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poeticbunting2024 's review for:
The Leavers
by Lisa Ko
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
*spoilers* The premise of this book is interesting and politically relevant: An undocumented immigrant carves out a life in the US with her biological son and found family, but her newfound stability is shattered when she is deported back to her hometown in China and separated from her son. I found this book to teeter on the verge of captivating for nearly the entire plot… the characters were complex and very well-crafted, but the plot was almost predictable? It seemed like the deportation was supposed to be a point of mystery and thus a surprising revelation when it is finally openly discussed, but I had guessed the mother had been deported as soon as she “disappeared” at the beginning. So that plot element lost any element of surprise. The characters are what drove me to the end of this book due to how raw their imperfections and desires were. I liked where this book ended up—ringing true with the concept of “leavers”—but I believe the plot could have been shuffled to be less ordinary. But perhaps that’s the point of this book: To lean into the pain of some immigrant Americans’ “ordinary” and explore the aftermath of when that stability is shattered.