Take a photo of a barcode or cover
jodiwilldare 's review for:
The Leavers
by Lisa Ko
When eleven-year-old Deming Guo’s mom never returns from her job at a nail salon, he’s quickly shuffled into the foster care system. Poor orphaned Deming is shuffled around a bit before landing at the upstate New York home of a couple of college professors who rename him Daniel and eventually adopt him. The book follows Deming after he’s been kicked out of college while he bums around NYC and tries to unravel the mystery of his mother, which he eventually does. This one about illegal immigration, adoption, and abandonment, suffers by comparison to Lucky Boy, which deals with the same subject matter. Deming is a puzzling character and his lack of motivation to do anything feels suffocating. Polly, his mother, doesn’t feel like an actual person and the reason for their separation just feels contrived. This one was only okay.