The Lost Story

June 1, 2024
This soothing novel will appeal to fans of classic and portal fantasies, where other fantastic worlds are lying under our own, just waiting to be discovered. Years ago, two teenage boys, Jeremy and Rafe, were lost for months after disappearing on a field trip to Red Crow State Park. They returned unable to tell anyone about where they had been. Now, Rafe is a recluse haunted by psychological issues, and Jeremy is known for his ability to track down lost girls. That's how Emilie Wendel finds them: she needs their help to find her sister, who disappeared into Red Crow years before they did. The three of them set off on a mystical journey that will have them all confront their childhood memories, traumas, and first loves. Shaffer (The Wishing Game, 2023) writes an uplifting, queer story about confronting childhood abuse and dark memories through storytelling, friendship, and finding a place where you belong. Between the realistic, warm characters and the emotional primary story line, this novel is a successful, low-stakes fantasy read.

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Starred review from June 1, 2024

Shaffer's (The Wishing Game) second novel is a modern-day fairy tale set in West Virginia and a beautiful yet dangerous realm. Two teenage boys, Jeremy and Rafe, are lost in a forest, only to be found six months later by some hikers. Rafe is unable to remember anything that happened while they were missing. Jeremy remembers everything about the enchanted place they encountered but refuses to tell Rafe or explain where they were or how they survived. Years later, Jeremy has become a skilled missing-persons investigator specializing in finding lost women. Emilie, who is looking for her lost sister, enlists him to help find her, as her sister is lost in the same forest where Rafe and Jeremy disappeared. The question then becomes whether or not Jeremy will dare to venture back into the magical realm he left so long ago. VERDICT Readers will find this an absolutely immersive pleasure to read. Shaffer delivers an unforgettable and nostalgic experience, especially for fans of "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis or fairy-tale retellings.--Leigh Verburg

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2024
Three lost souls search for a missing woman. When best friends Ralph "Rafe" Howell and Jeremy Cox were teenagers, they went missing in the woods of West Virginia for six months. Now, 15 years later, the two are estranged. Rafe lives in a cabin and spends his days hunting, painting, and being generally hermitic. Jeremy has an uncanny, almost supernatural ability to find lost people, and spends his time finding lost girls. Enter Emilie Wendell. Emilie's adoptive mother recently died and, in her search to ease her loneliness, Emilie uploaded her DNA to a website that matched her with a half-sister she didn't know existed. Here's the catch: Emilie's sister, Shannon Yates, went missing years ago in the same forest as Rafe and Jeremy. Emilie shows up to a TV interview Jeremy is doing and demands he help find her sister. Jeremy agrees and reveals a secret: Shannon, better known to him as Skya, is the queen of a magical land called Shanandoah. As it turns out, Jeremy and Rafe weren't lost in the woods those many years ago but were spending their days galivanting around the secret magical kingdom whose entrance is in the forest. To return they need to enlist the help of Rafe, whose memories of Shanandoah and, more heartbreakingly, the love he held for Jeremy were erased when they left the magical world. After quite a bit of convincing, Rafe reluctantly agrees to help. What unfolds is an adventure filled with sword fights, romance, and gut-wrenching stories of the dark past that led the boys to the forest in the first place. Shaffer's depictions of Emilie and Skya fall almost completely flat. That said, she makes up for it with the tender love between Jeremy and Rafe and the magical depiction of the world they once left behind. Like all the best fairy tales: nostalgic with an undercurrent of darkness.

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Starred review from July 29, 2024
Shaffer (The Wishing Game) plays on portal fantasy nostalgia in this brilliant riff on the Chronicles of Narnia. Emilie Wendell is mourning the loss of her adoptive mother when she discovers she has a half-sister who was kidnapped 20 years ago. She begs the help of famous missing-persons investigator Jeremy Cox. Jeremy and his high school best friend, Rafe Howell, were lost as teenagers in West Virginia’s Red Crow State Park and emerged six months later completely changed. Rafe, now an artist, can’t remember what happened, and ever since the incident his drawings have returned to a fantastical world he can’t explain. Jeremy knows the truth—that they went through a portal into that other realm—but he’s bound by a promise not to reveal the truth to Rafe. When Rafe joins in the search for Emilia’s long-lost sister, the investigation takes both men back to the wondrous but deadly world they once loved. Shaffer manages to capture the joys and magic of childhood innocence alongside the wisdom that comes with age and the heartache and scars that make it difficult to go home again. The taut mystery keeps the pages of this love letter to the fantasy genre flying. Readers will be transfixed. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency.