The Lost Girl

Author: Sangu Mandanna
Goodreads Rating: 4.3
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pages: 418
Reviewed by: Nicole

Goodreads Synopses:

Eva’s life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her “other”, if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it’s like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything she’s ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she’s forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

From debut novelist Sangu Mandanna comes the dazzling story of a girl who was always told what she had to be—until she found the strength to decide for herself.
I liked this book so much until the ending, but I won't tell you why because I hate to spoil endings. It wasn't that it had a bad ending, just one that I didn't like. Other then that the book was amazing, a little slow to start, but it was great once you got there. I've noticed that a lot of books won't give you the background of life before the synopses, for example, I expected The Lost Girl to start with Eva having to move into her Others life, but instead we got to see what Eva was like before she became Amarra, which I loved.

I loved seeing what Eva's life was like before she had to take over this life. It made what she went through becoming Amarra more real. We got to know Sean, her guardian- the boy that she falls for and we got to meet the woman that helped to raise Eva. I loved that we got to see her attachments to her former life.

I felt bad for Eva as she tried to navigate Amarra's life and she learned how Amarra felt toward Eva. I think what I liked most is that it wasn't terribly confusing between the two girls. While it was a great sentiment, I felt that echo's served no purpose even though they were meant to be a solution, they seemed more like a filler for the one that died. Maybe the only reason I felt this was because of how different Eva was from Amarra.

I felt terribly for Ray and all of Amarra's friends and family as they tried to navigate having Eva around either known or unknown to them. When Ray realized that Eva was not Amarra I could have only imagined how that felt for him. I loved that Eva didn't take shit from anyone when they decided to attack her for what she was.

When I offered this book up to a friend, she seemed skeptical as to why I would want to get rid of my copy, but I assured her that this book is really, truly a great book.