The Road Trip of A Lifetime Or Just Cliché? Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

⚠ This review contains spoilers ⚠

"Let's Get Lost" starts with Leila being blown into the life of Hudson - a student in his last year who also works in his dad's garage. He is meant to prep the car for a road trip of a lifetime! The start is here in this garage, and the finishing line is as far up north as you can go: The Norther Lights. Before she sets off, Hudson gives her a tour of the town, and she has a great night with his friends. Then she sets off on her journey.

This sets the plot of the book: on her way to Alaska, Leila is a force being blown into other people's lives, and they have an adventure together. This way she meets the runaway girl Bree, the hopelessly in love Elliot, and Sonia who learns that everyone can love more than once.

Leila swings into each of their lives, and manages to bring a happy ending to their stories. Making it the fairy-tale plot that she could wish for on her road trip. Elliot gets the girl, Bree returns back home, and Sonia learns it's okay to love again.

And yet, I did not enjoy the plot. The problem is that it is too cliché. There is nothing wrong with a book that ends with a cheesy "happily ever after" ending, and even being the most predictable plot imaginable if the book is aware of this. However, reading "Let's Get Lost" I was never sure what this book really wanted to be.

This can be best explained with Elliot's plot: He is the boy who had always been in love with his best friend - Maribel. During prom night he confesses his love, and she rejects him. "Let's remain friends." Being heart-broken Elliot literally runs into Leila. After a few calamities, they set off in the pursuit of making Maribel fall in love with Elliot.

He sings a song for her in public, but she isn't there anymore. He tries to find her in her favourite place, with no luck, and she isn't at the after party. In the end, Elliot finally find her at a restaurant. At this point you're pinning for Elliot: "He is going to get the girl, right?!" The whole story is laid out like this! However, Maribel is kissing another boy ... "oh dear."

Now we're on the last few pages of the chapter, and Elliot is heartbroken. Leila and he come to the realization that, no matter what you try, you can't make someone fall in love with you. As a reader you think, "actually, yes. That's life."

Then in the last paragraph Leila finds a note saying "I should have kissed you"- obviously it is addressed to Elliot, but it would have made things interesting if not - and the whole lesson learnt is forgotten.

As a reader it just confused me at what this was exactly aiming. If it was meant to be a fairy-tale story then why put the real life lesson in there? Why not have the kiss in the restaurant then? Or outside while Leila throws napkins at them - which substitute for rose pedals?

This type of story telling happens in all of the stories. Either the lesson one could take away from the story is completely undone by the last paragraph, or only one measly paragraph is devoted to it ... and in all honesty, I got tired of it!

However, not all was bad: I enjoyed the idea of letting the main character just appear in snipplets. You don't follow Leila's story from her point of view. Instead, you follow the person into who's life she stumbles, and learn bits and piece as the journey progresses. As you read on, you get an image about who Leila is. Furthermore, each chapters ends with a postcard to someone. This way you get further insight into the mystery and what she took away from certain adventures.

In the end, "Let's Get Lost" had a good plot idea and characters, but I still felt like it had been let down by the execution of those ...

Let's Get Lost	by Adi Alsaid
Published:	2014	by Alloy Entertainment
Pages:	338
ISBN:	978-0-848-45335-7