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1madchild's review against another edition
3.0
3.5.
that got good… i think.
only thing that really bothers me is Reyko could have been dealt with better.
and seriously shouldn’t Flynn have been charged with breaking and entering? common.
that got good… i think.
only thing that really bothers me is Reyko could have been dealt with better.
and seriously shouldn’t Flynn have been charged with breaking and entering? common.
aelong1399's review against another edition
4.0
I was going to rate this as 3 stars, but honestly, the last chapter before the epilogue is what brought it up.
hiveretcafe's review
4.0
This review was originally posted on my blog, Hiver et Café
I received an advanced copy through a giveaway. This does not affect my opinion whatsoever.
I'm kind of mad that it took me this long to read this. I'm just easily distractable okay?
Last Seen Leaving is the tale of Flynn, searching for the answers to his ex girlfriend's disappearance. The police had shown up at his doorstep with the news that January had gone missing. While he manages to convince the police of his innocence, Flynn is still searching for answers and finds that the stories told by various people in January's life did not add up. As he uncovers the truth of his ex girlfriend's circumstances and life, he is also grappling with his own sexuality and coming to terms with being gay.
Let me tell you. This book gave me straight up Gone Girl vibes. I was reading through Last Seen Leaving and perhaps I've been traumatized by Gone Girl and I didn't necessarily know whether to trust if January was truly dead or simply disappeared of her own volition. I mean. There's the incongruent stories told by the people in her life, the lack of the victim's body, the misrepresentation of Flynn to the various people in January's life. But anyways, no book has made my heart pound like this in a while. I had to start and stop the book multiple times because I could not deal with the Things that were happening. Truly a thriller.
Last Seen Leaving was a little predictable at points, but it was still a thrilling story. Caleb Roehrig's writing was really enjoyable and was a joy to read. I wasn't entirely engrossed into the world, simply because I find that is my own nature when I'm consuming thriller stories. I also find myself skim reading a lot, so really it's my own fault.
I have been told that Roehrig's next book is going to be amazing and I can't wait to read it! Hopefully it won't take me a million years to pick that one up either.
I received an advanced copy through a giveaway. This does not affect my opinion whatsoever.
I'm kind of mad that it took me this long to read this. I'm just easily distractable okay?
Last Seen Leaving is the tale of Flynn, searching for the answers to his ex girlfriend's disappearance. The police had shown up at his doorstep with the news that January had gone missing. While he manages to convince the police of his innocence, Flynn is still searching for answers and finds that the stories told by various people in January's life did not add up. As he uncovers the truth of his ex girlfriend's circumstances and life, he is also grappling with his own sexuality and coming to terms with being gay.
Let me tell you. This book gave me straight up Gone Girl vibes. I was reading through Last Seen Leaving and perhaps I've been traumatized by Gone Girl and I didn't necessarily know whether to trust if January was truly dead or simply disappeared of her own volition. I mean. There's the incongruent stories told by the people in her life, the lack of the victim's body, the misrepresentation of Flynn to the various people in January's life. But anyways, no book has made my heart pound like this in a while. I had to start and stop the book multiple times because I could not deal with the Things that were happening. Truly a thriller.
Last Seen Leaving was a little predictable at points, but it was still a thrilling story. Caleb Roehrig's writing was really enjoyable and was a joy to read. I wasn't entirely engrossed into the world, simply because I find that is my own nature when I'm consuming thriller stories. I also find myself skim reading a lot, so really it's my own fault.
I have been told that Roehrig's next book is going to be amazing and I can't wait to read it! Hopefully it won't take me a million years to pick that one up either.
deedralapray's review against another edition
4.0
This one was so hard to rate. There are parts of this novel that I'd like to give a 5, and then there are parts of the novel that I wanted to give a 3. I decided to go ahead with 4, because this is one I will definitely be recommending to my high school kiddos. Let me give you the good first. I love Flynn. Wow, he won my heart. I cannot say too much about Flynn here, because it would be a definite spoiler alert. The plot itself was pretty compelling. Sure, there are some aspects I figured out along the way, but for the most part it still kept me teetering on the edge.
Now for the bad part...which actually didn't start out bad. I absolutely love a cleverly, well-written book. The first few metaphors and similes where brilliant. Many of them were brilliant. The teacher side in me wanted to share these masterpieces to inspire students. But then, they just kept coming, and coming. I never thought I would complain about this in a million years, but I felt like this book was overwritten. There, I said it. The story was told from Flynn's (a high school student) point of view, and to be frank, I don't know if I have ever meet a high school student, male or female, to use such sesquipedalian language and witty metaphors. The writing style alone made Flynn's character seem almost unrelatable, which is weird, since I adored Flynn so much.
