This is a gorgeously queer, deeply emotional journey about identity, belonging, and the bonds that form in the face of the unknown. Edgmon’s writing is rich with heart and grit, weaving a contemporary fantasy world full of inhuman creatures, tangled relationships, and secrets that cut deep. The characters are raw, messy, and unforgettable, each grappling with their own truths while searching for a lost community. It’s a beautifully crafted exploration of what it means to find home, not in a place, but in each other.

This book confused me to no end.
And, unsurprisingly, I loved it.

PLOT SUMMARY:

When five teenagers awaken from sleep to find their found-family–a caravan comprised of “freaks” of nature–missing, they take to the road in search of them. But, as time wears on, and these five teenagers butt-heads and find common ground, they begin to realize that the mystery surrounding the Caravan is far darker than they had anticipated…

PLOT REVIEW:

Sometimes, you find a book that is so deeply confusing and full of careful thought that you can’t help but shout “WHAT?!” through huge crocodile tears.
We Can Never Leave is that book for me.
It’s a touching story about gender, sexuality, and the complicated feeling of belonging. I loved these aspects of the book. Many novels are touching on these sorts of subjects, but H.E. Edgmon took such care in representing them that I felt truly grateful.
But.
This book is about a Caravan (cult, to be more clear) with buried secrets and mysterious ways. I would have loved to learn more about this society and how, exactly, they “find” their members. However, that aspect of the story was never really resolved or fully touched on. We see the gruesome acts of the members directed towards their children, but we are never told WHY this is happening.
What is their motivation? Why do they do what they do? Where are they getting all of their members?
I would have loved to learn more about these subjects.
While that may be the case, I still immensely enjoyed each plot point of our characters. They were nuanced and very intentional.
Bonus, the ending actually left me surprised! Something that rarely happens.

CHARACTERS:

It is a rare book that is able to create such unique characters with multiple defining qualities.
Even better, it takes a super special book to make me hate and love MCs equally and interchangeably.
The most interesting character in this book?
Eamon, for sure. He was the most fascinating to me. And his ending was quite shocking and left me reeling.
Bird was also a very intriguing person. They have a very deep story with nuances and difficulties that make them both relatable and understandable. Their struggles with gender and acceptance were also deeply touching and most likely helped young teens relate to them a lot more.
Felix and Hugo were my least favorite characters, but I still loved them all the same. I realize that makes no sense, but it was truly impossible for me to hate anyone in this book. They are each what they were raised to be. Can we blame any of them for their actions, no matter how horrible?
Even Cal, who was my favorite character out of the five, I hated and loved in intervals. She’s deeply complicated and snarky, with a heart of gold and hidden desires even she seems unaware of.
Even better, all of these characters are Queer in one way or another. We have such broad representation, and I love seeing that in books for teens. We need more books like this, and I hope that we start to get them.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Confusing, Queer, and so emotionally gripping that I want to scream and cry into the abyss that is life….

Dark. Disturbing. But a glimmer of hope right to the very end.

There are no words that are accurate enough to describe this story.
A modern fantasy world where not is all as it seems. A caravan travels America and collects found non-humans and brings them into their group where they celebrate their lives and the cycles of the moons with vigorous ferocity. Each of the people who find their way into the caravan were turned into something extraordinary, ie: a man with feathered wings, a woman with serpents for hair and a forked tongue of her own to match, a boy of shadows with glowing red eyes, two brothers each either different features of a fawn, etc. they have no recollection of their human life before they became something other than human. So they’re brought into the caravan for a new life. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, there’s something darker lurking beneath.

A group of 5 teens find themselves alone after every person in their caravan seems to disappear off the face of the earth. They have to work together to find out what’s happened, and try not to kill each other in the process.

This book is beautifully written and explores deep and dark topics that happen far too often in our world. It explores the effects of trauma and generation trauma and how people forced into these circumstances find ways to survive and protect themselves. While the idea behind it was the religious cults like evangelicalism, there’s a lot of parallels to other groups who survive and thrive because of deep seated trauma.
I don’t know what this book was. But it sunk its teeth into my brain and I couldn’t shake it out. I had to keep reading and finish the story. Although I’m not entirely convinced it will let me go even now that it’s done.