Tara Altebrando (2016)
Six were taken. Eleven years later, five come back–with no idea of where they’ve been.
Eleven years ago, six kindergarteners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to.
Until today. Today five of those kids return. They’re sixteen, and they are . . . fine. Scarlett comes home and finds a mom she barely recognizes, and doesn’t really recognize the person she’s supposed to be, either. But she thinks she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett, too, except they’re entirely unable to recall where they’ve been or what happened to them. Neither of them remember the sixth victim, Max. He doesn’t come back. Everyone wants answers. Most of all Max’s sister Avery, who needs to find her brother–dead or alive–and isn’t buying this whole memory-loss story.
(via Goodreads)
I actually almost didn’t want to write a post for this book. It had been on my physical TBR shelf for over 2 months because I had picked it up at the library in passing. The description sounded great, but other, much more anticipated books fell into my lap and I read those first. I finally put my foot down and decided that I had to read this one before I started yet another new one. Ironically, about halfway through reading this, I was approached to read and review an ARC. It had a deadline though, so yet again, The Leaving got placed on the side. With all the drama surrounding this book, I still am not sure how I feel about it.
I know that I always complain about books that have too many character POVs because it gets confusing to me, but in this case I may have liked a few extra ones, especially considering how many characters were involved in the story. I mean six kids were taken, and we are only given the POVs of two of them (plus the missing boy’s sister). I liked the flow of the story, the twists in the development of what happened. And I am fairly content with the conclusion, for the most part. So why am I having such a hard time writing about it?
I know that the writing style of this particular author was different than what I am used to. It was almost a verse-type of writing, with a lot of spacing, slash marks (to represent “clicks”) and other random markings. I have never read any of her other books, so I was not expecting it. I suppose that could have confused my overall feelings about the book, acting as a distraction from the story rather than adding to it. Look, I know that a lot of people enjoy that little extra. They find it interesting and might feel like it really adds another element to the story, but I think that for me, it would have been better without them.
Regardless of the little interruptions throughout the process of actually completing The Leaving, I found the story to be unique and interesting. I liked that it was different from other abductions, and that the kids really helped to figure out exactly what happened, because lets face it, a lot of times when kids are involved, their opinions and ideas often get pushed to the side and/or ignored. I think that those facts helped compensate for the other distractions, to the point where I can say I did actually enjoy this book. I may even look into other books by this author in the future.
Sorry for the shortish post this time, like I said, I almost didn’t even write one! What are your thoughts? Have you read The Leaving? Have you read other books by Tara Altebrando? Lets chat in the comments!
On Deck:
All’s Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson 
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 
Warcross by Marie Lu 
