Review on The Leavers: An SEO-Optimized Novel by Lindsay Siebert

Lisa Ko's The Graduates is my book of the month pick this month but I have to be honest I didn't pick it as one of my books Month. There were already 3 options in my box so I picked it myself when it came out. I'm glad I did because this book got me thinking, it touched my soul, and it was just a wonderful read, even amidst difficult subjects. The book begins with Deming Goh and his mother, Polly. They live with relatives in a tiny apartment in New York and life is a struggle but everything seems fine. One day Polly goes to work and doesn't come back. Deming is placed in child care, where he is adopted by a couple from a suburb of New York and given the name Daniel. Daniel is not a perfect kid, he struggles in school, he kind of floats through life and eventually becomes addicted to gambling and isolates himself from his friends. Daniel is haunted by memories of his past life. He knows he's not Daniel, it's Deming, and he knows his mother is out there somewhere, so he starts looking for her and what happened that day. The narration continues to Polly's story. This is the story of the arrival in New York of an undocumented pregnant woman left alone in the world. She's always been independent, but now she's in New York and has to work low-paying jobs to make ends meet. She must make a difficult decision to protect her son. Her life is filled with struggles and disappointments as she knows this is not the life she wants. Her narration takes us back to the day she dumped Deming for being arrested in an immigration raid and deported (no spoilers). There's a lot more going on, but I'd start to go into spoiler territory, so I'll end here. I have to write, I loved parallel lives. Both Daniel and Polly find themselves in places and situations they don't want to be in. They lose their identity and travel the world as if lost. Both have serious issues, but they are incredibly different issues. That was a great article on identity and self-discontent. I was drawn to what was written in the book and I just flew through this book. The plot doesn't slow down at all, and at times I didn't want to give up on it. It's not like there's a lot going on, but you take care of Daniel and Polly. The emotional appeal of almost resenting Polly for what she did and the disgust of loving her because she had no choice but to give up Deming was a rollercoaster ride. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's pure drama, so don't expect comedy breaks or beach reads. It's just a great book that takes time to marinate. I gave this book 5 stars.