A great fantasy read with a story of love within it
This is a brilliant adventure for younger reads.
It also has a big social message within

I enjoyed this, a little more serious than most middle grade style books with a sharp look at death and a number of social issues but also celebrates friendship in a lovely way.

I saw this described as surreal and that really does the job well – the fluidity as the narrative weaves in and out of memories like a subconscious is quite unsettling initially but this really did feel like being in someone’s mind. Given that Twig had just died at the start of the story and this is aimed at YA readers, expect there would need to be a trigger warning on this. I am not the target audience for this but can imagine that for more confident YA readers this would be both thought-provoking and inspiring towards wider reading in general.

This is story that slowly draws you in until you are completely booked. Two world intertwine throughout, both from the perspective of Twig, a young homeless boy. When he dies, he is transported to the Afterlife - a world full of God's who do not behave as we would expect, and a challenge to retrieve his memories. Armed with a guardian, a map, a skeleton key and a raven he begins to unravel his memories while he tries to find out where he has come from and how he died.

There are many layers and themes to this book (death, poverty, homelessness, friendships, betrayal, trust, family relationships). It's a fantasy with lots of plots twists and quirkiness. It's definitely a book to keep you on your toes with surprises scattered here and there. Definitely a book to stretch your imagination and make you think.

An engaging read right from the off, this is a fantastic book for younger readers about the importance of loyalty, friendship, and memories.
Twiggy wakes up in the afterlife with no idea how he came to be there. With nothing but a raven and an atlas, he sets out to discover how he came to be here, and what his life was like.
Parts of The Lost Soul Atlas are hard to read, especially when we hear about the hardships Twiggy faced - his missing father, and the homelessness he experienced especially. But it's also a heartwarming tale of found family and highlights how everything we experience combines to make us who we are.

When Twig wakes up in the Afterlife he knows he’s dead, but he doesn’t know how and he can only remember a few memories from his life. Soon, armed with only a tatty held together book, a key and a raven, he must set out on a quest to find out what happened, why he’s there and to get himself home.

I really enjoyed this gentle and fantastic story following Twig’s journey through the Afterlife contrasted against his memories of life. The double threads intertwined throughout Twig’s quest (I won’t give away much of the story) and built a picture of what should have been a bleak existence for Twig. However, childlike optimism and happiness abound, despite the almost harrowing circumstances that Twig finds himself in in the ‘real world’. Really this book should have felt much more sad and depressing than it did given some of the content (death and the afterlife, homelessness and begging to survive), but the relationships between the characters and the hope throughout gave this book real heart and soul that made for a warm and comforting read.

The true message at the heart of The Lost Soul Atlas is to do with the friendships we develop in life and Twig’s life is defined by his friendship with Flea. Flea immediately adopts Twig into a family and the two feel like they are meant to have been friends from the start. With Flea’s guidance, Twig grows and gains courage becoming someone who is more willing to stand up for what is just and right. In the Afterlife, Twig bonds with Krukk a skeletal raven guardian who provides some much needed comedic moments throughout Twig’s quest.

Ironically, The Lost Soul Atlas is a book that is full of heart and soul and I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Children’s books for providing an e-book review copy.

Great. A crazy thinker which will require children to concentrate to understand but for higher ability key stage three this is an excellent challenge. Not mass appeal but some real issues blended with a well realised fantasy.

This book made me feel a bit sad but the adventure was great.
A journey to find the truth and finding friendship. Easy to read and enjoyable characters.

A truly heartwarming and beautiful tale of loss, heartbreak and friendships.
Easy to forget you’re reading a children’s book, a wonderfully written 5 star read.

My latest #NetGalley read was The Lost Soul Atlas by @ZanaFraillon. A mix of the real (street children & corruption) & fantastical (afterlife & Hoblins) in a heartbreaking tale. Absolutely loved the #nonbinary Flea! https://t.co/LID9NVDxRY

I must admit that I struggled to be gripped by this novel having loved The Bone Sparrow. For me it was a slow burner but once I was about half way through I felt involved and wanted to see the story resolved. The author explores important themes such as homelessness, inequality, gangs, addiction and poverty all within the context of saving memories for humankind from the ravages of the gods in control of the Afterlife. We meet Twiggy as he approaches the Afterlife with his Guardian - a Raven. He is coopted as a keeper of memories and sets out on his task with the help of his Atlas of Lost Souls. We hear about his backstory and how he came to the Afterlife in snatches as he travels to different gates.

