Endangered Species by Cathy Hapka

[katekintailbc]

Endangered Species
by Cathy Hapka
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7276187/

I never missed a single episode of the TV show LOST. I thought it was a terrible, badly-written show with wonderful characters. I picked this book up at a book festival and just knew I had to read it :-)

The story revolves around Faith, a naturalist who went to Australia with her boyfriend in search of snakes. The book takes place at the very beginning of the series, seconds after the plane crashes on the Island. Faith is thrown into the middle of the crash, and characters we recognize come in and out of the story with brief appearances around her. It's one of the weaknesses of the show that there are so many survivors of the crash and, yet, the stories really revolve around a small group. The non-crucial members occasionally stick up for themselves, but mostly they're just background characters to get the numbers up. So it's nice to see another character on the island get a spotlight.

That being said, she's kind of an interesting character to get to know. I like her desire to help out in the wake of the crash and her wanting to defer to Jack's lead (or at least value his skills). The story mimics the series in the way we get current story and backstory, and one leads to the other quite nicely. The jump was sometimes great and sometimes too soon for me, but the device worked. In the Island story, she copes with the crash and tries to make herself useful. She can identify animals and knows how to treat snakes, etc. In the flashbacks, she is an environmentalist at college, learning that her adviser's choices mean compromising some of the environment. She gets involves with a group protesting him and starts dating a boy in the group. They get a trip to Australia together, but things don't turn out the way she'd hoped.

The Island has a way of giving people what they want. And in this book, Faith learns a lot about herself and what being alone means to her.

I must admit, my favorite moments were ones where LOST characters make an appearance. And I find it hilarious that Kate is on the front cover of this book, considering she's barely in this book. I think she has maybe one line? Other characters have many more appearances than her, in fact.

For a LOST tie-in novel, I was surprised that it was actually rather good. Not excellent, but not terrible!