I didn't really enjoy the multiple POVs and realise I have outgrown the "coming of age" genre/trope. Both things combined made me just a little confused and kept me from becoming invested in the story.

We Can Never Leave is a YA fantasy horror told from multiple limited third person POVs. There's magic and a hint of first love romance. The characters are interesting. Hugo was especially well done, and I looked forward to his chapters most. The LGBTQIA representation was mostly done well, though it was heavy-handed, and there's an entire chapter based on deciding which bathroom to use that I felt was really unnecessary. I wish Bird was more likeable, but their treatment of everyone in this book was cruel. They have so many damaged relationships that they don't even attempt to heal.
The narrative style of this novel is a bit experimental in that it chooses one character of the limited third person POVs to also feature an interjection from an omniscient narrator who deliberately and directly tells the reader that they are withholding information. This is problematic because it instantly reveals too much in the refusal to share details about that character's reliability. It is much more off-putting than simply leaving a detail out of the narrative, and I do not think it was effective as perhaps intended.
Further, the cult allegory was not cult coded, it was equally heavy-handed, practically screaming THIS IS A RELIGIOUS CULT all caps, no cap.
The situations in this story are dark. There's a weird form of cannibalism, lots of child abuse, and violence. I wouldn't recommend this to readers under maybe 15.
Overall, the I felt interested in the characters and their outcomes, but the narration style was often too obvious to the detriment of the storytelling.
Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC!

H.E. Edgmon is becoming an auto-read author for me.
This book will leave a mark. The characters are complicated and messy. And they live in a messed up place. The twist at the end was exquisitely done. It was subtle until it wasn’t and then it made me gasp in shock.

Five teenagers who aren't human suddenly find themselves completely alone. A person who tried and failed to be human, a pair of brothers in the most toxic, codependent relationship ever, a venomous girl, and a boy-shaped shadow have lived in The Caravan for varying lengths of time. Some, like Bird, Hugo, and Felix, have lived their entire lives in the Caravan. Other came more recently, like mysterious Amon who just showed up a few months ago. The Caravan is a traveling home for misfits, those who can't live in the human world, and they do magic. Often deeply messed up magic, but don't worry about that. When the five teens wake up and everyone is gone, they set off on the world's worst roadtrip across the country to find a new safe place, but something is much more wrong than any of them can realize.
I have some mixed feelings about the writing style. I still can't decide if I liked or disliked the smarmy narrator who occasionally came in to hold the reader's hand. I liked the little asides, typically, just not the hand-holding. I also liked the dynamic between the characters. They were all so messy. Amon was my favorite character. If the whole book had been from his point of view, I would have been pleased, it just wouldn't have been the same book. This was a good book for the most part.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press | Wednesday Books for the ARC copy they provided.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book in time to leave a review before the publication date, and though a review after publication is no less welcome or useful, I feel I do not have the time or space to give this book the attention it deserves.

Though I did not manage to finish We Can Never Leave before its publication, I look forward to reading it at my leisure some time in the future.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

DNF'd at 53%!
I had to rely on the audiobook narrated by Vico Ortiz for my brain to at least focus on what was happening in this book. This is a young adult queer contemporary fantasy standalone following teens with nonhuman features and abilities who were abandoned by the adults in their Caravan (aka cult). The writing style was not for me (purple prose-y for atmosphere but left me confused on substance) but the characters were somewhat interesting. I kept reading, but still left with more wanting on where it was all going. Definitely more vibes than plot; while I like a vibe-y book, I need more plot than what the book was offering. My attention can only hold for a character study novel for so long before I get too bored. If any of y'all are fans of Sweet Tooth and The Raven Boys, then maybe check this out.

Macabre. This books touches on some intense themes I didn't expect, but I highly enjoyed it. The main characters all have their own traumas and the sinister vibes persist throughout the book. Also, if you love an unreliable narrator, you might enjoy this. My only complaint is I wish it was a bit longer, because I wish the ending wasn't as confusing as it was for me, but maybe this is just the kind of book you need multiple reads to fully comprehend the storyline. Would recommend if you like dark themes and mysterious plotlines!

