Let's Get Lost | Adi Alsaid

Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost. 

Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most. 

There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings…until his own life goes off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love. 

Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth— sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you're looking for is to get lost along the way.

I really disliked this book, with too many high expectations that simply weren’t met. Going into the book, I was told that this book resembled Papertowns by John Green, and although I can see the similarities, in my eyes Papertowns was a much better read.

Spoiler-Filled Discussion 

A successful contemporary story has a lot of different factors that need to be considered during the writing and editing process. These include the characters, the setting, the storyline, and the climax. All of them need to work in perfect harmony with each other to create the beautiful symphony of a story. In this book, each aspect had a different sound, creating a cacophony over a melody.

The characters were so bland. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them; it was that I didn’t know them. Over the span of a couple hundred pages, we were introduced to so many characters: Hudson, Leila, Sonia, Dee, and a few others whose names I don’t even remember. They all served for a singular purpose and then disappeared from the story altogether. Even Leila, our protagonist, was a complete stranger to me. As she interacts with all the other characters, she serves as just a side character, and rather than slowly learning things about her throughout the story, we learn nothing until at the end, within the short range of fifteen pages.

The storyline in this book was unenticing and boring. The story was literally this: a girl drives to Alaska in a red car. Along the way, she stops and makes a friend. None of it added up to make a cohesive storyline. Each event seemed separate and unrelated. While most stories have a plotline that builds towards a big finish, this book had no big finish. The ending was predictable and unrealistic. From start to finish, Leila is practically the same character, just a bit more disappointed and resigned by the end.

I think a better ending should have involved all of the characters, not just Hudson, because that would have been really interesting to see.

Generally, I was very disappointed with this book. BookCon, Barnes and Noble, everywhere I went, I saw this book and because of all it’s publicity I was convinced it was going to be great. Weeks later, with the book finished, I’m just not satisfied. Several factors could have been improved to create a better and more exciting read.