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    Everything We Lost: A Novel
    Everything We Lost: A Novel
    Everything We Lost: A Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    Everything We Lost: A Novel

    Written by Valerie Geary

    Narrated by Jorjeana Marie

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the critically acclaimed author of Crooked River comes this fascinating novel about a young woman searching for answers about events that transpired ten years before when her brother disappeared without a trace—an utterly mesmerizing psychological thriller.

    Lucy Durant was only fourteen-years-old when she lost her older brother. First to his paranoid delusions as he became increasingly obsessed with UFOs and government conspiracies. Then, permanently, when he walked into the desert outside Bishop, California, and never returned.

    Now on the tenth anniversary of Nolan’s mysterious disappearance, Lucy is still struggling with guilt and confusion—her memories from that period are blurry and obscured by time, distance, and alcohol. Now an adult, she’s stuck in a holding pattern, hiding out at her father’s house, avoiding people, and doing whatever she can to keep herself from thinking about Nolan. But when a series of unsettling events leads Lucy back to Bishop, she is forced to reconcile with her estranged mother and come to terms with the tangled memories of her past to discover what really happened to her brother all those years ago.

    Told in Lucy and Nolan's alternating voices, Everything We Lost is a psychological mystery exploring family, beliefs, obsessions, the nature of memory, and fear of the unknown—a haunting, compelling story that will resonate with listeners long after the last sentence is heard.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 22, 2017
    ISBN9780062741011
    Author

    Valerie Geary

    Valerie Geary is the author of Crooked River, a finalist for the Ken Kesey Award. Her short stories have been published in The Rumpus and Day One. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.

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    Reviews for Everything We Lost

    3.5/5

    41 ratings14 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Everything We Lost by Valerie Geary is an intriguing mystery that explores UFOs, extraterrestrial and government conspiracies. This compelling novel centers around the still unresolved disappearance of then sixteen year old Nolan Durrant, whose increasingly erratic and paranoid behavior and intractable belief in all things UFO raises makes him an outcast among his classmates and an embarrassment to his younger sister, Lucy.

      The ten year anniversary of her brother's disappearance is the catalyst for Lucy's return to the small town of Bishop, CA where she hopes to finally remember what happened the night Nolan vanished. The siblings were thick as thieves until Lucy catches the eye of Nolan's former friend, Patrick Tyndale, and she begins hanging out with him and his friends. This coincides with Nolan's new relationship with newcomer, Celeste, whose sudden appearance in town and mysterious past fuels his theory that space aliens walk among us. In the weeks leading up to his disappearance, Nolan's paranoid, volatile and delusional behavior begins to worsen after a few altercations with Patrick. Lucy's memories of the night Nolan vanished are lost in a drunken haze of disjointed impressions and overwhelming guilt.  Will Lucy's return to Bishop finally lead her the truth about what happened to her brother?

      Lucy and Nolan's childhood was anything but normal due to their parents' divorce and their mother's slow descent into alcoholism. Lucy was more than happy to tag along with Nolan on his fantasy fueled adventures about other planets,  UFOs and space aliens. However, around the time Lucy becomes involved with Patrick, Nolan's interest in UFOs and extraterrestrials takes a dark turn and he grows increasingly unstable and convinced the government is after him. Patrick is charismatic and Lucy easily falls prey to his manipulations as she tries to keep his interest.  With his lifelong fascination with outer space, Lucy's attempt to distance herself from her brother and their mother's neglect, Nolan's slow descent into mental illness is easily overlooked.

      Written from both Lucy and Nolan's points of view and alternating between past and present, Everything We Lost is an engaging mystery. Valerie Geary does an excellent job keeping readers off balance as she delves into the possibilities of life on other planets and extraterrestrials in our midst. She also broaches the difficult topic of mental illness with a great deal of sensitivity. Although the novel's conclusion is somewhat open-ended,  it is relatively easy to surmise Nolan's fate.  All in all, a perplexing mystery that explores some interesting subject matter.
    • 3/5
      Well, this was unexpected! A story about belief and belonging, as well as reality and the strength of rationality vs. faith in the face of uncertainty, Geary's latest novel takes a look into the heart of what it means to be human in the context of an unknowable universe. And, of course, there are UFOs. Or are there? Anyway, that's not what it's really about. As Lucy explores life and memories before and after the unexplained disappearance of her brother, Nolan, the reader gets glimpses into the mind of a troubled protagonist as well as hints to the mystery pervading her life. And as the novel pans to Nolan's perspective, even more unexplained ideas are revealed.

