2 1/2 starts but I'm rounding up here.

This book was interesting. The premise was very unique first off. You’ve got these kids that are part of this caravan. They all seem part animal in addition to having some kind of magic. One morning they wake up and seemingly the entire caravan is missing and only 5 of these kids are left together. That’s the premise which was very promising. So let me tackle the issues I had with this book one part at a time.

First off the writing. This author tries so hard with every character to be witty and full of teenage angst that every character came across as entirely too similar. I struggled to distinguishing the different voices. It also became incredibly repetitive. I kept waiting for us to get to the actual issue of the missing caravan, but instead we spent chapters upon chapters (in fact, 90% of the book) on the issues these kids had with their lives and with each other. Not exactly the book I thought I was going to get. Also, randomly in like chapter 8, the author decides to break the fourth wall. It made zero sense, felt random and out of nowhere, and didn’t really help the story along. It also wasn’t consistent. It only seemed to happen during one particular characters point of view, but not every time.

I’ve seen other reviews that complained about the jumping of the timelines. That did not bother me at all, in fact, I quite enjoyed that because it gave a lot of information but slowly over the course of the book. It also was very clear the timeframe we were in. I think that part was done really well.

The story itself doesn’t seem very well worked out yet. There’s a lot of plot holes, a lot of confusing things about how everything kind of works, but I’m giving the author the benefit of the doubt with that because this is obviously meant to be a series if not at least have a sequel. And hopefully the author will clear up a lot of these things in the next book. The way this is written, though, feels like, at the very least, the next book should already be written. This does not seem like a completed story by any means.

The characters overall are pretty likable. They do get kind of annoying, but that is due to the repetitive writing of their complaining and whining and anger. I like the complexity of all the relationships, but I don’t think they were explored or fleshed out enough.

There is obviously a lot of trauma that all of these characters have been through and are dealing with. I really commend the author for wanting to create a story revolving around that and how they deal with it. Unfortunately, though this wasn’t really done. A lot of trauma was pointed out and brought to the surface. None of it was dealt with . None of it. So instead, all he was doing was creating the trauma for no reason that was in this book.

Again, very obviously meant to be at least a sequel, if not a series and hopefully the author will address all of this and future books but for this book as a standalone, it just was not enough. I really finished reading this book feeling disappointed and underwhelmed and even slightly irritated.

***Thank you NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and H.E. Edgmon for an advanced copy and exchange for an honest review.***

DNF @37%, i think this is going to be a soft dnf cus i plan to come back to it but i just have no idea what's going on right now.

Thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for the chance to read this book

First of all let me start by saying this is no where near my normal genre of a book to read, I have NO IDEA How or why, or what made me click on this book to read from Netgalley But i can not put into words how happy I am that I did!!! I am not even going to try to say I understood everything this book had to offer, I feel like this book is how they described Shrek with his Oniony layers!

Looking at the reviews on here, Did I read the same book everyone else did!? I don't even begin to understand, how are there so many bad reviews on this book???!!!

"They sat there beneath the stars, ribcages pressed at the seam as if they came together to make a single spine of a book."

ARE YOU GUYS KIDDING ME !?!?!! This book is SO beautifully written, It's almost as the whole book rolls of the tongue like the melody of someone singing a song, I understand the back and forth might have thrown some people off but come on people! & The way Felix kept pausing the book to address us was so Hilarious! I loved every second of this book! I started it, was completely hooked in Chapter one and DID NOT put it down until i was done ingesting every beautiful sentence, I have no idea how this author caught my attention so much better than any teacher I've ever had in my entire life, But I would have passed this class with flying colors!

Incase you didn't get it I ABSOLUTELY ADORED EVERY CHAPTER OF THIS BEATIFULLY WRITTEN BOOK!!!!! I will be looking out for everything this beautiful Soul writes for now on!!! Thank you so much for this, It was truly a pleasure to read!

This work was saturated with purple prose, using so many words to say so little. The number of similes per page was just absurd. A few of the samples of this kind of writing include "somnolent limbo in dappled specters," eyes of "shadowed ichor." the "tectonic strength of his pounding heart," "forcing his tone to wear a mask of condescension even while his heart forgets the choreography of his pulse" - and all of this was within the first few pages of the first chapter. I also disliked how the fourth wall was constantly broken in one POV in ways that felt like spoon-feeding the reader or belaboring points.

