This is a gorgeous book. Just beautiful. I could look at the illustrations all day.

The story, though, is quite odd. If I'm being honest, I really didn't understand it at all. Now and then I came close to having aha moments, but I never actually figured out what the heck was going on. If I were rating this book on the story alone, it would be a much lower score. But the illustrations here are so good, that this is almost a 5-star book even without knowing what it's all about.

I could definitely see being absorbed in this book for hours on end trying to figure it all out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free electronic ARC of this graphic novel, received in exchange for an honest review.

This was barely possible to read, but I did try my best with a review. On Kindle the text is formatted miles away from the speech bubbles so you're guessing who's saying what; on the lovely Adobe Digital Editions 9 pages in 10 are pure black, but hey netgalley thinks the only three machines with this bug in the universe are all in our household, or so their very rude "help" desk representative implies.

Anyway, to the plot - er; some people die, three kids walk into the woods trying to find or do or hunt I have no idea what, they meet a huge stag, then they turn into robots. A couple pages later they're kids again, at which point everyone says WTF and gives up. Book certainly seemed half-finished with naff pencil drafts instead of what I have to assume is the finished painted artwork. Is it too much for us reviewers to be provided with something serviceable before we waste our time?

3.5 stars

I've read The Little Red Wolf by the same author last year and I absolutely love it. It was an amazing and unique story (spin on the little red riding hood tale) accompanied by some amazing artwork.

Now, this book's artwork is nearly as good as the last one's, although not quite. It's the main thing that made me want to read it and I'm not disappointed. I just love how powerful this author's art is and how pleasant it is to the eye. They are extremely different from anything I ever saw and I would highly recommend it.
But, regarding the story, this was not as good as The Little Red Wolf. It was definitely interesting and I liked it but while the last one was a total 5-stars for me this was basically a 3. I absolutely loved the first pages and I was expecting it to continue that way but it didn't. It just got a bit messy... and ended up being about some boys that got lost during a treasure hunt, and saw themselves in a forest "complication", where beasty-creatures are trying to solve their own problems.

This, contrary to the last book, has both colored pages and black and white ones, which I wasn't much of a fan of.
Overall I did enjoy it and I'm the biggest fan of the artwork but it could have been even better than it was.

I recieved this through NetGalley in exchanged for an honest review.

The art. It's amazing. It's otherworldly and dream like and the colours are so interesting. The black white stuff it cute and detailed but simple feeling at te same time.

I don't feel like I got enough story, it was cute and fun and intriguing. It had humor and tension and just sort of silent sweet things like the brother buckling the little robot bro in his seat.

I'm not sure if there's going to be more but I would be really excited to see where it goes.

I had good expectation about this book, because The Little Red Wolf was very good.

Unfortunately, The Lost Path, after an intersting beginning that sounds like a fairy tale, loses the grip of the story, and ends up poor in content.

The images are very nice, but the black and white ones do not valorize the author style, and they leave a sensation of something unfinished.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

I was draw. To this book partly because of the gorgeous art on the cover. I was SO disappointed that most of the art inside was nothing like the cover. I couldn’t get past what I think are unpleasant, even bad drawings. I read a few pages and gave up.

***Note: I received e-ARC via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to publisher and NetGalley. ***

The Lost Path was drawn with an expert hand! I liked this sweet little story of three campers who are looking for a way through a magical forest! The cover pulled me in and I am so glad that I finished this short because the well-drawn illustrations complimented the whimsical tale!

I laughed at the kiddo who couldn’t properly read the map and got everyone lost but things did get puzzling. There was no real explanation for the war between the creatures and the spirits. That could have been explained and developed better. What I did not like the most was the way the characters acted and how they were treated an interacted with others. There did not really seem to be a clear message with these things and actions thus the reason for the three stars.

