The Return by Rachel Harrison
Channel: SCLSNJ
Date: 2020-04-13

The Return by Rachel Harrison and It Seems Weird But Maybe You Should Read That Horror Novel During Quarantine


Two years ago Julie went hiking alone in Acadia National Park and disappeared. A little over a year ago funeral services were held for Julie with her new husband and three best friends were in attendance. Elise, who likes to think she was closest to Julie, never accepted that Julie was dead. Deep down she felt Julie would come back one day. Two years later Julie returned. 


The four friends, Mae, Molly, Elise and Julie, decide to have an October reunion at a kitschy hotel in upstate New York to celebrate Julie’s return. When Julie arrives her friends are a little shocked but are desperately trying to hide it. Julie seems different. She was a vegetarian and now she’s eating rare steaks. Her teeth are just bad and some have fallen out at the dinner table. Then there is her smell… The friends know this is Julie, they have quizzed her, she knows things only Julie would know, but they are beginning to think that maybe she isn’t Julie at the same time. So then who returned from the forest?


This book has a lot of heart. It’s about how hard it is to let go of the friendships that meant so much to you in the past but you have outgrown in one way or another. How growing apart is something that happens and it is okay. How you can love someone and still let them go for the betterment of you both — especially when one person in the relationship doesn’t seem to be exactly human anymore.


This is a great audiobook. It’s funny a lot of the time, has a lot of heart and the descriptions will make your lip curl. This author is great with bad smells. She really makes you experience them. One of the characters sounded like Awkwafina to me and I loved that too.


I started a thing a while ago. I only read a few sentences of a review or description before deciding to watch a movie or read a book. That way I’m surprised. This time I was very surprised. I thought this was a kidnapping thriller not a horror book. And it was a GREAT surprise. I didn’t realize that a horror book was exactly what I needed right now.


Don’t think a horror book is the ideal read while in quarantine? Let me explain why I think it is!