I guess you could say I'm a little conflicted, but one thing I am not conflicted about is the fact that I will be singing this one's praises at Vidor HS!
Now for the bad part...which actually didn't start out bad. I absolutely love a cleverly, well-written book. The first few metaphors and similes where brilliant. Many of them were brilliant. The teacher side in me wanted to share these masterpieces to inspire students. But then, they just kept coming, and coming. I never thought I would complain about this in a million years, but I felt like this book was overwritten. There, I said it. The story was told from Flynn's (a high school student) point of view, and to be frank, I don't know if I have ever meet a high school student, male or female, to use such sesquipedalian language and witty metaphors. The writing style alone made Flynn's character seem almost unrelatable, which is weird, since I adored Flynn so much.
I guess you could say I'm a little conflicted, but one thing I am not conflicted about is the fact that I will be singing this one's praises at Vidor HS!
kovost's review against another edition
3.0
So as of about seventeen hours later, I don't know how to review this book without just chucking out spoilers left and right because this was one of those books. Like. I can't talk about anything really without giving something away because there were three big storylines* going on: Flynn and his issues, the mystery of January missing, and then what lead to January going missing. Talking about any of these is really, really difficult because there was a lot to it all. So I'm going to tag everything below this as one giant spoiler, even though I did try to be vague and short about it. If you still want to read on, even with the risk of something getting spoiled because you can pretty much assume things and probably be spot on, then carry on. Just don't say I didn't warn you.
• Flynn and his issues: Flynn struggles with a lot of guilt and self-loathing throughout almost the whole book because of Things that happened leading up to January's disappearance. He's not in denial, per say, but he can't accept himself either so he takes on a lot as he tries to figure out what happened to his girlfriend and keeps finding pieces of her that he didn't even know had existed. In the grand scheme of things, Flynn was a good narrator. He was amusing, did and reacted to things in a reasonable and relatable way considering his circumstances, and pretty much needed a hug the entire time. His biggest downfall, though: his very extravagant voice. When there was dialogue, it was fine but Flynn is fifteen and in his monologue, he was using words that not even an adult would use normally. His sentences would be so extravagant that I'd have to reread them. If this book had been written in third person, I wouldn't have even thought twice about it because then that's different, but his voice was too elaborate. There's just no way. Really, Flynn's separate storyline could have been a whole other book. I didn't mind it because it did intertwine with everything else, but it was a whole line of drama.
• The mystery of January missing: As her boyfriend (which I much prefer the term 'best friend' instead), Flynn gets so overwhelmed with his emotions and trying to figure out what happened to January that he, of course, ends up trying to put the pieces of everything together himself. So a lot of things come into light that Flynn didn't know because a couple weeks prior to her disappearance, January was getting distant and strange, but Flynn is so caught up in his own shit that he doesn't even realize it until it's too late. So a lot of this stems Flynn's guilt and self-loathing.
• What lead to January going missing: This is a very, very complicated and gruesome storyline. I can't tell you what it is without spoiling the entire plotline, which will inevitably take away a good portion of the mystery for you if you choose to read this book, but because it made me severely uncomfortable and it was a very sudden thing, I'm choosing to warn you and if you hate spoilers, don't read it:
All in all though, this was a good mystery, it really was. The author did that typical "put suspicious here and then turn an entire 180 and SURPRISE" and I'm pretty used to that, so I wasn't surprised but I can safely say I didn't predict it ending the way that it did. Honestly, the rating ended up with three stars instead of four because of the whole 'intricate monologue' and certain character developments. I would still recommend this to anyone that wanted to pass the time with a mystery book though, because it did keep me pretty entertained for a few hours.
Spoiler
* STORYLINES• Flynn and his issues: Flynn struggles with a lot of guilt and self-loathing throughout almost the whole book because of Things that happened leading up to January's disappearance. He's not in denial, per say, but he can't accept himself either so he takes on a lot as he tries to figure out what happened to his girlfriend and keeps finding pieces of her that he didn't even know had existed. In the grand scheme of things, Flynn was a good narrator. He was amusing, did and reacted to things in a reasonable and relatable way considering his circumstances, and pretty much needed a hug the entire time. His biggest downfall, though: his very extravagant voice. When there was dialogue, it was fine but Flynn is fifteen and in his monologue, he was using words that not even an adult would use normally. His sentences would be so extravagant that I'd have to reread them. If this book had been written in third person, I wouldn't have even thought twice about it because then that's different, but his voice was too elaborate. There's just no way.
