Book Review: Lost Grove (Part 1)

Reviewed by Alexandria Ducksworth

The strong paranormal elements really make this mystery pop.

When the corpse of Sarah Elizabeth Grahams winds up on shore, it throws the entire town of Lost Grove into a frenzy. Secrets long kept under wraps are slowly reaching their tipping point. 

As they attempt to solve the mystery of Sarah’s death, sergeants Seth Wolfe and Bill Richards fall deeper and deeper down a rabbit hole that gets more shocking with each step they take. 

Meanwhile in town, two psychic siblings attempt to start anew in a new high school to escape their past. A group of teenagers attempt to figure out if changelings truly exist.  This mix of the paranormal into our recognized reality fits so well in this creepy atmosphere. There’s a whole to uncover in this first book of the Lost Grove series.

Readers start Lost Grove by discovering Sarah Elizabeth Grahams washed up on the beach. It’s a common opener for an mystery until readers soon discover this is set in a place with witches and strange, bloodthirsty creatures. Lost Grove is what would have happened if the TV show Twin Peaks (1990) had taken a more supernatural path. The story is set in a mysterious West Coast town with many characters with unique backgrounds. Our protagonist, Seth, initially comes out as your average good guy until readers discover he has a peculiar history associated with a cave. Alex Knudsen and Charlotte Wang sure can keep us hanging in the balance.

What makes Lost Grove such a compelling read is the town’s secrets. Many events are happening in Lost Grove besides the Grahams’ case. For instance, one of the townspeople, Mary Germaine, becomes obsessed with eating raw meat and drinking blood after a strange creature bites her. One coffee shop owner believes a ghost haunts her business. And lastly, there is the Orbrialles Institute, a medical facility that carries a dark reputation and gets us thinking about how everything is connected in the town’s horrors.

Knudsen and Wang keep things entertaining throughout, especially with Sarah Elizabeth’s side of the story. Knowing what kind of person she was before her passing allows us a full picture and gives us intriguing clues and threads to pay attention to in the current storyline. Because of the unraveling threads, this book can get addictive quickly. The city’s lore will grip any reader’s attention, and there is so much alluring strangeness going on. 

A paranormal mystery well worth reading, Lost Grove (Part 1) will have you questioning constantly why this creepy town is the way it is.

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Thank you for reading Alexandria Ducksworth’s book review of Lost Grove (Part One) by Charlotte Zang & Alex Knudsen! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.