* * 
2 / 5

The Lost Path is a hauntingly beautiful illustrated comic - unfortunately, the story makes very little sense. When reviewing any comic book, there are two key aspects, the story and the art. 

The art: My first impression was very good. Lovely lines, gorgeously coloured with this sort of sepia colour scheme going on. Many of the pages were works of art all by themselves, the sort of thing that if I were rich I would buy on canvas and hang in my living room (if I had one!). The art does switch styles to suit the perspective of each boy, which I thought was a nice touch, though I liked some pages much more than others.

I did think that the text on some of the pages was really quite small and hard to read. Though I did read a PDF copy and this may not be an issue in the print copy. 

The story: Three boys set off from a summer camp on a treasure hunting activity, only to take a series of wrong turns into a dangerously magical forest. Honestly, the story was just plain bizarre. It was a bit like Alice in Wonderland put through a blender, and it did not engage me at all. 

Some pages of The Lost Path are simply works of art, and others look like scribbles. Coupled with an ill-explained narrative, I would be hesitant to recommend this book.

I adored this graphic novel's art style, it was truly beautiful; the story, however was way too confusing and not very easy to follow, which made it very hard for me to enjoy it. I also didn't like the characters and honestly couldn't care for them, none of them were likeable at all. A strong point of the novel was its creepiness; that was an interesting flavor and it makes me sad that the plotline got so tangled up because there was great potential in this graphic novel that simply didn't blossom.

Honestly, I had hoped to have better things to say about graphic novel. I found the story to be confusing. I was never quite able to follow the thread. The characters were not particularly likable. The comic switched between color and black seemingly at random. All in all, I am sorry to say I did not enjoy this adventure.

I found this one disjointed and hard to follow. I can see what it was trying to do but the plot wasn't coherent enough.

Wonderfully strange and creepy. I'm not sure if this is one of those books that is targeted toward middle grades but is only enjoyed by adults or not - it would be interesting to hear feedback from a younger reader. The storyline doesn't follow a traditional arc and it's not always clear exactly what is happening; I prefer stories with ambiguity, but that's not always the case with younger readers. Beautifully (and strangely) illustrated.

'The Lost Path' by Amélie Fléchais & Jonathan Garnier is the kind of graphic novel that left me scratching my head when it was all over. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

When three young boys set off into the woods from camp with just a sketchy map, weird things happen. They stumble into a fable of a woman swallowed by the roots of trees and her husband, doomed to wait for her. There are also many other forest spirits, both funny and fierce. The boys find themselves in the middle of things, but can they get out again?

It's a story that's more about the journey than the destination, I think. The story feels less cohesive at times and more surreal. The art is pretty unusual and I really liked it. The book is mostly black and white, but color pages are used for emphasis, and in some cases, this becomes a bit startling. So, come for the weird, wandering story, but stay for the interesting art technique.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

The Lost Path follows three young boys on a treasure hunt. With a map in hand, the boys travel along a path that is wild and with a magically mysterious past. They discover a whole new world where creatures speak and a hat has incredible importance. As they journey through the woods their lives increasingly grow in danger for they should not be there. It was once a place where a husband and wife lived. One day the woman realized that there was something off about their new home in the woods. The husband didn't believe her and things didn't turn out well for either of them. Only time will tell whether the same fate will befall the boys.

I loved Amélie Fléchais' The Little Red Wolf. It's the reason I wanted to read The Lost Path. I recognized the author's name and illustration style. I think that was the case with most reviewers of this book who like me tend to have felt the same way about The Lost Path - it just wasn't as clear, cohesive, and beautifully told like The Little Red Wolf.

I didn't understand most of what was happening in The Lost Path. I understood what happened in the past with the couple somewhat and to a certain extent what the three boys were facing in the woods but a lot of the "message" I guess you would say of the story, was lost on me. The storytelling was off. I could tell this right away by the black and white images and the color ones. It just felt weird. I found no purpose driving this design in the story. Just pick a design and stick with it or transition into color and stay like that.

Then there was the three boys who I didn't get to know beforehand and didn't really care for. That's not necessarily a bad thing since the author I'm assuming wanted to make everything as mysterious as possible. However, I got only a basic sense of their personalities. There was no tying me to them and what they were going through. And what they faced during their journey through the woods didn't flow right or leave me caring for the boys plight which really consisted of nothing. Some animal pops up with a hat, let's follow that animal, let's visit this place, oh here's another creature, let's follow him, okay already. Get to the point. How does this coincide with the young couple? What was malicious in the woods? There are some parts I have some understanding to and other parts I'm unable to figure out with the non-information given to me.

