The Lost Story: A Novel

“She never forgot the moment when the universe allowed her to brush her fingertips along the spider-lace edges of a true-blue fairy tale.”

An instance of Shaffer’s use of figurative language, this metaphor implicitly compares Maggie experiencing magic to her running her fingers along the finest lace. The sensation is delicate and fleeting but leaves an impact. Shaffer plays on the senses of sight and touch to flesh out her delicate comparison.

“‘This cage would rent for two thousand a month in Brooklyn.’

‘It is not a cage. It is Fritz’s sanctuary.’

‘You think the rats that live in sewers resent the one-percenter rats that live in castles?’

‘At the vet’s clinic we always said, “You can’t save them all, but today we’ll save one.”’”

Not only does the quippy conversation between Jeremy and Emilie infuse humor in the narrative, but it also elaborates the text’s emphasis on friendship and helping whoever one can. Jeremy may tease Emilie about her pampering of Fritz, calling Fritz a “one-percenter rat,” but Emilie reminds him that it is better to save one rat at a time rather than do nothing. The inequalities of the world cannot be fixed at once, but one being at a time can be helped. Further, the joke about the high rents in Brooklyn grounds the narrative in contemporary reality.

“And that’s why the world has Holy Grails—not because the world needs Holy Grails but because the world needs heroes.”

The novel often explores the significance of fairy tales and fantasy narratives. Here, Skya observes that the hero’s quest for the Holy Grail—the sacred object—is not about the object at all but The Challenges of Self-Discovery. In finding the object, the hero shows their worth, proving to the world that heroism and self-growth are possible.

“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know.”

Skya quotes a passage from Joseph Campbell while invoking The Challenges of Self-Discovery, thereby explaining why Rafe is the hero of her story. According to Campbell, a hero is one who dares to seek out and face their own self. In The Lost Story, Rafe ventures out to reclaim his lost memories and self, risking the pain of acknowledging a troubled past.

“I know, Emmielou. But scared is a feeling, not an excuse.”

As Emilie heads out to Rafe’s cabin, she is gripped by the fear of the unknown. Theresa’s loving, tender words give her courage, reminding her that bravery is not the absence of fear but taking action despite being afraid.

“‘Let’s put it this way,’ Jeremy said. ‘I have a great-uncle who’s an earl. Rafe has an uncle in prison named Earl.’”

As Jeremy humorously explains to Emilie, his friendship with Rafe transcends boundaries of nationality and class. Jeremy and Rafe are united by love, but Bill is acutely aware of the gulf between his family and that of Jeremy. One reason why Bill fears Rafe spending too much time with Jeremy is that this will give Rafe ideas above his station.

“I have swum with mermaids and parlayed with giants and hunted snow deer on hidden mountains with queens and princes! No, I do not want to watch Harry Potter with you again!”

Jeremy’s thoughts illustrate the theme of the difficulty of Reconciling a Magical Past With Present Reality. Back in the real world, Jeremy realizes that he no longer fits in, as his experiences alienate him from his peers, such as his first girlfriend, Lily. Although Jeremy’s tone is funny, it expresses a tough truth. Having lived a high, Jeremy is bored by the real world. The reference to Harry Potter is an example of the novel’s use of pop-culture allusions.

“‘In a finite universe, it’s impossible anything should exist.’ […]

‘But if the universe is infinite?’

‘Then yes. Yes to everything. Infinite universe equals infinite outcomes.’

‘Unicorns?’

‘Yes.’

Dragons?

‘Yes, yes!’

‘Infinite monkeys typing infinite Hamlets?’”

Filled with memories of Shanandoah but unable to return, Jeremy is drawn repeatedly to the question of alternate realities. He dates the cosmologist Chi, often asking her about the scientific probability of many worlds. Chi tells Jeremy that if one believes the universe is infinite, then yes, there may be monkeys somewhere typing William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The real reason why Jeremy wants to discuss alternate universes is poignant: He is looking for a scientific loophole that can help him access Shanandoah, reflecting his quest of Reconciling a Magical Past With Present Reality.

