
The Lost Story
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jorjeana Marie
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By:
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Meg Shaffer
About this listen
Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, this wild and wondrous novel is a fairy tale for grown-ups who still knock on the back of wardrobes—just in case—from the author of The Wishing Game.
“This is the book you’ve been waiting for.”—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and the North Bath Trilogy
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that contains a map and recipes from the book.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2024 Meg Shaffer (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“If our sad, brutal, cynical, cowardly, unkind, exhausting world is too much for you, if you’d like to dream instead of a parallel world where love and loyalty and friendship are the magic that transforms the least of us into genuine heroes, then Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story is the book you’ve been waiting for. And here’s the real magic. When you return from that enchanted place to the world you wanted to escape from, you’ll find it’s changed. Why? Because you have.”—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath Trilogy
“Jeremy, Rafe, and Emilie all embark on a wild and magical adventure that makes for a perfect cozy fantasy read, reminiscent of the childhood books we grew up loving.”—HuffPost
“This wildly imaginative book speaks to every reader who yearns for a more magical world.”—Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon
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It is 1793 and the French Revolution is in full swing. Vampires—usually rich and aristocratic—have slaked the guillotine’s thirst in large numbers. The mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, a disguised British noble, and his League are heroically rescuing dozens of aristocrats from execution, both human and vampire. And soon they will have an ace up their sleeve: Eleanor Dalton.
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Could have been shorter
- By AshBelle on 08-10-23
By: Genevieve Cogman
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The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
- By: Natasha Pulley
- Narrated by: Thomas Judd
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.
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scientific magic delivers a flop
- By Not Likey on 09-19-23
By: Natasha Pulley
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The Teller of Small Fortunes
- By: Julie Leong
- Narrated by: Phyllis Ho
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells "small" fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…
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Delightful
- By Emily turton on 12-13-24
By: Julie Leong
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Island Witch
- By: Amanda Jayatissa
- Narrated by: Isuri Wijesundara
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father’s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise. Now someone—or something—is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara’s father’s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself.
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There’s something watching in the jungle
- By Amanda on 12-16-24
By: Amanda Jayatissa
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A Dark and Drowning Tide
- A Novel
- By: Allison Saft
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Lorelei Kaskel, a folklorist with a quick temper and an even quicker wit, is on an expedition with six eccentric nobles in search of a fabled spring. The magical spring promises untold power, which the king wants to harness in order to secure his reign over the embattled country of Brunnestaad. Lorelei is determined to use this opportunity to prove herself and make her wildest, most impossible dream come true: to become a naturalist, able to travel freely to lands she’s only read about.
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A beautiful gay story
- By Isabel De Leon on 10-06-24
By: Allison Saft
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The Shadow of Perseus
- A Novel
- By: Claire Heywood
- Narrated by: Olivia Darnley
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Nationally bestselling author of Daughters of Sparta Claire Heywood returns with an imaginative and female-centered reinterpretation of the myth of the great hero Perseus, told through the voices of three women who are sidelined in the traditional version—his mother, Danae; his trophy, Medusa; and his wife, Andromeda—but whose viewpoints reveal a man who is not, in fact, a hero at all.
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Completely new story with only character names
- By Victoria P. on 03-30-24
By: Claire Heywood
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An Inheritance of Magic
- By: Benedict Jacka
- Narrated by: Will Watt
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Stephen Oakwood is a young man on the edge of this hidden world. He has talent and potential, but turning that potential into magical power takes money, opportunity, and training. All Stephen has is a minimum wage job and a cat. But when a chance encounter with a member of House Ashford gets him noticed by the wrong people, Stephen is thrown in the deep end. For centuries, the vast corporations and aristocratic Houses of the magical world have grown impossibly rich and influential by hoarding their knowledge.
