Once Was Lost

by Sara Zarr

Book Overview

Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. She used to believe in a lot of things. As a pastor's kid, it's hard not to buy in to the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reason to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. When a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, the local tragedy overlaps with Sam's personal one,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316036048
• ISBN13: 9780316036047
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Quiet and thoughtful

Sara Zarr took inspiration from the Elizabeth Smart disappearance and ran with it to a completely different place, filled with authentic experience and emotion, one that speaks to adults and young adults. It's a novel about faith and doubt when the world intrudes upon already shaky ground, inevitable during the coming of age years, recurring in the adult ones. I believed in the characters, have known people like them, saw bits of myself in several. This isn't light reading, but I was engrossed and never felt preached at during the journey of self-discovery and faith seeking. This isn't a Christian novel, per se, but handles the questions and concerns better than many of the books published specifically for that market. Overall, it is about losing the safety of childhood and discovering one's own faith along the way. Zarr doesn't offer easy solutions or trite answers, but they are real ones, at least for this character and I was fully invested in all of them by the end of the book.

Review: Once was Lost

This is only the second christian fiction book that I have read. This was amazing read for me at the juncture in my life. I have found what I have been missing and growing in my own spirituality, so this book was very enjoyable and inspiring for me at this time. I loved Sammy's character; she effectively portrays the wandering christian that is in need of guidance. She is the child that has been had the adult guidance, but now needs to re-evaluate and decide on the future of her own spirituality. In Once was Lost Sara Zarr created a world that is easy to relate and believeable. The sins and struggles that were previewed in this book kept it honest and humbling. Her ability to combined a entertaining young adult read with a lesson shows true talent. I look forward to see what else this author has to offer.

Believer or not, this book is excellent

As a pastor's kid, Samara Taylor is supposed to have a good relationship with God and an unshakable faith. But a lot of things in her life have made Sam a doubter. With her alcoholic mom in rehab after a DUI and her father more concerned with his congregation and appearances, Sam can't help but feel as if God doesn't exist. And that feeling is only compounded when a local girl is kidnapped, turning her whole community upside down. Once Was Lost is a blunt novel of faith and what happens when everything you believed in is changed irrevocably. Sam is a very convincing and relatable character that readers will be able to connect with on any level, especially as her doubt about her beliefs is something that nearly ever person has confronted at least once in their lifetime. She brings up issues that some people may not think about, like not being included with friends because of her beliefs and who her father is. Zarr also does an excellent job at portraying the tense setting as the whole town deals with the kidnapping and fear begins to control others and accusations are slung left and right. The best thing about Once Was Lost though is that it doesn't concentrate on the all of the things that go wrong, like the kidnapping, Sam's mother's DUI, or inappropriate relationships, but rather examines its affect on Sam and her faith. Once Was Lost isn't a hugely dramatic novel full of twists and turns, but it is a gripping, sometimes heartbreaking look at how ordinary people learn to deal with a less than perfect world. Zarr's latest book is an excellent, non-preachy look at faith and religion that any reader, believer or not, can enjoy.

Endearing characters, smart answers

With Sam's mom in rehab and her dad still smiling his professional pastor smile from the pulpit, Sam begins to wonder what is true. Then when a girl from her church is abducted, Sam begins to fear everyone, including God, but finds that the one person she trusts is the prime suspect in the abduction case. Although the child-abduction-leads-to-questioning-God theme feels somewhat cliche in Christian literature, thanks to the popularity of The Shack, Zarr's excellent characterizations make Once Was Lost stand on its own merit--each character is dynamic and believable. While she doesn't attempt to answer the Big Questions as explicitly as in The Shack, she does answer them in her own subtle way, concluding that people make mistakes, and God is still there. Once Was Lost is romantic, suspenseful, thought-provoking, warm, sensitive, and psychologically intelligent. The plot is not all that creative and is sometimes predictable, but the details and sentiment totally redeem the story. Now that I've finished the book, I almost miss these characters--I feel like I know them: their personalities so accurate, their spiritual struggles so honest.

Sara Zarr's best yet!

Sara Zarr's ONCE WAS LOST might just be her best novel yet, and that's saying a lot. The story opens with the main character Samira, the teenaged daughter of the beloved local pastor, lamenting the fact that everything seems to be broken at her house, from the air conditioning to the yard to her her family itself. A crisis of faith for this youth group kid deepens when another girl from her church is abducted, and no one is beyond suspicion. I was in awe of the way Zarr managed to maintain the page-turning suspense of a mystery while spinning a truly incredibly coming of age story about family and faith. It's a beautiful, beautiful book with a pitch perfect ending. Read it.