Last Seen Leaving Response 1

The first thing that I noticed about this book is that, like Almost Perfect, it is told from the perspective of a teenage boy. Flynn is a couple years younger than Logan but I can still see similarities in the ways that they react to the events happening around them and the issues that they have to deal with. But while Logan has someone in his life who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, Flynn himself is gay, although not openly. And on top of the stress that this causes him, his girlfriend January is missing. Seemingly nobody has any idea what happened, although the suspicion is that she simply ran away; her mother had recently married a mega-rich senator and she had moved into a mansion far from her friends, been put into a new, private school which she hated, and her mother was no longer the loving woman that she once was. Now Flynn faces a dilemma- the last time he saw January, she was upset because he did not want to have sex with her; and, rather than openly admit that he did not want to because he is gay, he became defensive and, as he sees it, probably made her feel as if it were her fault. He won't tell the police or anybody else the details of this encounter, or about how their relationship was deteriorating as she grew distant and he grew more aware of his lack of sexual feelings toward her, because he does not want anyone to know that he is gay. I am a little less than halfway through the book and a good portion of it has been his internal battle- guilt that he may not have been the best boyfriend and made her more miserable than she already was, that he is not honest about what happened the last night he saw her, and overwhelming fear of people knowing his secret. I am really enjoying this book so far, but I think it is sad that Flynn's fear of being found out is greater than his fear that his girlfriend could be dead somewhere. I think that says a lot about the state of our society that I don't think this situation is entirely unrealistic either; young people like Flynn are put in a position where they would risk the death of someone close to them rather than face the consequences of coming out as gay. The novel has been pretty bleak so far, but I am really hoping that it might end on a relatively good note.