Jennifer Baggett

You have to admire what these girls did. In their mid-twenties and mired in the fast-paced world of magazine publication in New York, they decided it was now or never. It was time to explore the world.

Over the course of a year, their trip took them to South America, Kenya, several countries in SE Asia, Bali, New Zealand, and Australia. And the book covers it all, some in more detail than others. That’s actually one of my quibbles with the book. So much time is spent on that first month or so in South America that by the time they reach the end of their trip in New Zealand and Australia, all of the energy had disappeared from the story.

I also had a problem with the narration. The three girls sounded much too alike to be able to tell who was writing unless unless there were heavy context clues (or you checked the beginning of the chapter — easier to do in hard copy than in the e-book). I wish their voices had been a little more distinctive.

I also love to travel, but I can’t say that the book inspired any wanderlust in me. Though they certainly saw sights that I would love to see myself, they did it in a way (backpacks and hostels) that this almost-40 lady wouldn’t be able to hack. Also: stay away from yoga schools in India.

Each of the girls definitely felt a little “lost” during their journey. What would await them when they returned to real life? Would they be happy with the same jobs, the same people, or are they forever changed? These are questions that aren’t really answered in the book, though if you read the afterword you know that they’ve continued to make travel a large part of their lives.

Overall, I liked reading about their journey, but it took me a long time to get through it.… (meer)

The Lost Girls: Three Friends, Four Continents, One Unconventional Detour Around the World, is a book about friendship, travel, inspiration, and discovering who you are. Three young women, Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett and Amanda Pressner, feeling they had all reached a crossroad in life, decided to take this giant leap into the unknown and travel the world together.

Traveling and searching for the solution to their life-alternating questions about career choices and where they wanted to go with their lives, they planned their destinations and set about achieving their dreams. From hiking the Inca Trail, volunteering in Kenya, to road-tripping in Australia the three women alternate telling their stories although I found it difficult to figure which one was doing the writing at any given time as their voices and writing styles were pretty much identical.

By the end of the book, I had really had enough of the inner soul searching and all the inspiration that these girls seems to experience in every chapter. Overall it was enjoyable read, but perhaps not the best book for me. As I am in a place in my life where I don’t really need the inspiration or self discovery, I would have preferred the book to have been shorter and more focused on their actual travels. I do think The Lost Girls would really speak to young women in their twenties with their own life decisions ahead of them.… (meer)