A slow building fantasy but well worth the effort.

One I will be recommending to pupils.

Twig dies and needs to find his father, so travels across the realm of the dead with his new friend Krrug.

What a wonderful book! Such a journey alongside a group of homeless children - an insight into criminal gangs, police brutality, drug addiction (the reality for more than 150 million children world wide). Twiggy, Flea and the rest of the Blood family have the courage and determination to fight the injustices they face on a daily basis. This would work well within a Rights Respecting/SDG curriculum. A book that gives a voice to those that are hidden.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this in advance of publication.
We know little about Twig, but when he wakes up at the start of the book we're told he is in the Afterlife. He is in a world like nothing he's ever seen before, and his guide through is a raven called Kurrk! who gets more than a little frustrated at Twig's refusal to follow the rules expected of him. With just an atlas and an assortment of other objects, Twig determines to find his way to the other side and to avoid the guardians looking for him.
During his journey we learn a little more about Twig and his life on the streets. We're never entirely sure what happened to his Da, and whether the creature he calls the Hoblin is really his gangland grandmother or a made-up thing. We find out a little about his life on the streets and how - along with petty thief Flea - he is forced to steal to survive.
While Twig's life is not one you would aspire to, he has a bond with those he lives with that is to be envied. Fraillon uses these characters to highlight some of the injustices in the modern world, while the magical elements keep it from being too bleak.

The Lost Soul Atlas is the first book that I’ve read from Zana Fraillon and this one is a contemporary but has some magic realism elements within it. So we follow our main character Twig whom adores his Da but one night he decided to follow him to a black market only then to lose him father, not knowing where he’s gone. Twig ends up in a new crowd with Flea, however some time later, Twig ends up dead.
When he awakens in the Afterlife he has no idea how he even got there, with no idea on how he died, he only has a handful of memories and a sidekick, a raven called Kruuk, Kruuk is meant to help guide Twig into Heaven, where he will then forget everything that’s happened in his life except Twig is drawn off of the path and towards The Gatherer, she gives him a key and an atlas, this will guide him back towards him memories, to solve riddles in order to get to the crossings, however he cannot dwell in his memories for too long during each crossing otherwise he will be lost forever.
I did like this one, to me it’s not quite a young adult book but aimed at older children/teens. The story you follow includes some topics that are hard hitting. There were parts of this that I found dragged a little bit, but I enjoyed reading the parts of the memories and figuring out riddles before carrying on! I definitely recommend it, it’s not a book with topics that you see a lot of, maybe one day I will read Bone Sparrow but I’m interested to see what Zana Fraillon writes next.

I found this story engrossing, enjoyable and heartbreaking.
It's a fantasy that talks about social issues and memories, a story that kept me hooked and moved me.
I think it's a book that is perfect for adults and older children.
It's a great story, strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I’ve loved Fraillon’s previous titles and found them very gritty, if not sometimes grim in the stories they tell. This one, though, uses a framework of fantasy to soften the blow, without losing any of the realism of the plight of homeless children. The characters of Twig and Flea are very likeable: we desperately want them to be happy. Krruk’s character is an absolute delight! The interwoven plot lines of Twig in the afterlife trying to complete his quest, and that of him in ‘real life’ learning to cope and to be a loyal friend could be confusing for a less confident reader but well worth giving them the support to get through that. Something of a future classic, I think.

I was a huge fan of Zana Fraillon’s first two books – The Bone Sparrow and The Ones That Disappeared – so I was beyond excited to see she had a new book due and then to be approved to read it.

In both her previous novels, Zana uses stories and friendship to shine a light on some very difficult and important subjects (child refugees in The Bone Sparrow and child slavery and trafficking in The Ones That Disappeared).

Whilst The Lost Soul Atlas is aimed perhaps slightly younger, it too uses the power of story, imagination and friendship to tell a story of homelessness, specifically homeless children, and the corrupt system and blinkered society which fails them. And it too is absolutely brilliant.

Perhaps a little less gritty and graphic than her previous books, the book nevertheless paints a bleak picture of the dangerous world which some children are forced to live in; it tells of a hopeless situation in which these children are somehow finding hope, positivity and possibility.

