Book Review – The Lost Path

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book: The Lost Path by Amelie Flechais
Release Date: April 10th 2018
Tags: Graphic Novel / Sketch / Full Colored Illustrations / Black and White / Magical Creatures / Adventure / Woods / Friendship / Siblings

 If you’ve got the taste for adventure, come join this treasure hunt! Three young boys set off from Camp Happiness, map in hand, determined to be the first to find the treasure before anyone else. But the shortcut they take leads to something far more spectacular and sinister! All manner of magical beasties live in these woods, and the kids find themselves caught between warring Forest Spirits. Will the three boys find their way out of trouble? Get your map and ready, set, go!

Sometimes I like to browse the read now section on Netgalley. I like to give graphic novels a try and the cover of The Lost Path stood out with its intricate cover and own art style.

The art starts off very well with a clear own style and beautiful colored pages. But after a few pages this was turned to black and white with a sketched feeling with on occasion some color thrown in here and there. At first I thought that this was because it wasn’t finished but the book is out already and it became clear quickly that it was done at certain scenes where the author wanted to make an impact. And the full color pages were stunning and eye catching. But I did see quite some wonky lines in those as well so not as clean as it could be either. The sketchiness of the rest was a bit jarring compared to the colored bits.

The idea of the wood and our group of boys going in is interesting but in the end the story doesn’t really wrap itself up. There is talk of a battle but our boys get taken out of the woods before that happens and I felt like I was just dumped out of a story with now way to return to it to know the ending. It was not a good feeling.

While we don’t know the name of the boys until the very end they did grown on me. There is a clear bond between them and their sarcastic and childlike interactions were endearing at moments. I wouldn’t mind seeing them return to the woods again.