Michelle (Pink Polka Dot Books)'s Reviews > The Leaving

I think 3.5 Stars. I HAD to know what the end result was, but I didn't much like the characters or the end result???

6 kindergarteners went missing-- 10 years later, 5 of them return unharmed, but without memory of where they've been or why they were taken. Some people think they're faking it, some think they're dangerous, some even think maybe they were abducted by aliens.

Avery is the sister of the one boy who didn't come back, and she's not giving up until she finds out the truth about her brother.

My Thoughts:
Kudos to this book for making me not want to put it down. I really got INVOLVED in the story, but the characters?? Not so much. There wasn't a single one that I actually liked or ever really found myself caring about (except maybe the one boy who wasn't even in the book because he was still missing). Usually the way I felt about these characters would kill the mystery for me-- because I just wouldn't care, but this mystery was so odd and exciting that I had to find out what the hell was going on- for me, not for them.

The Characters: Like I said I felt blah about them. There's the returned kids- Scarlett, Sarah, Adam, Kristin, and Lucas. Lucas and Scarlett are the only 2 POVs we get to hear out of the returned teens... and there isn't anything about either one of them that stands out. I didn't hate them, but there wasn't anything about them to really like either. Adam and Sarah are barely in the book and when they are, they're not very nice. Kristin is one character I felt like I could like, but she's not around enough for me to really get to know. Now we get to Avery.... ughhh Avery. She was terrible. SO judgmental, so too-cool-for-school. Everything annoyed her, everything was cliche to her. She's a bad friend and a bad girlfriend... and kind of a stalker. Her brother is missing and she claims it's her mission to find out about that, but really all she cares about is her instalove-crush on Lucas and how she can go about making that relationship happen. It felt creepy to me. I started worrying for his safety not from his kidnappers, but from this girl who kept being jealous and obsessive over him.

The thing this book has going for it is you (the reader) really have no idea what the answers are. There aren't many clues, so you start thinking it could literally be anything in (or out of) the realm of possibility. I mean, I really did think it was aliens at one point.

The Ending: I didn't love it. It was just like, oh that's it?? All that, and that's all there is? It wrapped up super fast, and maybe that's my issue. I didn't dislike what happened, it was just the speed of it.

PS- I read an advanced e-copy so I'm wondering if the "//// // ////" marks and the backwards random words scattered throughout are staying for the final copies? I hope not...

OVERALL: I say it's definitely worth a try. I didn't like the characters, but I didn't necessarily need to in order to want to read the book late into the night. I'd recommend it for beach reading (because I like reading mysteries on the beach) or just to anyone looking for a book that will keep you guessing.

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