Leaving Milestoneville


Fiction - Drama
359 Pages
Reviewed on 02/23/2023
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite

Leaving Milestoneville by Golden November continues the journey of all of our favorite Milestoneville characters. Click Clack and Bridgette are looking forward to a trip away from Channel 1994 and enjoying their time. While they love their time in Milestoneville and have met some great people there, Bridgette and Click Clack were due for a vacation. However, nothing could have prepared them for a meeting with Golden November. Golden is an author who surprisingly writes stories about Milestoneville and its most illustrious residents. While Bridgette and Click Clack are pleasantly surprised, they have no idea JBT and G are looking for them. When JBT and G do find them, the boys are in for a doozy.

I don’t think that there is a Golden November book that I haven’t read. Leaving Milestoneville is just as adventurous, funny, and full of surprises as the other books by this author. Entertaining and filled with humor that brings a smile to your face instantly, the dialogue is incredible and reflects the personality of the character involved. It still surprises me how the author can create fast-paced and action-filled situations with just pictures and conversations. It adds a touch of authenticity and uniqueness to this narrative and makes the reader fall in love with the style. Click Clack is the life of the story and it is refreshing to see him interact with Bridgette in a loving (sometimes playfully taunting) way. They are fun and complement each other well. The end with the whole gang together is most satisfying as well. What can I say? I’m biased because I love this author.

Pikasho Deka

Golden November books guarantee readers a fun read and Leaving Milestoneville is no different. This latest installment of the Milestoneville series opens with Click Clack and his wife Bridgette taking a trip out of Milestoneville while reminiscing about old times and how they had met some of the most prominent individuals in the city. As the narrative switches back and forth in time, readers get a glimpse of some of the most popular characters of the series who came across Click Clack, perhaps the most influential member of the community. Click Clack and Bridgette find themselves in a city where an author named Golden November is throwing a party to celebrate his famous book series. To Click Clack's surprise, November's book series is based on the people of Milestoneville. Meanwhile, G and JBT set off in search of Click Clack and Bridgette.

Golden November's books have always felt more like screenplays than novels, which gives the stories a unique flavor you don't necessarily find in a traditional novel. I don't think I've read many fictional works where the author inserts himself into the story - if any. The narrative employs a sense of humor that makes these books all the more fun to read. All the characters have some odd quirks or idiosyncrasies, but they match the tone of the narrative and make the story feel organic and authentic. Leaving Milestoneville felt genuinely amusing and refreshing. If you're someone who loves experimental storytelling styles, you're going to love this series and its characters.

Cloie Belle Daffon

Leaving Milestoneville is a drama by Golden November. Bridgette and Click Clack are going on a trip outside Milestoneville. On their way to their cruise, they will see their children, meet some acquaintances, and reminisce about how life has been for them. This power couple has never been on a cruise and they are looking forward to the new experience. Join them on an adventure like no other and find yourself immersed in the relationships and memories of the characters of Milestoneville.

I was intrigued by Golden November’s Leaving Milestoneville the moment I read the first chapter. With script-style narration, there is an accompanying photograph on every page to better visualize the scene and setting. The style of the pictures changes whenever the character travels to a different place or thinks of the past and the accompanying illustrations are of high quality and pop out of the pages. If I close my eyes I can easily see myself standing in his beautifully depicted scenery.

November delivers a unique concept that piqued my interest; the style is more about acting out the scenes and visualizing the events which makes it quirky and fun. It mostly consists of direct dialogue and with many stories to tell, this distinctive writing style makes this story stand out from other fictional dramas. Bridgette and Click Clack’s banters were fun to follow and the photographs made their journey easier to visualize. These two characters are frank in their words and they tell stories with great gusto! I can’t wait for more of November’s work. Good job.

Jamie Michele

Golden November gifts us with another book in their expansive collection and has named it Leaving Milestoneville. The book is written in the voices of the characters without narrative so the story is never better than when it is acted out. This does not require pantomime or theatre skills. As a family, we like to sit around a table, select our characters, and dive in with the lines. November pokes fun at the characters by putting them in situations where art does imitate life and then reverts to life imitating art by writing scenes where, for example, the Milestoneville characters are reading lines. So basically November has us reading lines of characters reading lines...and for the first time I can recall, Golden November is actually a character in the book as well!

With characters buying, selling, and often hunting down rare books, the bookstore has been a consistent theme in Golden November's series and this continues in Leaving Milestoneville. I chuckled when November enters a bookstore and says, “This is the only store where my original edition novels are sold.” It says a lot when a ten-year-old laughs knowing what the author did there, and that's when you know an entire family has become addicted to the Milestoneville crew. I might have walked away from the reading of the book feeling better if that same child didn't spend the next couple of days learning more about what 'squatting' is, but if a book can entertain and unintentionally educate, it's a keeper!

Asher Syed

Leaving Milestoneville by Golden November is the newest release of the growing Milestoneville series, which follows a fictional group of residents and those they come in contact with both in and out of the namesake town. Lovers of the series need not worry that our favorite characters are leaving the town for good, but are setting off on another riotous adventure to a jungle resort. The catch? They have to walk through a gorilla and lion-infested landscape to get there from the place and, of course, they get lost. The lead-up to this is a string of individual scenes that tug the overall story along in vignettes. These range from Click Clack revealing his skills at creating origami out of cash, a subway ride with Slick Nick, Super Vick, and Money Mick, and the encroaching of selfie culture that almost costs Astrick a lovely drink.

Written in Golden November's signature format, Leaving Milestoneville is a book comprised of short lines meant to be read out loud by groups of readers, each of whom speaks for one or more of the characters. The lines are dialogue only and usually limited to between one and three sentences to keep the pace quick and highlight November's skill of hit-and-run zingers. The Milestoneville crowd is continually embarking on 'mystery' vacations and ending up in completely obscure locations. The tradition carries on here but not before we are given the opportunity to catch up with the cast in their own familiar space. I really love how November uses photography to set a scene and, as a fan of their work, there is a bizarre comfort in seeing a lot of carryover from other books. For example, whenever we settle down as actors on the plane it is usually the same as for every trip, at least from the interior. I swear I now know exactly where to sit if I stumble across it in real life. Leaving Milestonville is another great addition to the November collection.