The Leavers by Lisa Ko

I saw that The Leavers got rave reviews in several places so I requested a copy from the library. It started out okay. An illegal Chinese mother and her son are living in New York City with several friends. One day, the mother goes off to work--and never comes home. Only the son seems concerned that something might have happened to her. He finally gets put into the foster care system and is adopted by a white couple in upstate New York, who seem to want him to forget that he ever had a past.  This is about where I gave up on the book until I read several reader reviews that said the ending was good. So I picked up the book again and read the last several chapters, which were indeed good (and which explained what had happened to the mother). I found the mother a more interesting character than the son, which may be why I lost interest in the middle of the book. 

I'd be interested to hear what other readers thought of this book.