Can you imagine being gone for years only to come back and not remember anything? Five teenagers in The Leaving won’t have any trouble imagining, as that exact thing happens to them. The Leaving, written by Tara Altebrando, was published over four years ago (May 2016) but still worth the read. 

Six kindergarten students go missing without a trace. Eleven years later, five of those children return perfectly fine…except they don’t have their memories. Where have they been all this time, and what happened to the other kid? As the teenagers and their families try to piece together what happened, truths are slowly revealed and the plot takes unexpected turns that will leave the reader shocked.

Altebrando uses a unique format that will confuse the reader at first, but soon get the hang of and give them a new perspective of writing styles. She uses multiple spacing and ellipsis that indicates confusion and glimpses of memories, making it easier for the reader to tell apart the present from the past.

The Leaving  is a mystery novel with a little romance and holds many questions that makes this book difficult to put down and social distancing useful.