SIX FIVE-YEAR-OLDS GO MISSING WITHOUT A TRACE.
ELEVEN YEARS LATER, FIVE COME BACK – WITH NO MEMORY OF WHERE THEY’VE BEEN. OR WHO TOOK THEM. OR WHY.
Scarlett is one of the five. She comes home to a mother she barely recognises, and doesn’t really know who she’s supposed to be. But she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett too, but neither of them remember Max.
He’s still missing.
And now everyone wants answers.
How intriguing is that cover blurb? And how haunting is that cover? I had shivers when I discovered this book and was so excited to read the story.
The Leaving begins with a prologue the day the children go missing, and then picks up the story on Day Zero, when the teenagers ‘wake up’ blindfolded in the back of a van with no memory of who they are or where they’ve been.
The novel jumps between three different teenagers, dividing its time between 2 of the Returned, Scarlet and Lucas, and Avery, the sister of Max, the boy who is still missing. It’s possible that splitting between 6 points of view would be a bit much, but it seemed strange not to follow all of the Returned, particularly since 2 practically disappear from the book after day zero. One of the points of view being that of someone ‘left behind’ during the Leaving really enhanced the story as it showed a completely different experience of the situation and added another layer of complex feelings to the novel. The various romantic angles of the plot didn’t entirely work for me, but I do feel that the story would be the poorer without them.
One thing I loved about The Leaving was the unusual mechanics used to demonstrate the disconnect of the Returned when flashes of insight came to them. These mechanics were quite jarring to read, which causes the reader to experience some of that disconnect too.
The story is pitched as a thriller with multiple twists, but the gentle pace made for more of a mystery feel and the twists, for the most part, were exciting but not shocking enough to class as a ‘twist’ for me. I was kept interested throughout the book, and whilst the last 20% was paced much more like a thriller, The Leaving wasn’t gripping like I had expected. Overall it was enjoyable if viewed as a mystery, but fell short of the thriller genre.