The Lost Path has a very intricate cover and that suits the story very well. This graphic novel caught my eye and the adventure it promise was alluring. It starts out with a short tale about the lore of the forest and then dives into some boys on a trek. They soon find themselves in the woods with some very strange creatures and evils trying to get them. It was cute, but the story kind of had me lost. There were magical creatures and a queen that was angry but it didn't really explain enough for me. I was also a bit thrown off by the coloring - some pages were full of color while others were completely black and while. When it first happened I thought it was a proof thing but then it went in and out of color so it might be an artistic choice that I didn't find appealing.

I thought this graphic novel was nice but I have been reading a lot lately and this one fell a bit short for me.

Three boys leave Camp Happiness on a treasure hunt activity. To reach the treasure first the boys take a detour that brings them deeper into the forest where all the magical beasts live. They find themselves trying to stay alive as they stumble in the middle of two Forest Spirits fighting for the throne.

This children’s book is a mix between illustrations and graphic novel panels. There are a mix of full color illustrations that transition to black and white panels. I do not think that the black and white panels are placeholders especially if the book is supposed to be mixed. (I could be wrong.) I found the color illustrations very beautiful and haunting. The black and white panels have a lot of detail in them that captured the eerie feeling associated with traveling deep into a forest. I was more impressed by the amount of detail in the black in white than I was by the illustrations. This was a refreshing way to read a children’s book. I felt the addition of panels added more to the story that otherwise would have to be limited with illustrations (especially when there is more action in the story).

The first few pages set up the groundwork on what kind of personality each of the three boys had as they traveled deeper in the woods. I did grow interested in the story as I grew more curious on what was happening. As the boys come across the magical beasts they don’t question their existence, but I’m assuming the boys probably think they are all in costumes. Even with the panels, I thought the story ended abruptly. I was left with questions about the magical beasts and the Forest Spirits. Was that the morale of the story though? Sometimes it’s best to have stones leaves unturned?

I should mention that there is a scene that depicts the almost death of one boy who get swallowed by a magical beast. The boy does get saved and the scene is not graphic. I felt this scene added a more “spooky” feeling for kids who are reading it, and added a dire situation that is often associated with adventures.

This title features hauntingly beautiful art with lush landscapes and mythical details that are unfortunately overshadowed by a disconnected and bizarre plot. A niche story for those who appreciate modern twists on darker fairy tales, or for fans of the darker undertones of Where the Wild Things Are and the randomness of the adventures in Over the Garden Wall.

The cover art for The Lost Path is what interested me. I hadn't realized the book was a graphic novel which meant an abundance of quirky illustrations to explore throughout the story!

The story is an odd sort of mystery involving three friends who wander off into a forest of enchantment. They encounter an interesting variety of talking creatures. The story has some mythological elements as well. One advantage of the digital version was being able to enlarge portions of the page to get a really close look at the elaborate panels.

Not sure if the tale is purposely open ended or whether this is the first in a series. The reader is left with quite a few unanswered questions and not a whole lot of character development. I definitely give the author credit for a visually engaging and imaginative story. An interesting addition to the graphic novel genre that even young audiences can enjoy.

Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of The Lost Path from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Lost Path is a strange story of three boys lost in the wood. The tale follows them as they try to figure a way home while encountering monsters and strange creatures who are engaged in a long-running conflict that seems to be running into its climax.

WHO WOULD ENJOY READING IT?
Kids with a love of fantasy and adventure will take to this.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT
The art is unique, however, the story itself seems to be going nowhere. It begins well but lacks coherence from the middle to the end.


The Lost Path by Amélie Fléchais and Jonathan Garnier is available to buy on all major online bookstores. Many thanks to Lion Forge for review copy.

The art style is amazing, visually I was in awe. The story starts out colored and then falls into black and white and then random color panels/pages in between.
The story starts out intriguing, fairy tale like, a dark forest that holds secrets where bad things happened. Then we meet our 3 young MCs who are on a treasure hunt and take a wrong turn somewhere and end up in the dark forest where they have a crazy adventure.
Visually this story is amazing, it starts out strong, and then about half way through it just seems to fall apart. There are hints of a long history, of things in the forest and relationships between those there, but we know none of it. Then the ending just happens. It feels very abrupt and not a very strong conclusion. I’d recommend it as a fun light read for young readers but it’s not a strong recommend from me.

