Once Was Lost

Zarr, Sara. Once Was Lost. New York: Little, Brown and Company. 2009.


Sam is a pastor's daughter.  She has always been left out of close circles of friends or activities because people are afraid of what her father will think of them.  Now her mother is in rehab after a DUI conviction, and Sam is frustrated that no one mentions her mother or what is really going on.  It's as if her mother simply doesn't exist for now.  And Sam's father has thrown himself even deeper into serving the community, often leaving Sam in the dust.

Then one of Sam's classmates disappears and the town rallies to search for her.  Between her father's distance, her mother's absence, her lack of close friends, and the new stress on the town in light of Jody's disappearance, Sam is about ready to scream.  Can she find what she has lost?

This book was intriguing and a welcome relief after the many rather-depressing teen books I read.  I enjoyed seeing the town through the eyes of the pastor's daughter (a daughter who is a confessing atheist) and watching her family become whole again.  And they do find the missing girl, by the way, and she's still alive.