The Leaving

by Tara Altebrando

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
This was quite an enjoyable book. I won't say much because frankly, I like to keep reviews of this type of book vague and short. As far as said mystery goes, I was definitely intrigued. I mean, kids disappearing, then coming back eleven years later? Yeah, that's messed up. And by the by, they don't know where they've been, who with, or even who they are.

I liked that there was skepticism, because let's be real, you know full well that there would be like "sure, you 'don't remember', now where's the sixth dude?!", but I also liked that there was a lot of support. I felt the most connected with Lucas for some reason, and I enjoyed his character the most. I wish that Avery, the only POV that wasn't one of the missing, was more fleshed out. Maybe that was kind of the point though, since she'd been living in her missing brother's shadow? I have no idea. And there were of course romances and friendships, but they were... kind of weird, as you'd expect in this situation. Most of them kind of made sense, but there was one romantic thing that while I did feel some chemistry, it kind of didn't make a ton of sense, logically.

I also felt that the family portrayals were great. Seeing the aftermath of such a horrible, life ruining event felt sadly realistic. And while I did see a few twists coming, most of them I only realized close to when they were going to happen- and a lot were flat out surprising. But I wasn't in love with how the whole thing wrapped up, and I'll leave it at that.

Oh, and I think Scarlett's POV chapters were supposed to have some kind of "unique" formatting, but on my eARC, it just showed up as random characters and/or letters in the middle of paragraphs, so I do feel like that may have taken some of the "oomph" out of her character for me- and obviously won't be the case for anyone reading a finished copy!

Bottom Line: I liked it! While there were a few weaker spots, it was overall quite enjoyable, and I was definitely invested in the outcome.

**Copy provided by publisher for review