina after another swooping in to wrap up yet another loose end of the story keep happening, and that turns out to be the style in which Leno decided to write the entire book, well, I completely lost interest. I couldn't find the end of this one fast enough when I realized this messy nonsense was supposed to be the crux of the plot. 

However, for all of its faults, diversity is something Leno mostly did well in The Lost & Found. Louis and his twin sister Willa are half Indian. Willa is also a double amputee with two prosthetic legs, and I felt Leno's representation of her was sensitive and thoughtful. Willa's character was so much more than her disability or her challenges, and I really enjoyed how she didn't fit into the common tropes for disabled characters in YA. Louis has panic attacks and is dealing with a past of self harm--issues that are creeping back up for him over the course of the story. Frannie's cousin and bestie Arrow is Vietnamese and adopted. Frannie's mother is Schizophrenic, and Frannie wonders if she's genetically predisposed to the same fate, but this is the one area I had a problem with, because Frannie's mom wasn't written about with any sort of dignity or respect as a person with mental illness. (The words "crazy" and "insane" were used often in reference to Frannie's mother.)

Ultimately, I really don't recommend this book. Between the offensive ways Leno chooses to refer to a Schizophrenic character and some of the worst magical realism in YA I've ever read, I honestly don't understand how anyone could enjoy it. This is one of those stories where the execution in no way lives up to the premise. If you're looking for some fabulous YA magical realism with great diversity, try American Street by Ibi Zoboi--link here for my review--or The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma--link here for my review.