I’m not an avid horror genre reader. I like to push myself and I was so excited to pick this book up. I was expecting to be terrified and let me just say I was super disappointed. Scare factor was at a very low factor here. I think I was more grossed out than anything and that was only a few times throughout the entire novel. The story dragged and I felt like the background on the characters was unnecessary and boring. Lots of potential but no execution.

It's just not for me. I gave up at around 10% I can't get into it at all. I don't feel anything for any of these characters.

I don’t know about this one guys.

It was good, but not great. Creepy, but not scary.

To be honest I kept waiting to see what was going to happen and then it fell kind of flat for me.

The premise was great and something that I enjoyed.

It was interesting to see how her friend came back and the new interaction that they had. The twist wasn’t bad either. But half the time we were getting all of this information about Elise and I didn’t really understand why?

Like we didn’t get a ton about Julie except when she interacted with Elise.

We get a lot of about their dynamic as four friends, and then a ton about Elise’s life. And then thats it.

I wanted more about Julie. And all the things told about Julie were from Elise’s perspective. But it wasn’t Julie telling us about her experience. It was Elise summarizing it?

Sooooo I don’t know.

It’s the same with Don’t Look Down. I kind of sort of recommend it. I think maybe I am thinking too hard about this one haha.

ᴍʏ ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ: 🌟🌟🌟

The return has a good premise. Four young women have a close knit friendship going back to the first grade, Then one disappears. into the woods. Although there a search nothing turns up. Here the book focuses on her disappearance . Everyone except her closest friend believe she is dead. Then she "Returns". When she is finally reunited with the others they plan a trip. . Now for me, this is where the book falls apart. The clues as to what really happened are clumsily presented. The book turns into a horror story . I think it is explained about what happened, but not really. I can't say more then this because I don't want to put in any spoilers.
When I am reading a good book I can't get it out of my mind . Every time I picked this up it was like starting over.
Thank you Net Galley for the book. Sorry I couldn't give it a good review.
cp

The story description was intriguing, but unfortunately, this didn't work for me. There was too much information that felt extraneous or that didn't go anywhere. And worst of all to me, there's just too much build-up with so little pay-off. It is a very slow book for the most part and no one reacts believably.

Thank you, though, to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing this copy for review.

Rachel Harrison achieves startling and unique mystery with The Return. It is a horror novel built around the intimacies and insecurities of two friends, Julie and Elise, within a group of four. The reader learns that Elise never believed that her friend was truly gone for the two years she went missing, even after attending her funeral. Needing space from the tension in her marriage, Julie had gone on a hike in Acadia National Park, only to be found two years later with no memory of what happened. After Julie’s disappearance, the four friends plan a reunion trip to a unique hotel in rural Maine.

Early on, the author’s tone is conflicted, establishing the unique friendships within the group with what can sometimes be grating detail, while also hinting at something ominous. Description of the action is sometimes burdened by awkward use of prepositions and phrases that just don’t flow. The tense shifts from past to present after the first chapter, which is jarring but effective in making the scenes feel more immediate. As the friends explore the inventively original hotel, more and more elements of horror are incorporated into what might otherwise be fairly described as chick lit. The gossiping, cattiness, discussion of reality TV and fashion design fade into the background as strange events at the hotel unfold.

At the climax of the novel, a story-within-a-story reveals much of the remaining mystery in a flourish of inspired word choice and scene building. Finally, the characters are well established enough to warrant some affection from the reader, whereas up to this point, it’s hard to like any of them. This segment is immersive and terrifying, and concise, and yet leaves the reader feeling that everything surrounding that concentrated heart is dressing applied to a fully developed short story.

The final hundred pages of this book are powerful, and scary. The final chapter is one of the most moving I've read in any horror novel. Fans of The Shining and Pet Sematary will find actually find familiar territory here, though they might have to do some digging to get to it. There were times that I considered putting this one down, but I’m quite glad I did not. Rachel Harrison has some room to develop, but she’ll be an author to watch.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for the ARC!

