jenpaul13 's review for:

We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon

3.5

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Waking to find themselves all that remains of their traveling community of not-quite-humans, five teenagers work together, however begrudgingly and while trying to keep their secrets, to figure out what’s happened in H.E. Edgmon’s We Can Never Leave.  

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A traveling community, the Caravan is a haven for the inhuman creatures found across the world, often abandoned, and with no memories of who they are or where they have come from; they may not be able to return to the lives they once led or reside alongside humans, but within the Caravan they find comfort in one another and build a form of home among those who are most like and most likely to understand them. When all but five members of the Caravan mysteriously disappear overnight, questions of what happened, what to do next, and why they were left behind hound those who remain: Bird, a half-human who has returned to the Caravan after attempting to live in the human world but shined too brightly; Hugo and Felix, brothers co-dependent upon one another with the former stirring up fiery trouble while the latter calms it; Calliope, a girl who craves affection but whose inhuman abilities leaves her venomously dangerous to others; and Eamon, a new addition to the Caravan whose memories are vague suggestions and disquieting like his shadows. Though their relationships are fraught with secrets, the five come to realize that they’re bound together, and while in close quarters their secrets surface, forcing them to confront what they’ve kept hidden and, in the process, it reveals that what happened is about them. 

With a sense of mystery and magic woven throughout, a narrative builds by layering bits of the story as it’s currently developing with background from “Before” to provide deeper context for the kind of environment the Caravan is and provides as a haven, as well as the sort of beings who reside and find their way there, with both the Caravan and its people shrouded in secrets, some of which are dark and terrible. Chapters rotate through the five characters who remain from the Caravan as the story unfurls, with some additions that expand the scope, which includes a few other characters in “Before” chapters, notably Bird’s grandmother as a leader of the Caravan, and the author/narrator, who addresses the reader directly, which is intriguing but is done inconsistently and from only one character’s chapters so that it becomes incredibly suspicious, even beyond the words said, for that particular character’s involvement in the overall scenario – a fascinating premise with immense potential but the execution was lackluster. Thoroughly depicting an impression of yearning for acceptance and belonging at differing levels through the characters, each of whom is distinctly and/or visibly Other through their inhuman traits, they long for something that’s seemingly just out of their reach whether that be to fit in within the more traditional human world, attain the affection of another without traumatic complications, or simply understand their obscured origin and missing memories. Each character carries within them traumas, from first-hand experience or generationally inherited, to be confronted, and while the attitudes and behaviors they exhibit toward one another demonstrate an evident reluctance to openly discuss their secrets and burdens, perhaps for fear of the judgment they’ll face, the progress to understanding the mystery the five teenagers have found themselves in is reliant upon doing so, perhaps as a reflection of how sharing burdens with others can lessen the impact of the load you carry. 

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.