PositiveNPROn a linguistic level, this is a total success. The language in Among the Lost is both striking and strikingly easy to read. Monge\'s collaging works flawlessly, and he is expert at shifting from high language to low. Before long, though, it becomes clear that he always shifts for the same reason: Beautiful prose is reserved for the disenfranchised ... Monge spends over half of Among the Lost in Estela and Epitafio\'s heads, a place the reader might prefer not to be. Often, listening to them talk to themselves is like listening to lovesick teenagers ... Luckily, Monge doesn\'t limit himself to Estela and Epitafio ... The result is a novel both made and broken by its risky intelligence. Monge\'s language collaging was a gamble that paid off. He channels the full spectrum of written expression, and the result hits the trifecta: beautiful, fast-paced, and completely his own. But it might have distracted him from his moral questions a bit too much; Among the Lost closes in the same moral space where it opened. Why should we care about Estela and Epitafio\'s love story? Like most of Monge\'s characters, the answer gets lost.