This is the first netgalley book I haven't been able to finish and I feel very bad about that. My first inkling that I couldn't buy into the story was the description of the hotel the women were staying at. The rooms just seemed so fantastically decorated and convoluted that it was just too unbelievable. But I trudged on. Then the description of poor Julie. If someone truly looked as she was described how could her good friends not take her right to a hospital. Again, I couldn't buy into the premise and the whole book became a chore for me to read. I got behind in my reading goals because I just didn't want to pick this one up day after day. I made it to 42% so I feel that was a good attempt. My apologies but this one wasn't for me. Thank you for the advanced copy regardless.

3.5 stars, rounded. The Return is just the right amount of creepy for this reader. Set mostly in a creepy, isolated hotel (a setting where nothing can go wrong, obviously), four friends gather after one of them disappeared for years and has no memory of what she did or where she was while she was gone. They quickly realize that things are... different about her. It took quite a bit of time in the story before things really started to take an obviously creepy and ominous tone, but once things flipped, it was a frantic race to the end. Tastes will differ, but for someone who is not a horror reader, this was mostly literary fiction with a dark tone and there wasn't much I couldn't handle.

The Return is the debut work from Rachel Harrison. In short, the story is about a group of friends going on a getaway together. The sticking point here is that one of the girls, Julie, had previously gone missing for two years. What Harrison really nails in this book is the mounting sense of there really being something off. The hotel the girls go to together is an out of the way place that really is its own character in this story. It only adds to the feeling of unease the author sets up. There is something wrong but what is it? Is it Julie? Is it the hotel? Is it just the main character's imagination? By the book's end the reader certainly finds out.

What I found enjoyable here is the essence of just wrongness of the situation. And while I did not find most of these girls likable, they do happen to be realistic. My real hangup was just that though- they just weren't likable to me. Nearing the end I just happened to not care if any of these girls would make it there and for a horror novel I just like to maybe be cheering someone on; to keep reading just to make sure they go on to live their lives.

Still, I think that Rachel Harrison wrote an interesting first novel. It still evokes the sort of feeling I like to get from horror- the unease when faced with the unknown.

This novel follows a group of 4 friends - Lise, Mae, Molly, and their missing friend Julie. Julie went to a park on her own for a walk, and then never returned. Months have passed with no word from their dear friend Julie - even her husband hasn't heard a word from her. They are unsure if she is out there alive and well somewhere, or if she is dead. Out of them all, Lise was the only one who held the hope that Julie was still alive somewhere and refused to accept that their dear friend was dead.

2 years to the day that Julie went missing, she suddenly returns. She has no memory of where she has been for the past 2 years, she is wearing the same clothes as when she went missing, and she doesn't appear confused or disoriented. What the heck is going on?

Wow this book was a chilling read! I wasn't sure what to expect from chapter to chapter, and I was hooked on the chapters to see what would happen next to explain what happened on that fateful walk two years ago and what made Julie the person she was today. She was acting strange and not herself, at least not the Julie her husband and friends remember her as. She seems to have changed, but why? The answer will leave you breathless.

A dark, edgy thriller of a book that will leave you shook!

What did I just read! This book was crazy. I can honestly say this book gave me the creeps! This had a total Stephen King vibe to it. That’s how creepy it was.

You have a group of 4 best friends Elise, Julie, Molly and Mae. Best of friends through college and now as adults. Then one day Julie turns up missing. Elise believes she’s alive however Molly and Mae feel she’s had something terrible happen to her. Two years later, after her funeral and all hope s lost Julie show up. But how much of Julie is left?

This book keeps you going. It’s so horrifically good that you can’t stop. You have to see what happens next.

First off, thank you to netgalley for the e-arc of this book.

I give this book a 4 star rating.

Over all feelings:
I highly enjoyed this book finishing it in one day, which for me is uncommon as I am a slow reader. I was pulled in almost from the start and the story doesn't let you go until the last words on the last page. If you are a monster fan this is the book for you.