The work changes POVs frequently among the characters who were left alone in their camp. According to what we're told, the characters were part of an insular community together and had known each other for awhile. However, it came across more as if they barely knew one another and decided they instantly hated each other, with one of the characters constantly bullying for no apparent reason. This resulted in a lot of interpersonal drama that did nothing to move the plot or build the characters, and just got tiresome. There's no real plot, the characters aren't developed beyond quirky appearances, and the parameters of this world weren't really explained, leaving nothing for me to connect with or like about this one.

The premise of this one was interesting, which is why I picked this up. But I honestly can't recommend this at all. I'm a bit of an outlier here, so if the premise sounds good to this one don't take my word for it. My thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

QOTD What do you eat for breakfast on a weekend day?
I just finished We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon and here are my musings.

There's a world between worlds.. A Caravan of inhumans looking for others… They awoke in the world with no memories.

5 teens wake one morning to find the caravan of their people has disappeared. The 5 of them have to work together to uncover the mystery before something terrible happens to them too.


Wow… Just wow. I kind of just sat for a moment and felt all the feels when I was done. If you read my reviews then you know I am not a fan of slow moving books. This one had teeth so the speed actually wasn’t a negative. The teens did a lot of fighting and that was a tad irritating. A lot of really cool things happen and they kind of spoil it haha.

I could have done with less POVs, it was a tad messy but I see what the author was trying to do. The writing was quite excellent and I was pretty much sucked in.

Read if you like

Queer rep
YA
Contemporary fantasy
Unreliable narrators

It's a rich and complex story with some excellent twists. Lots of secrets, a great mystery and an entertaining read.

It was hard to give a rating for but I think its a solid 3.75

Thank you to @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for my gifted copy.

Out now

#wecanneverleave #yahorror #yafantasy #lgbtq #lgbtqrep #pridemonth #HEedgmon #netgalley #kindlereader #bookinfluencer #booklover #litdulterous # bookalorian #readersofig #readersofacebook #bookloversofig #wednesdaybooks

4.25

I had no idea what to expect from the book going in and it was such an intriguing and gripping read- from the first page! it’s an ode to queer kids and kids in abusive situations through a supernatural cult. it’s suspenseful and gripping and emotional and painful and partway to healing. the kids of this story are messy and flawed but so sympathetic, and it’s exquisitely difficult to tease out the truth from all of their unreliable narrations.

I could have had the story go on a bit longer to really tease out the implications of the ending for all the characters, but I’m also not mad about where we were left.

Bold and genre-bending, this book was raw, fierce, and electric. Edgmon writes with purpose and passion, and while the pacing was uneven, the voice and vision were undeniable. An intense ride that challenges and expands YA fantasy.

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion

This book will leave you thinking about it long after you’re done reading, but in the best way. It will leave you with questions that will make you want answers and at the same time you may not want to know the answers. I loved the creepy setting and the vibes that you will get throughout the book, I enjoyed that the Caravan had some cultish vibes but at the same time I can understand not wanting normal people into their lives and you will too once you realize that these characters are half human/half animal traits.

I love Edgmon's writing style so much, it’s eerie yet beautiful at the same time. I love that this author knows how to grab a reader and keep them engaged throughout the book and not just with the plotline but with the characters as well. This book is told in multiple POVs, and it will give you a chance to know the characters. Be warned not all of them you will like, and you will find yourself questioning if any of them are likable, but I found beauty in all of them. The flashbacks of each character will slowly start to show you more and more interesting facts about the things the teens are trying to hide and that ending…. Like I wasn’t expecting that and at the same time I don’t know how I feel about the ending… I feel as though there should be a little more, but I can also understand why it ended the way that it did. It still has that unknown vibe to it. Lol.

What I loved the most about this book was that it’s a fantasy/Sci-fi that has complex characters, a lot of secrets, topics like messy relationships, past traumas/dramas and learning to understand where you fit into the world. I can’t wait to read what Edgmon writes next.

I want to thank NetGalley and SMP for the opportunity to review this book.

Aaaaaaaaa HE Edgmon has done it again, leaving me with taking those last few minutes to finish the book (because at that point, I could not stop) while neglecting other adulting...