“When you begin to question your sanity, remind yourself that the fact that something impossible happened doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

One of Jeremy’s 10 rules of surviving without Rafe and Shanandoah, this tenet highlights Jeremy’s loneliness. Since no one around him validates his magical experience, Jeremy sometimes feels like he dreamed up Shanandoah. To remind himself that what he experienced was real, Jeremy stresses that impossible things do happen all the time. Another rule that Jeremy uses to survive his isolation and sadness is that magic always has a price and that the price is always worth it.

“A blue river wound slowly towards the hills. She’s never seen a blue river before. Blue like the tropical ocean. […] Alone and sitting on the bank of a blue river, the sun overhead sinking towards the horizon, and behind her, a full moon rose, white as snow and far too large. A red crow landed on a rock a few feet from her.”

Author Meg Shaffer uses vivid imagery to describe the magical world of Shanandoah, particularly emphasizing colors because of their association with childhood. In this evocative description, Emilie notices the juxtaposition of the blue river with the snow-white moon and the red robin, with the bright colors suggesting how magical this world is compared to the mundane real world.

“‘I liked the stories you two told the best, about the handsome spy and the man who was also a bat and would fight crime? They are dear memories to me.’ […]

‘We told them James Bond and Batman stories,’ Rafe said.

‘Yeah, well, we didn’t have the plot of King Lear memorized.’”

One of the ways in which Shaffer introduces humor in the text is by juxtaposing formal language and settings with contemporary references and quips. As the Valkyrie Winter tells Rafe and Jeremy about the campsite stories they used to tell, Rafe realizes that the legends are plots of Batman and James Bond movies. Jeremy reminds Rafe that they were 14-year-old boys who weren’t exactly experts in William Shakespeare.

“Joy is quieter than people think it is. Especially the joy of getting back something you thought was lost forever.”

Although Jeremy often speaks in quips, using witty, sarcastic vocabulary, he is more than capable of heartfelt observations. He notes that after Rafe killed the red spider, Skya ran to him and the two quietly hugged, glad the other was alive. People may have expected a celebration, but sometimes, happiness does not require a performance. It can also be expressed as relief and gratitude.

“You’re my sister, and I’m not going to let you go into that place all alone.”

This moment marks a pivotal point in Emilie’s growth as a character and a hero, reflecting her experience with The Challenges of Self-Discovery. Emilie, who thinks she lacks courage, navigates an unfamiliar sea to return to her sister. She knows that the Bright Boys feed on fear, yet she cannot let Skya travel alone to their realm. Thus, Emilie acts despite her fear. Her concern for Skya is a catalyst in her heroic journey and illustrates the text’s emphasis on the power of love.

“I only wanted to protect you, son. I was afraid, afraid that if people knew about you boys, they would…

‘Hurt me?’ Rafe asked. ‘Dad, you’re the only person I’ve ever been afraid of.’”

This conversation between Rafe and Bill illustrates a bitter irony: In wanting to protect Rafe from fictional monsters, Bill himself has turned monstrous. Guided by his narrow-minded beliefs, Bill imagines that the world is judging Rafe for his love of Jeremy and would hurt him, but Rafe reminds him that the person who actually hurt him is Bill himself. Rafe’s remark draws attention to the fact that it is not always the unknown that threatens a person: The home, too, can be an unsafe space. Rafe’s clarity about Bill’s actions shows Rafe’s growth as a character, invoking The Complexities of Memory and Forgetting.

“And the moonstone palace was a magic palace. Any book you would ever want to read would appear on the shelves of the library. Any clothes you needed hung in your closet, always a perfect fit.”

This extract from 13-year-old Skya’s story shows the sheer power of her imagination. Not only is the description of her palace itself inventive, but the story also inspires the real moonstone palace in which Skya lives. The description of the palace explains why Skya has access to so many books and also why Emilie found clothes in her size in her suite.

“Nobody ever tells you that when you go to another world, that even if it’s paradise, you’ll still miss your mom and your dog.”

