The Lost Story is a portal fantasy, a subgenre in which characters are transported from the real world into a magical realm, typically through a doorway or a portal. While Rafe, Emilie, and Jeremy access Shanandoah through the physical portal of the tree hollow, the subtext is that there is another, imaginative doorway into alternate worlds: books. 

To illustrate this thematic element, books and literary allusions form an important motif in the novel. For instance, Emilie notes that the teenage Skya loved books, with her reading comprising fantasy titles like Barbara Hambly’s Dragonsbane (1985) and The Hobbit (1937) by J. R. R. Tolkien. During the 15 days of celebration in Shanandoah, Skya and the others read aloud The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Silver Chair. Thus, books offer a sanctuary and an escape.

Other literary references include stories and authors. When Winter tells Jeremy and Rafe that she misses their stories about the man who is a bat and fights crime, Rafe is incredulous that they told the court Batman stories. However, Jeremy insists, “[Y]ou can’t do better than Batman Begins for a campfire story” (272). As an homage to C.