I'm SHAKING. This story horrified in me in the best and worst way possible. I feel so devastated by the turn of events. All of the characters in here captivated me to no end. Bird and Hugo's love story, Eamon's honesty and naivety, Cal's sarcasm and wit, Felix's not-so-innocent innocence. They were all so fully fleshed out and every other chapter sent me reeling as new information was revealed. I want a sequel. I want a confusing indie movie. I want more from this author and their characters.

DNF @ 12%

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. Usually, I can power through books and finish them but there are too many other books I want to read to spend time reading a book I just cannot get into. The blurb seemed interesting but the book feels all over the place so far.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Their denial is almost infectious. He knows they cannot see their world is drowning, because they don't want to. They believe everything is okay, and so it must be."


We Can Never Leave was wild, weird, and unique. In this, you will meet Cal, Eamon, Bird, Hugo, and Felix. They were either born into the Caravan lifestyle or found and brought in. You could leave on your own, or there might be other ways to go as well.

Now the Caravan definitely gives off cult vibes throughout the book. As to what kind of cult, well, that's where the mystery lies. Either way, one day these five kids wake up and find everyone has disappeared. Which is definitely weird and they freak out. Together, they are a hot mess and try to kill each other with words and such... many times.

There was also so much tension between them. Heck, at one point I stopped trying to figure out who was sexually attracted to whom. Mostly because it just seemed like everyone liked everyone in some kind of way. Other than that, I still had so many questions that needed to be answered. For example, where is everyone? Why aren't their cellphones working? Why are non-human things whispering to them? And what am I exactly missing here?

That last one was important because it felt like I wasn't getting the whole picture until the very end of the book. Which, yes, that twist was amazing and I'm annoyed with myself for not figuring it out before the big reveal. Sure, the drama between everyone in this travelling group was annoying. It was just constant and nothing seemed to get resolved.

In the end, one can only hope that certain people ran away from a certain person. That's it.

CW: misgendering, child death (recounted), cannibalism (recounted), alcoholism, panic attack, fire, blood, murder (recounted), child abuse, kidnapping

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Five teens living in a mysterious traveling community wake up one morning to discover they've been left behind. Each having their own secrets to hide, the group has no choice but to travel to the community's permanent settlement in Oregon as they try to investigate what happened to their community.

This is the second book I've read from Edgmon, and I will admit that I did had a hard time trying to decide what to rate this book.

While using the Caravan as an allegory for living in an actual cult, I was confused over some aspects of Edgmon's world-building and especially with understanding what members of the Caravan are supposed to be. The most I was able to get out of the text is that they're some sort of half-human, half-whatever-creature-they-have hybrid. At the same time, Edgmon's poetic prose and innate character development really drives home the themes of We Can Never Leave about how growing up in these extremely isolated communities can ultimately set young people up for failure outside of that community and how as a result of they can never truly leave that community. However, the ending ultimately led me to give this book four stars since it was so shocking and so poignant that I think it was the right ending to this book's story.

It's hard giving a recommendation of who would really enjoy this kind of book and I think it's one of those books where you have to read it in order to decide if you're the type of reader for this book. Though, you might not like this book if you're not a fan of fantasy novels with vague/unclear world-building and if you poetic prose to be distracting for a fantasy novel.

The raven boys comparison is, shall we say, aspirational. The tenses and POVs change so many times without seeming reason and I found it difficult to figure out who was talking, or why, or if I should care. This book is bleak, and dark, and depressing. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I don't think that's accurately conveyed by the blurb. I need to go reread the raven boys.

Every day all across the world inhuman creatures are waking up with no memory of who they are and where they came from ————
And the caravan exists to help them.

One morning, five teenage travellers wake up to find their community has disappeared overnight .

Doesn’t this sound like an interesting read? I found it a really fun read. I hadn’t read ya fantasy for awhile and it didn’t disappoint.

