Welcome to the DISAPPOINTED BOILING READERS REHABILITATION CENTER:

PATIENT NAME: Nilufer (we couldn’t get proper last name, she confused us with a waiter because she determinedly pointed the empty glass she held in her hand and shouted us to pour more Chardonnay)

SYMPTOMS: Cursing, punching on the walls, yelling, screaming “give my money back” and then she calms down and adds: “Oh thank God! This is ARC COPY! I didn’t pay for it” and she makes some undefinable, horrifying moves between caged animal’s banging their heads at the bars and jumpy cat who recently lost its tail. She defined this moves as her happy dance.

TREATMENT: We gave her “Shining”s signed copy and poured a big glass of wine to shout her up! And of course we stole her dancing shoes so she is not gonna scare the other unhappy readers ( We have a huge group stopped by lately who recently read “Testament” and they’re in big pain right now!!! Terribly sorry for big Handmaid’s Tale fans!)

Okay, this is me again! As you read my anxious reader patient report above, I had an unexpected hysterical book-down ( it was not a breakdown! I just want to put the book down forever and never want to read it again!) I’m disappointedly leaving my two stars on the table. (I felt like a town sheriff who is resigning, taking to her horse to the Old Town Road)

Here’s the thing! I love horror so much. I love ghost stories, supernatural, paranormal things because they make me stronger to deal with real life’s suffocating problems and entertain me so much ( I never claimed I’m a normal person but I’m not gonna sing “Creep” in my cover version and bleed your ears, don’t worry!)

But when it comes to this book:
I was so excited to read a new brilliant debut author’s work. And the cover is magnificent! The blurb is intriguing: Julie goes for a hike and disappears into thin air. Nobody knows where the hell she is. Three besties and newly husband are so worried (after one years later they arrange a ceremony for declaration of her death! Two of her friends start to see shrinks! Poor silly girls!)

But Elise, who has a special relationship with Julie never believes she is dead. And she is right. Julie is found at her house’s porch, in same clothes she wore when she disappeared. She has no idea about her lost two years.
So the besties arrange a trip at shabby version of Overlook located at Catskill Mountains (I don’t want to imagine this special place where too many legendary comedians perform their first acting experiences as horrifying place!)

So here’s my boiling points:
Julie came back! She is thinner! She had bad tooth. She looks the shell of herself! And surprisingly she loves meat so much! (It’s so strange right because before she disappeared she was a vegetarian. So she gathers her wits in two years, it is not a bad thing, right?)

All her friends have no common, talking like teenagers not nearly 30 years old people, keep saying “I love you’”s but they don’t have any idea why the hell they love each other so much are really worried about their friends. But they don’t ask what is going with her.
All the characters including best friend Elise are so boring, artificial. I still don’t understand the reason why Elise’s afraid of her own shadow. I thought she had a traumatic past but when I read the background story I found out she is a regular silly girl who made unreasonable choices and now she is penniless and suffering from Electra complex.
And why these four friends came to this tasteless, kitschy place? There is nothing out of ordinary with this place, instead of designing failures and creepy hotel crew! This is not Overlook! This is not even a creepy motel located in the middle nowhere. So I did’t understand the reasoning of the author to bring those girls to this place! They can go to cabin in the woods and it will be more effective place, fitting better with the story.
And the last point: I waited for a good conclusion and better satisfying ending. As you may understand that I’m still seething and eating a big bag of Doritos Poppin Jalapeno (they’re freaking delicious by the way) the ending didn’t work well with me!
FINAL RESULT: POTENTIALS WASTED FOR NOTHING!

Lately I read too many great thriller ARC COPIES (Like brilliant Sun Down Motel) so I was really expecting too much and so excited to read this book but you cannot find the winners every time. Let’s forget this book and move to the next one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group to share this ARC COPY in exchange my honest review. I wish I could enjoy it like the last thrillers I’ve read lately.