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Great start to new series, content warning
- By patrisi on 10-24-23
By: Benedict Jacka
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Autopsy of a Fairytale
- Autopsy of a Fairytale, Book 1
- By: Nicole Scarano
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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After an attack on the job, Homicide Detective Isobel 'Bel' Emerson takes her dog and moves to the small town of Bajka in search of a less stressful life and career. But the quaint town's peace is disturbed when a local furniture designer is murdered, his body posed to look like a human chandelier. Thrust back into the fray, Bel must confront her personal demons as she investigates an impossible case, and as bodies turned into household objects start to pile up, all clues point to the reclusive millionaire who just bought the abandoned mansion at the edge of town.
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Kept me on my toes
- By Jasmine racine on 09-23-24
By: Nicole Scarano
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The Year of the Witching
- By: Alexis Henderson
- Narrated by: Brianna Colette
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet's word is law, Immanuelle Moore's very existence is blasphemy. Her mother's union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement. But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches.
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Meh
- By Elizabeth F. Therneau on 09-15-20
By: Alexis Henderson
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Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
- By: Claire Kann
- Narrated by: Zenzi Williams
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Lucky Hart has a special affinity for the supernatural but almost no one takes parapsychology seriously. She’s estranged from her family, lost her friends, and has been rejected from graduate school. Twice. But her big break finally arrives when she gets insider info about a troubled production company. Every actor on their new show mysteriously quits after spending three nights inside Hennessee House, an old Victorian with a notorious reputation. After scheming her way onto the show to investigate, Lucky meets Maverick Phillips and chemistry instantly crackles between them.
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I wanted to love it.
- By Carissa Ramirez on 10-26-24
By: Claire Kann
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The Night Ends with Fire
- By: K. X. Song
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin’s father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Trapped by his opium addiction, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands. The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father’s place.
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Interesting
- By Tristan R on 09-28-24
By: K. X. Song
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Catchpenny
- A Novel
- By: Charlie Huston
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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A thief who can travel through mirrors, a video game that threatens to spill out of the virtual world, a doomsday cult on a collision course with destiny, and a missing teenager at the center of it all. With the world on the brink of every kind of apocalypse, humanity needs a hero. What it gets is Sid Catchpenny.
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If You Want to Destroy My Sweater...
- By Ross on 04-11-24
By: Charlie Huston
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A Million Junes
- By: Emily Henry
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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June O'Donnell - aka Junior, aka Jack, aka Jonathan O'Donnell IV, aka the first female O'Donnell firstborn - has always been haunted by her family's mythic but complicated legacy. As she prepares to begin her final year of high school, June is itching to leave behind her ghosts in Five Fingers, Michigan, and travel the world. And then, just like it always happens to the O'Donnells, a painful glimmer from her past returns to mess everything up. Enter Saul Angert, the eldest son of Eli Angert, aka June's late father's mortal enemy.
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Romeo & Juliet? Tuck Everlasting? Something entirely new?
- By Syd Young on 06-15-17
By: Emily Henry
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Vox
- By: Christina Dalcher
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her. This is just the beginning. Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke 16,000 words a day, but now women only have 100 to make themselves heard. But this is not the end. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.
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Please ignore the negative reviews.
- By Amanda W. on 09-05-18
What listeners say about The Lost Story
Highly rated for:
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- C E Matthews
- 07-22-24
Lovely Writing
First and foremost, the writing in this novel is amazing. The author layered in so many lovely details, and the world building was terrific. I loved the characters and how their stories grew and twisted together. Now, the plot was sort of where I get less enthusiastic. I felt like the narrative leaned into the “Narnia” trope, but most every plot point was predictable. The magic system stared out really cool, but I thought the ultimate explanation for it was very rushed and lacking depth. I found myself being simultaneously excited and frustrated that I figured out who the villain was early on - I was so hoping for a plot twist. And the relationship/romance was okay - but I really wanted multiple relationships to happen. The story ends with a cross between HEA and a cliffhanger - but I’m not sure if it left me that invested. There are TW - child abuse/assault. I will end on a positive note - again, this author has a gift for lovely writing. And with that said I would recommend the novel for light reading.
