The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean starts off with a compelling premise that had me hooked right away. The mystery surrounding Ellie Black's reappearance after two years in the wilderness, coupled with Detective Chelsey Calhoun's personal quest to solve her sister's long-standing disappearance, creates a strong narrative drive.

However, I found it challenging to keep track of the characters and some of the storyline's intricacies. It could have been a problem with my listening experience, as I had the audiobook, or maybe the book's pacing and structure contributed to my confusion. Despite these hiccups, the plot takes a dark and intriguing turn, keeping you guessing.

As the story progresses, the twists and turns become more intense. Unfortunately, by the end, it felt like the plot went a bit too far, losing some of its earlier focus. Despite these reservations, the book's feminist themes and gripping mystery elements make it a worthwhile read, especially for fans of thrillers with strong emotional undercurrents.

Man, talk about a book hangover. This one is going to be hard to get over.

In The Return of Ellie Black Detective Chelsey Calhoun gets a do over when Ellie, who has been missing for two years, has suddenly reappeared in the woods near their small town of Sid;lfkjas;dlkf, Washington. Physically malnourished and obviously terrified, Ellie is reluctant to speak about her time with her captor, and Chelsey must tread a fine line if she has any hope of solving this case.

Chelsey is determined to not let another girl vanish. She is driven to the point of neglect to her marriage and disregard for precinct rules. Ellie’s case haunts her and brings back her own trauma of her sister’s disappearance many years ago. Her character has selfish tendencies, but her heart and dedication to helping makes it easy to disregard her flaws.

This book is a slow burn that puts the reader into the mind of a monster. Many parts are tough to read, but Emiko Jean handles them delicately. The alternating points of view gives a full picture of everything and everyone and makes the book hard to put down, in particular the last quarter of the book, which has one heck of a twist that will leave the reader reeling. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers do not miss this one!

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and of course the author Emiko Jean for the advanced copy of the book. The Return of Ellie Black is out now. All opinions are my own.

Oh man. This was dark. That being said, I was beyond engaged the entire time. The writing was beautiful and the storytelling was done incredibly well. I definitely felt an emotional connection to our characters.

With multiple POV’s and first hand accounts, this book will take you for a ride- you won’t be able to predict what comes next. There were a number of times I had to pause because it got dark, disturbing, and descriptive, but that final reveal? Smh. How 😩

I really enjoyed this!

Talk about a page turner. This book had me HOOKED! I don't read a ton of thrillers, but I so appreciate a well-paced thriller with compelling characters, and Emiko Jean's newest book absolutely delivers both.

I always get so nervous as I approach the end of a thriller, because I feel like everything hinges on the resolution. (Has the author laid enough groundwork for the reveal to pay off? Does it make sense? Is it realistic?) The resolution of this book was arguably my favorite part of the entire story. The foundations and backstory were there, and the reveal was believable (and honestly shocking without feeling like it came out of nowhere).

I think this book is best if you don't know anything at all going into it, so I'm not going to elaborate much on the story or characters here. I do have a couple additional thoughts, though. There were a few aspects of the book that I wish Emiko Jean could have dug into a bit more. Throughout the book, Detective Chelsea Calhoun, one of the protagonists, is deeply immersed in her job. And while Jean addresses some of the problems with the white male cop culture that is an inherent part of this job, I felt like she could have explored this/pushed it further.

Additionally, this same protagonist is also a Japanese woman who was adopted as a child by a white family. Emiko Jean is an Asian-identifying author who often writes Japanese characters, and I was quite excited to see how this would play out in the story. While she references it a couple of times (mostly in the context of feeling like a bit of an outsider, particularly at her job), I also would have loved to see Chelsea's identity play a larger role in the story.

Content warnings: kidnapping, sexual assault of a minor, murder, gun violence, domestic abuse, emotional abuse

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for my advanced copy!

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
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After being missing for two years, Ellie Black is found as a shell of her former self. Detective Chelsey Calhoun takes back up the case, eager to find who held Ellie captive, and where are they now?
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What I liked:
-This was a great mystery book. We mostly follow Detective Chelsey as she tries to unravel what happened to Ellie. At the same time we are learning more about Chelsey and what drives her in her police work.
-Ellie was such a mystery herself. She was a tough nut to crack after everything that she went through. I loved the chapters where we learned more about her.
-The last 20% of the book was crazy, and I loved every minute of it!
-The second to the last chapter in the book was very emotional and made me cry.
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4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What an excellent missing person story. I am very impressed and definitely recommend.

This is Emiko Jean’s first foray into thriller territory and she certainly nailed it. Ellie Black went missing two years ago. She suddenly shows up, on a hiking path, and is found by two hikers. Detective Chelsey Calhoun worked Ellie’s missing person case. She’s elated that Ellie has been found and is eager to speak with her so she can find who took her. Ellie is evasive, though. She isn’t cooperative and this leaves Chelsey to wonder if it’s PTSD or something else.

