The Return: The creepy debut novel for fans of Stephen King, CJ Tudor and Alma Katsu

by Rachel Harrison

Sarah Scott (Narrator)

PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA, RIVERDALE AND STEPHEN KING'S THE SHINING

Her best friend disappeared. A stranger came back.

Julie is missing, and the missing don't often return. But Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and she feels in her bones that her best friend is out there.

She's right. Two years to the day that Julie vanished, she reappears with no memory of what happened to her. But she is different. She's emaciated, with sallow skin, chipped teeth and odd appetites. In so many ways, Julie seems to be the friend they all loved and lost. But in others, she seems to be a stranger.

Along with Molly and Mae, their two close friends from college, they decide to reunite at the eccentric, remote Red Honey Inn. But when bad weather traps them inside the hotel, tensions flare. Elise begins to hear scratching within the walls, to see the slither of shadows cast by nothing. And as the weekend unfurls, it becomes impossible to deny that the Julie who vanished two years ago is not the same Julie who came back.

An eerie storm of a debut that fuses thriller and horror into a brilliant depiction of women's friendships - the rivalries, jealousies, anxieties and love. The Return is like nothing else you'll read this year.

(P)2020 Penguin Random House Audio

• ISBN10: 1529351987
• ISBN13: 9781529351989
• Publish Date: 24 March 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (MP3)
• Duration: 9 hours and 35 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joni Reads]

Thank you to Edelweiss for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First off- This cover! Gah! So gorgeous!

Now the book- it fell flat for me. I enjoyed it but I also didn't feel wrapped up in the story. I wanted to know what happened but I didn't want to have to actually read the book to find out. Had this been a physical copy I would have skipped to the end to find out what the heck was going on. But because I was reading an ebook I couldn't do that so I slowly made my way through to the story.

Overall it felt very repetitive. Elise, Molly, Mae and Julie are four friends who met in college and have stayed in touch even though they live in different parts of the country now. Then one day Julie goes missing. Elise- the closest of the friends to Julie doesn't believe it when the others assume Julie is dead. Then two years after she disappears Julie returns with no memory of what happened to her.

To reunite Mae invites everyone to a hotel in Catskills for a girl's weekend. While there it becomes clear that Julie is much different then she was before she left.

So much of the book consists of the friends talking about Julie behind her back and trying to decide if they should confront her on the increasingly disturbing things that are happening to her.

I wanted to know but I wish it would have been revealed in a different way. Once the twist was revealed it got so garbled together that I wasn't even excited to have figured things out. I just wanted to get to the end.

Overall it's a unique storyline but I wish it would have been done better.

[maggiefan]

4.5
It's terrifying as hell, and that was exactly what I wanted from it.
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