Friday, July 17, 2015

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

I picked up Lost Lake because I've enjoyed the other books I've read by Sarah Addison Allen. And while Lost Lake felt like an old friend, it was rushed in spots and not completely satisfying.

Kate's been asleep for the last year. After her husband's death, Kate simply lived a fog of grief. During that year, she let her mother-in-law, Cricket handle her life and her daughter, Devin. Now, Kate's house is sold and Kate and Devin are moving into Cricket's house. While packing their belonging, Devin finds a postcard from Kate's aunt, Eby. Kate reminisces about the summer she spent at Aunt Eby's lakeside resort. Kate decides to take Devin and visit Eby. At the same time, Eby decides that it's time for her to sell the lakeside resort and travel again. Both women's decisions affect others in their lives and shake up everything in everyone's life.

Like Sarah Addison Allen's other books, Lost Lake has a lot of magical realism. Devin communicates with an alligator and spends a lot of the book trying to solve its mystery. Selma, one of the women that has been coming to Lost Lake for years, uses magic to gain her husbands. Lisette, the cook of Lost Lake, is haunted by the ghost of her lover. Lost Lake failed to be as good as her other books because it was too rushed. I think it were an extra hundred pages so things could happen more slowly, it would have been an excellent book. Lost Lake is good but not Sarah Addison Allen's best. I wanted the magic to develop slowly but it happened so quickly, I felt like I missed a lot of it.

I would recommend Lost Lake. I loved the characters and the story but be prepared for less than perfect. Others who shared their thoughts on Lost Lake: The Lost Entwife, Write Meg!, and On A Book Bender.
Lost Lake satisfies the Body of Water category for the What's In A Name Challenge.

1 comment:

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