The illustrations were beautiful, weird, and super imaginative.

The storyline though was a bit hard for me to understand. With dialogue boxes left blank, and the mini paragraphs being full of spelling mistakes, I had a hard time understanding what was going on.

I am pretty sure that all of those would be fixed in the final, published copy. But for now, I will give it 3 stars.

I received an eARC in exchange with an honest review.

Amélie's art and illustrations are really gorgeous, magical, and so intricately created that I could stare and marvel at it the whole day. The illustrations vary in style and color from full-colored pages to black and white. The original characters are very interesting and have their own charm. However, the plot is where I'm really disappointed about. It is somewhat disorganized and seems rushed. Some scenes had weird transitions which had me confused at first, especially when the kid pretended to be a robot, but I guess that's how the author interprets the kid's imagination. I wish there was more elaboration to the story because it started with a very solid introduction, but as I read towards the end, everything becomes very disjointed and rushed and a little confusing.

Wow, this was interesting. As a reader who is visually impaired, I'm not normally one to read graphic novels, but when I saw this one available on NetGalley I decided to give it a try since I can zoom into the panels on my computer. I enjoyed the way the story started out, but then everything sort of went all over the place, both with the story and the art. Most of the panels were in black and white, but when we got colored pictures, they were beautiful. There was a different artistic style used when we were reading from the younger boy's imaginative perspective, but there didn't seem to be any reasoning for switching between black and white and color during the rest of the story. There were parts that were a little unclear, but some of it came together at the end. Overall, it was a very cute story.

Thank you NetGalley for sending me this e-arc in exchange for honest review

Art rating: 5 stars
Plot: 2 stars
Characters: 3 stars

It's hard for me to give an exact reason why I didn't like this as much I thought I would. Art is breathtakingly beautiful. I think I would enjoy it a lot more if it was written as illustrated story. Illustrations on cover and at the beginning are fantastical and it's obvious that author is very talented. Somehow this black and white sketches didn't fit the tone of the story for me and I think the full illustrations would be better for this fairy tale type of stories.
The creatures are very original but I fell like it all happened to fast and I didn't get to savor anything and quite frankly it left me confused.
As for characters I'm sad we didn't get to see more of their relationship cause almost whole book they were self absorbed and hardly communicating at all. The younger brother who thought he was a robot was my favorite and I would like to see some of his future adventures.

An interesting and fun read for children :) enjoyed reading this and getting to known the universe.

I received a copy of The Lost Path from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Lost Path is Amelie Flechais’ four graphic novel; the others include The Little Red Wolf, The Mountain Man, and The Warrior Shepherds (which I haven’t read, but I believe is another children’s story). All four stories have actually been translated from French, but you couldn’t tell it when reading. For those curious, The Lost Path is called Chemin perdu in French (and the cover actually fits this title better, I believe).
The Lost Path is about a cursed forest, forest spirits, and the adventure of a lifetime for three young boys. The forest has a dark history, and while we don’t know of the origin, we do get to learn a bit about some of the more recent influences the forest has faced.
Three boys end up inadvertently wondering into the cursed woods while heading out on a scavenger hunt – something typically considered to be a safe activity for children. What follows upon their entrance to the woods can only be considered magical – though not all magic is of the good variety.
The story was interesting, but what really stood out to me was the artwork. It was so unique, and the choices made for storytelling purposes were inspired. I don’t think I’ve seen a graphic novel that changed from full colored images to ink images for the sake of telling a story; but I believe that’s what happened here. It seemed to me that whenever the forest was making a move the artwork suddenly changed to a darker tone, using mostly inks and cross hatching to add in density and lines. Meanwhile the happier moments are full of color and have a lighter, fluffier appearance. It was wonderfully done, and I would very much like to see more of this style.