To be brutally honest, I didn't understand what was supposed to be happening. It was like watching the first half of a Miyazaki film but you never get to the part at the end where it all gets tied together. The art is very beautiful in a sort of surrealist way, though.

Oh my, I love Amélie Fléchais! She's a fantastic storyteller. Thank you NetGalley!

While I loved her story of Little Red Riding Wolf, this one wasn't as big of a hit. I adore how it started, with a very big fairy tale. My son didn't like that part. Then when the boys started, I thought he'd relate to them...he said it was boring. So 9 year old graphic novel reader just was not impressed.

I think it was a really sweet story, but it might not hit just right with the american market. Beautiful artwork, as always and totally worth the time. You really do have to see where it goes.

Beautifully illustrated with lots of detail. The story was good but seems a little unfinished.

Enchanted by Amélie Fléchais illustrations from the previous book, I had to get the ARC of «The Lost Path» as soon as I saw it pop up on NetGalley. And it was so much more enjoyable!

Illustrations as always on point. I loved the use of only a few colors and shades, making everything look very homogenous, without harsh transitions. Part of the book was in black and white, but I assume that those were temporary place holders and the final version will have gorgeous light browns and greens throughout.

What surprised me the most was that I actually enjoyed the story! It is much more age appropriate and just entertaining. I love a good treasure hunt and whimsical creatures! A little absurd at points, we were introduced to many different characters for such a short graphic novel.

My favourite one is definitely the fox in coat in search for his supersonic bicycle. Nothing can beat that!

Another beautiful book by Amélie Fléchais is finally translated to English, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It starts as a haunting legend about a husband, a wife, a forest and a curse. We then jump to modern times, where three young boys (one of whom has a seriously overactive imagination) on a scavenger hunt get lost in the forest and engulfed into a war between the forest spirits and the forest's evil ruler. Very interesting, short and beautifully illustrated fairy-tale. Kind of reminds me of Over the Garden Wall and studio Ghibli.

I just did not like this anywhere near as much as The Little Red Wolf. I didn't feel like the world was very well explained. The story just kind of jumped all over the place and we met so many woodland creatures but there was never really any explanation for who most of them were or what their role was overall. Also I didn't really like how the art changed every few pages. I understand that it was supposed to represent the different character POVs and moods, but it was still incredibly distracting in my opinion and also led to much of the book to be just plain black and white illustrations. This COULD be because the book is an ARC but I don't think so because sometimes part of the page would be colored and the rest wouldn't be, so it seemed like a specific style choice.

Una foresta incantata. Un sentiero che si perde. Creature spaventose che si annidano fra gli alberi, nascondono fra le foglie, emergono dal terreno. E tre bambini in esplorazione che si perdono.

Nonostante abbia adorato gli altri volumi di Amélie Fléchais che ho letto, The lost path non mi è piaciuto, se non per le bellissime illustrazioni che accompagnano l’inquietante fiaba iniziale.

Le tavole sono interessanti, ma la storia è confusa e poco incisiva, e l’assenza di colore toglie buona parte del fascino ai disegni dell’autrice.

Temo che il fumetto non sia il suo medium di elezione, contrariamente al libro illustrato.

This book employed stunning illustrations and i thought this was one of the stand out features of it. I liked the way the story was told and the layout that was employed however i felt that there were moments when the story had drifted as it was being told. I would have liked it more it this was different but i did like how the characters were used and how the story that interacted with them.

The first few pages are so good. Stunning. I must say. Love the fairytales atmosphere in it. But then, the more I read, the more I confused.
I found myself asking “wait, what just happened?” a few times. Because I just don’t get it.
In some part, I got lost because a sudden theme changing. Like fairytales to cyborg to fairytales again, which I don’t think it’s match :)

However, the illustration is stunning! I love it made me feel. So atmospheric!

Review to come in March.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just had to have this one as I loved the author's first book: The Little Red Wolf. Sadly, in the end I can tell that this wasn't my kind of book, and that I also wish I hadn't requested it. :(

The story starts off pretty well, about a forest, a cursed forest. About a couple who live there, about how the woman saw what the forest really was and tried to run, only to.... But then the story of the kids start, and well... I lost my interest there.

