If I have one complaint about this novel, it's this: for something called The Return, it takes a while to get past Jules' disappearance when we know that she does in fact return after two years missing. Once her best friends decide to have a girls' weekend to put the trauma behind them, the horror kicks in while the writing shines.

My absolute props go to making the main characters so distinctive and diverse without feeling like the writing was engaging in tokenism. Each woman felt real to me, and their friendships rang true as someone who has friends from school in other states. As for the horror, I'll let you experience it for yourself. I will say that fans of Stephen King's scares would not be left wanting.