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    Leave No Trace: A Novel
    Leave No Trace: A Novel
    Leave No Trace: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Leave No Trace: A Novel

    Written by Mindy Mejia

    Narrated by Patricia Rodriguez

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the author of the “compelling” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis) and critically acclaimed Everything You Want Me to Be, a riveting and suspenseful thriller about the mysterious disappearance of a boy and his stunning return ten years later.

    “A tense and gripping read that plumbs the depths of grief and longing...As thrilling as a whitewater rapid and as dark as the Minnesotan wilderness itself.” —Amy Gentry, internationally bestselling author of Good as Gone

    “Dark and atmospheric, with palpably vivid details and complex characters harboring plenty of secrets...the perfect combination of gorgeous prose and edge-of-your-seat storytelling.” —Kimberly Belle, internationally bestselling author of The Marriage Lie

    “This novel deserves the top-spot on your reading list!”—Hannah Mary McKinnon, author of The Neighbors

    There is a place in Minnesota with hundreds of miles of glacial lakes and untouched forests called the Boundary Waters. Ten years ago a man and his son trekked into this wilderness and never returned.

    Search teams found their campsite ravaged by what looked like a bear. They were presumed dead until a decade later...the son appeared. Discovered while ransacking an outfitter store, he was violent and uncommunicative and sent to a psychiatric facility. Maya Stark, the assistant language therapist, is charged with making a connection with their high-profile patient. No matter how she tries, however, he refuses to answer questions about his father or the last ten years of his life.

    But Maya, who was abandoned by her own mother, has secrets, too. And as she’s drawn closer to this enigmatic boy who is no longer a boy, she’ll risk everything to reunite him with his father who has disappeared from the known world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateSep 4, 2018
    ISBN9781508255826
    Author

    Mindy Mejia

    Mindy Mejia is a CPA and a graduate of the Hamline University MFA program. Her debut novel, The Dragon Keeper, was published by Ashland Creek Press in 2012. She lives in the Twin Cities with her family, and is the author of Strike Me Down, Everything You Want Me to Be, and Leave No Trace.

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    Reviews for Leave No Trace