I also didn't like the leader of the group because he was so cocky but that's okay because it would be boring if everyone was the same. So there are some instances I could relent on but like I alluded to earlier the story didn't make sense. I didn't get the message of what the story was giving me. I didn't get anything from it. I liked the ending, the art style, and the potential of the story but it wasn't enough for me to feel moved in any way whether it was being thrilled, heartbroken, surprised, or even leaving me wondering. The creatures and guardians in the book could have made a really interesting story. There was potential there - it just wasn't realized.

I recommend Fléchais' The Little Red Wolf. The author can write compelling stories as well as create beautiful images. I hope to read more of her stories that are more fleshed out in the future.

Book Review
Title: The Lost Path
Author: Amelie Flechais
Genre: Graphic Novel
Rating: ***
Review: The opening of The Lost Path was great, the story stars with a couple making their home in a mansion in the forest, but shortly after moving in the wife realises something isn’t right in the woods. However, she dies shortly after and curses her husband and the woods themselves. Her broken-hearted husband die shortly afterwards. This is a graphic novel that opens with some seriously creepy vibes and I was loving it.
We are then introduced to three boys who decide to take a shortcut home through the forest and soon find themselves lost until they come across some mysterious creatures at the end of the path. The boys end up following a fox-like creature which leads them deeper and deeper into the woods looking for its bicycle. However, the boys are soon forced to seek shelter when it starts to rain. By the time the rain stops night has fallen and they are lost in the woods with no way out, however, the youngest boy comes across a brick and the other two find it odd that a brick would be in the middle of the forest.
As we cross the halfway mark in the novel, the boys eventually come across the ruins of a house in the forest where they plan to spend the night and I am a 100% sure that this set of ruins is the house from the beginning of the story and to be honest, I was beginning to worry for the boys. In their need to find food and warmth the three boys end up separated, until one is attacked by another mysterious being which wants to sacred item they took from one of the other creatures. While they manage to escape the house, but they are still trapped in the forest and things only get stranger from there. One thing I really loved about this story was how it easily transitions from black to colour and then back again as well as the constantly changing panel sizes from relatively small to full page spreads.
As we cross into the final section of the novel all the creatures seem to be discussing things the boys don’t understand but one agrees to lead them out of the forest but not before it tries to eat them. We then see what I believe to be the couple from the beginning of the story face each other off as she seems hell bent on revenge. But before anything happens the boys are ejected from the forest and return home. The main problem I had with this graphic novel was it wasn’t sure what it wanted to be it tried to mash together a gothic dark story with children’s adventure when I think it should have focused on being a gothic horror story as the art style leans towards this style of story rather than a children’s adventure story.

Late last year I read another of Amélie Fléchais‘ graphic novels and said I’d love to read more of her work so when I saw The Lost Path on NetGalley I instantly got it.

Then I updated my PC, completely wiped everything from it, and was terrified I’d missed my chance.

Luckily it hadn’t been archived yet so I downloaded and read instantly this time.

I really enjoyed the story starts off telling the story of how a couple fall out of love, the woman becoming one with the forest and its malicious roots. The man locking himself up in the house until the forest takes over there too.

That is the set up for the story but the main chunk takes part later on. It follows 3 children as they follow a treasure map and get very lost within the forest and come into contact with those who want to rule over it.

It sounds a bit spooky and scary but as its all told more so from the childrens point of views its something y’all can enjoy.

Want to know what I loved most about this graphic novel though? Its change in style to fit the scenes.

You can already see the first style for the start of the graphic novel in the image I’ve already shared.

But when we move to the children its a lot more colourful. I love how light is portrayed on these pages. As I read on it suddenly had a black and white page or two and I was worried that this was because its an ARC and therefor unfinished but I think its more to draw attention and add atmosphere in different ways.
It was this page that confirmed my thoughts due to the colouring in the top panel which causes one of the boys to show how he’s been imagining the journey. I really liked his brief fight scene as a robot.I definitely recommend picking up this or even her some of her other works. I really enjoy her style and approach of telling stories.

I really enjoyed the artwork, the story work was there but could be strengthened even further. Would certainly purchase or share with others, just not one I'd keep on my "available at all times" shelf.

This story follows several children through the woods and in and out of a terrifying situation. The artwork is beautiful, but the storyline is confusing and difficult to follow. The author's previous book had a lovely message embedded within, but I was not able to take as much away from this novel. I will continue to read more by Flechais, however - her artwork is just incredibly detailed and fun to look at.

Thank you to Netgalley, Lion Forge, and Amelie Flechais for giving me a digital copy of this book in exchange for ah honest review.