      I enjoyed this book for the writing and appreciated the ambiguity of the story. I appreciated the intriguing story that put both "religion" and reason into context and left the reader to ponder her own understanding. The feeling of non-resolution that pervaded my reading experience kept me interested until the end, but I must admit, I do wish there had been a slightly more conclusive ending, but I can certainly understand the stylistic choice here. Solving the mystery is simply not what this book is about!
    • 3/5
      I'm not a big fan of unsolved mysteries or UFOs but Lucy's story grabbed my attention from the first few pages. It was obvious that she carried a large amount of guilt relating to the disappearance of her brother Nolan. The more I learned about Nolan, the more I was convinced that he suffered from some kind of mental illness. I would have probably enjoyed the story more if there had been less talk of UFOs. I understand that the story was centered around Nolan's belief in beings from other planets but in some places the details were overkill. I also think the book as a whole would have been great if there had been some definitive conclusion about what happened to Nolan. The book was pretty long and the whole time I was reading I was anticipating the mystery would be solved at the end. Unfortunately, the mystery remained unsolved and I was left feeling dissatisfied and disappointed.
    • 4/5
      The proverbial question: Are we alone? This novel attacks one of Man's greatest questions, in the form of a missing person mystery. What ever happened to Nolan? Was he abducted by "Them", beings from another planet? Was he murdered? Did he just decide to disappear?I will not do spoilers. So, curious about the answers? Grab a copy, and find out some questions and some answers. I can tell you, not all of your questions will be answered. This is an interesting read, whether you believe we are alone in this infinite universe or not! This tale is teeming with people who fall on both sides of the belief spectrum.
    • 3/5
      This was kind of interesting. A boy goes missing and 10 years later his sister is starting to remember exactly what events occurred that night. Told through the perspective of Lucy 10 years later and Nolan 10 years ago it's starling to see the events that lead to a turning point in both lives. The tricky part is weather or not Nolan was taken by the UFO's that he so believed in, or did something more sinister happen. Do not be put off by the mention of UFO's, as I did not consider this book a sci-fi read. Heartbreaking and coming of age, the love and resentment we share for our siblings can be felt throughout the whole story.
    • 4/5
      This is a very interesting novel that I could class as a coming-of- age story more than a psychological thriller but no matter what classification you put it into, it's a great readable story. The book is told in alternating chapters by Lucy in present day (10 years after her brother disappeared) and Nolan's voice is from 10 years earlier. Lucy and Nolan had been close when they were younger but as they became teenagers, their closeness disappeared as Lucy became involved with her friends and Nolan became involved in the study of UFOs and his belief that they really existed. Once Lucy decides that she needs to try to find out what really happened to her brother, her life suddenly gains purpose after years of confusion. I thought that this was a very interesting book to read. I think that someone with great interest in UFO's would really enjoy it as there is a lot of information on the subject. I know I learned a lot about UFOs while reading this book.Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
    • 3/5
      Ten years ago, Lucy's brother disappeared after some time of increasing paranoia and belief in extra-terrestrial presence here on Earth. His disappearance has haunted her, her life has stalled, and now that her father has taken away much of her financial support, Lucy reacts by fleeing home to find out what really happened. And why her memories of that night are so confused.Frankly, Geary's work is a pretty run-of-the-mill attempt at conspiracy, suspense, mystery. Is this alien stuff real or not? Is Lucy's faulty memory hiding something more sinister? As a beach read, this is pretty good - it's brain candy without much substance. If that's what you need, go for it, but don't expect too much.
    • 3/5
      Lucy is in her early teens when her brother Nolan disappears - an unexplained disappearance. Ten years later, Lucy is drifting through life with very little to show for it. 'Everything We Lost' covers a lot of territory in the novel - loss, guilt, mental illness and belief in extra terrestrials. This book tried to cover too many things all at once - some leaving the reader to fill in the blanks and others in a great amount of detail. It was this facet of the book that made me give it a low rating. The journal entries were designed to provide insight into Nolan's hobby and his mindset (and his diminishing mental capability) but just slogged down the narrative. I did feel for Nolan - his outsider status among his schoolmates and his quest for the truth among UFO enthusiasts. Reading about someone who believed so much and wanted others to understand/believe was a joy however watching this same spirit deteriorate into a spiral of mental illness became painful. This emotion just didn't carry through the entire novel for me and made the reading rough going. If you read the first 3 chapters and the last chapter, you got the gist of the entire book. Others may find the beauty in this book and appreciate the hard work the author put forth. Just not me at this particular time.
