Completely unexpected! Great book!
Besties since college, Julie, Elise, Mae and Molly have always kept in touch. When Julie goes missing, everything changes. Elise is the only one who holds out hope for her return, even after a few years go by.

Then it happens. Two years later. Julie returns out of the blue. Looking A LOT worse for wear, with absolutely no memory of what happened. Don't want to spoil it, so will stop there!

this slim novel is so awesome, so horror-based, and so suspenseful. Loved it. Creepy, weird, and disturbing without being terrifying? That's totally my type of book!
This is the first book I have read by this author and I am looking forward to her next book!

This book was the perfect snowed in/quarantine/long weekend read. It’s a creepy horror-movie type read that unfolds slowly and with an increasing sense of dread.

It begins with the disappearance of one of a group of four best friends after a solo hike in the mountains (Oh yeah, after this, I’m never hiking alone.). While two of the friends think she’s gone, one, Elise, never gives up hope. And it looks like she’s right when two years to the day, she returns. The girls plan a welcome home get together at an eccentric retreat in the Catskills, but immediately realize that the Julie that returned to them is not the Julie that left. I’ll let you read to find out, but it’s bad. And as usual in these situations, things quickly go from bad to worse.

I loved this book for the slowly unfolding sense of dread that really permeated the story. There was an overarching sense of denial that Elise has throughout the book, but as things went on it became clearer and clearer what was happening and that things couldn’t be denied anymore. And the payoff is really intense. It does involve a paranormal/horror element, just so you know, in case you’re not into that sort of thing.

Plus, there’s the whole subplot about the friendship between the girls and how it has evolved since they’ve graduated college. They are all trying to adjust to how they’re now dealing with bigger problems and bigger issues, like adultery, health issues, family issues, etc. It’s all entangled in the central problem with the Julie issue and it adds an extra layer.

I wish the ending was a little more developed, though I can’t be more specific. Anyway, yeah, I wish we got a little more. But overall I was not disappointed.

I really enjoyed this book and if you have a couple days to curl up with a spooky read, you won’t regret choosing this one if you’re into subtle horror.

So great! Everything I wanted it to be! Mystery and goes full blown Horror! I kept thinking maybe it was just a case of double personality, but NOPE!

From looking at the cover, I had to request this book! It gave me chills. "The Return" is Rachel Harrison's debut novel. This book wasn't a bad debut novel. There is always room to grow. The first 65 % of the book, nothing really big happened. Then I was hooked!!! It really reminded me of American Horror Story-Hotel.

Thoughts: Oh, how I wanted to love this. The Return doesn’t start off creepy, just mysterious, and it builds the characterization of each and every character slowly. Possibly a little too slowly. The girls in this story are written so immaturely I kept having to remind myself of their non-high school ages. The horror elements finally start making themselves known in the final 50 pages of the story and to Harrison’s credit, she transforms the memory loss plot into something wholly unexpected and original. The concept as a whole wasn’t fully fleshed out and the supernatural elements were laid on extra-thick but it was still definitely unique.

Verdict: I liked it, but I didn’t. The supernatural aspects and the answer to the whole mystery was just a bit too odd-ball to wrap my head around. Harrison is going to stay on my radar, however, because this didn’t have the feel of a debut and definitely showcased her storytelling abilities.

A haunting examination of old female friendships and our unwillingness to admit when something feels wrong.

Everyone else may believe that Julie is dead after having been missing for two years, but Elise knows her friend is still alive. When Julie suddenly reappears claiming to have no memory of the last two years, Molly, Mae and Elise decide a girl's weekend at a remote hotel is the perfect way to reconnect and maybe get some answers. Though they are shocked by Julie's appearance and behavior, the friends try to make the best of their reunion. Things get stranger and stranger until Elise begins to wonder what really happened to her friend two years ago and who, or what, came back. The suspense builds through the book as you try to figure out if Elise is imagining the strange happenings around her friend or if she really wants to know the answers to Julie's disappearance and return.

2.5, rounded up because I was interested to see what happened... but once it did, I was disappointed. I liked the dynamic of the friends, coming together at a creepy hotel. The main character, Elise, was kind of spineless and full of self-pity most of the time. I'm not sure what led her to be that way (and her backstory didn't really fit with the book and seemed kind of superflous), but she was at least a reliable narrator.