Plot:
Four women (Elise, Molly, Mae, and Julie) become best friends in college and then go their own ways after. They do keep in touch but just aren't as close as they used to be. And then Julie disappears while on a hiking trip. After a year they believe her dead, have a memorial service and try to live their lives the best they can. Two years to the day that she disappeared, Julie returns and it's this return that most of the story focuses on.

Characters:
I feel the four women were really fleshed out. I felt that I truly connected to them as they were all flawed in a way that was believable. Some of the things that were done by them seemed a little too extreme, but it was still told in a way that made you think that it was perfect for that particular character and the situation.

Details/Description:
Harrison did an excellent job in this area. When they get to the inn that the women are staying at, you can truly picture what the rooms look like and why a couple of the women were horrified at what there room looked like. The description of what happens to Julie is pretty gory, but well written. Also, the story that Julie tells about what happened to her reminds me of a certain monster story, but I'm not going to say as not to spoil anything.

Recommend:
I would recommend this book to those who are fans of monster/horror movies, as this book totally has that vibe.

The four of them had been lifelong best friends, so when Julie mysteriously disappeared for two years, Mae and Molly painfully let go, believing she was dead. Only Elise feels deep in her very soul that Julie is out there, somewhere, perhaps unable to get back to them, but she was alive. And then her belief proved right, Julie returned, the past two years an empty chalkboard. Julie had no idea where she had been or what happened.

Believing a best friends getaway was in order, the four women took off to get reacquainted and hopefully help Julie remember what happened, but something wasn’t right… and their getaway became a tense and often painful time with more questions raised than answered.

THE RETURN by Rachel Harrison is a haunting tale of loss, relationships, and the inn they had chosen wasn’t helping. Was it haunted? Were the unusual events because of Julie? The truth may be stranger than fiction and it waits in the shadows, perhaps of the mind, the heart and even the inn.

Dark, stark and eerily written, prepare yourself to have your own questions, but do not expect to be far from the edge of your seat one moment, only to find yourself waiting for something to actually happen the next! A true rollercoaster of words, relationship confusions and, wondering, is Julie really back? The answers are out there…a good read, twisted, dark and unsettling.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Berkley! This is my honest and voluntary review.

Whelp, I devoured that book. It was so intriguing - missing woman returns after 2 years, but she's a bit ... off ... duhn duhn duuuuuuun!

The characters in the book were all a bit shell-like, but not quite, and they had enough going on to feel like the point of the interactions is what mattered. We have friends who are good for us at a time when they are needed, and when we hang on too long, the edges fray, the real comes in, and we see that the fit isn't always as perfect as little college/teenage/child-us thought. We are all ultimately alone. We feel disappointment with how things turned out, we feel lonely, we feel that those who matter most will never truly know us fully, because no one can! You just can't crawl into someone else's skin, right? This book works with these truth-y bits about life, humanity and our humanness, and tweeks it so perfectly to make a very horrific book that makes you nervously bite your fingers with each page turn, and also laugh out loud at the drippy-best-friend-sarcasm that comes out the the characters' mouths.

I just finished a book by Ottessa Moshfegh and honestly, the feel of the main character is the SAME. These are books about young women who, like many of us, get way introspective and self-reflective and find essential things missing. Things that, if you look too closely, or spend too much time fiddling with, you fall into an Alice-In-Wonderland-meets-the-Upside-Down hole. So we avoid. Avoid avoid avoid. We interact on the surface with other human surfaces, but still feel all these things. Things that creep out and create effing creepy-but-weirdly-horrifyingly-real books like this.

Crazy, and amazing book.

I had been looking forward to reading The Return by Rachel Harrison for awhile, so when I got the opportunity to review it, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, I was left feeling very disappointed.

The plot for The Return sounds promising. Elise's best friend Julie disappeared 2 years ago. No one had heard or seen her. Then one day, Julie showed up again claiming to have no memory of what happened. No one ever pressed her for answers. However, Julie isn't like she was before. She's acting much different, and the smell she gives off is terrible! What really happened to Julie during those two years she was missing?