Cleverly written, there is humour, joy, creativity and optimism amongst these children, but at no point is their situation treated lightly – this is no jolly survival adventure – it is quite clear how hard life is as their cynicism, mistrust and defensive behaviours demonstrate.

This book is also slightly more fantastical than the previous two. Rather than a hint at the fantastic or the simple telling of stories, here we move between reality, memories and an incredibly well-crafted fantasy world – the Afterlife to be specific.

Twig is dead. The Gods have ensured that the dead forget, living out their afterlife (so to speak) in blissful ignorance with yoga and games of bridge. But Twig doesn’t want to forget. He wants to remember, and so he strays into The Gatherer’s path and is entrusted with the task of opening the crossings between worlds once more and freeing the memories the Gods are keeping for themselves.

With an atlas, a key, a bundle of bones, a Guardian in the form of a skeletal raven and a small army of ‘stick people’ Meeples, Twig sets out on his quest and as he does we see how it was he arrived there through his unfolding memories of life and events before.

Twig and his da had lived a poor but relatively happy life sharing stories in a cramped, shared flat, but with a roof over their heads at least. Until one day, Twig goes out to see where his Da goes at night and things go wrong.

Without his Da, Twig is lucky to be taken under Flea’s wing as he joins their group of street children, The Beasts, in their makeshift shelters in The Boneyard.

Switching between the two, the book is at once an immersive fantasy quest and a tense tale of life on the streets, in which it is easy to see how strong emotions, impossible hopes, naivety and desperation can make you most vulnerable to exploitation and being drawn involuntarily but irrevocably into a dark world of corruption.

There is so much to love about this book I hardly know where to begin – from the clever use of humour (and some truly awful, so-bad-they’re-good jokes) to balance the darker side of things to Flea’s hilarious insults and Kkruk’s begrudging sidekick stance; from the use and imagery of the maps and stories (“because stories are the maps for how we can be”) to the riddles, magic and characters Twig meets on his quest; from the friendships and loyalties both strengthened and challenged to the energy and life of good times in spite of the bad; from the nod to Alice in Wonderland to the distinct feel of Pratchett, especially in the Gods, to the way folklore and family tales are threaded throughout… and so much more besides.

The characters are brilliant. Kkruk the Sentries and the librarians really put the life into The Afterlife and Twig is a very likeable main character, who your heart goes out to as he grapples with strange new worlds.

But it was Flea (and their friendship with Twig) who I loved best. Creative, caring and ever hopeful but street-wise and uncompromising in their morals and actions they were an utterly fantastic character who I’d love to have been friends with myself!

I was also pleased to see Flea’s gender questioned, commented on and left unknown without becoming an issue or having any bearing on the story.

‘So, are you a boy?’
Flea shrugs. ‘Sometimes. And sometimes I’m a girl.
And sometimes I’m both at the same time or neither.
Mostly I’m just somewhere in between. Anyway…”

The other characters were just as good. The rest of Twig’s Blood Family, for example, give away shades and hints of their back stories – enough to give them depth and difference and individual traits, and enough to see how various children can end up in such a bleak situation, but not so much that it bogs down the story.

The Hoblin meanwhile is brilliantly written as she manages to convey both real and fairytale evil and danger.

In short, I loved this book. It is, without doubt, in my top books of the year, and given that there’s still over five months to go, that’s no mean feat.

It helps of course that I love a map on a book so a whole story with maps woven through it was always going to appeal (can we please have an accompanying illustrated atlas with The Lost Soul Atlas (both book and painted), Flea’s tent maps and the rest in?!)

Punchy, unflinching and refusing to look away from the very real and heartbreaking situation on our streets, it is also a funny and wonderfully immersive fantasy. A magical tale of friendship, loyalty, suffering and hope, this is a story which will speak straight to your heart and to your imagination.

I loved the start of this one, and there's no doubt it's very well written. But it feels like one of those super literary books that's really more for adults (librarians/bloggers?) than children. It's quite confusing at times and I didn't fully understand the world. I'd be interested to hear what the target age group made of it. I think my kids would struggle with it.

My 9 year old daughter enjoyed this book but felt it wasn’t for her, she felt it was more of a ‘boys’ book (!). A fantasy adventure story, Twig dies and goes to the afterlife. Many adventures and twists and turns ensue. A good read if you enjoy fantastical adventures, from a different perspective.