Let me just say this the artwork on the cover is just the start as the inside pages hold much of the same details and retains the beauty from page one to the end and kept me looking at the page which although great , the story itself was not what I was hoping for.

The story started out strong with the three young boys getting lost but then somewhere along the way it feels like the story lost steam and just became a bit of a jumble which lost me so I found myself flipping back , thinking that maybe I had missed something but once I re-read those pages and kept going I realized I hadn't missed anything.at all.

Overall the story was interesting enough but the artwork is what really steals the show on this book.

I thought this would be a fun book to read with my son, but neither of us were very invested in the characters. The boys picked on each other and didn't get along, but they also seemed oblivious to their surroundings.

I enjoyed the history behind the forest and the monsters lurking there, but in the end it fell flat. I was bored with the story and their journey. The colorful illustrations were breathtaking, but the black and white didn't appeal to me as much. I'm sure there was an artistic reason for it, but I wish the entire thing had been done in those beautiful, vivid colors.

Reading this graphic novel one sitting, but I didn't enjoy it. The illustration color page really pretty even when the graphic change into black-white it's still pretty and beautiful. The weakness is story not really stunning kinda flat and all the characters aren't lovable.

This graphic novel was visually stunning. The artwork is absolutely amazing, and gorgeous. The story, however, is less of a draw. I found it very confusing, the boy characters annoying, and the end unsatisfying as there was no resolution, nor any indication there would be more.

This was so fantastic! I loved the art style! And then also fact that it was a really creepy setting! It reminded me a lot of Into the Woods! It was creepy and cute and just UGH I loved it!

I'm so confused?? I'm not sure how to rate this, so we'll go somewhere in the middle.

Artwork: There are four different styles in this story. First, there's the very begging designed as an old folk tale giving some obscure backstory to the forest. Then there is this BEAUTIFUL artwork that looks very layered and textured while still colorful and soft? So beautiful, have not seen anything like it before. Next there's a version from the perspective of the younger brother who sees himself and everyone around as robots. This artwork is more sharp and has a strong red color. Lastly, most of the comic is in a black and white sketch. I'm confused if this part just wasn't colored in yet or finished, so they just included the sketch, or if this is how the design is. I thought at first we had a design for each of the three boys, but going from the colorful art to the black and white sketch was random and didn't end up feeling like a single point of view.

Story: Three boys get lost in a magical forest while away at camp. I did like most of this story, I like how unique it is, but it started to just not make any sense? New animals were introduced and then just went nowhere. (like the fox chasing after his bike, like what?) I'm not sure if this just went over my head? It also didn't connect as much to the opening folk story as I would have liked. It just seemed that everyone was chasing the hat to be leader, and that had nothing to do with anything in the opening story. This just felt like a very trippy fever dream that jumped around a lot.

Reading this book is like having a beautiful but unsettling dream. The art is astonishingly beautiful, and every page has details you could spend ages poring over. I liked the style of art at the beginning of the book the best, with the gorgeously intricate curves and the fairytale feel. Once the boys were introduced, the art got more dynamic and sketchy, which was a fantastic way of showing the story progressing and the different feel to this section.

The plot itself made very little sense, with strange creatures showing up out of nowhere, and no real explanation of why the boys were in the wood or where their map had come from, but that really didn't matter to me. I enjoyed being dragged along for the ride! The forest is a character in and of itself, and the bizarre happenings within were so gorgeously drawn that I felt like I was there, in the creepy gloom, even though I was reading this on a hot sunny day. Absolutely beautiful, but I feel it may appeal more to adults than to children, who might need more of a plot-thread to follow, rather than just soaking up the ethereal, dream-like nature of The Lost Path.

The digital copy was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I was so excited to read this one. The art was pretty, the colored and the black and white. The story though was really flat in my opinion. I wanted to love this but I just didn't see where the story was going. I won't let this define all Amélie Fléchais's art. I will definitely give her other works a try but this one sadly wasn't for me.

I finally got around to reading some more of my 'different' books on my virtual shelf. I found the artwork of this book enticing and thought a light read was a good idea. 

This is a small graphic novel, aimed at attracting the attention of children but the presentation makes it appealing to almost all ages ( at least, I felt so). It is the story of a lost forest, that has its own secrets. Three children on a hunt of some sort have taken a path which is definitely not the one they want. They stumble right into the ongoing battles within the forces of the forest. I only wish the tale was not so abrupt, I would have actually liked to know more about what happens beyond the stage the story is left in.As mentioned earlier, the artwork is very beautiful and the three lost boys are funny in their own way.