The Beautiful Lost Character Analysis Essay

Are the beautiful really lost or are they found? The Beautiful Lost by Luanne Rice, Maia is a 16 year old girl who struggles with depression after her mom left. Maia comes up with a plan to go cross country to find her mom but her plan takes a turn when her crush 16 year old Billy comes along. Together the two teens make their way from Crawford Connecticut USA to Tadoussac Quebec Canada. On their journey they come across several roadblocks and conflicts. The book has its ups and downs but overall it has an amazing story line.

The Beautiful Lost certainly does have its strengths and weaknesses. A big strength is that when you read the novel you feel like you're right there with the characters. Throughout the novel you feel like you’ve never left Maia’s side. You follow her wherever she goes and you feel like you're standing right beside her. For example when she says “The road narrowed, then practically disappeared into the overgrown brush. We felt branches swishing and smashing against the truck doors, and they nearly obscured the way ahead. The thicket enclosed us, but then the road widened slightly and we entered a clearing”(Rice, pg.144).Luanne does a good job on telling you what's happening and how they feel.

One of the novel's weaknesses is some of the characters appear out of nowhere.

Occasionally some of the characters just appear with without saying where they came from or how the got there. I think Luanne should describe how the character got there or at least where he/she came from. The book can be unclear sometimes when a new character comes into play but after a little bit it straightens out. Another weakness is the story isn't very realistic. I think Luanne could have done a better job at making the story line more realistic. So the it is more enjoyable the novel does have its parts where it can get boring but the book leads up to something

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Every novel has its ups and downs, but this book certainly has a sadder feel to it as the book talks about Maia’s depression and her struggles as a teenager. Luanne did a wonderful job at telling you what Maia’s and the others characters problems were without coming right out and saying it. She made it seem easy to describe what the characters problems are when it's actually fairly hard. Every character has his/her own problem but in the end everyone has a solution to their issue. Even if they make a bad decision they always end up making it right. Luanne could have not done a better job describing her story.
“Hope is the only thing stronger than fear” (anonymous). This is an amazing book with a lot of purpose. This book shows you that not everyone is ok inside. This book gives you so much awareness about depression and what it can do to a person. So if you are looking for a good book that you never want to put down and is emotional, then this is a book for you. So are the beautiful lost or are they found?