Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to DNF this one at 18%. While this is actually very well written, and I think the storyline is very intriguing, I just can't connect with the characters or the story between the pacing and third person point of view. I've sat down to read twice and just kept getting distracted while I'm trying to focus. I might come back to it at some point to try it again, but I'm just not sure when that would be.

I did love the multiple POVs and like I mentioned, the writing is actually very sophisticated for YA. I think the characters were all unique as well, and I really appreciated the LGBTQIA+ representation, I truly feel like we need more books like this within the book community. For this reason, I'll rate this 3 stars based on what I read, but I just don't know if I was actually the correct audience for this one at this time.

This book is complex. On one hand, it is slow and slightly vague. It is also boring at times. On the other hand, if you can make it through the boring parts, the theme of the story makes it all worthwhile. It is about friendship, love, and loss. It is about finding your true self and learning to accept yourself, faults and all. It's a deeply meaningful story, just told in a vague slow method. If a slow paced book is for you, then We Can Never Leave is a good choice.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and SimonTeen for an early copy to review!

5 inhuman teens with no remembered pasts, wake up with the rest of their community missing without a trace. They must work together to find the people who took them in, despite their differences and setbacks.

We Can Never Leave has a great premise and a really interesting hook—it’s what drew me to it in the first place. Our Fateful Five all have supernatural abilities or are part animal—both in some cases. They’re awkward and angry, moody and aggressive; some are not so subtly in love with each other. This story is very character driven and drives home the themes of relationships and growing up and shame—what it all means and how you correlate your life around all of it. I think people looking for something impactful emotionally will resonate with this one.

I do wish we got a little more backstory on the plot itself—because it relies so heavily on flashbacks and the little our characters remember in the before times, the overarching plot lags a little. I always need a juicy plot to reel me in to a story, and then good characters to keep me there. The characters are rounded and feel like real teens going through adolescence, but again, I would’ve liked a little more plot development.

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-arc! I enjoyed reading We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon. The characters are all engaging and I was left wanting to know more about them. I enjoyed getting a look into each character’s mind through the many points of view. I would say this book is majorly character driven, and that does play to its advantage. However, I think that a little more elaboration on each character could lend itself to making the overall story make a little more sense. It was hard to follow what was happening at times. The plot could feel rushed or underdeveloped — this could have been an intentional choice to play into the themes of the book and the complexities of the characters, but if so it wasn’t to my personal taste. I am a fan of H.E. Edgmon’s writing, but this was not my favorite of their books. It could’ve used thirty more pages or so to explain things further, even if most was left up to interpretation. I did like the world building and overall feeling of suspense that was created by the writing and the flashback “before” chapters. This could be a very relatable and reassuring book to many young adults with trauma. I found it to be relatable and I enjoyed the fantastical twist on how trauma affects the rest of a person’s life. Overall, I would give this book a 3/5 stars, but I would recommend it to anyone looking for something hard to swallow and easy to love.

“We Can Never Leave” is a very odd story. Several of the main characters are queer, but other than some issues with certain characters understanding and accepting Bird as transgender with they/them pronouns, the "queer" status of particular characters does not seem to be much of an issue in terms of the prejudice and discrimination the main characters experience. Rather, they are subject to prejudice, discrimination and fear because they are not fully human; characters have antlers, snakes for hair, wings, or other animal-like characteristics or have magical abilities (levitation, being able to wish things into existence). The five main teen characters have all suffered trauma and abuse of some sort, often at the hands of family, including sometimes family who are "abnormal" like them. And none of them are coping that well with their past experiences and treatment. Which is made harder because these five individuals are forced to stay together and rely on each other when there is significant tension between them because of past events, secrets, and misunderstandings, and none of them have the greatest interpersonal skills to begin with.

It's not you, it's me.
I did not like this, and other than one specific thing, I think this is mostly on me.
This book is so so bleak and depressing. It's got little glimmers of hope, but not nearly enough to make me feel any better. It's dark, it's upsetting, and it's overall just really not something I was ever going to like.
Which is why it's really my fault. I looked at this and knew that it would probably be too much for me. I was hoping for more, ironically, hope. I was hoping for a story about friendship and the ways we leave our marks on each other- which this is, but I just truly did not expect it to be so horribly depressing.
Listen to the synopsis when it says this is a sad story without a happy ending. That was a warning I should've headed. I am NOT a sad ending girlie. I like all of my books to have happy endings for all the characters that I think deserve it. This is not that.