One morning, after the bonfire celebration of that month's new moon, five older teens awaken to find themselves completely alone. All the adults in their Caravan (which is wonderfully not just a wink nudge at segregated religious allegories but an open stare) are just... gone. And so, they set out to try and find one other community they know about, several states away... and maybe find some answers, or maybe even more questions, along the way. In short! Though that two-sentence descriptor doesn't touch on what's great about this book, which starts and ends with the writing-- the sort of clear yet semi-prosey descriptors and dialogue that put you as a reader right into the thick of things. Even in a story full of comparisons and allegory, sometimes the narration was again quite open and pointed about it but it was framed in such a way that honestly I loved it, it didn't feel like an author not trusting a reader and pointing something out to them. I liked that we didn't get the full breadth of what was fully going on in the Caravan -- because none of our quintet did, either. Somehow, the mystery of it appealed to me more than if everything had been laid out and bare. Each character was complex in a way that as human nature dictates we may want to root for someone or other at various times, but should we? And on the other hand, why shouldn't we? Lots to think about, lots to enjoy.

Thank you to St Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the widget eARC and to RBMedia/Recorded Books for the ALC, I loved this.

This is a ya queer mystery that tried to do too much but couldn’t do it all. I was really intrigued in the beginning and wanted to know more about why everyone disappeared and the life of these children in the caravan. But it quickly turned confusing as the book had quick chapters that changed pov and time period almost every chapter. This created a disconnect as I couldn’t easily get into a character’s head and follow their feelings and mind set as they try to solve this mystery. There was also a narrator that interrupted every so often and when they would pop up it really took me out of the story. By then end I was left with more questions that answers.

I am offering my honest opinion about this book.

I have read from this author before, and I like the writing style and world-building. However, this book had me lost a few times; I couldn't keep up with which point of view I was reading from, causing me to constantly re-read passages to find my bearings. This made my reading experience taxing; I kept putting it down because I would become frustrated.

The ending was an unexpected tearjerker; the last few chapters were where I was fully engaged and invested in the outcome. I think I will try to re-read this book and see if I still feel the same.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books, and H.E. Edgmon for the advance reader's copy of this book.

Edgmon is quickly becoming a go-to author for my queer fantasy fix.

In this book, 5 traumatized magical teens, raised in a cult that caravans across the country, wake up to find everyone has vanished. They reluctantly need to work together to find answers. Told in 3rd person multi-POV with 4th wall breaks from the narrator, it dives deep into the impact of trauma. And while the world itself is queernormative, there's no missing the direct connection to religious trauma invoked on queer youth in the real world.

All 5 characters are flawed and often unlikeable, making choices impulsively and struggling with self-acceptance. Bird, who just returned to the caravan after living 3 years in the "normal" world with their father, found that they couldn't fit in in even the simplest ways. Hugo and his little brother, Felix, are part deer/part human, so have no chance passing in public. Hugo's heart was broken when Bird left, and is coping with that abandonment and the demons of what his parents have made him do in the name of the cult. Felix lives in a fantasy world, trying to manefest goodness to help him make sense of the world. Cal was both raised by and feared by the cult, never allowed to get close to anyone. And Eamon was brought into the caravan only a few weeks ago, with no memory of his past life.

This rag-tag crew of found family come together slowly as they travel across the country, looking for answers and learning that the caravan wasn't always truthful.

I received this ARC from publisher @stmartinspress through @netgalley. The opinions are my own.

We Can Never Leave was just released on June 10, 2025 and is available at booksellers now.

I can’t remember the last time I was so happy to give a book a chance when it didn’t seem like my usual genre. This book will stay with me for a long time. I love the deeply flawed characters in all their messy dispositions and the suspense built through multiple POVs with questionable reliability. Even sections of the story where the narrator pauses to speak directly to the reader – an ambitious technique that I would not normally enjoy – are executed well. I highly recommend this.

Five teens, abandoned. Their parents and guardians, vanished. To find the adults, the mysterious members of the Caravan, they must delve into themselves and their pasts to understand where they came from - and where they are going.

