Emily the Strange: The Lost Days

What I know about Emily the Strange I've learned over the past few years from t-shirts, postcards and stickers from her merch line at Hot Topic. While Emily has had books devoted to her before, they've been art books with very little text. "The Lost Days" is Emily's first adventure in the narrative. I admit that I'm a biased Emily fan, but this novel impressed me for being so true to what I'd already gleaned about her character. Not an easy task, since the story opens when Emily awakens on a bench in a bizarre little town - armed only with an empty journal and none of her memories. Her amnesia is never frustrating though, surprisingly, and instead adds to the charm of the book as she works to figure out what's going on. The pages are show more peppered with hand-written notes, lists (13 items long, of course), and adorable doodles of cats and skulls. The mystery is engaging, the characters are unforgettably unique, and the book never feels like it's a sell-out. Not bad for a character that started out as a t-shirt design. show less

Full review: https://wanderinglectiophile.wordpress.com/2018/04/25/review-the-lost-days-emily...

I dearly loved this novel! Seriously. It was the exact change of pace I needed and turned out to be way better than I had anticipated.

The whole book is written in an epistolary style were Emily relays events and thoughts to you through journal entries. In among those entries you get the added bonus of sketches, doodles, photos, etcetera and it makes for the most wonderful reading experience. The story line was interesting and engaging. I was afraid that the plot line would be shallow and lost due to a focus being placed on the desired concept of the book (doodles, peculiar and strange characteristics, angst, etcetera) and not the story show more within, but it wasn’t. There is a legitimate and entertaining story to be experienced within the doodled and quirky journal entries.

Although Emily is in fact strange and peculiar, as well as an angst-y troublemaker, she’s still a very likable character. I marvel at the dept you get from her character in this book. Epistolary style writing tends to make it hard for me to connect with the characters, but that was never an issue in this book. Her character is clear and understandable throughout. The other peripheral characters are also felt out and interesting, which just makes the whole of it that much better.

I almost didn’t give this book a full five stars because it didn’t “fit” in with my other five star reads, but then I asked myself “Why the hell not?!” I really enjoyed this book and dinging it a star because it didn’t “fit” the mold seemed not only like an oxymoron but incredibly stupid of me. It’s now one of my favorites (as pretty much all my 5 star reads are) and has a permanent home on my bookshelf. show less

The artwork is beautiful and the narrative is intriguing but the characters are really flat so I didn't actually care what happened.

I bought this book last year for my nine year old – it’s written for young adults, but we fell in love with the cats. After a quick flick through, there was no subject matter to worry about, just some long words and a large quirk quotient. She loved it and has been pestering me to read it too ever since – so I did, and it utterly charmed me too with its madcap ways…

Emily the Strange started out as a design on T-shirts back in the early 1990s, and went from there to some art books, comics and finally an illustrated novel, (No 2 is imminent). But who is Emily? - here’s the blurb …

"13 years old. Able to leap tall buildings, probably, if she felt like it. More likely to be napping with her four black cats; or cobbling together a show more particle accelerator out of lint, lentils, and safety pins; or rocking out on drums/guitar/saxophone/zither; or painting a swirling feral sewer mural; or forcing someone to say “swirling feral sewer mural” 13 times fast … and pointing and laughing."

She’s certainly one of a kind – and no stranger to doing things for herself! The start of the novel, which is told in diary form, sees her waking up on a park bench in a strange town called Blackrock all on her own and she doesn’t remember a thing. But this amnesia doesn’t faze her at all, she sets out to find out who she is and what’s happening in the strange town. She adopts the coffee bar ‘El Dungeon’ as a home from home and sleeps in a box in the alley behind. Raven behind the counter looks after her and soon she adopts four lovely cats – or rather they adopt her…

There’s a definite dystopian/gothic/fantasy/steampunky/geeky feel to the book which I loved. Emily is one smart cookie; she’s a girl after my own heart being a list-maker, scientist and cat-lover. This is one black (with red highlights) covered book that bucks the trend – wonderful illustrations, a hip West-coast sensibility and vocabulary, high quirk quotient – and no vampires! Highly recommended. (9/10, I borrowed this book back from my daughter!). show less

My first foray into Emily Strange happened when I saw a drawing of her on the computer once. So, I got the inspiration to write a short story based on this character (based solely on her looks and name, didn't know any of her history) for an English assignment. It all worked out, got an A+ on the assignment and have been an Emily Strange fan ever since. Even owning an Emily Strange graphic tee and wallet.

That's why I wanted to like this book so much. I took the book out of the library instead of buying it because I wasn't so sure how the whole story would work out. While I liked the premise of the book, a lot of tended to be repetitive. Emily gets amnesia, writes notes in her notebook trying to figure out the whole sordid detail, show more rinse, wash, and repeat. Still, I started enjoying it more towards the middle. Emily is a very likeable heroine. Really witty and sarcastic, something that I love. I still think I would've liked this book more had I been a bit younger.

So, anyway, I give this book three stars. It was cute and had an intriguing mystery (plus intriguing heroine and intriguing supporting characters), but it wasn't too deep. Besides that, I'm actually looking forward to the second installment in the Emily Strange series, although, they will be library reads as I have no desire to own them (although I would love to own some of the artwork since it's pretty kick-ass). show less

I'm a big fan of quirky mysteries like When You Reach Me, Kiki Strike, and The Mysterious Benedict Society. I've tried reading a few Emily the Strange comics, but the ones I read lacked any interesting plot, so I was very surprised by how interesting and great this novel was. Amnesia, freaky science, ancient family mysteries... it's great. I'll definitely be reading the sequel, Emily the Strange Stranger and Stranger in April.

Just like the title, this book is strange. The book starts with the main character having amnesia and not knowing where she is, who she is, or what's going on. She decides to call herself Earwig. Why?! So weird. And that pretty much sets the tone for the book. Crazy things happen, nothing really makes sense, even when you find out what's going on. The story is told through the main character's journal entries and she makes tons of lists which are kind of funny. The narrator was enthusiastic and did a pretty good job, although her teenage voices were odd.
I did like the story and was eager to find out answers to the various mysteries happening around Black Rock. I would read the sequels to see what other crazy things Emily gets in to and show more the strange people she meets. show less