Jeremy’s comment to Rafe reflects the theme of Reconciling a Magical Past With Present Reality. While the magical land is beautiful and enticing, it does not erase the past of the characters or the love they feel for people in the real world.

“You kill an artist, you kill all their unmade art too. Why don’t people think about that before they hurt each other?”

Characters in the novel often emphasize the transportive power of art. Those who make art, stories, and music are sacred in the novel’s world, as they build a sanctuary for others. Skya’s comment to Rafe suggests that an artist is not just the art they have made but also their unexpressed ideas. If Rafe had died from the infected wounds from Bill’s beating, it would not just have been him perishing but also all his unmade art. In this light, Bill’s abuse of Rafe seems even more monstrous. Ironically, Skya does not yet realize that by not writing, she, too, is “killing” her ideas and untold stories. Since her stories feed Shanandoah, Skya needs to write soon to aid the land’s growth.

“Shanandoah, as it has been said, is not a kingdom that takes itself too seriously.

After all, one of the guests of honor at the coronation was a rat named Fritz, who watched from a silk cushion held by a Valkyrie. Did he know what was going on? Probably not, but he seemed to have a grand time chewing the tassels off the pillow.”

Shanandoah is a world filled with whimsy, reflecting the fact that it was born from a child’s imagination. When Rafe enters Shanandoah, he notes that the trees look like they were drawn by fat crayons. Even though Skya is now a grown and wise queen, she respects the inner logic of Shanandoah, which encourages people to find a child’s sense of joy and infinite possibility. Thus, there is nothing discordant about a rat being a guest of honor at a coronation.

“‘That bag holds your gift. […] If it can fit in that bag, you can wish for it and it’ll appear.’

‘Like anything? Like a tiny snake that speaks Japanese or a DVD of The Matrix?’”

This dialogue between Skya and Emilie illustrates the nature of their dynamic, with Emilie very much playing the part of the bratty younger sister. Emilie does this bit deliberately since she revels in having an older sister. Further, the grandness of the occasion is undercut by an irreverent pop-culture reference, infusing humor in the situation. Skya’s gift of a bag that will materialize Emilie’s wish is juxtaposed against the prosaic image of a DVD from the real world.

“‘The Bright Boys will swarm us,’ he said. ‘I can’t fight this fear.’

‘You can. It’s not courage that repels them most. It’s love. Love casts out fear.’”

Love and found family are sources of courage and transformation in the novel, as this exchange between Skya and Rafe demonstrates. Rafe thinks that the journey across Ghost Town will attract Bright Boys to him since Rafe is full of the fear of losing Jeremy. Skya reminds him that his love for Jeremy is even stronger and will drive away the Bright Boys.

“You said you could always sense where I was because deep down, I knew I belonged here, that this was home. That’s not why. I wasn’t lost because I wasn’t here. I was lost because I’m lost without you.”

Jeremy can locate people when they feel lost. Since he has always been able to locate Rafe, he assumes that it is because Rafe feels lost without Shanandoah. However, Rafe here tells Jeremy the truth: Rafe feels lost because he is away from Jeremy. Rafe’s sense of loss was never about a place but a person. Jeremy represents home and magic for Rafe, which reflects Reconciling a Magical Past With Present Reality.

“Rafe watched in quiet awe as the father who’d once beaten him bloody for drawing too many pictures of Jeremy now carried his lover […] to safety.”

From the very beginning of her story, Skya has maintained that it is a fairy tale with a happy ending. As this passage shows, the grace of the happy ending extends even to a character as polarizing as Bill. Bill finally accepts Rafe for who he is and carries Jeremy to safety, resolving The Complexities of Memory and Forgetting.

“All books are magic. An object that can take you to another world without even leaving your room? A story written by a stranger and yet seems they wrote it just for you or to you? Loving and hating people made out of ink and paper, not flesh and blood? Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is.”

This passage illustrates the text’s motif of books as magical portals. Skya makes the point that stories do not have to literally work magic, like hers did. Stories are magical in themselves because they transform the reader’s reality. Skya’s words have a metafictional aspect since they are akin to Shaffer commenting on the work that she has shared with the reader.