    4/5

    184 ratings27 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wow! I made a guess in the first few chapters of what I thought the big twist would be, I'm so glad I was wrong. I really enjoyed the narrator, the pace, the suspense and the MANY lessons that can be taken away from this book. Leave No Trace is a read that any mystery lover can enjoy with all it's suspense and layers that Maya and Josiahs' story entails.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Mehhh... it was an okay audiobook to listen to but I don’t think I would have been able to get through the book if I was reading it. I guess I just couldn’t really relate to any of the characters, everything was very far fetched and unbelievable . Not my cup of tea.
    • 5/5
      Thrilling, addictive, amazing. I’m hooked! She’s my new favorite author!!!
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved it. It’s a super easy read that sucks you in immediately. Lots of thrills and twist and turns. I hope there’s a second book although it’s ended perfectly. I just loved the characters and would love to see what their new lives were like. A book on just Vera would be fascinating. Tara would be interesting as well.
    • 3/5
      Meh. It was ok. One two three four five six
    • 5/5
      I couldn't stop listening to this book! Love the dynamics and complexity of the characters.
    • 1/5
      I am a voracious audiobook consumer. Scribd has me ‘grounded’ at the moment because I’ve listened to too many top sellers, so I chose this to get me by. It took me so long to get through it. I couldn’t stand the main character. I felt nothing for any of the characters in this book. It read like an unrealistic Tarzan fan fiction that jumped the shark many times.
    • 4/5
      Good plot and pacing. Only negative is the dialogue—every character speaks the same way, overly dramatic and eloquent.
    • 1/5
      Bad story line from the start. Title has nothing to do with the story.
    • 4/5
      It was a good, if unlikely plot. The main character is likable, but the author continues the theme through her actions and thoughts. She is constantly making you wonder about who the “crazy” one is.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      I have to admit... what originally drew me to the novel Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia was the cover... and the typography. The layout, look and feel of the outside of the book was extremely intriguing. I had to know what lay inside the pages. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Although not the best book I've ever read, Leave No Trace did not disappoint and really kept me flipping the pages. The story started off strong with a great setup and a cast of likable and relatable characters. The main character Maya Stark is young and witty. The middle of the book kinda went a little over the top and I had a few moments where I thought "Would somebody really do that?" or "Would that actually happen?" and Maya just kept making bad decisions. But I kept going... I had to find out the ending.And what an ending it was! The book wrapped up in a very satisfying way that made up for the hesitations I had during the middle. Overall I very much enjoyed this book and would recommended it to anybody looking for a fun and quick thriller!
    • 5/5
      Nice easy read. I needed something that moved fast, and this book definitely did. I did think the end wrapped up a little too quickly.
    • 3/5
      Started off slow, but the second half of the book was better - I enjoyed the portions that took place in the Boundary Waters. I often judge books by the way the author wraps everything up, and this one was not too bad. I did think the dialogue in places was kind of off-base. Not as good as her last book.
    • 4/5
      Leave No Trace is quite different than Mindy Mejia's first novel, Everything You Want Me to Be! Both are good novels. In this book, a troubled young woman, Maya, is assigned as a speech therapist for a very troubled, and sometimes violent young man. As the story unfolds, I found myself rooting for both of these characters. The story helped to expose the truth that everything is not as it may seem at first glance. I felt that Mejia did a great job of developing these characters, providing their back stories, and didn't tie everything up in a neat little bow at the end, but rather an ending that was messy, yet fitting to the story. The chill of the Minnesota winter and the beauty of the area surrounding the boundary waters came through in the novel, and let me imagine the sights clearly in my mind.
      I will continue to follow Mejia and read her books. Very different and thought provoking.
      #LeaveNoTrace #MindyMejia
    • 4/5
      Good writing style, Good Twists and plot, and I really liked the setting. Video Review coming soon on my youtube channel.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed Mindy Mejia's last book and happily picked up her latest, Leave No Trace.Lucas Blackthorne was nine when he and his father walked into the wilderness of Minnesota and never returned. Ten years later Lucas is found ransacking a store and is taken into custody. He doesn't or won't speak and refuses to communicate in any way, so he is admitted to a psychiatric facility. Where has he been? What has happened to him? Where is his father? Maya Stark is an assistant language therapist who begins to work with Lucas to find answers. Maya herself has a troubled past. (Which had me wondering how she could be working in a psychiatric facility.)Okay, let me mention again that Lucas is 19 and Maya is 23. Uh huh - you see what I'm pointing at? The attraction is there between the two and only grows as the book progresses. Mejia does a good job at ramping up the suspense. But, I have pragmatic tendencies......and I found some of the plot developments a bit far fetched and frankly unbelievable. (Seriously, an assistant speech therapist doing what she's doing? Sorry, trying not to provide spoilers.) Now, that being said, I did finish the book as I really wanted to know the final answers as to where Lucas has been.But, in the end, I felt like I had listened to a YA novel. Which I do really like. But that isn't what I was expecting when I started Leave No Trace. It was the billing of a "riveting and suspenseful thriller" that initially caught my attention.Much of that YA feeling was down to Maya. Leave No Trace is told in first person through her viewpoint. And unfortunately - I didn't like her or didn't feel a great deal of sympathy or empathy for her. For me she came across as unprofessional, irresponsible, impetuous and juvenile.I chose to listen to this latest book. I find listening to a book immerses me more fully in the story. The reader was Patricia Rodriguez and she was excellent. She had a voice that matched the age, demeanor and mental image I had imagined for the the lead character. Her voice is quite expressive and captures the tone of the plot and action very well. So, great narrator, but only a so-so listen for me.
    • 4/5
      3. 5 A young man, now ninteen, missing with his father, since he was ten, comes out of the wild, and placed in a mental institution. Maya, a young speech therapist, once a patient herself after the loss of her mother, is assigned his case. He refused to speak, but seems to have a natural connection to Maya.The boundary Waters, this natural, wild, beautiful place was the draw here. A place wonderfully described and Ely, where my son and his family spend a few weeks every summer. The question here is where Lucas's father is and why they left to live within this largely untouched place. Maya, is natural, fresh, a young woman with intense feelings that she follows with little doubt. The suspense builds as the dtoty goes on, twistsare turns are expertly placed. It also shows the care and recovery in s mental health center, how being so different causes media to come out of the woodwork. I also sppreciated the inclusion of real people, who for various reasons, have lived their lives off the grid. ARC from Edelweiss and Atria.
    • 3/5
