The Leaving and other stories is a collection of nine short stories worthy of finding a place on every teenage girl's shelf. My advice for reading these stories is to read one right before closing your eyes at night. You'll find many of the stories, directly after reading, utterly pointless and stupid, but when you wake up the morning after and think back on the story you read the night before, you will feel like you have just been punched in the stomach by Muhammad Ali at the horror of those utterly pointless and stupid stories.

I read "The Metaphor" and felt as if I were wasting my time reading this book, until I woke up the next morning and thought I would puke. Many of the stories take a good night's rest or a few days for the shocking reality of these stories to sink in, while others, like "My Cousin Clarette" will make you gasp in horror moments before the final sentence.

Now I would be lying if I told you each story made you feel this way, because they don't. Or at least I didn't feel this way after each story. But the majority of the stories involve teen girls entering a stage of life where nothing is as it was and nothing seems easy anymore. Some revolve around parents, school, teachers or siblings, but each story has a girl learning a lesson no one had warned her about, or possibly one no one knew she learned. These lessons are horrific and shockingly real.

If you feel like a short and easy, yet heavy, read, pick up The Leaving and other stories by Budge Wilson.

*trivia
-Each story takes place in Nova Scotia, where Budge Wilson lives.