The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta || Review

"Sometimes lost is where you need to be for a while."

This book was kindly sent to me for review, via Netgalley, by Candlewick Press. Many thanks to both!

Name: The Lost Coast

Author: Amy Rose Capetta

Rating: 5 Stars 

Pages: 352

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Published: May 14th 2019

The Lost Coast follows the journey of six LGBTQIA+ witches navigating through Tempest, California, they are searching. Searching for themselves, for their friend, for the one they love. They Grays have lost one of their own, Imogen, although there physically has lost herself. Her personality, her spark, her magic, just gone, and The Grays need the help of Michigan newcomer, Danny, who while she was looking for something new, the Grays were looking for her. 

However, Danny doesn't know where to help because she believes her only power is kissing girls and making small town people uncomfortable. 

They must come together to figure out what happened to Imogen, piece together the bits of the story that don't make sense, they have to solve why they keep finding bodies, and how the story of a ghost from the previous century connects. This is a story of finding friendship in unexpected people, love in unexpected places and best of all, MAGIC. 

I didn't know what to expect from this book, and I know I say that a lot, but I genuinely didn't. I find some stories containing LGBTQIA+ characters can usually fall into being a cliche, where their identification label is their sole character trait, but this book wasn't that at all. This book explored sexuality and gender identities in such a nice way, where the characters were more than just who they decided they wanted to kiss or what they were attracted too. It was integrated as an important part of these characters and their journeys but I liked that the author didn't use it as the only thing about these characters, for example, Leila is fiesty, she has heartache and she's real, Rush is quiet and intelligent, musically literate and has sythesthia (another thing I'd never really seen a YA author tackle.) 

My favourite character was Danny. Danny was super interesting, and she was a lot more complex than I first thought. I felt like she was so kind, sure she was looking for a new life and she was looking for new friends, but what The Grays were asking her to do was a lot, and she did it. She knew that Rush and Imogen were a thing, and despite falling for Rush, she was still determined to help them out in finding Imogen. 

The writing style of this book drew me in straight away. I love trees. I love being in the forest, I love being surrounded by trees, so straight off the bat, the ethereal description of being surrounded by Redwood trees made me really happy. It really made for a magical setting and it set up how beautiful the region of the Lost Coast must be. I think Amy Rose Capetta has a really beautiful writing style, it flows really well and the layout of the book and the alternating points of view didn't affect the flow of the story in the slightest. I think the story had enough twists and turns to keep the reader fully immersed and I read this book in one sitting. 

Overall Rating: 5 Stars. I think this story fills a gap that is missing in YA Witch Lit, it covers a ground that I feel some authors are afraid to cover/haven't covered in a good way and if it sounds like a book you'd be interested in, I would recommend you pick it up! 

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