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Book Summary and Reviews of Leaving the Station by Jake Maia Arlow

Leaving the Station by Jake Maia Arlow

Leaving the Station

by Jake Maia Arlow

  • Critics' Consensus (7):
  • Published:
  • Aug 2025, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Nina LaCour meets Alyson Derrick in this cross-country journey of identity, love, and friendships as Zoe tries to figure out her life, one train stop at a time.

Zoe's life has gone off the rails.

She banked on college being a fresh start, but instead she's leaving for fall break with zero friends and an ex-boyfriend, the latter being a real shock considering she's a lesbian.

On a cross-country train home, Zoe meets Oakley, who is also running away from her mistakes, and Zoe starts to wonder if they just might be able to help each other along before that train finally leaves the station.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A captivating romance that examines queer, religious, and personal identity." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Explores religion and faith, gender identity exploration, and what it means to fail (and to keep going), all wrapped up in a delightful journey. A beautiful example to queer readers that every new day is a new opportunity." —Booklist

"Intriguing in places but underdeveloped." —Kirkus Reviews

"Profound, romantic, and evocative, Leaving the Station feels like talking to a friend about all of the big questions that cloud our adolescence. Reading this book will take readers on a deeply felt journey through love and identity that they'll never forget." —Camryn Garrett NAACP nominee and author of Friday I'm In Love

"Leaving the Station captures the messy, confusing, and perfectly natural complications of trying to find a way forward in a world that doesn't always give you an easy track to take in this sweet romance layered with very believable complexities around gender, sexuality, and faith." —Tanya Boteju, author of Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens and Messy Perfect.

This information about Leaving the Station was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Jake Maia Arlow

Jake Maia Arlow is a Stonewall Honor author, podcast producer, and (reluctantly) Amtrak's number one fan. They live with their girlfriend and loud cat in the Pacific Northwest.

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Read-Alikes

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