I have never been especially drawn to magical realism. I find it often features language that leans a bit further on the poetic spectrum than I prefer with situations that, when presented inconcretely, leave me floundering to follow the plot. Unfortunately, this book definitely features both of those aspects. I found the language beautiful, but ultimately a bit opaque. While the focus on the characters' past was interesting to me, the present situations felt insubstantial.
While I enjoyed the diversity of the characters' backstories, personalities, and sexualities, I didn't find any of them drawing me in. I never really found a "favorite" to root for.
I deeply respect Edgmon's motives in writing this book, to process religious trauma and to offer a life raft to those who might need one. Luckily, I am not one of those people. Unluckily, that meant I didn't feel much connection to the story or the format in which it was told.

We Can Never Leave is an inventive, explorative, dark character study that was not for me.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Filled with descriptive prose and flawed but heartfelt characters, this book will suck you in and truly keep you guessing until the very end. Although the fantasy aspects of these characters is non-human, their stories, traumas, and vulnerabilities still resonant as deeply human.

I enjoyed the slow build of this one and the multiple POVs and timelines, but I will admit it became difficult to follow the narrative at times. If you do not like books with multiple POVs or timelines, then this may not be the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Caravan exists to help the inhuman creatures who wake up with no memory. They are a travelling community giving a home to those that might not have one. But one morning, five teenagers find that everyone around them disappeared. They have to piece together what happened and hopefully how to fix it. Is it something that happened to their community? If so, why? They try to solve the mystery of the caravan’s disappearance. They must also navigate fraught relationships and the fallout of uncovering the community’s darkest truths—all while being hunted by a horrific entity.

The author has wriitten to solve the mystery of the caravan’s disappearance. I liked the five teenagers POVs in the novel. Alternating POVs are interspersed with occasional cryptic, unaddressed messages and flashbacks from before the vanishing. Depictions of the ripple effects of people’s choices on their community’s most vulnerable members are at the core of this captivating story.

Well, fuck. That was a wild ride.

Edgmon did not pull any punches this time, holy shit. If you're reading this review and trying to decide whether or not to read it - you should. It's these young not so human adults who are not only living in the Caravan (cult), but they have powers they don't understand, and they sorta hate one another but end up getting stuck going on this trip because their families went missing.

I read this book on ebook and audiobook and both are great experiences, but the narrator in the audiobook does a fantastic job and makes it way more horror adjacent and so much more creepier.

None of the characters are very likable, but as the story progresses and you're learning more, you're kinda getting it? Like they have trauma, they just want to be normal kids with a normal life, and theyre basically kids.

Edgmon is such a fantastic storyteller. If you have any religious trauma this may be hard OR it could be healing. It was healing for me at least. 10/10 stars.

I think the only downfall of this book was me being mostly confused by some things being told but I think once you finished it you get to understand more.

Thank you to the publisher and to NG for gifting me a copy for review. I have already purchased a physical copy ☀️

“This is a book about haunted houses, except the houses are bodies and the hauntings are the lies children tell and are told…This is not a book about an exorcism, because these houses cannot be saved by anything short of burning to the ground.”

I absolutely loved this book! It follows five teenagers who are part of the Caravan (basically a cult) and wake up one day to find that everyone else has disappeared. They have to work together to find their people while also navigating their own secrets and traumas.

I was a little hesitant at first because the writing style was unlike anything I’d read before, but I soon loved it, especially the moments of breaking the fourth wall when the narrator addressed the reader directly. The mystery around the Caravan and what happened was fascinating; the characters, though often unlikable and frustrating, felt real and raw; and the plot twists were both devastating and beautifully done. This book introduces a lot of questions, many of which go unanswered, but that honestly didn’t bother me, as getting all of the answers wasn’t the point, but rather how all of these elements have played a role in shaping who the characters are and why they do what they do. If there was a sequel that explored these lingering questions, though, I wouldn’t complain.

I greatly enjoyed H.E. Edgmon’s other books and this one didn’t disappoint. I don’t think this book is for everyone, but I highly recommend it if you enjoy unique writing styles, magical realism, deeply flawed and intricate characters, and books that stick around with you long after you finish them.

We can Never Leave

Five teenagers are part of a “caravan”. One day they wake up and no one else is there. Just the 5. These are all inhuman creatures by the way. They either have part animal features or some special magic. I was very confused with this book. The description made it sound like it was about hardships of being queer youth. Well, I didn’t see that at all, went over my head I guess. There’s a mystery which one sorta can guess and it’s alright. There’s some love, family aspects, but can’t say I enjoyed this one much.. There were parts of this book I simply did not understand 💁🏻‍♀️