Spellbook of the Lost and Found

June 15, 2017
Everyone in a small Irish town loses something after the annual bonfire, but some losses matter more than others. Teenager Olive loses a shoe, her jacket, a hair clip, and her cherished close relationship with Rose, her best friend. Hazel, 17, loses only her jacket, perhaps because she's already lost so much--her mother to alcohol, her grandparents to death and dementia. She and her twin, Rowan, are camping rough in an abandoned housing development, trying to survive until they turn 18. Meanwhile, Laurel went to the bonfire only because someone had stolen her diary and those of her two best friends--the three cast a spell to get the pages back. Items disappear, then reappear as Olive, Hazel, and Laurel, all white, trade off the narrative--but one of the accounts is not what it seems. Fowley-Doyle's lush, atmospheric storytelling contrasts brilliantly with her characters' teenage normalcy--drinking, skiving, and cursing while mostly loving their parents and sticking up for one another. Readers will need patience to untangle the plot's silver threads, but those who savored Fowley-Doyle's previous The Accident Season (2015) will relish this as well. (Fabulism. 13-adult)

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June 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-This lush and deliciously twisty contemporary Irish novel, set in Balmallen, County Mayo, population 2,400, has just a hint of the supernatural. It takes the form of the red, leather-bound Spellbook of the Lost and Found, which three friends find when their diaries go missing just before the town's annual early May bonfire. The temptation to call for "the lost to be found" is great, and since "every lost thing requires a sacrifice-a new loss for every called thing found," the repercussions of the teens' spell are far-reaching and profound. Readers slowly realize just how far-reaching and profound as the mystery unfolds and they learn the identities of the spell casters. Secrets abound, and many of the outings and adventures are fueled by high drama and strong spirits, including poteen, or moonshine. Fowley-Doyle is herself a literary spell caster, conjuring up a suspenseful and sensual ambience in the forest on the edges of town and in the remains of bonfire revelry. The chapters are narrated from the points of view of six different teens over time, and their voices and connections are immediately distinctive and relatable. They all experience losses, some of which are serious and debilitating, yet the overarching theme, if there is one, is the motto that Olive discovers written on her arm the morning after the party: if you don't get lost, you'll never be found. VERDICT This smart and sexy page-turner that readers will want to devour and share with their friends is a real find.-Luann Toth, School Library Journal

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 A diary. A bracelet. A favorite mug. A friend's trust. A mother's love. In Fowley-Doyle's atmospheric mystery, a spell to make lost things found might return something precious, but at what cost? After the annual May bonfire, everyone in the small Irish town of Balmallen wakes having lost something. Olive is worried about her best friend, who's skipping school and being uncommunicative. Hazel, squatting in an abandoned house with her twin brother and their friend, is keeping a terrible secret about their mother. When the teens find the titular spellbook, they realize that someone already cast this spell and it worked. So why shouldn't they try it? Running parallel with this story is that of Laurel and her friends, who cast the spell and set in motion far-reaching repercussions. The three narrators are unmistakably different yet equally spellbinding, and their emotionally raw story lines come together with a masterful twist. Fowley-Doyle infuses this gritty contemporary story of loss, sacrifice, love, and friendship with a mythic quality, both magical and menacing. Older readers will be enthralled.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)