The Lost Girls: A Review

Posted on 11. May, 2010 by Steph in Resources, Reviews

Having a blog is kind of like falling in love. You wake up one morning and suddenly you can’t remember what your life was like before you spent every waking moment thinking up travel articles. What did I used to DO with all that free time (I mean, besides laundry, which I’ve been neglecting to the point of near emergency)?

Well one thing I remember from that pre-blogger era (PBE?) is that I spent a lot of time reading other people’s travel blogs. One of the first of those blogs I remember reading was the Lost Girls. There three cool chicks: Jen, Holly and Amanda, took a career break in their late twenties and spent a year traveling the world. Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s not a coincidence.

When I went up to Twitaoke this past December I got the chance to meet the Lost Girls in person and found out they were just as cool as they seemed (and freakishly good singers). So I was really excited when they sent me an advance copy of the book they’ve been working on, coming out this month called The Lost Girls.

It’s a lengthy book, clocking in at over 500 pages, but I zipped right through it. Raging girl crush aside… this book is really fantastic.

A lot of the travelogues I’ve read fall into the trap of “then we did this, then we did this…” The Lost Girls manage to avoid this monotony, in part because all three of them are really excellent writers, and in part because this book is about a whole lot more than just travel.

Each girl goes into the trip working out her own personal struggles with being a young, modern, successful woman. As such their story is not just about geography; each of them expertly pins their internal struggles against the ever-changing travel backdrop. Issues like work-life balance and the importance of marriage take on new meaning in Kenyan villages or Indian ashrams. Although their travel break doesn’t fix their problems, and leaves them with more questions than when they began, it’s easy to see they came out stronger people because of it.

There is a lot of vicarious fun and emotion as well.  The girls are all too human and don’t shy away from illustrating less savory experiences with sex, drugs and infighting. They party in the nightclubs of India and Peru. They meet boys, they have romances. In addition there are lots of great travel descriptions, which incited my wanderlust and got me itching to get back out there.

The girls dedicate their book to “all the other Lost Girls struggling to find their way.” Not to go all sappy but this really spoke to me. I’m a lost girl, struggling to find my way through my twenties and find myself in the process. I suspect a lot of us are, regardless of gender. The Lost Girls is a great argument for why travel can be our guide through these tumultuous times.

The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World.

(full disclosure: Harper Collins sent me a free review copy of this book)

Tags: book reviews, inspiration, review