sbelasco40 's review for:

Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

5.0

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I enjoyed this so much. If I hadn't started reading this right around when I was in the process of moving all my earthly possessions, I could have easily finished it in a few hours - it is absorbing and compelling and moves incredibly well. There are many things being balanced here, everything from a transformative story of a traumatic event and a murder mystery, along with Flynn's own story of coming to understand who he is as a person and specifically as gay. Flynn seems believably teenaged in this to me, fumbling his way through parts of the investigation, making mistakes but always passionately invested. I especially liked Flynn's friendship with Micah, which I think reflects a part of the coming out process that isn't often tackled in fiction. Overall one of my fave books of 2016.