The Leaving by Tara Altebrando

The Leaving is a YA realistic fiction book. 11 years ago, six kindergartners disappeared. Suddenly, five of them come back with no memory of the past 11 years. Everyone is dumbfounded. They somewhat remember each other, but nobody remembers the sixth child, Max. He doesn't return, and everyone wants answers, especially his sister, Avery. She doesn't believe that they don't remember, and she wants her brother back- dead or alive.

The premise was very intriguing, and it is quite unusual from all the other amnesia books I've read. The suspense was strong, and I loved the huge time gap. It's captivating to watch the characters struggle to integrate back into society. I can hardly imagine how awful this would be to deal with. Sadly, instances like this really do happen all around the world.

My main concern with The Leaving is that the plot was just too flat. There wasn't a real climax or a big revelation that you would expect from a mystery book. For 432 pages, I was expecting more. This could have been a shorter book for the amount of actually crucial scenes. Its clarity was a problem, and I had to re-read a few chapters here and there to totally make sense of it.

Another flaw is that there are too many characters. Now, with books like Gone by Michael Grant, having six or more main characters was awesome! With this book, they just weren't developed or connectable. In Grant's series, all the characters were essential and irreplaceable. In The Leaving, only a few are main characters, or even good secondary characters. However, while I do have more critiques than loves, The Leaving was not bad, it was just somewhat average.

I do recommend this book, but don't get your hopes too high. Even though I did not love this book, I am interested in reading another book of the author's, The Possible.

Title: The Leaving
Author: Tara Altebrando
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Pages: 432
Series: No
Rating: 3 Stars
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