One Was Lost ~ By Natalie D. Richards – 2.5 Stars

Tags

Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: October 4th, 2016

320 Pages

Synopsis: Murder, justice, and revenge were so not a part of the plan when Sera set out on her senior camping trip. After all, hiking through the woods is supposed to be safe and uneventful. 

Then one morning the group wakes up groggy, confused, and with words scrawled on their wrists: Damaged. Deceptive. Dangerous. Darling. Their supplies? Destroyed. Half their group? Gone. Their chaperone? Unconscious. Worst of all, they find four dolls acting out a murder–dolls dressed just like them.

Suddenly it’s clear; they’re being hunted. And with the only positive word on her wrist, Sera falls under suspicion…

One Was Lost is a YA suspense/thriller about a group of teens attacked by a mysterious villain while on a camping trip. I know. There have been so many books and movies centered around this trope, but I confess to having a fondness for them, and so I’m always on the lookout for something new. This story did have some unique qualities about it. Particularly how the main characters woke up with the words: Damaged, Deceptive, Dangerous, and Darling scrawled in black sharpie on their wrists. This was the hook for me. Who could have done this and why? And what do these words even mean? It also sets up quite nicely this air of distrust among the four campers. After all, half their group is missing, and their teacher has been drugged into unconsciousness. The perpetrator could be anyone of them! While I thought this premise was a good one, where I ran into a roadblock, was with the characters. This is supposed to be a senior class trip, right before these kids graduate, yet every single one of them are so immature that it was impossible for me to believe that they were 17-18 year-olds. For the most part they’re also smug, arrogant, self-involved, and completely indifferent to what anyone else may be going through. To be honest, by the time the not so surprising end came, I didn’t really care what happened to any of them. I also felt a certain lack of suspense, although this could have stemmed from my dislike for the characters. They just seemed to spend a lot of time wandering around the woods, trying to find a way out, but except for a couple of scenes where their tormentor leaves some little surprises for them, nothing really happens, unless you count them sniping at each other. I will say though, that while I had guessed who the villain was, their motives came as a bit of surprise to me. Overall, One Was Lost was a frustrating read for me. Equally frustrating is that going by the mainly positive reviews on Goodreads, I’m definitely in the minority, leaving me to plaintively ask “what did I miss?” So, if you like this type of book, then I recommend you go ahead and try it. It’s a quick read, and I can see it appealing to teens.