Saturday Short-Story Review: The Lost Path by Amélie Fléchais

Hello Book Lovers! I hope you all are having a great weekend. Today’s Short Story review is on The Lost Path by Amélie Fléchais. When I saw this title on NetGalley I just wanted to have it as I have read picture book by this author last year Saturday Short Story Review: Little Red Wolf by Amélie Fléchais. It was so beautiful and cute story that I hoped this one will be good as well. Was it? Let’s see…

Publication Date: March 28th 2018

Publisher: Lion Forge Comics

Read Date: February 10th 2018

Genre: Children’s fiction / Picture book.

Stars: 3/5

Three young boys set off from Camp Happiness, map in hand, determined to be the first to find the treasure before anyone else. But the shortcut they take leads to something far more spectacular and sinister! All manner of magical beasties live in these woods, and the kids find themselves caught between warring Forest Spirits. Will the three boys find their way out of trouble? Get your map and ready, set, go!

Amélie Fléchais’s incredible artwork combines the best of French illustration with manga influences. A spooky new fairy tale, for fans of Over the Garden Wall.

The Lost path is graphic illustrated novel about three boys who travels through the magical forest with the help of map to find the treasure and get lost at the end. Book was very imaginative with beautiful arts and illustrations.

Loved that cover. Art and pictures. They were so beautiful and definitely unique. I haven’t seen such gorgeous illustrations in any picture book. I like the alternate black and white and coloring art separating the third youngest boy’s imaginations and it was good because if it wasn’t in colors I would get confused with what it has to do with story, but there were colored pictures in the beginning as well so not all colored illustrations were imagination that might be confusing. It was creepy with weird forest creatures and spirits which made book intriguing. I wanted to see what was going on in the book and how it was going to end.

Characters were okay. Boy with the map kept boasting throughout the book about how good he was in this or that activities and with the map but he managed to get lost with his friends in this weird forest that kind of showed not to be boastful or it might have terrible consequences.

Book had a great potential but here ends all the good things.

I had some problems with the story:

First it was very confusing. I felt like few things were not explained properly. I got what the hat was and that weird creature was its protector and all. But that plot by other forest creatures and then war between forest spirits was confusing. What happened in the house was also weird and I had to reread those parts. It felt not developed properly, I couldn’t find a connection between all this.

It’s not at all like Little Red Wolf in which there was lesson and learning and so greatly explained story with twist. Here I couldn’t get any lesson from the story except that I have said above about boasting. Characters didn’t develop and some pictures were confusing. Transition from black and white to color picture was so sudden.

If it will be rewritten with proper narration, I don’t care how long it will be but if it’s done then I’m in for this story otherwise I it’s not that good and it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Overall, it was just okay. Definitely awesome illustration, loved the art and it will look beautiful in paper, no doubt for that, but major drawback was story.

Author: Amélie Fléchais

***Note: I received e-ARC via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to publisher and NetGalley. ***

What do you think about this book and my review? Have read this book already or any book by this author before? Have you read something similar to this book? Share your thoughts in comment-box below.