Reader reviewed by Mary

When Dorry moves to Indianapolis she is excluded and alone. Until Angela talks to her and convinces her to join her friends at lunch. For once, Dorry feels included. Slowly, Angela and her friends spend more time with her. They drag her along to their church meetings and slowly she finds herself joining the group which is called Fishers. Her friends seem exceptionally devoted to the group and soon Dorry finds herself similarly addicted. The group soon begins to control her every movement, even as far as controlling when she can eat. Enough becomes enough for Dorry and she finally realizes that she must leave the group even if it results in becoming the social outcast she was before.

This book is an addicting read. Dorry is an extremely interesting character who I was rooting for throughout her journey.

Reader reviewed by Amanda

After having read most of The Shadow Children series, as well as Running Out of Time, this selection by Margaret Peterson Haddix was a little disappointing. Not quite as thrilling or suspenseful as her other books, Leaving Fishers was more generalized fiction, which is just fine... only not what I've come to expect from this amazing author.


Dorry feels like an outcast at her new school. She doesn't have any friends and no one seems interested in even remotely getting to know her. When Angela, a girl very popular in her own small clique of friends, approaches Dorry and gets her to sit with them at lunch, Dorry is thrilled, if not a little confused. Why her? As the lunch period passes, Dorry learns that Angela and her friends are members of a strong religious group called The Fishers of Men and are interested in getting Dorry to join. At first, Dorry is very skeptical, having never been interested in religion before, but after attending some events and church services, she begins to think she may belong in Fishers after all.


As time passes, Dorry is asked to perform specific tasks for Fishers in order to get in "God's good graces," tasks that are incredibly difficult and often require her to push her family away from her, such as fasting during Thanksgiving. If the tasks are not completed, Dorry is deemed a failure by Angela and must repent immediately. Things with Fishers begin to get more and more intense and pretty soon Dorry feels trapped, only wanting to get her old life back.


I did enjoy the book and felt it was very well written, it simply wasn't very "suspenseful." However, it's possible the author didn't mean for this book to be a novel of suspense, as her others have been, so it could quite possibly have been a success in that. Dorry does, in the end, being to love the real God, not the God that the Fishers have presented. That made me happy and I was overall, very satisfied with this read.