Her friends, Mae and Molly, were kind of interchangable. The author tried to create defining characteristics, but when they were talking, they were really the same person. Julie was just weird. She disappeared... she came back, but she wasn't herself. And everyone is afraid to confront her.

This is where it definitely got weird. The friends keep trying to pretend she's fine and everything is great so they don't hurt Mae's feelings. Yet, nothing is fine and no one seems to care. Weird things happen that are never explained. There are giant plot holes that are never answered and the ending just was weird.

3.5

I think that I really, really wanted to like this, but there was just something missing for me. Maybe I've consumed so much media where I love and care about the characters, and now I have to have that in everything I read? I just feel like I couldn't honestly give a damn about these girls, and that sucks.

The writing is good, which is nice, because I'll certainly come back to this author when they put out new content! I really like how things were portrayed as not quite right, and that there was a sense of being watched. That's what I feel like really made me like this story, besides the premise of the novel in general. I think I was expecting ghosts, or demons> but and perhaps got a little too excited for something like that, and not... what we got. My last update of "Oh! I think I see what's going on here!" was wrong. I was thinking zombies.

All in all, though: Not a bad book! I also think the cover is really cool looking, for some reason. It's very ominous. I look forward to more from this author

Part mystery, thriller and part horror story, this book was captivating and I could not put it down as I wanted to know what happened next.

I ended up DNF this one. I wanted to like it but there was just something lacking. I wasn't excited about picking it up to continue. There were a few good parts but it just seemed to be a really bad, long girls weekend with a little supernatural weirdness. Maybe I'll pick this one up again at a later date but I'm not sure.

Everyone has seen a gaggle of girlfriends. A clique formed at an early age traveling through life attached to one another like an extra appendage.

The Return features four girlfriends, now in their late twenties and separated by geography but never by bond: Julie, Elise, Molly and Mae. This foursome has always been bifurcated by personality. Julie and Elise; Molly and Mae.

Julie gets the harebrained idea to go backpacking, alone and inexperienced, in the Acadia National Park and soon learns she's bit off more than she can chew. She becomes lost and after a futile search by rescue teams is declared dead a year later. Her memorial service brings the three remaining members of the clique together. Elise can't bring herself to believe Julie is dead. Julie has always pulled a disappearing act only to reappear when she feels like it. Molly and Mae mourn Julie's death while Elise holds out hope she will see Julie again.

Two years to the day she disappeared, Julie is found sitting on her front porch. She is wearing the clothes she disappeared in and claiming to have no memory of the events of the past two years. Mae, the wealthiest of the group, arranges a get-away to a remote and bizarrely designed hotel to welcome Julie back into the fold and reunite the clique.

The trio gathers in the hotel awaiting Julie's arrival and speculate if she has changed over the past two years. Suddenly there is a loud knock on the door. The beautiful Julie is now standing before them emaciated. Her skin hangs slack and waxy. Her teeth, once perfect, are now chipped and discolored. Her once beautiful green eyes appear jaundiced. Her lush curly hair is now thin, stringy and greasy. When she speaks, her breath smells like roadkill.

The four girls head down to the hotel restaurant acting as if Julie hasn't changed. It's just a little lost memory, they say. Julie smiles and acts as though she doesn't see the side glances and the behind-her-back murmurs. Even when the life-long advocate for a vegetarian lifestyle, stuns the others when she order a rare steak and eats with her hands, they say nothing.

The next morning, the old Julie with the bouncy curls and fashion model skin arrives for breakfast. And still no one asks what is going on with her. And she offers no explanation.

The days pass. The atmosphere in the hotel is changing. The staff acts spooked. There are sounds in the walls. The thermostat in Elise's room seems possessed always re-setting itself to freezing. Some days Julie appears bedraggled. Oher days she seems infused with instant health. Still no one mentions it. And quoting Forrest Gump. That's all I got to say about that.

