Hope Malloy's Reviews > The Leaving
The Leaving
by
by
Ok so this book had SUCH A COOL IDEA. The hook on the back was really cool and interesting and I was so excited to read it. But, I'm sorry to say, it was a let down. The characters were annoying and the formatting was awkward. I don't want to have to turn my book upside down to see the little bit of useless description. The writing had unneeded description, for example, / to represent beats, only it was formatted
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like this. Yeah, no thank you. Also, it says that Avery doesn't believe the returned kids, a cool idea, only she didn't trust them for the first three chapters and then switched to swooning over one guy and completely trusting everything he says. Another thing on Avery - she is way to changeable. One minute she is contemplating her missing brother, the next she's complaining about how her new shoes aren't here yet. Then, her boyfriend(a completely useless character unless you count the weird and unneeded love triangle and inner turmoil) will say something to try and make her feel better(a good move considering they're like 15(more on that later)) and she lashes out, considers breaking up with him, and swoons over some other guy. Not exactly enthralling writing.
Avery's age: SHE'S BLOODY 15! AND SHE'S DRIVING AROUND WITH SOME GUY! Ok, so Florida driving laws allow people 15 years and older to have a learners permit, so if her bf is the same age, he should be allowed to drive. BUT the learners permit requires an adult(21+) to be in the car with them and I didn't see anyone's mom sitting in the back seat.
Love Triangles: THESE ARE SO ANNOYING! No one wants to read about a girl choosing between two guys and a guy choosing between two girls. And there were 3 of these(that I can think of off the top of my head). 1. Avery - Lucas - Scarlett : Lucas knows neither of these girls, just a feeling that he does or used to date one of them and an old picture of him and the other as kids. WHAT? 2. Sam - Avery - Lucas : Girl, chill, only one has ever expressed interest in you, if you don't like him, dump his ass and move on. 3.(and in my opinion the worst) Adam - Scarlett - Lucas : If you like Lucas(which you seem to) then stay with him. If you are unhappy, leave him. Easy. Just because you kissed Adam, to your knowledge once, doesn't mean you have to marry the kid. In my opinion this was just a cheap way to get Avery and Lucas together. ALSO - this is a mystery, what happened to them, where were they, where is Max(more on him later)? Not a bloody Romance. I don't want to hear about how "Love itself was a happy ending" or whatever the line was. Ugh
Max: Ok so I'm not sure how I feel about this. I liked that he was dead, not holed up somewhere waiting to be found or hidden or something like that. It was a good way to turn the few hours into 11 years, but that was still underdeveloped. "One thing lead to another" - and it turned into 11 years?? Just erase their memory of you and let them go a year later. I doubt these kids had a traumatic event happen to them everyday. So Max, alright, this one wasn't so bad.
Misc:
Kristen being gay/bi/etc - idk, I'm always up for some representation, but this wasn't very good. It seemed like a desperate attempt to make the book less heterosexual™. Also, making her in love with Scarlett? Didn't love that one either, idk, but it just didn't seem like that would happen.
The kids being in relationships with each other - they were raised together man, idk, but that doesn't really make most people want to make out ya feel. I guess you could fall in love with someone you've known since you were a kid but... idk. They lived together. In fact, they routinely forgot everything - so there were times that for all they knew they were brother and sister.
Anyway - I hate to hate on a book, but this just wasn't a good one. ONE THING THOUGH THAT I WILL GIVE IT CREDIT FOR - it never gave away the ending. It did leave me wanting to know more, no matter how much I was annoyed at the characters and plot, I always wanted to find out what happened so, take what you will. I hope anyone who reads this book will like it more than I did.
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like this. Yeah, no thank you. Also, it says that Avery doesn't believe the returned kids, a cool idea, only she didn't trust them for the first three chapters and then switched to swooning over one guy and completely trusting everything he says. Another thing on Avery - she is way to changeable. One minute she is contemplating her missing brother, the next she's complaining about how her new shoes aren't here yet. Then, her boyfriend(a completely useless character unless you count the weird and unneeded love triangle and inner turmoil) will say something to try and make her feel better(a good move considering they're like 15(more on that later)) and she lashes out, considers breaking up with him, and swoons over some other guy. Not exactly enthralling writing.
Avery's age: SHE'S BLOODY 15! AND SHE'S DRIVING AROUND WITH SOME GUY! Ok, so Florida driving laws allow people 15 years and older to have a learners permit, so if her bf is the same age, he should be allowed to drive. BUT the learners permit requires an adult(21+) to be in the car with them and I didn't see anyone's mom sitting in the back seat.
Love Triangles: THESE ARE SO ANNOYING! No one wants to read about a girl choosing between two guys and a guy choosing between two girls. And there were 3 of these(that I can think of off the top of my head). 1. Avery - Lucas - Scarlett : Lucas knows neither of these girls, just a feeling that he does or used to date one of them and an old picture of him and the other as kids. WHAT? 2. Sam - Avery - Lucas : Girl, chill, only one has ever expressed interest in you, if you don't like him, dump his ass and move on. 3.(and in my opinion the worst) Adam - Scarlett - Lucas : If you like Lucas(which you seem to) then stay with him. If you are unhappy, leave him. Easy. Just because you kissed Adam, to your knowledge once, doesn't mean you have to marry the kid. In my opinion this was just a cheap way to get Avery and Lucas together. ALSO - this is a mystery, what happened to them, where were they, where is Max(more on him later)? Not a bloody Romance. I don't want to hear about how "Love itself was a happy ending" or whatever the line was. Ugh
Max: Ok so I'm not sure how I feel about this. I liked that he was dead, not holed up somewhere waiting to be found or hidden or something like that. It was a good way to turn the few hours into 11 years, but that was still underdeveloped. "One thing lead to another" - and it turned into 11 years?? Just erase their memory of you and let them go a year later. I doubt these kids had a traumatic event happen to them everyday. So Max, alright, this one wasn't so bad.
Misc:
Kristen being gay/bi/etc - idk, I'm always up for some representation, but this wasn't very good. It seemed like a desperate attempt to make the book less heterosexual™. Also, making her in love with Scarlett? Didn't love that one either, idk, but it just didn't seem like that would happen.
The kids being in relationships with each other - they were raised together man, idk, but that doesn't really make most people want to make out ya feel. I guess you could fall in love with someone you've known since you were a kid but... idk. They lived together. In fact, they routinely forgot everything - so there were times that for all they knew they were brother and sister.
Anyway - I hate to hate on a book, but this just wasn't a good one. ONE THING THOUGH THAT I WILL GIVE IT CREDIT FOR - it never gave away the ending. It did leave me wanting to know more, no matter how much I was annoyed at the characters and plot, I always wanted to find out what happened so, take what you will. I hope anyone who reads this book will like it more than I did.
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