The Leaving

Today's post is on The Leaving by Tara Altebrando. It is 432 pages long and is published by Bloomsbury. The cover is a picture of a swing set with one of the swings missing. The intended reader is someone who likes mysteries, young adult novels, and unusual story telling. There is mild foul language, implied sex, and no violence in this book. The story is told from third person close of three characters moving from chapter to chapter as the story moves. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- 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.

Review- An interesting story with some very creative story telling elements. Altbrando is telling a kidnapping story but more than that she is playing with the form and way to tell stories. We get three narratives from three characters two survivors and the sister of the boy who did not come back. It is with Scarlet, one of the survivors, that Altebrando does the most with. She uses the text to help the reader understand Scarlet's narrative, like having the text go in circles with Scarlet feels her thoughts running in circles, and other things like that. I really enjoyed that and I feel that it gave her character more depth. A very enjoyable story with interesting characters.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.