Not only because of the absurd, weird, WTF did just happen story, but also because the characters just annoyed me to no end. Especially the little brother who brought them all in this poopy mess because of how he acted and what he did. This is not the first time I have seen this trope (I would call it that) happen, and I would rather see it disappear entirely. Or maybe at least have the brother show remorse, instead of just blatantly go through with life like he didn't just do a crappy thing. :|

It also doesn't help that the art is switching between black/white and colour all the time. Pick one, but seeing it switch over all the time didn't help for me. I am sure it serves some greater meaning and it was meant for something, but I didn't see anything.

As I said earlier, the story was just over the top weird. Sometimes absurd or weirdness works, but in this one I just was scratching my head and wondering if it would get any weirder (hint: Yes it does).

The ending was pretty decent, I am happy for the guys.

The art style (either black/white or colour) was pretty decent, sure, it was also a bit weird (it reminded me of Ghibli at times).

But yeah, all in all, I had expectations and hopes and I didn't see them get fulfilled. :(

Alice in Wonderland meets Where the Wild Things Are, not only was this story enchanting and intriguing, the artwork was absolutely gorgeous! I really hope the author/artist do more!

The Lost path is graphic illustrated novel about three boys who travels through the magical forest with the help of map to find the treasure and get lost at the end. Book was very imaginative with beautiful arts and illustrations.

I loved that cover. Art and pictures. They were so beautiful and definitely unique. I haven’t seen such gorgeous illustrations in any picture book. I like the alternate black and white and coloring art separating the third youngest boy’s imaginations and it was good because if it wasn’t in colors I would get confused with what it has to do with story. But there were colored pictures in the beginning as well so not all colored illustrations were imagination that might be confusing. It was creepy with weird forest creatures and spirits which made book intriguing. I wanted to see what was going on in the book and how it was going to end.

Characters were okay. Boy with the map kept boasting throughout the book about how good he was in this or that activities and with the map but he managed to get lost with his friends in this weird forest that kind of showed not to be boastful or it might have terrible consequences.

Book had a great potential but here ends all the good things.

why not 5 stars-
I had some problems with the story:

First it was very confusing. I felt like few things were not explained properly. I got what the hat was and that weird creature was its protector and all. But that plot by other forest creatures and then war between forest spirits was confusing. What happened in the house was also weird and I had to reread those parts. It felt not developed properly, I couldn’t find a connection between all this.

It’s not at all like Little Red Wolf in which there was lesson and learning and so greatly explained story with twist. Here I couldn’t get any lesson from the story except that I have said above about boasting. Characters didn’t develop and some pictures were confusing. Transition from black and white to color picture was so sudden.

If it will be rewritten with proper narration, I don’t care how long it will be but if it’s done then I’m in for this story otherwise I it’s not that good and it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Overall, it was just okay. Definitely awesome illustration, loved the art and it will look beautiful in paper, no doubt for that, but major drawback was story.

The artwork was beautiful in this graphic novel. The story however, started off very strong but quickly became disjointed. As the story fell apart it was hard to stay focused and finish. The plot had a very interesting premise and I feel that it could have been executed better and more cohesively.

Three young boys are out in the woods searching for a treasure. Little do they know this is not an ordinary forest and they are about to embark on a great adventure...

A couple of months ago I read Little Red Wolf by Amélie Fléchais and absolutely loved it. It contained stunning artwork and a great, cohesive story. So when I saw The Lost Path pop up on Netgalley, I just had to read it.
The artwork in this graphic novel is still great. Every frame contains loads of detailed stills, and especially the colored pages where gorgeous. Sadly, a lot of pages were black and white and with the amount of detail in the artwork it was at times difficult to determine what was actually happening. I hope that this is just for the galley and the actual release will contain only colored artwork.
The story was a fun one: kids getting lost in a forest with a bit of a dark, spooky backstory. I love that there is a dark, sinister undertone in the story. The narrative however contained some gaps, making the story at times a bit incomprehensible. The overall picture was clear, but there were a couple of things that could do with a bit more explanation.