Spoiler
Also, I think the romance between him and Kaz happened very quickly. It started happening in the middle of everything and it was almost out of place. I thought, in the end, the romance was cute, but I thought how it came to be was like a whole different book of its own.• The mystery of January missing: As her boyfriend (which I much prefer the term 'best friend' instead), Flynn gets so overwhelmed with his emotions and trying to figure out what happened to January that he, of course, ends up trying to put the pieces of everything together himself. So a lot of things come into light that Flynn didn't know because a couple weeks prior to her disappearance, January was getting distant and strange, but Flynn is so caught up in his own shit that he doesn't even realize it until it's too late. So a lot of this stems Flynn's guilt and self-loathing.
• What lead to January going missing: This is a very, very complicated and gruesome storyline. I can't tell you what it is without spoiling the entire plotline, which will inevitably take away a good portion of the mystery for you if you choose to read this book, but because it made me severely uncomfortable and it was a very sudden thing, I'm choosing to warn you and if you hate spoilers, don't read it:
Spoiler
January was raped. She was drugged and raped, and a good 90% of the book shows how she coped with the trauma but you don't find out until the end and it's a very sudden drop. If you're anything like me, this made you uncomfortable the second it happened. Leading up to this, there are derogatory slurs thrown around, very sleazy and creepy as fuck language used in both a flashback and a moment between Flynn and January's step-brother, Anson. These things can be potentially harmful to someone so PLEASE be careful picking up this book.All in all though, this was a good mystery, it really was. The author did that typical "put suspicious here and then turn an entire 180 and SURPRISE" and I'm pretty used to that, so I wasn't surprised but I can safely say I didn't predict it ending the way that it did. Honestly, the rating ended up with three stars instead of four because of the whole 'intricate monologue' and certain character developments. I would still recommend this to anyone that wanted to pass the time with a mystery book though, because it did keep me pretty entertained for a few hours.
erinld2005's review against another edition
1.0
Dnf. Sorry, this just got way too dull for me. I didn't care about any of the characters or what was happening. At all.
shewwimonster's review against another edition
3.0
I don't really know how I want to rate this.
Let's start with what I liked:
+ I really enjoyed the writing. Style in general and Flynn as a narrator in particular.
+ I don't feel like I read a lot of mystery thriller YA, so that was exciting. It was well-plotted.
+ Going back to Flynn as a narrator, he felt very real to me overall. And this definitely read like a character and a book that didn't lose sight of the fact that its main audience is teens.
What bothered me and where I'm getting hung up with rating is all spoilers, but I'm not using the tag so be warned.
+ I tried to roll with it, but the fact that Flynn is 15 and the love interest is a freshman in college skeezed me out and continues to skeeze me out. I wanted to be able to root for them, but I just couldn't get behind it. Here's where me being an adult reading YA is a problem because I know when I was a teenager it wouldn't have phased me, but here we are.
+ With the acknowledgment that I'm not in the right place at the moment for this, the abrupt inclusion of sexual assault as a major plot point did not sit right with me. I don't know why we need to keep saying this, but rape is not a plot point. And while Flynn at least reacts appropriately, that's what it was reduced to in this novel.
Let's start with what I liked:
+ I really enjoyed the writing. Style in general and Flynn as a narrator in particular.
+ I don't feel like I read a lot of mystery thriller YA, so that was exciting. It was well-plotted.
+ Going back to Flynn as a narrator, he felt very real to me overall. And this definitely read like a character and a book that didn't lose sight of the fact that its main audience is teens.
What bothered me and where I'm getting hung up with rating is all spoilers, but I'm not using the tag so be warned.
+ I tried to roll with it, but the fact that Flynn is 15 and the love interest is a freshman in college skeezed me out and continues to skeeze me out. I wanted to be able to root for them, but I just couldn't get behind it. Here's where me being an adult reading YA is a problem because I know when I was a teenager it wouldn't have phased me, but here we are.
+ With the acknowledgment that I'm not in the right place at the moment for this, the abrupt inclusion of sexual assault as a major plot point did not sit right with me. I don't know why we need to keep saying this, but rape is not a plot point. And while Flynn at least reacts appropriately, that's what it was reduced to in this novel.
katrins_kaffekranz's review against another edition
3.0
Felt a little bit like paper towns? Don't know if I like the ending tbh
mckinlay's review against another edition
3.0
it was enjoyable enough, but there's insta-love and i guessed the bad guy... and i have never guessed the bad guy. like, ever.
missgrangerr's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Pedophilia