I DNFed this at 23%.

There was so much purple prose that honestly made the narrative feel so convoluted and hard to follow. The tenses and POVs kept changing between chapters, making it hard to feel grounded in the book. And the MCs were all just cruel to each other for what felt like the sake of being cruel. I couldn't get into this, unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

- WE CAN NEVER LEAVE is a beautiful and painful exploration of trying to figure out what home means after a traumatic upbringing.
- I loved the setting of this book, moving around the western half of the country in a van with people you love and hate in equal measure.
- This is very much a character driven novel, and there are long stretches where not much happens plot-wise. But if you love messy characters in thorny situations, this is definitely one to look into.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

We Can Never Leave follows five teens who wake up one day to find that their beloved community of inhuman creatures, called the Caravan, has vanished.

The biggest strength of this book is its intriguing premise, the mystery of the Caravan, and while the book does ultimately provide some information and some answers, I found myself still hungry for more by the end. The multifaceted crew of five teenagers were compelling enough to read from, and the twisty mystery of what happened -- both in terms of what happened and the often nonlinear storytelling -- has all the appeal of putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle. Edgmon's writing is, as always, absolutely gorgeous, but ultimately keeping grasp of all the different threads of the story often kept me from feeling like I could really sink into this book the way I wanted to.

Although I found the twistiness of this book occasionally too twisty, ultimately I think this was an incredibly intriguing idea, and I'd certainly pick up another book in this world or with these characters.

“Haunting” is a good word to describe this book. This is the story of five people who are members of a traveling cult. The timeline is broken into three different sections: before, what happens just as the story begins, and what’s happening in the present.

The cult collects people, usually children, who have magical ability and/or unique physical traits. At first, I wondered if the layers of magic and the splintered timeline would keep the experience of growing up in a cult more distant. In some ways, especially early in the story as we’re getting oriented to what’s going on, it does. In other ways, it purposely keeps us in a fog (not unlike the cult members themselves), making the moment we emerge from that fog pack a powerful punch.

The only other young adult novel I’ve read about cult experience that I can think of at the moment is The Project by Courtney Summers. They’re very different stories, but I think both emphasize that dizzying feeling that must come with constant gaslighting and deep information control. What’s true? What’s real? Why is this really happening?

In addition to the three separate timelines, the story also alternates perspective. We get chapters from the points of view of all five main characters. It’s up to us to piece together what each one knows and figure out what’s going on and who poses the greatest threat.

I want to say I enjoyed the book, but I’m not sure enjoyed is the right word? Like, I couldn’t stop thinking about it anytime I stopped reading. But it’s kind of meant to be disturbing. Not in a give-you-nightmares way, but in a let’s-think-about-the-harm/trauma-cults-cause kind of way.

People who enjoy dark realistic fantasy and books that give you an idea to pick apart will find lots to think about here.

How far would you go to figure out how you ended up without anyone? As these teens try to figure out what happened on that fateful day, we learn about the many insecurities and questions they have about their identities. From the descriptions provided on each character, I tried to picture what they looked like, but didn't quite manage to. However, I think that helped me enjoy the story a lot more, as I wasn't entirely sure how they presented themselves to others. Towards the end, things get intense, and the teens open up to each other.

Thanks to the Publisher and Net Galley for the eARC!

A group of kids living in a caravan wakes up and finds their family gone and no idea where they've gone. The group of five have to work together to find out what happened to their family. The story could be confusing at times, but as long as you keep with it it's worth the read. You can't help but feel for the kids and their having to figure out their place in this world when they'd been somewhat protected by the caravan.

We Can Never Leave was such an intriguing read, from the different POVs, to the immediate tension and questions that you have from the very start of the book. The writing draws you in but the story and the characters keep you stuck in the pages wanting more. I loved that there was a bit of a magical, nostalgic feel to it and the characters were each so unique that i absolutely loved reaching into their POVs everytime to try to figure out what they really thought of a situation. It was a wild ride from start to finish and I loved every moment