This is a chilling debut novel . Julie , Elise , Mae and Molly have been best friends for years . Elise and Julie are particularly close so when Julie goes missing for 2 years after supposedly living and idyllic life with her new husband Elise refuses to believe she is dead . Then suddenly Julie returns but she is not quite the same . A haunting thrilling novel that will creep you out .

This is a light horror story. Julie has gone missing yet her friend Elise just cant believe it to be true. She's proven right when Julie returns after 2 years wearing the same clothing with no memory of her disappearance. A girl pack of four friends reunite for a weekend trip. Yet something is off about Julie and the whole weekend. Its a nice concept and really tried to love it but I felt the characters were flat and one dimensional. That said I still finished the book. There is some good suspense and build up. I felt it could have been better with a little more work fleshing out the characters and story. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for this ARC.

Well, not what I expected, but not in a bad way. Hard to review without giving too much away. Julie, Elise, Molly, and Mae have been best friends forever. They all have a lot of baggage they bring with them.
Julie disappears, comes back after two years. She remembers nothing about where she was, or so she says.
The women think it is a good idea to reunite for a girls weekend, to give Julie an opportunity to talk on her terms. But the Julie who shows up is not the Julie who left..

This one was freaky! While not there was very little by way of actual action in this book, the creep factor was still somehow through the rough. As the question turns from "How is Jules" to "WHAT is Jules", I continued to turn on more and more lights in my house! Definitely not as much action as typical thriller, but plenty of creepy for a horror novel.

This review won't be a long one. Mainly because I just didn't enjoy this book and I don't want to be a negative Nancy. The Return wasn't edgy and it wasn't haunting. Sorry to ya, blurb. I really hate breaking it to you. Not only that, but the majority of the book is just three girls talking behind one girls back. That’s it. That's not even a spoiler, it's just hard facts. 

The other part of the book is just the author telling us things. This is definitely a book of telling. It tells you literally everything. Tell, tell, tell. Less telling / more showing please. 

Another thing I really struggled with was the setting of the book. So much was built up around the strangeness of this place they were visiting for absolutely no apparent reason whatsoever that I can figure out because it plays no actual part in the plot. None. Zilch. I felt really set up by the author and tricked with no treat.

There was no horror. There was no suspense. There was just no... nothing. I was underwhelmed and not satisfied in the least bit. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

This book could have easily been a run of the mill thriller without the horror storyline...but the horror element really raised the bar and made this book enjoyable. I liked the characters and I genuinely cared what happened to them. It was a slow build of dread that culminated at the right point and didn’t let go. The theme of friendship and how it changes hasn’t ever been looked at in this way. I will definitely recommend this book.

I really wanted to like this book, because this type of thriller appeals to me. The characters did not seem developed enough, they reminded me of characters from a young adult novel. The only reason I gave it three stars was because I was intrigued by what the ending would bring, so I kept turning the pages. However, that fell short for me too.

Unsettling, haunting debut that I really couldn’t put down until it was all over. I was on edge for most of it in a good way, but didn’t want to stop reading! Definitely not something I was able to read right before bed, and even in the daytime it was super eerie because I was reading it in an empty apartment. A great horror story about trying to cling to friendships even when you’ve grown away from them.

Two years after Julie disappears, she returns with no memory of what happened to her. She puts off seeing her 3 friends for a few months until they plan a weekend away at a remote cabin. Immediately the friends notice something in different about Julie, an odd smell, a missing dimple, etc but she still has her past memories. I enjoyed the friendship the women had, inside jokes and being able to be honest with each other. The book definitely had some creepy scenes and kept you guessing what was going on. This is such a different book from other horror books!

So, I got a kick out of this one. I’m saying this, knowing that some folks may not. A lot of time is spent getting to know our characters – there’s a lot of patter that I actually liked, but some folks might not.

The story is weird and eerie and it goes places you definitely don’t expect.

No spoilers here. I’ll just say that the description of the book is bare bones compared to the actuality of the plot.

