Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Eerily atmospheric and dreamlike, the Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle weaves a mystery full of dark magic, twists, and lush writing about things gone missing and a group of teenagers who find themselves connected in the most unexpected of ways.
Summary
One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hairclips and jewelry, but soon it's clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won't talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away.
Then seductive diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they're holding tight to painful secrets.
When they discover the spellbook, it changes everything. Damp, tattered and ancient, it's full of hand-inked charms to conjure back things that have been lost. And it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights.
Unless it's leading them toward things that were never meant to be found.
Book Details
Spellbook of the Lost and Found
by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
On Sale Date: August 8, 2017
Young Adult, Fantasy, Magical Realism
Kathy Dawson Books, 368 pages
Source: Edelweiss
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
My Review
I'm a fan of magical realism and Moïra Fowley-Doyle is fast becoming a go-to author for me. Her writing is both lyrical and vivid, bringing each setting alive. Family, friendship and coming-of-age are deftly written alongside an eerie mystery.
Spellbook of the Lost and Found opens on a stormy Irish summer night, where best friends Olive and Rose wake up from a bonfire party only to realize they both have lost something. At first, it seems like only small things - pieces of clothing, keys, and jewelry, but soon Olive realizes that Rose has lost something much bigger and she won't talk about it.
Just like she did with the Accident Season, Moïra Fowley-Doyle threads elements of a supernatural mystery, placing it in a contemporary setting, in this case, Ireland, and readers will feel like the island's magic is never far away as the strange and magical overlap here.
“That night, everyone lost something.”
“Be careful what you bargain with; Every lost thing requires a sacrifice - A new loss for every called thing found.”
Clues from diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town and Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, who somehow seem connected to it all.
When they find an old, tattered spellbook full of charms and trinkets along and decide to cast a spell to conjure back all the lost things, they discover magic has a price and not all lost things are meant to be found.
In the End
I found the Spellbook of the Lost and Found to be a tightly written mystery tinged with the just the right amount of supernatural, one that kept me guessing to the end. I enjoyed its eerie and dreamlike atmosphere and twisty mystery. Readers looking for diverse characters and relationships will be pleasantly surprised by this story as well.
Recommended for fans of April Genevieve Tucholke, Anna-Marie McLemore, and Maggie Stiefvater.