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- Pamela Ann Plumer
- 07-18-24
Exciting listen with phenomenal narration!
Thoroughly enjoyed this Meg Shaffer book and I must say she has never disappointed me. 😊
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- W.
- 07-18-24
What could be better for the soul than to enjoy a modern fairy tale?
I feel incredibly blessed to have been present for a personal reading of a passage from this story on its launch day, in the back room of a lovely independent Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville.
According to the author, this story took many years to write. All I have to say about that Is that every moment it took along the way to craft the perfect story was well worth it. Her investment of time, effort and talent in crafting this story of compassion, love, devotion, healing, growth, imagination, wonder, wander, and hope paid great dividends on each. Sadly, our modern world feels often bereft of these wonderful traits and it is good to be reminded that they are out there for the having, holding, and safe keeping of all who choose to believe in their value and virtue.
Thank you, Meg (Megalodon Shark) Shaffer for pouring yourself into this (and your other works), so we all get to sip.
The only thing this tale is lacking, is a series of sequels. I hope you choose to work on one so we all get to enjoy that as well.
For any who have read and enjoyed this book, I highly recommend you check out The Wishing Game. It is another work of hers which is also extraordinary.
Thank you Meg, it was wonderful to meet you and your husband at the launch event. I really, really enjoyed the book.
~Will~
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- Cori Steinberg
- 04-05-25
Unexpected gay love.
What a beautifully written book. My heart fills full. I hope there is a sequel.
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- Caroline
- 07-27-24
Felt very young adult but still fun
Great beginning, beautiful ideas, just not very well executed. Too much telling and not showing
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- nbeardsley
- 08-04-24
The narrator's crispy R's got on my nerves
"c-row" I don't know the linguistic term, but her hard /r/ sounds came from the back of her throat and it's all I could hear.
Missed the mark on Jeremy and Emilie's voices, too. Made Emilie sound immature and Jeremy too nonchalant.
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- Frankie
- 01-25-25
Sweet and interesting but not enthralling
This was a great book for in between favorite books, know what I mean? It is charming, not a fan of the “storyteller corner” disruptions but respect the effort to be creative.
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- Deb Scott
- 09-06-24
Amazing! Destroying!! Still crying and smiling. More please!!!❤️
I LOVED THIS BOOK! I want more!!
I actually never dreamed I’d even like it much less fall in love!❤️
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- Emily
- 07-19-24
Bummed.
I loved The Wishing Game. It will forever be one of my favorite books, paying homage to great works of children’s literature in a heartwarming and original tale with an embedded fictional world in Clock Island. So, I was anxiously awaiting The Lost Story’s arrival, and will fully admit that maybe my expectations were simply too high.
This book seems rushed in multiple ways. The first few chapters lay out an interesting cadence and several worthwhile plots from which to choose. But once in the “world,” it also seemed like it was a narrative descriptions of rules and next steps, rather than a rich experience. The interjections on how fairy tales work was humorous at first, but then it became redundant and compounded upon the idea that most of the book was just navigating the world.
Once the characters made their way to resolve the conflict, it was an absolute rush to the end. If you’re going to take the time to build a complex fantastical world, leave time to explore it. Any subplots or worthwhile twists were left on the table in favor of a fairly straightforward love story.
If you compare this to something like “Fairy Tale” by Stephen King, you’ll feel like you’re reading a poorly executed knock off. My guess is that, following The Wishing Game’s commercial success as a debut, an editor hacked at creative originality in favor of mass appeal page count, etc., and Meg’s concept is therefore diluted.
The contemplated world does have potential. This book just didn’t do enough to support it.
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- Charmy
- 11-21-24
Just a sweet story
So many reviews are upset the knight has a prince instead of a princess. This is just everything you want in a feel-good story. I also couldn't help but notice a few commonalities between these characters and characters from a certain series.
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