What I liked:
• A debut author with a novel approach to an age-old theme of spooky hotels and strange happenings.
• The behind the scenes descriptions of the hotel evoked intense sensations. I had a physical reaction, my stomach turned over, as we entered each hotel room and learned of its decor.
• Julie's physical changes were striking without being overly graphic.
• The characters were genuine. I hated them. Can't think of a time I could stand a bunch of loud, hard-drinking, entitled girls acting like the world owned them a favor while at the same time being needy, in-secure and desperate for friendship.
• Although the first half of the book was so boring with repetitive groveling dialogue, I did find myself very engaged as the tension rose. The author has great promise and I would be interested in her next book.
What I didn't like:
• All the baggage each girl was carrying around inside and hearing about it over and over and over. There never was any growth in their characters. They were stuck in a time warp of their youth.
• The second half of the story was super-charged and just as you expected a super nova ending, it ended like a slow leaky tire leaving the reader wondering -what just happened?

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book was a great, creepy book! It was more atmosphere, wondering if you're crazy for most of the book, but that ending really upped the creepy factor! I loved reading about this group of friends with a returned friend, who isn't who she used to be! It was a fantastic read!

Really, this book is great for people who are detail oriented. Like, there was a bunch of details about the rooms. And I don't really notice those sorts of things, so those details didn't stick in my brain. And when Elise was wondering if she was crazy, I wasn't sure, since I didn't remember those details. So it's not so great for those of us with poor memory!

I really enjoyed reading about these characters. They were all flawed, but Elise and Julie, who were so much alike, were pretty unlikeable. They were both just a little cruel, and I didn't really like them. It was really great to read about their friendships, dealing with the fact that Julie was gone for 2 years, thought dead, but now is backed. But is changed...

My one question is, what was up with the carpet change. I mean, we didn't really have what the bad guy was explained, but what we do know, that doesn't fit in. So I'm wondering what was going on there? I'm confused! Maybe Elise was going a little bit crazy, because of the creep factor from what the bad guy was?

This book was a great read, I really enjoyed it, and I can't wait to see what Rachel Harrison writes next!

Loved my time spent reading this one by Rachel Harrison - I just want to preface the review by saying so!

Julie and Elise are friends, very close to one another. When Julie disappears, Elise knows she isn't dead - she's just out there somewhere, needing to be found. Two years later, Julie returns, but she doesn't remember anything and is a little... different.

The underlying suspense in this one is excellent - it's creepy, you don't know what's going to happen, and I was on the edge of my seat. That said, it also took a bit too long for the creepiness to really start, and the slow beginning fell a bit flat for me.

The hotel setting was great - I wish more books were set in hotels!! Gave me a very Shining-esque vibe, and it was super fun.

Flawed, but promising, even brilliant in places, but lost much of its immediacy and when flashbacks interrupted the flow. Very nicely creepy in places with a spectacular monster to its credit

Initial reaction: I was not prepared for how intense this book was going to get after a time. Sure, I had a feeling it would go in the direction it went, but it was still a thrilling read to me with a bit of heart since the story centered around a fractured friendship at its core. I think I'll give this either 4 or 4.5 stars, but I need to think on it for a night.

Yeah, good luck sleeping to me, particularly after reading some of those creepy scenes. *shudders*

Full review:

I love to dive into a good horror story, I don't think that's a secret for those who know my reading (and writing) preferences, though it may be surprising to those who may not know that side of me. Here's the thing - I've survived watching many Korean and Japanese horror movies (Sweet Home, One Missed Call, The Grudge/Ju-on, The Ring/Ringu, Train to Busan, A Tale of Two Sisters, The Host, etc.) I read many horror authors who have written horror stories (Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Octavia Butler, Stephen King, Tananarive Due, to name a few.) I've played my fair share of horror games - both console (Dead Space series, Doom, Until Dawn, Parasite Eve franchise, etc.) and PC ("I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" adaptation, "Five Days a Stranger"/Chzo Mythos series, Amnesia series, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, etc).

I seek out many horror stories that inspire me, most along the lines of psychological horror but I branch out frequently beyond. Having said all that, the concept presented in "The Return" isn't new to me at all, but that was part of the intrigue. I loved the concept and couldn't wait to pick it up. You start with a group of completely flawed friends who bond over the disappearance of one of their own. After about a year, their friend Julie is presumed dead; they have grieved her and attempted to move on. But then she shows up out of the blue, and she says she's "fine" and doesn't have memories of what happened to her.

