This book was beautifully written and is right on time with what is going on in the world. I enjoyed this book I look forward to future books by this author

This was a struggle to get into at first, but eventually I found myself fascinated by the characters and their story. It's nice to see the views of the people on both side of a dramatic separation.

I loved the premise, but the book dragged after a while. Still, great views on immigration and deportation, especially through a less common perspective.

I was not able to get through the book. The characters did not appeal to me and the story too, a turn that made me lose interest.

Good book of both the immigrant and adoption experience. Young boy's Chinese born mother is deported and he is then adopted by a professor couple. The boy struggles to fit into his adoption, then finds bio mother in China and is hesitant about fitting in there also.

This is an important novel about social justice and the inherent problems of immigration, loss and finding one's place in society.

While very intrigued by the premise of this book before reading it, I was slightly disappointed at the end of it. I didn't end up caring enough about the characters in this book. In fact, some of them really annoyed me. There are parts of the book that I really liked and though it was heart-wrenching to read what so many immigrants go through, I feel like it's an important book for bringing these issues to light.

This was on of the best books I've read in a long time. I think this will be one of 2017's biggest books. I'm excited to see where this goes.

Quite an ambitious plot. Ko does an excellent job balancing the details and executing the arc of character development.

At 11 years old, Deming Guo's is abandoned by this undocumented Chinese mother. No one knew where she went or why she left. His mother's boyfriend and his sister try to take care of him, but end up putting him into foster care and he goes to live with an academic white couple, who change his name to Daniel and try to get him to put the past behind him. But Deming can't forget his mother and yearns to find out why she left him. The book alternates between Deming and his mother, revealing a story of sadness, confusion, and guilt. It's an engrossing story of two people trying to find themselves.

I absolutely loved this book. I feel that The Leavers is one of those the right book at the right time deals. Between the identity issues and the immigration issue, I predict that this book will be well recieved when it hits shelves. Lisa Ko is an author to keep your eye on.

Reading the description of this book made me desperate to read it, and luckily, the publisher offered me a digital ARC through Netgalley. This book and its author already has a lot of buzz because Lisa Ko won the 2016 PEN/Bellweather Award for Socially Engaged fiction. I started reading this book just a few days after the immigration ban was announced by the Republican administration, so I was instantly drawn into this story about a young boy named Deming, whose mother, Peilan, is an undocumented immigrant from China. One day she disappears, and in the chaos of trying to track her down, Deming is turned over to upper middle class white foster parents.

Although the writing was good, and the story intriguing, this whole book was just OK. The characters felt just a little out of reach for me, which was frustrating since I so wanted to get into their story. I wanted to feel the horror of the immigration camp, I wanted to feel the awkwardness of growing up with a clueless white couple, I wanted to feel the pull and drive of a gambling addiction. Instead, the only thing I knew of these situations were the characters narrated they felt about it. I knew Deming was uncomfortable with Kay and Paul because he said he was. I knew Peilan felt claustrophobic after months in the ICE camp because she said she was. I didn't feel it. Many times I was confused by the switch in voice, particularly in the chapters narrated by Peilan. Where were we, and what was going on? The whole story seems the skate over the surface of a much deeper, much more devastating story. Part of the problem is that the backgrounds of the main characters don't feel fleshed out. We get a little insight into Deming's time with the Wilkinsons but suddenly he's grown up. We get a brief look into Peilan's life, but then suddenly she's in China, and there's very little to fill in the gaps.

There were some great moments in the story though. The scenes between Deming and his white adoptive parents are very well done, especially at the end of the book when Deming realizes that his main problem with the Wilkinsons is that they assume that everyone needs saving, and they are desperate to put the Chinese race into as small a box as they possibly can. Just because you're a well-meaning white person doesn't mean you aren't as racist as the white nationalists. I also liked the relationships that formed between Peilan and Leon, and Deming and Michael. The network of immigrants was inspiring to read about, the way people come together to help each other even though they have nothing.

Despite my complaints about this book I hope a lot of people read this, and seek to learn a little more about the deportation process (such as it is) for undocumented immigrants, and the horror it brings to everyone. This book does a pretty good job of putting a face on the so called "problem" of immigration. #weneeddiversebooks

A well written, thought provoking exploration of a young man who is born to an undocumented Chinese immigrant mother and how his life is radically changed by her deportation. Both main characters, Daniel/Deming and his mother Polly/Pelian have 2 names, 2 cultures, 2--or more-- identities and both struggle to reconcile both their relationships and their lives as they move deliberately and unintentionally between China and the US. There is a theme of debt--the literal debt that is paid to immigrate and the figurative debts that permeate their lives. Daniel is adopted by well meaning parents after his mother is deported, but his life continues to be a struggle of understanding and acceptance. The ending is an exploration of the concept of family--the resolution is complex, as is fitting for this book--there are no simple answers. A very relevant and timely book and one that lingers.

The Leavers is a novel about identity and how it is shaped and reshaped. The main characters, Deming and Polly, are expertly fleshed out. As their circumstances change, the novel craftily persuades the reader to be concerned for the mother and son duo and their outcome. I approached the end with a great amount of nervous anticipation.

Topics of immigration and adoption are treated carefully. There is nothing new here about either one, but I did sense in myself more empathy after reading The Leavers. I think the reality behind Polly's experiences as an undocumented immigrant are especially relevant and necessary to know about.

I would recommend this book to anyone that likes contemporary fiction. There was some annoying hipster jargon when Deming's bands were being described, but otherwise The Leavers is an engaging read.

Thanks to NetGalley which provided an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a review.

This was an amazing book and story, well written, deeply moving. I loved it and will be recommending it to students.

This is a wonderfully rich story told through the eyes of a mother and son, separated early in his life. As it unfolds, they try to find - and define - themselves, one another, family, and home. The author does a fantastic job of portraying the complexities of a situation we rarely get to see the full truth of.

Eleven-year-old Deming Gao's mother, an undocumented worker at a New York city nail salon, leaves for work one day and disappears. The Wilkinsons, a white couple at a college in upstate New York, foster and then adopt him, changing his name to Daniel Wilkinson in the hopes that he can assimilate more easily in homogenous Ridgeborough. Deming/Daniel feels as out-of-place there as he feels abandoned by his Chinese mother and her friends. He finds some solace and identity in the sounds and colors of his guitar music. Deming's mother, Polly Gao, joins the story, addressing her son in her mind in the second person and filling him in on her grief and suffering at being torn away from him and explains what happened to her on the day she disappeared, an experience which still causes her nightmares. Both stories of being left and leaving caused me to empathize with son and mother, both caught up in legal and economic forces over which they have no control.

This book kept me reading, although at times, I am not a reader who needs to like a character in order to like the book, and Daniel certainly was a disposable character. I became so frustrated with his actions. I think the was most interesting when it was told from Polly's perspective. The story at times became repetitive and did not seem to be moving to a conclusion. The ending was not very satisfying; it seemed that Daniel's life just would keep turning in the same circles. He seemed to make a decision not to make a decision.

This book began very well but when the Tory switched to a decaw later it was very hard to follow. There was disjointed and hard to follow. I gave up. Too bad.