I absolutely loved this one. I was hooked from the beginning and loved the multiple POV. Chelsey also has secrets and the twists were great. It’s definitely a page turner and I couldn’t put it down. I read it in two days.

If you're looking for a new page-turner to add to your TBR, THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK deserves to make your short list at the very least. I read this novel in one long sitting because I just couldn't put it down. There were definitely some references to types of content I don't love to read about, but nothing happened on the page that was too graphic. Please heed the CWs.

Seventeen year old Ellie Black leaves a party in search of a bathroom and disappears without a trace. Two years later Ellie is found wandering the woods in Washington state.

Detective Chelsey Calhoun has followed her dad’s footsteps into the police force, she is driven after the disappearance and murder of her sister when she was a teenager. She was assigned Ellie’s case when she originally disappeared and she is determined to get the man who kidnapped Ellie.

Something seems off with Ellie, and when she stops cooperating with the investigation, it makes detective Calhoun that much more determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.

There really isn’t much I can tell you about this book, there are so many twists and turns. The book is primarily told through the POV’s of Chelsey and Ellie with others sprinkled throughout. Just when I was confident I knew where the author was going, she would throw a twist that sent me in a completely different direction. This book was impossible to put down.

Some of the descriptions of Ellie when she was kidnapped were difficult to read so please check TW before reading.

If you like fast paced thrillers I think you will love this one.

Detective Chelsey Calhoun is awakened by a call late one night: Ellie Black has been found after missing for two years. This news launches Chelsey in a fast paced mystery thriller of trying to figure out who took Ellie and where she’s been all this time. To make things more complicated, Chelsey is still haunted by the loss of her sister whose murder twenty years ago broke her family apart.

Let me just say that overall I enjoyed this book. It was a page turner, and I was desperate to know how it ended. However, as I read, there are several things that pulled me out of the thrill of the story, and I found the ending pretty disappointing.

Let’s start with the positives.

Positives:
1. I thought the characters were fun. Even though they were very stereotypical (loner small town copy, bland supportive spouse, every man is violent and dismissive, every woman is angry and unsatisfied) this actually made it easy to follow the story because you didn’t have to think too much about their motivations. I know that doesn’t sound like a good thing, but I think the plot was twisty enough without having to also question what the characters were up to. It makes for a good mystery thriller to read for someone who’s never read one before.
2. I loved Danny and Ellie’s relationship. I thought they were sweet and their problems and interactions before and after her abduction felt so realistic. Ellie’s parents were also written really well. The way they handled their daughter's disappearance felt very true.
4. The switching POVs were a little jarring at first, but it was easy to understand who was telling the story, and I thought it made for an interesting story format.
5. The description of Ellie’s abduction and her time with her captor was absolutely chilling, and some of the things that happened to her will definitely haunt me for a while.
6. I really loved seeing Chelsey’s internal monologues and doubts as she went through the case and how much she cared about the people involved.

Cons:
1. I really thought we were going to get a bit more about Chelsey’s Japanese heritage, or her trying to learn about her heritage.
2. I love police procedural shows, and I understand you just have to ignore some of the science because it won’t make sense. But the part with the DNA? I’m pretty sure that’s not how DNA works, though I might be wrong.
3. I didn’t mind the repeated comments about the violence towards women, because it is true especially for the mystery thriller genre, but why not go louder with it? Why not have Chelsey make an impassioned speech to her husband or boss about why she has to do certain things? Why not have her talk about this to Ellie?
4. All the reveals were so unsatisfying. One of the reveals was easy to guess, and the other one was such a blah moment because there was no emotional buildup for the surprise. The reveal at the very end was silly and so out of the blue. To make it effective, there should have been some hints scattered throughout the book so that the reader could revel in that moment of connecting all the dots. Or we should have met more of the characters involved so we’d feel a connection to what’s happening on the page.


I hope I didn’t spoil anything for those who still want to pick up the book. And it is definitely a fun book to pick up, especially if the things that bothered me don’t bother you. I’d recommend it for an easy summer read.


Thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for this arc in return for an honest review.

Crazy thriller that kept me interested in the story and how it was going to be resolved. Did not expect the ending and all the connections to the twist.

Let’s start with the fact that I finished 70% of the book in one day alone - once it gets going, it was hard to put down! I loved the way that the chapters were put into two different perspectives as well, I think it helped me keep the pages turning. With mysteries and thrillers, especially those with a “whodunnit” type of vibe, I always try to guess the ending and who is involved. When I tell you that I SO did not see that twist coming!!! I absolutely love that in a book, I was totally stunned. And I’m glad the author leaned into the details and background after the reveal at the end, but I think I wanted more from that development.