Also side note- that one specific thing that I did not like- Felix, to me, is very autistic-coded, and it is.... not great. He's very mean and uncomfortable and seemingly more unlikable than every other already unlikable character. I don't know, his characterization just really rubbed me the wrong way.

All this to say, if this sounds like a book you'd like, if you're perfectly fine with a book that is essentially just a never-ending barrage of misery, you should ignore me and read it. I'm sure some people will really resonate with this story. I just wasn't one of them.

To be fair, both the author and their narrator tell you what to expect in the beginning, and they stick to that. This is a story about messed up teenagers trying to work together, and it doesn't end happily. In fact, it was much more hopeful than I expected. This is an old comp, but it reminded me a lot of More Than This by Patrick Ness.

I'm still not sure whether this is a good book. It's full of memorable imagery and interesting ideas, but it's truly driven by the characters, who all have different experiences with their cult. Four of them also have a lot of sexual tension with each other, which is never resolved.

Bird: They are really the heart of the story, even though I found their arc pretty underdeveloped. Before the story, they leave the Caravan for three years before returning, and that neither that concept or their exploration of gender are really properly addressed. Instead, they function more as an anchor for the other characters, whose stories revolve to various degrees around their perception of Bird.

Hugo: If this was a trauma contest, he would win. The narrator keeps it the two big problems a secret from the reader until the end, but it's kind of obvious.

Felix: It's never said on-page, but he's very autistic-coded. I don't feel like this is positive representation, and I'll leave it at that.

Cal: Like the first three, she's lived with the Caravan for her entire life, but she still feels like an outsider. She was the most interesting character, and I wish the whole story had focused on her.

Eamon: The newcomer. Despite having POV chapters like everyone else, we never really get to know him.

These characters were a lot, and adding in a random narrator (who we never find out the identity of) just made it confusing.

We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon is an ambitious and emotionally rich YA fantasy that explores identity, belonging, and trauma through a queer, supernatural lens. The premise is intriguing—five teens wake up to find their mysterious, nomadic community gone, and must unravel both the mystery and their own deeply buried truths. Edgmon builds a world filled with magic, memory loss, and myth-like creatures, all grounded by intensely personal stakes.

While the concept is strong and the cast refreshingly diverse, the story can feel uneven at times. The pacing lags in places, and the rotating perspectives, though rich in voice, occasionally muddle the plot’s momentum. Still, Edgmon’s signature emotional honesty and thematic depth shine through. This is a story less about the mystery of the missing Caravan and more about found family, queer identity, and healing from the past. A thoughtful, if sometimes messy, read that will resonate with fans of character-driven fantasy.

Every time I read one of H. E. Edgmon's books, I walk away with a collection of quotes and a love for the beautifully broken characters they've crafted, and honestly, We Can Never Leave was no different. I still remain totally enamored of Edgmon's prose and the way he uses nonlinear narratives, but for me, this was also the weakest of their works.

First, the things I loved:
-as always in an H. E. Edgmon book, I love their characterization of the entire main cast. I consistently love that Edgmon is willing to tell stories about queer teens who are not your perfect role models; they're morally gray, they're messy, they're traumatized, and they are frequently awful to themselves and others because of it. So often in YA (and other genres, but we're in YA rn), readers are looking for windows, for ways to puzzle out their own complicated identities and come out on the other side of things. And I love that some characters here DO make it out, and some don't, and we can trace that through the narrative (even being super, super non-linear). I especially loved Bird and Cal.
-I loved the structure and the way that we are thrust right into the action. I loved the use of flashbacks to unfold the central mystery
-I loved how, unlike in Edgmon's other books, we have very few supporting characters and our cast is pretty small. We get 4 teens and sometimes a 5th, although he dips in and out of the narrative, and although it is kinda sorta a road trip, the focus is more on the characters than on the destination. I love a character focused book so much


Then, the things I didn't love:
-many reviewers have noted that the non-linear storytelling left them confused. For me, I can't see any other way that this story could've been told so as to preserve the central mystery, and I applaud that choice. But what DID lose me was some of the prose was more poetic than really concretely describing what was going on. It took me forEVER to figure out that the kids actually had powers. I didn't realize Bird glowed, or that Cal's kiss would kill someone, because things were sheathed in layers and layers of metaphor. Edgmon employed a similar technique in Godly Heathens, but that worked better for me, namely because we predominantly had one POV there and also it was a duology, so we had longer to puzzle out confusion.
TLDR: some things were made way more mysterious than they needed to be because of prose choices.
-Describing a sixteen year old as a twink was a choice.
-I did not love that an omniscient narrator had to keep dumping in information about what was going on. This may be me not being a big fan of 4th wall breaking, but it made me question where this narrator was coming from, and that pulled me way, way out of the narrative.
-I really wish we had been given more time with the Caravan itself and less with the drama between the 5 teens. I do love an insular setting (as noted above in the "things I loved" section), but the flashbacks giving us wider context on the Caravan were fascinating. I would adore if we got a sequel set in this same world, or even a companion novel, because the idea of non-human creatures appearing in the human world and then being immediately swept into a cult was compelling and unique. Just wish we'd done more with it.

I am giving this a 3.5, rounded up, because I really do love everything this book is doing. I just think it needed a little polish to shine.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books, and H. E. Edgmon for gifting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

Well, that was horrible...and I absolutely ate up every single second. I'm not sure I completely understood everything, but I think that was a lot of the joy of it. I was not at all expecting the ending, and the way I gasped when it finally hit me....unmatched.

The creepiness of the setting and the premise really sets this story up for success. It lends itself to the real-life conversations about religion, cult-like life, and so much more while showing the awful faces behind the masks of these things.

I loved the narration and the way that everyone was so starkly different, it really helped you feel like you were getting to know the characters.

This is such a creepy, existential read, and if that doesn't get you to pick it up, then I don't know what will.

I really liked the concept of this book. The plot felt original, and I especially liked the ending, but the writing fell a little flat for me, for two main reasons: the character dynamics and the secret keeping.

I’ll start with the latter, first. Personally, in my own humble personal opinion (☝️) I don’t like when characters withhold information from the reader in order to create more shock factor later on. There was so much that these characters knew that wasn’t explained to the reader until the very end. Which, sure, creates some sort of shocking reveal, but up until that point we’ve had so much kept from us that we don’t know the characters. And when we don’t know the characters, we can’t connect and root for them. Because so much is kept from the reader, the result is a vague story, where everything is important but nothing is explained. With characters that hate each other for reasons only they know. Let us in on the secrets!! I promise we’ll keep them!

Speaking of character dynamics, most of the book is a repeated showcase of the animosity between the characters. They all hate each other for various vague and secret reasons, except, they all might secretly be in love with each other, actually? There are five POVs that all have the same general vibe, except for one, where the narrator breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the reader. Again, a cool concept, but it fell a bit flat, because the narrator was ALSO keeping secrets from the reader.

However! There’s one tidbit of information in this book that isn’t kept a secret, and it’s the most shocking, horrifying detail that honestly saves the story. And it didn’t need to be a secret for it to have the intended shock value. It is also a major player in the ending of the story, and the connection and the tie-in was fantastic 😗👌

To wrap up this long review, if you want good LGBTQ+ teen representation and don’t mind being in the dark (hey, to each their own!), check this one out!

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. We Can Never Leave is unique dystopian book that bounces the reader between multiple POV's, as well as timelines. Unfortunately, the way this was done was not the most cohesive for me, and I got confused over where I was in the story numerous times. I'm soft DNFing right now so I can try again at another date.

After enjoying the dark contemporary fantasy of Edgmon's Ouroboros duology, I expected I would enjoy this as well. After all, it's got the same morally gray misfits, as well as magic that may or may not actually mean anything good for the world. However, unlike the duology, this didn't really have much of anything to temper the darkness of the story and the uneasy, if not downright hostile, character dynamics. Honestly, based on the author's note at the beginning, I thought the ending was going to be less bleak, at least for some of the characters. It's difficult for me to actually enjoy reading books like this, and while I still think Edgmon is an excellent writer, this particular book did not end up being for me.

On the morning after the new moon, five teenagers wake to find their entire traveling community—the Caravan—has vanished without a trace. Each of them bears an inhuman mark or power: a half-human runaway, a pair of antlered brothers, a venomous girl with a haunted past, and a shadowy newcomer whose origins are shrouded in mystery. As they navigate empty campsites and cryptic clues, they must confront their own fears and secrets to unravel what happened to the people who once protected them. Their journey leads them from uncertain alliances to unexpected discoveries about belonging and identity.
H.E. Edgmon weaves a richly imaginative world where outsiders find refuge in chosen family, and every character arc feels both earned and emotionally resonant. The alternating viewpoints give each teen a distinct voice, revealing layers of trauma, hope, and fierce loyalty as they piece together the Caravan’s disappearance.

The blend of contemporary fantasy and atmospheric suspense keeps the pages turning. Moments of tension—chased by ominous threats both human and supernatural—are balanced by tender glimpses of found-family bonds and personal growth. Edgmon’s prose sparkles with vivid imagery, from mist-shrouded campfires to the visceral sting of raw magic.

What stands out most is the novel’s celebration of queerness and diversity. Characters grapple with their unique abilities alongside their personal identities, and none of their struggles feel tokenized. Instead, each teen’s journey toward self-acceptance and trust in others becomes a powerful undercurrent to the central mystery.

Sweet Tooth meets The Raven Boys in this queer young adult contemporary fantasy about what it means to belong from H.E. Edgmon.

really enjoyed this far more than I thought I would at the start! The start was a little overly descriptive for my liking, and I was worried that the book might be all flowery prose, but that turned out not to be the case! It moved very quickly once the first couple chapters were through, and we got to the source of the problem: our five kids with animal features and/or abilities find themselves alone in their caravan. Where did all the adults go? Should they be worried? After some time passes, they realize they need to hit the road and figure out what's happening.

We get a lot of flashbacks to significant times in each of their pasts that lead them to their present states, and all of the characters are going through it. This book is dark, friends. Some moments shocked the heck out of me, and I am not easily shocked. My heck usually stays put, and yet. Obviously I don't want to give much away, but there are some twists I did not see coming, and I was absolutely invested in the characters and wanted to know what was happening to them. Also, this feels very much like the first in a series? I really hope so, because otherwise it ended quite rudely? (I mean. It can stand alone but you know I prefer my endings tied up.) Oh, and I have seen some reviews saying they didn't enjoy the narrator breaking the fourth wall, so to speak, but I kind of loved that part. Made me feel even more connected to the story, and it was a fun little change, which is important in darker fare, IMO.

Bottom Line: I struggled a bit at first, but once I got into it, I was wholly invested. And would absolutely love more of the world and characters!

This is a story that you want to give your full attention to because there are multiple points of view and different timelines (present and past, but the past is not always the same time period), and there's a mysterious shadowy figure that hovers over the group that inserts its opinion from time to time. The premise is that these kids are inhuman (literally) and adopted into a group that calls itself the Caravan (think ultra cult). Every member of the Caravan is inhuman for one reason or another, but they also possess magic (some known and some unknown), more importantly, none of the kids scooped up by this group have any memories of how they came to be. The story opens with this particular group of kids waking up one morning to find that the rest of the Caravan has disappeared. But these kids are not only misfits in the real world (some have antlers on their head, some have animal ears, etc.), they also have issues of their own with the group, so not to put a fine point on it, these kids do not get along. Even Hugo, who has always loved and protected his brother, seems to lash out at him constantly. To be fair, Hugo lashes out at everyone. This story is fantasy and horror, but it's also about identity, family, and home. The description in Goodreads says this book is Sweet Tooth meets The Raven Boys, and while I haven't watched Sweet Tooth, I have a student who was a huge fan and I have read The Raven boys and this does seem to give the same vibe to me. These characters are not the most likable, having a ton of baggage having to do with their "affliction", but I grew to care about them, even the least likable (in my mind) Hugo. There were a few twists at the end that gave me several aha moments that really pulled the story together for me. This is a slow build, but if you give it proper attention, I think it will capture your attention and perhaps even your heart. I hope you will give it a chance.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

A very unique plot. Took me a little bit of time to get into the rhythm of the story. Told from the point of view of several characters, the plot switches from before to after( but all chapters let you know who is taking charge of the story). The Felix chapters were my favourite since this is when the narrator was speaking directly to the reading audience.

I am crowning this one with a 2-star because not a lot of the story has lingered with me. But I DO think this will appeal to readers who enjoy horror/ fantasy/dystopian stories.


Publication Date 10/06/25
Goodreads Review 30/06/25

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc. This was so weird. Fascinating but so weird. I really don’t have much to say about it other than that. I left it for a week hoping I would come up with something better to say but it’s still all I’ve got. I’m definitely interested to read other books by H.E. Edgmon, I loved that everyone was queer and the story was really cool. I recommend it to anyone who likes eclectic fantasy.

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.***