The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna - BOOK REVIEW

From http://sangumandanna.com/about-2/ : “Sangu Mandanna was four years old when she was chased by an elephant and wrote her first story about it and decided that this was what she wanted to do with her life. Seventeen years later, she read Frankenstein. It sent her into a writing frenzy that became THE LOST GIRL, a novel about death and love and the tie that binds the two together. Sangu now lives in England with her husband and son.”

Influenced by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this is the first novel of Sangu.

THE LOST GIRL is a story of a girl, whose existence is very unusual. She is an echo, a copy of someone. A spare human body, intended as a replacement in case the original (other) will meet an untimely death. Made by Weavers, and guided by her guardians, she’s forcefully made as an exact replica of her counterpart, Amarra. To live the life of the other, and bounded by the rules, that she is only allowed to act as what her “Other” is doing. Lost Girl is a story where Eva, the echo, try to find the reasons of her being, build her own identity, and live a life that she wants, while surviving death.

This is a very fast-phased novel. Adrenaline-packed scenes are everywhere, putting down the book will be as hard as it could be, you will wonder what will happen next and will end up picking the book again. Sangu, introduced many interesting characters to look into. I really liked the intelligence of the siblings of Amarra, Nikhil and Sasha, for me they are as strong as it can be. The fact that they should be mourning, they did not fall into believing that their sister is present inside Eva, and give the impression the she’s still with them. Alisha, the mother, she truly believed that her daughter is still lingering in her echo. Her actions can be quite understandable, untimely loss of one of your daughters could really mean everything.

THE LOST GIRL is a YA novel. As it is intended initially for young adults, they would find the theme very unusual and disturbing sometimes. Toying with life and death topics is not usual in these ages.  But disturbing it is, in a nice way. Knowing the value of life as early as this stage means a great deal in their future decisions.
I like this book. THE LOST GIRL is the kind of novel where you have to think a lot. It will widen your perspective about life…and death. View and assess of your being. Personally, I didn’t expect that this could grab my attention and really dig into it. The possibilities presented in the novels are quite entertaining and full of what-if’s. Throwing a little bit of romance and cheesiness every other time is forgivable, well I have been engrossed on the wonder and mystique in their creation rather than their ehem..love story.

The novel played on a topic that most of us consider taboo, death. Who among us is not afraid in leaving our love ones unprepared? Knowing that you have many things you should have given and mistakes you should have corrected? Who is not tempted to have an echo, to secure the things we will left behind?? Who will take care of our families? And for them to endure our lost and give them hope..a false hope. Death…unwanted as it may be, but that just the way things go, cheating it is not an answer. For me, as we cannot live an impeccable life, we should plan ahead of everything, knowing that we don’t know what ahead of us. Do things now. We should not be afraid of death, we should just be prepared.

4 out of 5 Hard Hats.

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Check out also my other book review for The Titan's Curse Book Three Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan