Lost and Found, by Orson Scott Card

Clear your life for about two days so you can revel in this story. One of my favorite books this year, to date. A brilliant combination of the raw emotion and witty conversation of Gary D. Schmidt with Card’s own willingness to go to the edge of darkness, peer over the edge at it, and come away somehow OK. Just a touch of fantasy and a dash of romance to top a tale that combines mystery, fantasy, true crime, coming of age, and elements of faith. Would make an excellent movie.

Ezekiel Blast has a weird ability to return lost items to their owners. And by ability, I mean compulsion. He is anxious if he doesn’t return a lost item. However, everyone always thinks he is the one who took it in the first place, so he gave up on returning the lost items and lives with the anxiety. Great way to start high school. Then one day, a super short girl walks to school with him and convinces him to let her enter his shunning bubble, because people make fun of her because of her size. Somehow, he doesn’t disagree, and Ezekiel finds a kindred spirit in Beth.

Their smart, quick-witted dialogue full of beautiful vocabulary drives the plot, the character development, and their friendship. Very Gary D. Schmidt-esque.

Then comes the peering into darkness.

One day, a police officer shows up at Ezekiel’s house, hoping that Ezekiel can help him find a little girl who has been kidnapped. He suspects this to be part of a ring of the worst kind of kidnappers–a child pornography ring that ends in the streamed execution of the girls. But he can’t give up hope, even when Ezekiel tries to convince him that his power is not one of finding, but of returning. Enter Beth. She helps Ezekiel articulate more about how his gift works, and he finally agrees to try to find Renee.

Without spoiling anything, I can say that the ending is extremely satisfying but not before taking the reader right along to the edge of darkness with Ezekiel, Detective Shank, and Ezekiel’s father (who is the real rock star of this story, by the way; smart, gentle, devoted to his orphaned son). With a climax that absorbs the reader quicker than Bounty and a denouement that makes the raw emotion of the first part of the book feel like an English tea party, just read it.