The Return started out extremely slow. I kept reading thinking the pacing would pick up. However, it never did except for a tiny bit during the end where all the action happens, but even then, the pacing is still slow. This book really lacks any kind of action, in my opinion, and is instead more like watching three snobby and boring women on a vacation where they just stay in their hotel. I skimmed through a lot of this book waiting for something interesting to happen.

I couldn't connect to any of the characters. There is some backstory for each of the characters, but it feels forced and jagged and like it doesn't fit in very well with the book. The only semi-decent character is Elise. She's a tad bit relatable, but even she doesn't feel that realistic. She's too dependent on others especially when it comes to Julie. Putting her life in danger after finding out what really happened to Julie was just insane and didn't feel like something a real person would do. Maebs and Molly were snobby rich women how seemed to not want to do much. Maebs liked complaining all the time, and I don't really know what the point of Molly was.

Trigger warnings include profanity, drinking, violence, death, and murder.

Overall, The Return fell short of my expectations. The pacing was too slow, and the characters just felt too wooden. Unfortunately, I would not recommend The Return.

Well that was creepy! The Return is a well written story that stayed unpredictable throughout. I could relate to the girlfriends and their bond. I did find myself turning the light off at night with a little trepidation. A great read! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of The Return.

Quite the interesting read. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting when I first started reading it but by the end I was pleasantly surprised. The beginning was a bit slow for me but once it got moving I couldn't put it down. I felt like I could be reading an early Stephen King or Dean Koontz book. For this to be the author's debut novel, I am quite impressed! It had me wanting to double-check the locks on my doors, under my bed and in my closet for anything that might be lurking! Great job!

I knew from the description that this book would be creepy, but for some reason, I wasn't expecting it to be straight up horror. That being said, it really isn't what put me off this book. The unlikable characters did that. The main character, Elise was so needy and insecure. I just couldn't stand her. The rest of the characters were not great either. The whole dynamic between the friends was unlikable to me. It was almost as if they never grew out of the college phase. The only one I sort of liked was Molly, and she was supposedly the mean abrasive one. To top off my dislike of the main character, she also has done something in her past that she doesn't even seem to get was really, really wrong.

What I liked the most about this book were the creepy moments, and the mystery of what was really going on. The hotel setting was creepy, but not in the same predictable way as most horror settings. It was weird and quirky in a way that was unsettling. This part of the book delivered well. The thing that I dislike about horror, is that once the mystery behind everything is revealed, I'm usually disappointed in the explanation. It's no longer scary, and that was the case with this book as well. I felt like once the book got to the big climax, I was kind of zoning out. Even though I should have been on the edge of my seat in fear for Elise, all I could do was think of all the dumb things she was doing. And I can't say I really cared what happened to her because I didn't like her.

If your looking for creepy, this would probably work for you, but having not read a lot of horror, I can't really say how well horror aficionados will like it. Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

3.5 stars--somewhere between liked and really liked.

This is a horror novel with the breezy tone of chick lit--but the book's description makes it sound like a suspense novel! Because of this, I suspect some readers might be confused by the book, expecting it to be something it's not (I expected a missing-girl suspense novel with a human "bad guy." It's not that!). I liked the mix of genres--but I think this is primarily a novel about relationships, dressed up as a horror novel. Don't read it if you don't like some gore!

Four late-20s college friends visit a secluded hotel to reconnect after one of them returns from being mysteriously missing for two years. She's not the same, and the (gruesome) thing that happened to her becomes a metaphor for how people and relationships change over the years.

It reminded me a bit of Mona Awad's Bunny, though not so weird. But that same mix of humor and horror and metaphor.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

This was definitely not what I was anticipating. I thought that books about women with amnesia were a bit played out, but that the horror aspect of this one might make it fresh. Luckily, that seems to be the case with this one. However, that comes with a caveat - this book is weird. This book is intriguing, but I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone who is easily grossed out, because this book is described as "edgy" for a reason. The characters are interesting and for the most part they are fleshed out, but the author does fall into the trap of "telling" without "showing" quite a bit. Points for keeping me interested through the whole thing, but this one is a three star read.