Reunited with a long lost story

I find that some books really stick with me, it’s not so much that I can remember plot lines in vivid detail or names of characters (or even titles) it’s more the atmosphere of the story that lingers, images imagined and feelings evoked. I’ll find myself thinking about these books for a long time after I’ve finished reading them. And I do mean a long time…

Back when I was about 13 or 14 I read a book that has stuck with me till this day. I could remember a vague plot line, some images and I knew I got it out of my local library, but that was about it. The title had been long forgotten. I searched for it a few times over the years and bored many, many people with my tale of this long lost book but no one had read it and I couldn’t find anything online. I didn’t have much to search with in fairness.

Then, last saturday morning, I woke up to a gift from my boyfriend. A book shaped gift.

There it was – the very book that I had been going on about for the last 20 years.

Invitation To The Game by Monica Hughes.

I read the whole thing in about 2 hours and loved every second of it. I wil admit that it isn’t the greatest story ever written and I had remembered some of the detail wrong but there is something about this story that still gets me. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the story of triumph in the face or adversity, maybe it’s the futuristic, fantasy element of it? Maybe I want to be deserted on a strange planet with nothing but my wits? Whatever it is, that book has firmly lodged itself in my little brain again and I’m finding myself thinking about it all the time.

Being reunited with something you though was long lost is a wonderful, wonderful feeling and by far one of the best gifts I’ve ever been given.