I have lost my way by Gayle Forman

Simon and Schuster, 2018. ISBN 9781471173721
(Ages: 14+) Recommended. Themes: Friendship, love, acceptance, loss. Around the time that Freya loses her voice while recording her debut album, Harun is making plans to run away from everyone he has ever loved, and Nathaniel is arriving in New York City with a backpack, a desperate plan, and nothing left to lose. When a fateful accident draws these three strangers together, their secrets start to unravel as they begin to understand that the way out of their own loss might just lie in helping the others out of theirs.
I have lost my way by Gayle Forman is a book about friendship, love and finding yourself when you feel like all is lost. The story is told over one life changing day and is told from alternating perspectives. One of the main themes in this book is loss. The three main characters, Freya, Harun and Nathaniel, have all lost something important to them. Freya has lost her voice during the recording of her debut album, which she has spent the last few years of her life working towards. Harun has lost the love of his life, the only person that truly understood him. Nathaniel has lost everything and now, he has nothing left to lose.
At the start of the book, not much is known about each of the characters, but as the story progresses, we learn more about their lives and what lead them to become who they are today through flashbacks. I absolutely loved how mysterious they all were and the fact that they all had different backgrounds, religions and sexual orientations just made them seem all the more real. The diversity in this book was amazing and it was represented really well.
A definite downside of this book is that it took me quite a while to get into. In my opinion, it was difficult to figure out which character's perspective it was being told from and the fact that it would jump from third person to first person during the flashbacks made it slightly confusing and hard to follow at times. It was also very fast paced and since it was told over a single day, I found it less believable than if it had been told over the course of a week.
Overall, I have lost my way is a really nice story about love, loss and acceptance that teenagers everywhere would enjoy, especially if they feel like they have lost their way too.
Grace Austin (Student)