Our main character Elise has questions, particularly since before her disappearance, Elise had the closest relationship with Julie. Alongside Mae and Molly, Elise attends a retreat at a mountainside inn in an attempt to reconnect with Julie and have a "girls trip". Not everything is as it seems, to say the least. Not only is Julie completely against the idea of talking about what happened to her, her behavior seems much different than what the friends knew from her beforehand. The ladies try to be accommodating and respectful to Julie despite her appearance and odd behavior, but the escalation gets to a point where it can't be avoided. It becomes even more jarring as strange events start happening in the inn they're at (weird smells, strange dreams, disappearances among the staff). It's up to Elise for much of the novel to figure out what's happened to Julie, and why they're experiencing so many strange things at the inn.

This felt to me like a slow burn horror that had good payoff by the end, particularly since it's also an examination of flawed characters and their relationships. There are parts that are a bit uneven and left me still asking questions even after I turned the last page, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the journey this took me on. You start with the friends making careful, alarmed but concerned observances of Julie. As events escalate, you're not sure whether or not you're in a novel where there's a moral threat (a.k.a. serial killer, cannibal) or a supernatural threat - possibly both. I was left guessing this for a little while as I read through the story. I knew something terrible happened to Julie, but knowing what happened was only part of the mystery.

Elise herself is a sympathetic yet flawed narrator. I understood, by the time the end of the novel came to be, why she wasn't willing to simply walk away from Julie even when she figured out the truth. It reminded me a little of the movie "Jennifer's Body" with some aspects, but it stands on its own for the overarching story and portrayal. Some scenes depicting Julie's transformation/change really creeped me out. (I blame myself for reading this at night. *shivers*)

This is the first book by Rachel Harrison that I've read and I'm intrigued to pick up more of her work in the future based on the style, characterization, and overarching story this novel had. Some bumps and lingering story points that still weren't tied up by the end, but the journey was well worth it.

Overall score: 4/5 stars.

Note: I received this as an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley, but I also own a copy of the book as well.

Julie has been missing for 2 years and only Elise believes she is alive and will come back. Now 2 years to the day she returns, with no memory of where she has been. This is a thriller with a supernatural feel. I had trouble getting into this book and I didn’t like the ending. I had trouble finishing it. Thank you to net galley for a copy.

The premise of The Return is tantalizing - a group of four college friends, inseparable until one of them mysteriously disappears, reunite upon her return two years later. But the friend has no memory of the missing two years. And she's . . . different. I was expecting dark, but Harrison does so much more with it. Her ability to invoke a sense of disquiet is remarkable. I was uneasy from the first glimpse of the weird hotel the women chose for their reunion, and that feeling stayed with me long after I closed the book. The Return manages somehow to be both a horror story, as well as a story about the bonds of friendship. In Harrison's hands, the overlap between the two is both impressive and terrifying.

The premise is interesting, but this has been done before, and better. Honestly, it felt like I was reading Jennifer’s Body Lite as there are SO many similarities. I get that maybe this was meant to be more a treatise on friendship and life, but it’s fell flat for me. The last 10% has some good scenes and I think if the story would’ve been more streamlined this might’ve worked for me.

Summary
2 years ago Julie disappeared while out on a hiking trip alone. Exactly 2 years later to the date, she suddenly reappears on her porch with no memories. In hopes of reconnecting, Julie and her 3 best friends travel to a swanky inn for a girls weekend. But while they are there dark and terrifying things begin to happen.

Overview
➸ POV: 1st Person from Elise's POV

➸ Julie: Married, Missing for 2 years, Randomly reappears, No memories

➸ Elise: Best friend to Julie, Never believed Julie was dead, Anxious, Storied past, Struggling financially

➸ Content Warnings: Death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Cheating, Anxiety, Sleep disorder

My Thoughts
I'm going to keep this review really brief because honestly I don't have anything nice to say.

I went into this thinking it would be a mystery/thriller about what happened when a woman who went missing for 2 year, suddenly reappears. And that's not exactly what I got. Nothing about this book was based in reality!

This book is essentially a stream of consciousness from the MC as she spends a weekend with her girlfriends. You get random clips about their past, which have exactly zero impact on the plot. Constant and unnecessary cattiness between the friends. And so many confusing paranormal aspects just sprinkled in. At 75% I still couldn't figure out what the heck the point of this book was. It had no absolutely no direction until the absolutely ridiculous ending.

Overall this was was a massive flop and will probably end up being my least favorite book of the year.