Gayle Forman is known for her Young Adult fiction and I’m a big fan. If I Stay in particular is one of my favorites of hers, but I’ve read pretty much everything she’s written. So I was very excited to get her first foray into Adult fiction at BEA back in May.

The plot itself is pretty straightforward – overworked mother (Maribeth) has a heart attack. That mother gets more overwhelmed through lack of help from family, then runs off to try to figure out her life. When she runs off she leaves her husband and children behind without any word.

So the plot itself is straightforward but my feelings about the book are so conflicted! Overall I just want to say meh…because I enjoy complex characters and Maribeth certainly was complex. I always appreciate a character that isn’t flat or even one note. And while I didn’t agree with all of her actions, that doesn’t mean that I can’t like the book.

But I just didn’t understand some of the things Maribeth did. Some of her actions are incredibly selfish, but that didn’t bother me at all – even mothers are allowed to be selfish occasionally. Even with that I didn’t understand some of the motivations behind them, or the husband’s reactions to them – which is what left me with the meh reaction. I had sympathy to Maibeth’s situation but she comes off as almost flippant with her uncaring attitude in some parts of the book.

The ending didn’t really work for me, it felt pretty rushed and almost too perfect for the rest of the book. I’m still looking forward to more from this author but, for me, this one was just okay.

Rating: 3 stars

Reviewer: Melinda

Title: Leave Me

Authors: Gayle Forman

Release Date: September 6, 2016

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