Robert Bird described "Lost Boys" as a postmodern detective fiction because it explores multiple realities and aspects of the supernatural. Specifically, it deals with the ontological concerns of good and evil. The novel seeks to address what should be done when confronted with evil. Evil in the novel is described as supernatural and existing beyond the narrative as evident in the prologue which is also independent of the narrative. Throughout the novel, Step attempts to confront evil, suggesting that the most important way to confront evil is to "identify and name sin". Card uses Abinadi in the Book of Mormon as an example, explaining that it is better to die than knowing something bad is happening yet doing nothing about it. However, it is only the purity of Stevie that allows him to recognize the true evil in the novel in Steuben. Stevie sacrifices his life to identify it like Abinadi and Stephen in the New Testament. This work portrays the Mormon theological belief about the eternal nature of evil, that it exists on its own and portrays the struggle against it.