Last Seen Leaving

by Caleb Roehrig

[readingwithwrin]

4.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc.

"Sometimes it's just hard to deal when your life changes so much overnight. Even if it seems like it's changing for the better."
SPOILER AND TRIGGER WARNING
The main character is gay and has to come out before he is truly ready to. Also, mention of rape and an older male who preys on teenage girls all while making himself look like the victim.

Flynn's whole world changes when he gets home from school one day and finds the police waiting for him. His girlfriend is missing, and no one knows where she is and he is a suspect. Except his girlfriend hadn't been telling people the truth about them or really much of any truth to anyone about anything. But no one knew this until she was missing until it was too late for her.
You see Flynn is just a fairly normal teenager before his girlfriend goes missing. He goes to school, spends time with his best friend and hangs out with parents on the weekend all while seeing his girlfriend when she's not too busy. Not something that makes for a great alibi when it comes to being a suspect in a missing person case. Especially when said missing girlfriend had been lying to her new friends about how awful a boyfriend Flynn was. Now I'm not saying that they were a great couple or anything like that, but they had been okay for the most part until things suddenly changed and January started acting different and wouldn't tell anyone why. That left pretty much everyone in the dark once again when it comes to why she is missing and why she went missing.
In fact, the police don't really seem to have much interest in figuring it out, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even have tried at all if January's step-dad hadn't been running for a public office. This leaves Flynn with trying to figure it out on his own, with the little information he has from January's coworker and the nicknames she would call people from her new school.


Overall I enjoyed this story. Flynn was a likable character, who wanted to find his girlfriend even though he was confused about his own feelings. He still truly cared for her and felt bad about using her until he felt comfortable enough to come out. In his own unromantic way he really did love her and wanted her in his life, it just took him a little while to realize that. As for January, I don't agree with all the lies she told, I also get why she did it. What happened to her was awful and she knew no matter what happened, because of her new stepdad's career choices it wouldn't be her decision like it should have been. I felt for both of the characters and I hope someday maybe they'll see each other again.


"It was crazy to think how much had occurred in such a short span of time, how drastically my life had changed- how little would ever be the same about Now that had been about Then."