      Mindy Mejia’s newest book leaves the school grounds in favor of the Boundary waters of Minnesota, which is a fairly drastic change from her previous book, Everything you Want Me to Be.In Leave No Trace, readers meet Maya Stark, a speech and language therapist at a mental hospital where she was once a patient. Maya has a shocking past. She was abandoned by her mother and is unable to form meaningful friendships. But why was she a patient in a mental hospital? This is just one of the mysteries of the story that will keep readers hungry to find out more.Lucas, a new patient that has spent most of his life in the wilderness, has been assigned to Maya’s caseload. They end up forming a bond that brings her professional ethics into question and leads her to drastic measures in order to help him.For the most part, this was a fast and exciting read, even though it bogged down a bit while the characters were in the hospital setting. I like an intense and satisfying ending and this book delivered on that count.Any readers sensitive to depression and suicide need to be warned that it is a prominent subject throughout the book. There is also some violence.Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for allowing me to read and review and advance copy and give an honest review.
    • 3/5
      I am still a huge fan of Mindy Mejia. I adored her first book, and maybe it's not fair to the author that I set my expectations a little high for any subsequent books. But, for whatever reason, Leave No Trace just left me a bit cold. The author has an exceptional talent for writing characters, especially of the flawed nature, but I just wasn't able to feel a personal connection to the characters in this particular story. I am still eager to read anything Ms. Mejia writes, but this one just OK for me. Some of the story moved more slowly than I would have liked, and I kept losing interest (again, because of my lack of connection to the characters). Once I picked it up again it seemed like an easy and enjoyable enough read, but it wasn't unputdownable like her first novel.
    • 5/5
      Leave No Trace is intense, atmospheric, and fully absorbing. I lived the story along with the characters.I came across this book on the Bookish First website, which I love because I'm often introduced to books and authors I might have otherwise passed over. The description didn't grab me, but it intrigued me enough to go on and read the offered excerpt. From there, Mindy Mejia's writing style hooked me, the characters fascinated me, and I wanted more.Atmosphere and setting take on a life of its own in this story. I knew nothing about this area called Boundary Waters, but Mindy Mejia put me right there. I felt the biting cold, saw the vast wilderness, and heard the rushing water. The characters are fully developed, with all the strengths and flaws that come with being human. Maya is a young adult - 23 - and she's also haunted by a dark past, and so she sometimes behaves impulsively. Occasionally she pushes the boundaries a little further than might seem possible in a particular setting, but the reasoning is sound and the story, as a whole, feels plausible.The content explores some difficult topics with a unique and honest approach. We have a couple of twists that jump out like a sucker punch. The pace continues to pick up, pulling us along until we have no choice but to hold on tight for an unforgettable ride.*I received an advance copy from the publisher, via Bookish First, in exchange for my honest review.*
    • 5/5
      I received a free advance e-copy of this book from the author and have chosen to write an honest and unbiased review. I have no personal affiliation with the author. Wow! A great story set in the beautiful, rugged, and wild Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. This is a well-written book with a great plot and excellent character development. A story of broken families, abandonment, and damaged psyches and how they deal with psychological trauma and their pasts. The author writes in a manner that makes the reader have care and concern about what happens to these flawed characters. Full of secrets, suspense, twists, and turns. I couldn’t put it down. I like Maya, the speech therapist, as she operates out of the box at times. She really cares about the residents of Congdon psych facility. Her patient’s lives and wellbeing are both first and foremost within her mind. This book is well worth the read and I look forward to reading more from Mindy Mejia in the future.
    • 3/5
      I've read this author before and enjoyed her books. I liked this story, but it wasn't very memorable for me. Maya, the main character is a speech psychologist with a questionable past. When she meets Lucas, a patient at the mental hospital, she is quickly drawn to him. Lucas is in there for murder. Maya is the only one he will communicate with. Maya also makes decisions that could ruin her. I enjoyed reading the book, but it was more difficult to believe with characters that I didn't really like. I received an e-book from Netgalley.
    • 5/5
      I thought I was reading a good book until about halfway through I realized I was reading something much more, something that gripped me inside, tearing my heart out and not letting go. Two damaged people searching for something that only the other can help provide. Their location is Duluth and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. I'm still reeling from the ending but allI I can say is READ IT!
    • 4/5
      After reading “Everything You Want Me to Be” last year, I knew this was an author I would follow. In this outing she gives us a very different book but with equally compelling characters.The blurb gives a great snapshot of the story so I won’t get into the plot too much. The MC’s are 2 damaged people who have more in common than you initially think. Maya Stark is a speech therapist at Congdon Psychiatric Facility. Her youth, innovative style & maroon hair set her apart. She lives with her dad Brian who really wishes she worked somewhere else. Especially after her…em…spot of trouble a few years back. Lucas Blackthorne is Congdon’s infamous new resident. After vanishing with his father 10 years ago, his sudden reappearance has caused quite a stir. The media & groupies are camped out at the gates waiting to hear his story but Lucas isn’t talking. Then he meets Maya. And one struggling outsider recognizes another. Don’t go into this expecting a thrill-a-minute ride. There are moments of action but that’s not what this is about. Like the previous book, it’s about the characters & the effect of the ripples they cause as they pass through each other’s lives. On one hand, it’s a compelling mystery as we slowly learn the MC’s histories. On the other, it touches on deeper themes such as family, loss, memories & the grey area around right vs. wrong. Strong secondary characters flesh out the story as we follow Maya & Lucas on their deeply personal search to understand the past. The last quarter has some reveals that may make you rethink what you thought you knew. And while a couple of them may stretch disbelief a teensy bit, it’s all part of the journey in this strong, well written tale.
    • 5/5
      LOVED this book!!! I couldn't wait to read it because I loved "Everything You Want Me to Me." The book was fast paced and I couldn't put it down. I read it in a day and was then sad when it was over. I felt like I was part of the book. I loved the characters, story and writing style. I was immediately pulled into the story and wanted to know why Lucas was missing for all those years.Maya works at a psychiatric facility as an assistant speech therapist. She previously worked there as an orderly and was once a patient. Maya is asked to work with Lucas Blackthorn. Lucas is a nineteen and disappeared ten years ago after going camping with is dad. He was presumed dead until he was found breaking and entering into an outfitter's store. Maya connects with Lucas and makes it her mission to get him out of the psychiatric hospital. Maya eventually finds out what happened to her mother after she abandoned the family many years ago. She reveals to Lucas what caused her to be admitted into the psychiatric hospital.The book is full of twists and turns. I loved it and definitely recommend it and can't wait to read more books by the author. Thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books and the author, Mindy Mejia, for a free electronic ARC of this novel.