The Leaving by Tara Altebrando is a book filled with mystery on each page, that will keep whoever is reading it curious. The book takes place eleven years after six children were kidnapped at the age of five. Only five of the remaining teeagers are dropped off at a park with nothing but maps to their homes and no memory of what happened. The sixth teenager, Max, is the one who has not come home and his sister Avery wants to find out why. There are also two other main protagonists which include Scarlett and Lucas. The other victims are Sarah, Kristen, and Adam but the book revolves a lot more around Scarlett and Lucas. I think this is because Scarlett and Lucas feel a chemistry so their viewpoints are shared more thoroughly. To make things even more weird, Scarlett’s mom is also convinced that they were abducted by aliens.
My favourite character of The Leaving is Max’s sister Avery. I think this is because if teenage girls read this book, they could imagine themselves as her. Readers might put themselves in her spot. Girls might understand the book more. They can also relate to Avery’s boy issues or her emotions of losing her brother Max. Avery added to the story line and was a character that kept curiosity alive.
The main issue of the story is trying to figure out who and why the six kids were taken. These five kids appear out of nowhere with no memory of the last eleven years. The families are shocked and confused. No one knows what happened. I believe that Scarlett had trust issues and the book focus a lot on her and Lucas finding ways to trust each other.
I would recommend this book to someone who is good at understanding complicated situations. I liked this book for the first half, but then it got really confusing. The layout of the book was very interesting, but it was easy to get confused and not know what was happening in the plot. The plotline was fairly interesting but I feel like you should only read this book if you pay close attention, otherwise you can get distracted easily or forget what's happening.