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Reviewed by:
  • The Lost Girl
  • Claire Gross
Mandanna, Sangu . The Lost Girl. Balzer + Bray, 2012. [432p]. Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-208231-2 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-208233-6 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12.

The Weavers created Eva for one purpose: she is essentially a life understudy to a girl named Amarra, whose life she will step into should Amarra suffer tragedy. After a cloistered, secretive existence studying Amarra's journals and mimicking her every experience, Eva is abruptly thrust into real life (and moved from England to India) when Amarra dies. Amarra's parents, who contracted for her existence out of the fear of ever losing their daughter, and her siblings, who have their own "echoes," know that she's not really Amarra, though, and their grief interacts with their growing appreciation of Eva as her own person. Mandanna takes her time setting up Eva's frame of reference—the talking heads on TV who dismiss her as a soulless abomination; the absolute power of the Weavers over her life; the constant balancing game between taking what freedoms she can and protecting herself from retribution—and then moves the plot into an equally mine-filled exploration of the space Eva is expected to fill in her new life. Eva is driven by a deep-seated anger over her lack of control over her own existence, tempered by genuine sympathy and affection for Amarra's family, even when they commit unforgivable betrayals. While the book's pace can lag at times, the relationships are the driving force here, and the breathtakingly complex character development is set against a sinister, [End Page 35] Frankensteinian underworld that promises plenty of philosophically fraught conflict and intricate backstory. It all ties together for an emotionally satisfying debut novel that offers a compelling meditation on the nature of humanity, consciousness, and self-ownership.

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