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thetomatowriter 's review for:
Last Seen Leaving
by Caleb Roehrig
This book kept me on the edge of my seat. There was no point until the very end that I didn't have a head full of questions that I needed urgently answered. And there are some great plot twists. This book surprised me and that doesn't always happen anymore.
I thought the way the flashbacks were woven in with the present story was something that wasn't easy to pull off so naturally, but Roehrig did it. The characters were interesting because they were flawed and very real in the ways they were flawed. I also really appreciated that even though the story was about a teenage boy who had a girlfriend despite being gay, the relationship between Flynn and January was still very important as it was. Flynn was very insistent on the fact that he didn't love January the way she might have wanted, but he loved her, and there was a genuine bond there. He wasn't just using her; the whole plot is held up by how much he cares about her.
The main romance was okay. I was happy for Flynn and I wanted things to work out between them but there wasn't really anything about them in particular that stood out to me? They were kind of cute by the end of the book, but for the most part I just accepted it as a necessary part of the story that was decent but not necessarily attention grabbing.
I think if this book had one downfall it was over-narration. I think sometimes there would be an excellently crafted situation that had so much tension built up and the author would kill it by having Flynn think through every possible element of the situation. A good example of this was the last plot twist of the book. It's clear from the beginning of the chapter that we're about to find out something huge. My mind was racing. But before Flynn even got to the reveal, he had gone through fifty different possible outcomes, two of which I had guessed and once they were written out on the page, it felt a little flat. I know it's a first person novel and we're in Flynn's head, but it was frustrating because it didn't really leave any room for the readers to have their own thoughts. I think, too, Flynn's big secret isn't revealed for about four chapters, even though it's obvious what that secret is after the second chapter. I think the author couldn't have given the readers a little more credit in that regard.
Overall, though, a good suspense novel with interesting characters and GREAT twists.
I thought the way the flashbacks were woven in with the present story was something that wasn't easy to pull off so naturally, but Roehrig did it. The characters were interesting because they were flawed and very real in the ways they were flawed. I also really appreciated that even though the story was about a teenage boy who had a girlfriend despite being gay, the relationship between Flynn and January was still very important as it was. Flynn was very insistent on the fact that he didn't love January the way she might have wanted, but he loved her, and there was a genuine bond there. He wasn't just using her; the whole plot is held up by how much he cares about her.
The main romance was okay. I was happy for Flynn and I wanted things to work out between them but there wasn't really anything about them in particular that stood out to me? They were kind of cute by the end of the book, but for the most part I just accepted it as a necessary part of the story that was decent but not necessarily attention grabbing.
I think if this book had one downfall it was over-narration. I think sometimes there would be an excellently crafted situation that had so much tension built up and the author would kill it by having Flynn think through every possible element of the situation. A good example of this was the last plot twist of the book. It's clear from the beginning of the chapter that we're about to find out something huge. My mind was racing. But before Flynn even got to the reveal, he had gone through fifty different possible outcomes, two of which I had guessed and once they were written out on the page, it felt a little flat. I know it's a first person novel and we're in Flynn's head, but it was frustrating because it didn't really leave any room for the readers to have their own thoughts. I think, too, Flynn's big secret isn't revealed for about four chapters, even though it's obvious what that secret is after the second chapter. I think the author couldn't have given the readers a little more credit in that regard.
Overall, though, a good suspense novel with interesting characters and GREAT twists.