Friday, June 13, 2014

Unexpected Applause: Lost and Found (a book review post)

Lost and Found by the A Beer for the Shower guys (Bryan and Brandon, for those of you that don't know) may be the best ghost story I've ever read. Not that I read a lot of ghost stories, but the ones I have read have all been pretty typical. This one is far from typical. So far from typical that you don't know... Um, wait... I want this to be as spoiler free as possible and saying that this is a ghost story is almost a spoiler all by itself.

Okay, so let's start with the technicals. Bryan and Brandon continue to deliver the best edited independent books that I've read. I think I counted, maybe, three typos. Not that I was counting, because I wasn't, but the lack of errors made the ones I did see kind of jump out at me. But it may have only been two. Few enough as to not be worthy of commenting on. I know, then why am I commenting on it? Well, the traditionally published book I am currently reading (you know, the one with a budget to hire professional editors) has already have three or four times as many errors, so I think it's worth noting that these guys do a better job of polishing their work than the "professionals."

Okay, so back to the story:
The story is told in two parts: "Lost" and "Found." Both stories are completely independent of each other in that you could sit down and read either of them and come away from whichever one you'd read and think, "Well, that was pretty good. Not spectacular but pretty good." However (and this is a big "however"), when you put the two stories together, they interlock and are spectacular. Seriously. And I wish I could talk about it, but that would be the spoiling part.

I think the best way to describe the story is like this:
In case there are any of you reading this that have never seen this particular illusion, there are two pictures there. You can appreciate either of them independently, but it's only the appreciation of those two pictures melded into one image that really makes this interesting.

So let's call Lost and Found a psychological thriller with a paranormal twist, which still doesn't cover it, but it's probably as close as I can get. It's creepy, maybe scary, but not gruesome in any way. It has a little bit of Ghost Whisper and a little bit of... um, I'm not sure... some kind of reality hunter type show. You should probably just go read it. Yeah, you should probably go do that right now.

12 comments:

  1. I've read a couple of their shorter books and still have this one on my iPad to read. The stories interlock? That will be cool.
    Also amuses me you devote a whole paragraph to typos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds REALLY good. Those guys are great writers. I'm going to add this to my wish list

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alex: It is amusing, but I'm reading this big-time traditionally published sc-fi book, right now, and it is so full of editing mistakes! I just found it worth noting that B&B do a MUCH better job of editing their stuff than a lot of traditional publishers.

    Briane: I was surprised by how good it was. Probably, I shouldn't have been, but the first half is so "that was decent" that you don't expect what happens in the second.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well you have certainly made me want to read this one. As for typos, I know what you mean. I personally get really uptight about them. I have been doing some proofing for a couple of friends so hopefully I am doing a good job.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jo: When a story is really good, typos don't bother me at all. When it's not so good, typos are a horrible distraction.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey, thanks again for this review! And you know, we're not much for ghost stories either. Which is weird, since, you know, we wrote this. We just kicked around the idea of telling a ghost story from multiple perspectives (since it always seems to be from one very biased perspective) and it was born.

    I'm just curious to hear what you have to say about starting another story. Is this another short for the end of a book, or another collaboration you have in mind?

    ReplyDelete
  7. ABftS: Well, I think some great stories come out of ideas like that.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the visual illusion. If the stories capture the same sort of trick, I am most impressed.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds cool! I love books with a fun/freaky twist.

    ReplyDelete
  10. TAS: I think it does. At least, that's as close as I could come to a good analogy.

    Veronica: This doesn't really fit in with the kind of thing you usually read, but you should give it a try.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sold! I already have one of their books, but haven't started reading it yet. Might as well add another one. It sounds too darned good to miss.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Susan: I would put this at the top of their co-authored books. It was really good.

    ReplyDelete