I would still 100% decorate my entire house with artwork by Amélie Fléchais but The Lost Path fell a little short for me. Still enjoyable and a fun read, but not nearly as good as Little Red Wolf.

I really enjoyed The Little Red Wolf, but sadly this one wasn't as amazing. The art and the coloring are so pretty, Amelie Flechais is offically my favorite illustrator there, but the story just felt weak. It was allover the place and disconnected from each other, and the ending really doesn't explain much. While I love the twisted and dark setting, there was no explanation given and it makes the overall book doesn't work for me.

The story started as intriguing and interesting but as it progressed it became very choppy and didn’t seem to hold the attention. I liked the overall idea but it just did not seem grasping

This is going to be a really quick review, so I’m just going to be straight to it and let you what I liked and what I didn’t!

The art in this book is just stunning, the cover gives you a glimpse at what’s inside and my goodness it’s beautiful. I loved reading through and looking at all the little details on each page, I also loved the way that all the characters were drawn. They all had such a distinct personality and it made it so much fun to read. I also really enjoyed the story, it was cute and fast paced and seriously so much fun to read.

The only problem I had with this book was that I got a bit confused at time, but I really do think that it was my own fault. I definitely want to pick up a physical copy of this one because I think that it will help me to slow down a bit and get even more immersed in the story. If you get a chance I’d definitely recommend picking this one up! It’s beautiful and so much fun to read.

It’s challenging to pinpoint exactly why I didn’t like The Lost Path. There was nothing especially bad about it, but certainly nothing specifically great either. Half the art was beautiful, half of it was bland, and the story was, unfortunately, particularly unoriginal. Amélie Fléchaisis definitely a talented artist, but I felt, overall, that her style was inconsistent.

Stylistically I think that The Lost Path was written in the wrong format. It began with a gorgeously illustrated introductory story but quickly became a graphic novel. Because of that, the beautiful, artistic illustrations that you saw on the cover and the beginning of the book gave way to black and white line drawings that did absolutely nothing to keep my interest (although I do hold out hope that this was simply due to the fact that I had an ARC and not a finished product). I feel like it would have been served better had it been an illustrated story rather than a graphic novel. There would have been more scope for magic and description, which could have been accentuated by a full illustration in Amélie Fléchais’ inimitable style. As it was, the first quarter of The Lost Path was clichéd imagery and dialogue. The whole book is only 103 pages long, and yet it took me nearly two weeks to get through. I kept opening it up, getting immediately bored and wandering away to do something else for a few days.

The characters aren’t very well developed. Amélie Fléchais has tried to write a world of mystery and magic, focusing on the feeling evoked through her art, rather than giving any real life to her characters. The plot is simple, so the characters really needed some depth to be able to carry it. The creatures that they meet in the forest didn’t feel developed either, and I really just got the impression that Fléchais shoehorned them in to have the opportunity to draw a neat monster. They feature in a series of events that have been and gone before the reader has even turned the page.

The prose is messy and didn’t tie together in any coherent fashion. This was not helped by the fact that the art style changes from page to page. Most of the time this makes sense, as the art mirrors the theme of the boys’ fantasies, but on other pages, there wasn’t any real reason that I could see for the change. For a graphic novel, this was a poor stylistic choice, as the reader relies so heavily on visual cues to help move along the plotline. Again, there is a possibility that this is due to the fact that I was reading an ARC. The finished product may do away with some of these inconsistencies; however, I can only review what I had. And what I had made very little sense.

As an artist, Amélie Fléchais is five stars, but unfortunately, The Lost Path is not an art book. It’s a children’s story. If you want to buy a book for the pretty pictures, then this one is definitely worth your while. If you want a story that combines with art to create a magical world that children and adults alike will love? I think you might be out of luck with this one.

I loved the idea and some of the illustrations and the start of the story with the lore of the woman taken by the woods - the rest of the story where it begins after that original story gets choppy and hard to follow.

This started off with intricate, haunting drawings and a creepy fairy tale beginning. However, the story itself follows through the woods on a ghostly trail, but it just didn't really fill out as a compelling story for me.