While it take a bit to get to the meat of the story, I found the journey worthwhile. I was riveted and anxious to find out the secret behind everything!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

This was one of the most disappointing books I’ve read in a long time. The story of four friends, one of whom goes missing for two years and then suddenly reappears, combined with the promise of suspense and maybe some horror elements, seemed really intriguing. Unfortunately, it was not. I found the writing flat, the characters boring and the plot predictable. At the beginning, Julie’s disappearance and subsequent return are low-key to the point of being boring. Even after the friends reunite at a hotel that is one step up from the Bates’ Motel, things really don’t pick up. The girls talk and talk and talk. There is a slightly spooky vibe; but no terror and very little suspense.

I really was excited for this book- the concept, the overall creepiness, the mystery at the core. At times I felt the execution, however, was a little weak. My major (only?) complaint was the dialogue between the four main characters. The conversations reminded me of young adult novels, or the way teenagers speak-- not 27 year old women. There were a couple times I rolled my eyes, but it wasn't so disruptive that I couldn't look past it. It wasn't difficult to figure out what was going on, nor was it difficult to figure out an underlying message in the book...but that doesn't change the fact that this book is CREEPY. .

This book is wild. It’s not at all what I thought it would be, and I loved that. Couldn’t put it down. If you’re expecting another woman-with-amnesia thriller...well, all I’m going to say is it’s NOT that. 😊 I suspect some people may struggle with that. But one of my favorite things in a book—whether I’m reading it or writing it—is a familiar trope turned on its head. And that’s what this was, to my absolute delight. I absolutely want to say more, but I went into this completely unspoiled and I’m glad I did!

I've been sitting with my feelings about this book for a few days, and have found that I don't really have any more of a coherent sense of how to talk about this book than the moment after I finished it.
I also don't know if I want to give it 3 stars or 4, I feel like I keep waffling about how much I liked the book, which is a strange experience (both my mercurial feelings and the book itself).

I know one isn't supposed to share quotes from ARCs as things may change, but there was one line that stood out to me, that seemed to sum up so much of the story: "You can't erase your past when there are pieces of it scattered inside other people."

This story is about adult friendships, in particular, what friendships that began in college look like once those friends are in their twenties. As someone who struggles to navigate adult friendships, this was definitely a topic of interest for me, and the bonkers setting of a remote hotel full of themed rooms was a delight.

But it's also a horror novel. And sometimes I felt like I couldn't be certain when the horror was being used as symbolism and when it was supposed to just be straight up creepy, and there is plenty of creep factor. I suppose I'm left wondering about the symbolism because by the end there are so many questions that just never get asked, never mind answered. And that's all I can say without spoiling anything, but if anyone else read the last part and felt like those in the final scene were a little too chill with everything- let's talk.

This book drew me in from the start. The characters were pretty well developed, and I feel like I got a good sense of each of them, each of their distinct personalities and viewpoints, even though the story was told by the point of view of the same person. The first 75% of the book was fantastic, but the last 25% dragged a little. I think it just took too long to wrap up at the end, otherwise I'd have given this more than 3 stars.

Julie (Jules), Elise, Mae and Molly are best friends and have remained that way for most of their lives. However, Jules disappeared on a hike two years ago and her body was never found. Suddenly one afternoon she shows up on her husband's doorstep with no explanation and claims she has no memory of the last two years... Mae wants the five of them to reunite so she arranges for them to visit a kitschy hotel in upstate New York, and it will be the first time any of them have seen Jules since she returned. At first they are confused about her appearance and behavior, but then it becomes apparent something is deeply wrong. Can a lifelong friendship survive a return from the dead?
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Julie has been missing for two years when she suddenly reappears with no memory of what happened to her or where she has been. Her friends Elise, Molly and Mae, rally around her, taking the obviously distraught Julie to an inn in the country for a weekend of girl time. But Julie is radically different, so much so, her friends are very uneasy. And they should be as there is no way of knowing what happened to Julie, if she is even the same person at all. If she’s even human. I wasn’t ready for the scare factor in this book, the isolated inn, the unsuspecting friends and the realization that they are dealing with something so terrifying, it defies the imagination

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.