On the surface, when I selected this audiobook, Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia, from my massive TBR, I thought it was going to be this suspenseful story about a teenager who emerged from the wilderness 10 years after he and his father had gone missing. I finished this book stunned in deep thought with a lot to process.

Yes, it is a story about a father, Josiah, and son, Lucas, who went camping in the wilderness, like they did frequently. The two went missing and were presumed dead until Lucas appeared 10 years later ransacking an outfitter store. Due to his erratic behavior and lack of communication, he was placed in a psychiatric facility. Maya, a young speech therapist, is assigned to work with Lucas to find out what happened to his father. And that just scratches the surface of this story.

There is a lot of suspense as the unknown fate of the father is of prevalent concern. There is depth to the story as the family history unfolds. I am fond of how the story switched to the past from time to time. It allowed me to understand the characters and their life choices.

There’s a lot of things I really hold dear about this book. As a nature lover, I enjoyed the setting of Minnesota with the rural forests and glacial lakes. I’ve never been to Minnesota, so it was a pleasure to learn about The Boundary Waters. Mindy’s talent for writing also helped create a vivid mental picture of what must be beautiful land. And, what a perfect time for me to select this book as it takes place in fall with winter quickly approaching. The way mental health professionals treat people with mental health disorders, or even perceived disorders, is striking in this story. When I refer to perceived mental health disorders, I am referring to people with unusual lifestyles. It remains prevalent that those of us in helping professionals try to treat those different from the societal norm, rather than gain an understanding of why they chose a unique way of life and how it works for them. Another layer of this story lies with Maya, whose mother disappeared long ago. While genuinely trying to help Lucas, Maya is forced to examine her own past and trauma related to loss.

I became aware while listening to this audiobook that I genuinely rooted for the father and son and became highly annoyed with the psychiatric staff. The ending was not a fairytale ending. There were some shocking events with hope for a peaceful future. I believe this story will stick with me for a long time.

I purchased this audiobook through my Audible membership. It was a pleasure listening to the narration by Patricia Rodriguez.

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A Book And A Dog ( )

4.5 stars. This one definitely gets extra points from me because of the setting. I grew up spending summers at a lake near Ely, and I've spent a handful of nights in the Boundary Waters myself. Besides enjoying the setting and characters, I found it a good mystery that kept me intrigued enough to read the book over a single weekend. Probably not super plausible (and there are a few issues with violence and questionable clinical practices), but still a good read. ( )

Wonderful book! Well-written with good characters and an excellent story.

Maya, 23, is a speech therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she was a patient eight years earlier. She is presented with the interesting case of a 19-year old man, Lucas, who had been living in the woods for many years with his father, Justin. Lucas doesn't speak until Maya forms a connection with him. He is anxious to find his father, who is under investigation for the murder of a woman. Their back stories are slowly revealed as the search for Lucas' father escalates. Although the pace is slow at times throughout the novel, the ending brings a satisfactory conclusion. ( )

I rarely read anything billed as a thriller. Occasionally I end up with one though and I hate to let a book go without reading it (hence my ridiculous backlog of unread books). So when my daughter asked to read this one, I knew I’d have to read it myself before sending it off to her. Luckily for me, this wasn’t the most thriller-y thriller ever.

Maya Stark is an assistant speech therapist who works at the Congdon Psychiatric Facility when a mute young man is brought in. Lucas Blackthorn is that young man. He and his father disappeared into the Boundary Waters a decade prior and were presumed dead. He is apprehended robbing a local convenience store and he turns violent, leading to his admission to Congdon. Maya is asked to work with Lucas to try and get a response from him. In working with Lucas, she not only has to help him but she has to face her own troubled past.

Maya narrates the story, uncovering the trauma in both Lucas and herself, examining society’s idea and definition of mental illness and the terrible legacy of abandonment. The premise of the novel is an interesting one but the book certainly asks the reader to suspend disbelief a lot and to ignore some pretty big ethical issues with Maya and Lucas’ burgeoning relationship. Their bond is very definitely an uncomfortable one. There are some surprising twists to the story, even if they are too coincidental. The depictions of the wilds of the Boundary Waters are beautifully done and Mejia does make the story suspenseful and sometimes shocking as well. However, the ending is tied up very neatly in ways that don’t quite feel earned. Readers who enjoy survivalist stories where someone has to interact with society after being off the grid for so long might appreciate this one. ( )