The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater

Title: The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater

Author: Jaime Jo Wright

Publisher: Bethany House

Genre: Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Christian Fiction, Suspense

Source: Library

My Review:

If Jaime Jo Wright's name is on it, I want to read it. I have almost caught up on her books. The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater is a dual-time book set in Wisconsin. We alternate between 1915 and the present day.

Sometimes death came quietly. A phantom swooping in and siphoning the last remnant of a soul from one's body, leaving behind a shell of a person who once was and would never be again. Other times, death decided that dramatics coupled with terror were its preferred method of delivery. Tonight, that was the chosen form death took.

From the opening lines (above), I was immediately drawn into the story. However, we soon begin to doubt what was seen, and the stage is set for Greta's mental capacities to be questioned. Her story is the historical line, which I was drawn to more than the present. 

Greta's parents have passed, as has her older brother, leaving her the sole caretaker of her four younger brothers. They live on the poor side of town, which has a stigma of its own. Greta's story is full of heartache and drama. 

Kit and her best friend Madison are doing a ghost walk of Barlowe Theater when Madison disappears. Madison's disappearance consumes Kit. I struggled with liking Kit or even caring much about her story. Kit was pulled in several different directions, and her relationship with Corey struck me as odd as well.

While Wright writes stories filled with suspense and intrigue, this one fell flat for me. I don't know if it was the heaviness of the story or Kit's personality, but at times, the story drug, and I was ready for it to be over. However, I was invested enough to finish the story. I feel like I should say, "It's not you it's me."

Overall, it is an intriguing story full of family secrets, class divisions, mental health stigma, and learning to trust.

★★★⋆/5

Synopsis (Goodreads): 

Barlowe Theater stole the life of Greta Mercy's brother during its construction. Now in 1915, the completed theater appears every bit as deadly. When Greta's younger brother goes missing after breaking into the building, Greta engages the assistance of a local police officer to help her uncover the already ghostly secrets of the theater. But when help comes from an unlikely source, Greta decides that to save her family she must put the threat of the phantoms to rest.

Decades later, Kit Boyd's best friend vanishes during a ghost walk at the Barlowe Theater, and old stories of mysterious disappearances and ghoulish happenings are revived. When television ghost-hunting host and skeptic Evan Fisher engages Kit in the quest to identify the truth behind the theater's history, Kit reluctantly agrees to work with him in hopes of also finding out what happened to her friend. As the theater's curse begins to unravel Kit's own life, she sets out not only to save the historical building and her friend, but to end the pattern of evil that has marked their hometown for a century.

In this atmospheric dual-time tale, two women--separated by a century yet bound by the ghosts of the past--pursue light in the face of darkness.