Excerpt
Lost and Found

By the sixth leg of the game, we have accumulated the following objects: a ski pole, a bishop from a crystal chess set, a sheet of rice paper, a trilobite fossil, an aviator's helmet, and a live parrot. Our backpacks are overflowing. I drop the chess piece into a sock to keep it from bumping against anything and chipping. I fold the rice paper into a guidebook. The helmet I put on my head. I hand the ski pole to Cassie. "Ready?" I ask, picking up the parrot's cage.

"Like I have a choice," she says. Our cameraman, Brendan, grins. I know he thinks Cassie makes for great footage. "Okay, then," I say. "We're off."

We leave our hotel room and walk down the hall, Brendan walking backward so he can film us; our sound guy trails behind. In the elevator, the parrot squawks.

"We should give this guy a name," I say to Cassie, holding up the cage.

"How about Drumstick?" Brendan smiles behind his camera. He's loving this.

"How about Milton?" I try. "He looks ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Lost and Found moves between the points of view of several different characters. Which of the characters' backstories were most compelling to you? Which characters did you root for? Were there any characters you didn't want to win?
2. At the beginning of the novel, Cassie says, "They picked us because they think we're this big mother-daughter bomb ticking away with secrets, and they're just waiting for us to explode" (page 18). In what ways are the various contestants pressured to reveal their secrets? Are these revelations ultimately cathartic, or do you think the characters would have been better off if they'd been able to keep their secrets private?
3. The rift between Cassie and Laura seems, at first, ...