Jennifer Spence

The Lost Girls by Australian author Jennifer Spence is a family mystery with a time slip at its core. Stella gets on a bus in Sydney in 2017, however when she steps off, it's 1997. Without knowing how, Stella has 'travelled' 20 years back in time, and I enjoyed following her around as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.

Accepting her newfound circumstances rather quickly, Stella wonders if she's been given a second chance to alter events and in doing so, avoid a family tragedy. Visiting her family home, she sees her younger self which is usually a 'no-no' in time travel. However the author provides a refreshingly different take on the time slip and Stella introduces herself as an Aunt who disappeared many years ago and is still considered missing.

The usual themes in time slip novels and movies arise, such as whether the slightest change can alter the future, or if the future is already set. Stella starts to record her memories so that she can determine if she's making any headway on changing the future. Here's where it starts to get a little too 'timey-wimey' for this reader. If Stella is successful in changing her past, then surely her memories will also change to reflect this, right? And shouldn't 2017 Stella, remember her long lost Aunty turning up and staying with her family in 1997? Things get hazy for Stella and the reader, and I found that I couldn't quite let go of the attempt to stay on track with the science fiction nature of this particular angle of the time slip narrative.

The Lost Girls is set in Sydney Australia and I enjoyed the setting in both time frames. Incorporating key historical moments within the narrative was interesting (the death of Diana, Princess of Wales for example) as were some of the internal observations Stella makes along the way. Most entertaining of all was the cold case mystery within the family.

Published in 2019, this has got to be one of my favourite cover designs of that year, don't you agree? As for whether Stella was successful in her endeavours or whether she made it back to her 'own time' in 2017, you'll just have to read the book to find out.… (mais)

This is one of those books that presents a problem for the reviewer. The blurb on the back cover gives the reader no clue about the strategy the author adopts to tell Stella's story, and I'm not going to outline it either.

There are two lost girls, and the story swings between two main time frames: 1997 and 2017, in a very creative scenario.

One review called the format "the butterfly effect", another called it "unsettling", which it. It strains your sense of credibility. And is it crime fiction - oh yes!

When I was 100 pages in, I really wondered whether I wanted to continue reading, but I'm glad that I did. I can't even remember who recommended the book to me, but thank you.… (mais)

I had made some assumptions about this novel, based mostly on the cover and title. I was expecting a fairly standard novel of mystery involving a missing girl or two, but what I discovered was a compelling and unique story using one of my least favourite tropes - time travel.

It is 2017 and sixty three year old Stella Lannigan is making her way home from a night out when she realises that her surroundings seem somehow changed. Baffled, she wonders if she absentmindedly took a wrong turn, but the landmarks are familiar, just not quite... right. Stella slowly realises that she has inexplicably stepped into the past, it is 1997, and as she stands outside her former home, she watches her forty three year old self step out of the front door.

What would you do if you had the chance to change a moment from your past, to rewrite your history, and avoid inevitable tragedy? Stella knows she will do whatever she must to subvert her daughter’s fate.

The concept of time travel is, as I have said, one of my least favourite devices in film and literature. It’s either presented in a too simplistic, or convoluted, manner. In The Lost Girls, Spence uses it in a way that made sense to me. As Stella insinuates herself into her family, posing as her own long last aunt, she subtly attempts to manipulate the future, but destiny, it seems, is not as malleable as it may appear.

There is also a traditional mystery, with a missing girl at it’s heart, which is central to the story.

I’m loathe to say much more, lest I inadvertently spoil your own future reading of this novel . Suffice it to say, The Lost Girls is a poignant, intriguing ,and captivating read I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend… (mais)