Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst, (#4, Reader's Choice)

Carolyn Parkhurst's Lost and Found left something to be desired. When I got to the last page, I asked myself, "Is that it?" For a book of this nature to not deliver a satisfying ending is almost unspeakable. This is bestselling fiction, and I think one of the main draws of reading a book that everybody reads is an ending that is predictable in that it delivers the answers to all of your burning questions.

I can't give this novel a glowing review because it tries to do too much. I don't think you can parade as a light-hearted romp through reality-tv land and then get ultra serious. What's the fun in that? Lost and Found tells the story of seven teams on a reality game show, much like the Amazing Race but with some modifications to the game. Contestants run around to all these different countries in teams of two and track down specific items that they must then lug around for the rest of the game. The twist is that all the players have secrets that the producers hope to reveal over the course of the game. There were not many clever plot twists on Parkhurst's part and the novel was more tell than show, mostly because of the split narration between six of the contestants.

Having read this, I feel like I wasted one of my fifty on something less than satisfying. Let's hope my next read, Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays, is a little better.