The Myth of 'Lost'

If you are familiar with my reviews, you know that I am not big on Lost books because they get outdated so quickly. The Myth of Lost may suffer the same fate of becoming outdated, but not if you think of it in the way it was meant to be read. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever been a Lost fan. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I picked up The Myth of Lost by Marc Oromaner at a very busy time, right when I was preparing for the sixth and final season of Lost. I had limited time to read, and was disappointed because the book was so hard to put down.

The book was published in 2008, so the question is, is it valuable today? My answer: Yes! It's a fun, conversational read that will help you enjoy Lost in a different way than you previously have.

I think the book will be valuable even after the Lost series is over, for three reasons, an explanation of our storytelling culture, the examination of why we connect with the characters that we do, and an alternate ending to the series.

First, the book goes a long way in examining our storytelling culture. The book claims to "solve the mysteries and understand the wisdom". I think Oromaner succeeds in providing the wisdom of why the writers have chosen certain story elements, as well as pointed out where the writers have gone wrong (and yes, they have gone wrong), based on conventional storytelling methods. He uses lots of interesting examples from well known stories.

Second, Oromaner discusses why we connect with certain characters. This was fascinating and I even emailed the author with the character that I most identify with (Juliet) to get his thoughts on what this means about me. I was interested to read his thoughts on all the main characters and some of the minor characters, but especially interested in the characters with whom I share traits.

And finally, the main purpose of the book is Oromaner's extremely in-depth theory that covers more than any other theory I've read and gives reasons for just about everything (more, I suspect, than even the Lost writers are going to give us), including why they are on the island, the numbers, the whispers, the daddy issues, the smoke monster, and each main character's growth.

At first I didn't like his theory, but the more he explained, the more it made sense and the more I came around. If Oromaner is 100% right with his theory, I would be slightly disappointed with Lost's ending, but I do think it ties up loose ends nicely.

I think the main draw of this book and the reason I will recommend it to you is that it makes a great alternate ending for what could have happened on Lost. And it gives us more Lost to enjoy.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the author. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.