Peter Straub has a way with words. Some people don’t like that. “Too wordy”, they say. Well, I don’t share that sentiment. I could immerse myself in beautiful prose all day long, thank you very much.Now.lost boy lost girlA review.Yes I am here, yes I was real. You denied me.This is one of the finest examples of literary horror I have ever read. I would like to emphasize that Peter Straub does.not.spoonfeed.his.readers. The “literary” bit is just as important here as the “horror” bit so an apprec...

Reading Experience : Very Good Villainous Act : High Blood and Gore : High Disturbing Parts : High Reading Slog : HighTim Underhill delves on zigzag events happened to his sister-in-law and nephew to seek answers on a serial killer roams at Sherman Park, an abandoned house and mass murder happened starting 1960s (just correct me to this events) wherein this situations it leaves answers on each situation one after another.I gave Straub a shot since Ghost Story which I highly recommend to those

Novelist Timothy Underhill, seeks unravel the tragic circumstances of the suicide of his sister, and the disappearance of his nephew which lead to a paedophilic killer and a haunted house. And anyone that reads my reviews (anyone?) knows that I just don't feel haunted house or ghost stories, and unfortunately this tales joins the others in my snooze bin. This is also yet another Straub book that does little for me. 3 out of 12.

Picked this book up in the library because the title intrigued me and I had nothing with me to read. Couldn't put it down. A fascinating story with an intriguing and satisfying ending.There are many disturbing elements to this story, but for me personally, that simply adds to the overall effect. I know some people who hate disturbing books to the point where they will throw the book out in the trash, and while I don't like seeing mistreated books like that, it's your book so whatever. That's fin...

The unsettling account of the connections between a suicide, a missing boy, a missing girl, a serial killer and a haunted house, Lost Boy Lost Girl is a strange amalgam of parts. Even its narrative is scattered for such a short book, with a heavy emphasis on the uncle of the missing boy. His presence is so dominant (despite him being removed from nearly all of the plot, mostly learning of events after they happen) that the more intimate perspectives that come later feel out of place. Straub summ...

"What was at stake here, he thought, was the solidity of the world.” 4.5 ⭐ Initial Thoughts My love affair with Peter Straub continues. At this rate we’ll be moving in together! I’ve read five books by the guy so far and loved them all. The last one was only two weeks ago when I tackled The Throat, which was absolutely fantastic, and I just couldn’t hold off from having another romantic interlude with perhaps the most talented author that’s writing in the horror genre today.I, like almost

A ghost, a suicide, a serial killer, and a kidnapped teenager all come together in this novel, but not in the way you might expect. As the story follows the Underhill family, Straub shakes up the narrative by telling this non-linear tale through different characters' perspectives, and also uses different methods, such as email exchanges, diary entries, and flashbacks. There are a few points where this confused me and I wasn't sure whose view the details were coming from, but it always kept my in...

“A sentence from his uncle’s book popped into his mind: ‘What was at stake here, he thought, was the solidity of the world.’The house looked exactly the same, but it had altered itself nonetheless. In some internal fashion he had no hope of identifying, the house had adjusted to his presence. Mark waited. Chill drops of sweat glided down the sides of his chest. Unconsciously, he had balled his hands into fists, and the muscles in his calves and upper arms became unbearably taut. His eyes seem

A creepy, entertaining read. Had me hooked from the beginning and didn't let me go until the very end. Highly recommended to any horror fan.

What's not to like in this book? An all male cast filled with one dimensional stereotypes. A major failing of the Bechdel test. A serial killer sub-plot that goes nowhere. An evil house that does nothing. A story about evil where the only person who dies is a suicide, and that's on page one. A story about a ghost where the ghost who finally shows up just wants to have sex...but "off screen," of course. Wouldn't want anything to actually happen in this book, would we?In a book of dull and offensi...

Mark Underhill is a typical 15-year-old boy living with his mom and dad in a typical Midwest middle-class neighborhood. His dad is an emotionally distant public school vice principal and his enduring mom works the complaints desk at the gas company. Mark likes music, skateboarding, and hanging out with his best friend, Jimbo. But Mark’s regular life takes a turn when he discovers his mother has committed a gruesome suicide in their own bathtub. From this scene on, Straub’s story attempts to ter

For some reason I avoided Peter Straub like the plague until one day in my twenties whilst stuck in Penn Station without a book I happened upon a copy of "Lost Boy Lost Girl" and out of desperation bought it. I have never looked back and as soon as I finished it I ran out and read everything else the man has written in something like a month."Lost Boy Lost Girl" is a ghost story but its also a story about surviving unspeakable loss. Successful novelist Tim Underhill (a featured player in several...

It was not scary at all. There's just this millionaire, Ronald Lloyd-Jones, who was obsessed with a serial killer named Joseph Kalendar and looked up to him so much that he kidnapped boys and tortured them in Kalendar's house since he bought the property after Kalendar left.I think that we have to give credit for Mark and Jimbo for finding out what crept out Nancy Underhill that led to her suicide. Jimbo too for being a loyal friend to Mark even though he left Mark alone to his search for answer...

Not an altogether horrible horror novel. It's not, bless us all, the diarrheal trainwreck that was "Ghost Story," one of P. Straub's most strikingly overvalued works. No, this one has that Michael Myers-like phobia of the suburbs, of the persons lurking in the house next door. And if the biggest implausibility of a fifteen year old twink having sex with a salacious ghost girl doesn't strike you as too absurd, then the read is worthwhile. But if like me you had expected to come face-to-face with

Even at the very beginning of my read of this short novel, I was on the road to a five-star review. In the middle, I was just as enthralled. Oh, the places this could go! A little further, and things began to unravel, and by the time I finished the last sentence, we had lost a couple of stars.First a quick detailing of the premise, no spoilers yet. Lost Boy Lost Girl is about many things. A mother that commits suicide, her husband who is a jackass, her son whose curiosity about the house next do...

I was hugely disappointed in this book. It is the story of a young teen that becomes obsessed with an empty house on the other side of the alley where he lives. It is a house that horrible murders took place many years prior. His mom knows the secret of the house and she ends of committing suicide and then the boy disappears. There is a serial killer on the loose and the assumption is he was now a victim of this man. There were parts of the story that were quite interesting but it did jump aroun...

Great story with lots of unusual twists, and hints of past books. It has a little gore and a little romance, and some characters you love to hate or pity or both. Straub doesn't bludgeon the reader with sex or violence. He requires the reader to think about and visualize. The reader must draw their own conclusions, and different readers are bound to have different interpretations.

A haunted and inspired tale as only Straub can weave.

This book was electric.A ghost story, but not quite a ghost story. Mysterious, but not quite a mystery. This is a tough book to pigeonhole under a single genre title and, in truth, I found it more literary fiction than anything. (Though of course Straub is known as a horror author). This book accomplished what so few do in the genre however, and was a carefully crafted rubix cube puzzle that continued to unlock a square at a time in a delightfully fulfilling way. The characters were fully realiz...

While I have not read GHOST STORY, this is the only Peter Straub book that I've actually managed to finish. Not a bad read. 2.5 stars.