Once Was Lost

LOVELY BOOK!!!!!!!

I WAS REALLY INSPIRED!!! IT HELPED ME TO FIND MY FAITH!!!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic!

Keeps you on the edge for a while then shows you how God really brings things back together. So glad i bought this book! :)

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Terrific!!......... A must read story!

Sam Taylor has been through a lot in the past month or so. For starters, her mom was sent to rehab for a drinking addiction and one of her friends from church dissapeared off the streets one day. Through all of Sams problems, she tries to stay as strong as possible.
So far, the book has been very well written. Sara Zarr has done a terrific job of telling a story. The characters seem so real and you could easily place yourself in any of the settings. The problems that occur in the book are real-life issues and can be easily related to. I would highly recommend this book to any girl, teens and/or young adults.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Loved It!

Once was Lost holds the exact measurements of everything that makes it accessible and good for many audiences. Sam is someone that many can relate to as they go through an emotional period in there life. I felt like her reactions to her life crumbling around her were realistic. Both the reader and Sam learn that her life isn't crumbling at the end, it is just changing. There is mystery where the kidnapping is concerned and emotion is expressed everywhere in the book. Sam must deal with her own problems with her alcoholic mother and busy father, as well as her communities where the kidnapping is concerned. There is literally a touch of romance in just the right place with just the right person. Sam and her entire journey are good for anyone. The religion aspect plays a big part in the novel, but it will not matter if you have any similarities with the religion part!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A great and surprising read.

Poor Sam. She needed a hug throughout almost this entire book, and not the one-armed youth leader kind. She sufferes from knowing a lot of people but being close to very few. She's also dealing with the absence of her mother, and her mother's long-time alcohol abuse, all alone. Her dad doesn't want to talk about the situation, or at least he doesn't want to talk about it with Sam, and Sam can't talk to anyone else about it either, not even her best friend Vanessa, without hurting her father's reputation. They just keep telling people her mom is "sick" and not letting anyone in the house. Luckily for Pastor Charlie's image, no one wants to come over anyway since it's August and their air conditioner is broken. When Jody is kidnapped, Sam is clearly upset (she's mad at life, not heartless), but it does give her something besides her mother and crumbling family to focus all of her energy/super-power-strength-worrying-skills on.

It's when the youth group is all gathered praying for Jody's safe return that Sam realizes that she doesn't know anymore if anyone's listening. How could a just and loving God let Jody be kidnapped? How could He let Sam flounder through her life feeling so abandoned and alone? Sam struggles through this by herself as well. A daughter who may have lost her faith could be more damaging to Pastor Charlie's reputation than a wife in rehab. But Sam's doubt isn't a rejection of God. She desperately wants to feel the closeness and comfort that her youth group friends feel, especially when she has such a lack of both in her day-to-day life. She just can't muster it, and so she feels isolated and wrong. Though Sam's situation would undoubtably be helped by talking to her church friends or youth leader, the fact that she doesn't feel she can go to them is ultimately realistic. Even if she had sought guidance, this is something so personal that she has to deal with it alone.

And she does, with the search for Jody, a budding relationship with Nick, fights with Vanessa, and unreturned voicemails left for her mother all buzzing in the background.

Though it is a heavy read, I highly recommend Once Was Lost, especially for regular youth group attendees.


Book source: Philly Free Library

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Original but forgettable

When her mother is checked into rehab, Samara wants her father to say the right words like he does to everyone else in their small town. His charm is undeniable and the Pineview Community Church is lucky to have him as a pastor. But Sam isn't so sure that her dad has it altogether. Then again, what does she really know about him if he's never home? Heat waves suck. And they make everything feel ten times worse. So Sam's thoughts are all the more depressing. A 13-year-old girl from their congregation goes missing and Sam finds herself falling in love with the girl's grieving older brother. But paranoia doesn't leave without a question: Is there really a God?

Once Was Lost was predictable. The writing was pretty and flowed well but I was never fully into the story. It was too easy to set the book down. There seemed to be two sides of the main character: one was self-conscience and vulnerable and the other just wanted to scream of frustration. So I could never sympathize with Sam. The book also needed a bigger variety in character personalities. Everyone's dialogue was basically the same things being said over and over. I really liked the ending even though I knew what was coming. Both the cover and the story are minty fresh but they're forgettable.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Yet Another Great Novel By Zarr!

Sara Zarr's novels are always filled with greatness. Story of A Girl was an amazing and fascinating read while Sweethearts was a heartbreaking story that made me cry. So, when I found out she had a new novel coming out soon, I was supper excited. Luckily, Once Was Lost may seriously be Sara's best attempt yet!

Once Was Lost is novel that deals with loosing hope because of different tragedies that are occurring around you while still trying to restore that hope. One thing, I enjoyed about this novel was the way Sara Zarr approached religion. Since, it was well done and wasn't overbearing which I admired about this book. Also, I loved the whole mystery aspect of this novel which is brought out from the kidnapping. It was interesting to see the twists and turns that come from this and the final revelation of who did it.

Sadly, at times, Once Was Lost moved in a way that was a bit slow, especially at the beginning. Though, the characters tended to over shadow this bad point, because I really enjoyed reading about them all, especially Sam. She is a character that is easy to relate to and like.

Overall, Once Was Lost is a beautiful tale about forgiving and starting to believe again, I look forward to reading more books by Zarr!

Grade: A

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A

I LOVE THIS BOOK. IT IS AMAZING!!!!!

It was great!

Sam thinks entering high school will turn her life around, well she is completely wrong. She is the only child of a pastor, which makes everyone automatically think she must be perfect. Her family barely has any money so the church pays most of their bills. When she thinks nothing worse could happen her mother got a DUI, meaning she must attend rehab. Sam and her mom were very close which made her going to rehab even harder. Her dad didn't understand her like her mom did, he seemed to have the answers to everyones questions and problems but hers. One day after church while watching the news she discovers one of her friends, Jody Shaw, from church got kidnapped. At this point she basically loses faith and is unsure on who to turn to.

Loved this book!!

This is an amazing story adout a gurl that really doent kno how to handle the things that are beeing added to her life.this is a beautifal must read story! Highly rcomended!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recommended

Another hit for Sara Zarr. I love her style of writing. I hope she has something else coming out soon.

Not christian

Im not christian but i liked that religion was woven in this one

Awesome!

It really is awesome. It describes how one event can change your life. Its got tragedy, romance, bonding, and hope all rolled into one. It describes a teens journey to define herself and her faith. The ending might be a little predictable for some, but it definitely makes my top ten.

Great!!

This book was amazing! It had all the best things to it--romance and a little mystery to keep things entertaining. Also, it really made you think about religion and such. My faith actually grew as i read this book. I highly recommend it, especially to teens who are new to the whole believeing thing.

Wow!

An amazing book! Even though it is technically not a mystery per se, Sara Zarr was still able to keep you very intrigued and on the edge of suspense, in a different way than other books I have read. I was really able to connect with how the characters were feeling at certain times, and the overall theme is amazing. I would reccomend this book to just about anybody; young or old. I never expected to get so much out of a fiction book, but I did, and I am glad. I am now hoping to read other books by Zarr in the near future. She really opened my eyes to how there really are such great books out there, and after reading this, it makes me feel like the majority of the other books I have read aren't anything compared to this book. Totally worth reading for sure! :)

A book that honestly looks at the intersection of life and faith

I ran across this book online, and since it looked interesting and had gotten good reviews, I bought it. First off, the way Sam, the main character and narrator, is written pulls you into the book. There are times her mood can be a little overwhelming, but that's what reading breaks are for. We have to eat sometime. The book centers on Sam's life after her mother leaves for rehab, and she's left with her dad, a pastor, and a life as the daughter of a pastor whom everyone expects to act a certain way--and the expectation from her dad that the veneer of a happy home will stay up with Mom gone. Needless to say, all goeth not well. When a kidnapping occurs, Sam's world goes even more off-kilter, and she starts to question if she really believes in God, or ever did. It's a heavy book in many ways, but I still read through it pretty quickly, because I wanted to know where Sam landed and if things would ever be okay. (And who the kidnapper was, naturally.) Plus, I've stuggled with some of the same questions Sam does, and had a family that often was dysfunctional and good at hiding it, like Sam's. The ending of this book wasn't quite what I expected, as I expected more of an arc before the pages ran out. But if you read it yourself, you can make up your own mind about that.

Cool

I love the characters in Once Was Lost ! They were so real and interesting ! I felt exactly like Sam everytime I turned a page. In this book, a girl (Sam -paster's daughter) has a mom who's in rehab for a DUI, a dad who doesn't understand her but understands everyone else, and NOW, on top of all that, Jody (Nick's -really cute guy at church- little 13 year old sister) goes missing. All in all, I think Once Was Lost was Cool.

Find Yourself in this Book :]

An ordinary girl with an unforgettable background, Sam Taylor, just wants to (and does) fit in, in high school. When she moved to a different school for freshman year, her life turned around. She's been a loser for years and now people actually like her at her new school. No one has to know about her past, or at least that's what Samara thought.. This book is a must read to show you how people can change but who you love is really what matters.

Reviewed by Melanie Foust for TeensReadToo.com

Since Sam's father is a pastor, the church members seem to expect Sam, short for Samara, and her family to be perfect.

They each deal with the pressure in different ways. Her father manages by always being there for the church, whenever anyone needs him, even if it is to the detriment of his own family. Sam's mother started drinking, just a little, then a little more, and is now in rehab. Sam is trying to be the glue that holds her family together, but things have unraveled far past her control.

Her faith in something, anything out there, used to come so easy, but now she is unsure. Her father continues to play the role of a perfect pastor, while turning a seemingly blind eye to the needs of his own household. Sam's not even sure if her mother wants to see her anymore.

When a young girl from Sam's town is kidnapped, the local tragedy affects everyone. Added to the burdens Sam already carries, it's way too much for her to handle on her own.

Sara Zarr, also the author of STORY OF A GIRL and SWEETHEARTS, has written a book in which the writing is quite lyrical, and the struggle Sam has with her faith is one that will mirror many teens' experience. With superbly well-developed characters, by the end of the book, you'll feel like you know them all.

ONCE WAS LOST is beautiful. A book in which the journey is just as important as the destination.

Questions With Few Answers

I'm not a big reader, and I'm EXTREMELY picky with books, but I was completely warped into this book. I was questioning myself so much, and I actually yelled at the book a few times to tell Sam that she needs to just express her feelings instead of holding them back. This book teaches a lesson that you need to say you feel, and only what you feel, to never hold back. Sam held back and look what happened.... Her life went counterclockwise. I reccommend this book to everyone. No specific gender or age; everyone.