    • 3/5
      Thanks to the publisher, William Morrow, via LibraryThing, for an Uncorrected Proof of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.Valerie Geary is a new author for me. She has written what is billed as a psychological thriller but seemed more like a coming-of-age drama about paranoia and UFO's. It's told in alternating voices of the two protagonists, Lucy, and her older brother, Nolan, who disappeared 10 years before when they were both teens. Nolan's voice is in flashbacks to 10 years ago and Lucy's is in both flashbacks and the present. She feels guilty because she can't remember what happened to her and Nolan on his last night due to her drinking too much alcohol.The novel is set in California and there is a lot of information about researching UFO's from Nolan's view. He is so convinced there is life in outer space that he logs all of his imagined, mysterious, and perhaps real sightings into a Casebook. It becomes extremely repetitious. The book is entirely too long and depressing. It did not have a satisfying ending for me and I am wondering if perhaps the author is planning a sequel.
    • 2/5
      I understand that authors don't always want to connect the proverbial dots for their readers; sometimes readers want answers to the mysteries within a novel. While the ending of Everything We Lost left me feeling let down, it is not the main reason that I cannot recommend this novel. This could have been a better sci-fi book and/or mystery book, but I feel that the author was testing the waters of assorted genres and couldn't make a decision to go "all in" with any. I won't even get started on my issues with Lucy, the book's shiftless main character.
    • 2/5
      I really thought I would like this book more but it just didn't provide the story I thought it would. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be science fiction or a mystery - it was like the author couldn't decide which way to go. You didn't get any closure - you don't find out what actually happened to Nolan or Celeste or what Lucy was doing the night Nolan disappeared. I received an ARC of this book from LibraryThing.
    • 4/5
      I recently read Valerie Geary's Crooked River and was happy to receive her latest, Everything We Lost. Overall, I liked the story. It explores family dynamics, mental health, addictions, and the supernatural, however none in any real depth. I had a hard time starting the book, it seemed to start out rather slowly, but about halfway through I couldn't put it down. I would recommend it, just be patient and enjoy the meandering ride it offers.
    • 3/5
      All in all, Everything We Lost turned out to be a somewhat decent book. It did not, however, start out well for me. In chapter one, we meet Lucy with the author trying to give us a sense of her relationship with her father and his fiancée. Lucy goes to the bakery to pick up Dad's $800 engagement cake.(Who buys an $800 engagement cake?) She is distracted and bangs up the box a little on the way home, messing up the cake. (What bakery does not properly pack up - or deliver!- an $800 cake?) Her father gets angry and dumps it in the trash. (Really??) Yes, I understand that this was supposed to be an unimportant background event in the course of the story, but I couldn't get past it. The whole incident screamed "trashy book." After that, nevertheless, the book does improve. Lucy's brother, Nolen, a UFO obsessed teen, had gone missing years before and the narrative alternates between Lucy and Nolen's points of view. The story leads us on a path to discover what really happened to Nolen - Alien abduction or ordinary mishap. (Farfetched maybe, but less nonsensical than the engagement cake episode.) I think that this story is not badly written and would be engaging for young adult readers.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book I have read in some time that caused me to stay up past my bedtime! Chapters alternate between past and present and between the stories of two siblings. Valerie Geary manages this format in a very smooth and cohesive manner. The novel begins ten years after the disappearance of 16 year old Nolan Durant. Nolan was a UFO enthusiast and and conspiracy theorist. Lucy is struggling with adulting, and feels that delving into the disappearance may give her the closure she needs to move on. Lucy and Nolan's stories make for riveting reading! Set aside plenty of time for this page turner.