For more than twenty years, Chelsey Calhoun has been plagued by the disappearance of her younger sister. In an attempt to aid others in escaping peril, she follows in her father's footsteps and joins the local police department. A girl is discovered by two hikers while they are exploring the Washington State forests. The girl? Ellie Black vanished two years ago. Ellie stays silent and declines to cooperate with the investigation, despite Chelsey's tireless efforts to bring Ellie to justice. Chelsey finds that Ellie is still silent when she looks more closely at the evidence. Ellie must act quickly to save the other girls because time is of the essence for Chelsey. This compelling narrative cleverly switches from Ellie's point of view and the third person. You can truly feel and sense how frail Ellie is and how driven she is to complete the tasks at hand when you see the world through her eyes. The more that is learned about Ellie's experiences, the darker this story becomes. Nevertheless, despite everything Ellie has been through, there are moments of gentler, quieter tone scattered between the high drama, high intensity chapters that give us a glimpse of optimism that her life may return to normal.

This book's twists and turns are astounding, but they also provide readers—as well as Chelsey and Ellie—closure. I'm eager to read more writing by Emiko Jean because this was written so well..

Thank you netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the advance readers copy. This is my first book by this author and i look forward to more to come.

When Ellie Black disappears, the hunt for her seems all too familiar. Young women have been disappearing from the local area for many years and never found. But after two years missing, Ellie is found wandering and returned to her family. After two years, this is not the same Ellie that disappeared and it's up to the police to investigate her disappearance and where she has been while missing.

The story has elements of previous thrillers, but Emiko Jean has given the story over to the women involved, a twist on most police procedurals, a welcome twist. Multiple POVs try to fill in the blanks while showing the courage it would take for Ellie to survive her captivity and the dedication of the young deputy who will not stop until the mystery is solved and the criminals punished. THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK may be fiction but is all too sadly based on the sensation headlines we see too often for comfort.

Pretty cool mystery... Didn't think of it as great but it wasn't bad. Overall, A solid book. Had couple aha moments that were really nice

I absolutely loved this book and gave it a 5⭐️ it’s so well written and I was so impressed with the story and the twists. I liked how real and raw these characters are . I couldn’t stop reading it and I enjoyed the shocking twist, didn’t see that coming. Such a great book.

Ya girl loves a cult-ish turn! (I mean, it wasn't a cult, but it had those kinds of vibes...)

The Return of Ellie Black really surprised me! It was sometimes a bit too convenient in what was happening, but it did keep me engaged and I read it very quickly. I would definitely recommend this book.

For vibes, if you like to read seasonally, this definitely gave me more fall vibes than anything. Plan your TBR accordingly.

Detective Chesley Calhoun is awakened by a phone call from her precinct that hikers have found an emaciated young woman wandering in the forest, saying her name is Elizabeth Black, a local teen who went missing two years ago. Ellie’s unexplained reappearance generates more questions than answers: Who took Ellie? Where has she been? What has she been through? But Ellie refuses to explain.

The story unfolds from multiple perspectives. The reader gets to unravel the threads of Ellie’s case along with Chelsey, while Ellie’s POV takes the reader through all of the horrors she endured while she was missing. This book is the Goldilocks of propulsion: neither fast-paced nor slow burn, but the perfect amount of haunting, simmering suspense. It held me in its grip the entire time, unable to turn away from the dark themes of violence against women and manipulation.

The audiobook is a full cast narration, which really brings the plot to life and gives each character a distinct voice. It’s also the best way to absorb Emiko Jean’s lyrical prose, in my opinion. I both read and listened to this one, and both formats are excellent, but if you have the chance, definitely go for the audiobook!

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster, Simon Audio, and Simon Books Buddy for the advance copies!

I don't even know how to review this book. It was excellent. The style in which it was written, and the storyline, all too familiar now, along with great characters. Must read for sure!

An addictively dark thriller, that I absolutely loved!

Seventeen year-old Ellie Black leaves a party in search of a restroom and without a trace, she never returns. Two years later she’s discovered wandering in the woods. A shell of her former self.

Her parents and boyfriend are thankful she’s alive and try and help her in any way they can. But when it comes time for Ellie to tell the police where she has been, she stays silent and refuses to help with the investigation. Chelsey Calhoun, the lead detective assigned to Ellies case needs to find out what really happened to Ellie, because Ellie may not be the only victim.

I enjoyed the multi POV’s of the victim and the detective assigned to her case. I thought the author did a great job of writing about a sensitive subject with respect and understanding. It was twisty, shocking and heartbreaking, this story captured me from the start and kept me riveted right to the end with some surprises I didn't see coming. I had the honor of reading this ARC thanks to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster, and the author, Emiko Jean.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

Detective Chelsey Calhoun's sister went missing when they were teenagers and she was the last one to see her alive. In the years since becoming a cop, she is drawn to cases of missing girls, yearning to save them when she couldn't save her sister.

One of those girls is Ellie Black who is found alive in the woods over two years since she disappeared. Chelsey is hopeful that Ellie's case is one in which justice will prevail, but Ellie is evasive and doesn't want to help the investigation.

The story is told in alternating views as Chelsey tries to figure out what is going on with Ellie and where she's been and Ellie tells her story from the night of her disappearance to the present. This story is layered excellently with just enough given at a time to keep the suspense going. The twist was unexpected and had me flipping back to see if I missed any hints.