The Return of Ellie Black was my first book by Emiko Jean and I picked it because I loved the cover. I’m a pick a book by the cover type of person.

The story was just as great as the cover. I do recommend though if you have trigger warnings to check them out, there are a couple common trigger warnings.

All I can say is wow! I really enjoyed reading the story and following the clues. The end definitely came to a shock to me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a chance to read an advance copy in exchange for a honest review.

The writing is fantastic...the story goes off the rails. You will not be able to put Jean's latest down - it is compulsively readable. However, the final reveals were disappointingly far-fetched and aired on the side of ridiculous.

Such a twisty thriller! I love when I have a hard time figuring out what actually happened, and I’m happy to report, I never saw it coming! I will absolutely be recommending this one.

For some reason, I thought I’d already read this - but I was WRONG! I’m so glad I caught this book before it left NetGalley. It begins with a thin, filthy, bloody girl running through the woods. A father and son out hiking ask her if she’s okay, and once they are able to get her to say something, her answer is chilling. Her name is Elizabeth Black, and she’s been missing for two years.

Detective Chelsea Calhoun had interviewed everyone at the time of Ellie’s disappearance - her parents, her few friends, her boyfriend - and nobody knew what happened to her. She was at a party, then she was gone. For two years, everyone has been waiting for news about her disappearance. Now, everyone is eager to know what happened over the past two years, but Ellie is a shell of a person and let’s just say, not up for chats about the situation. Luckily for the reader, we get to hear her story in her first-person chapters throughout the book.

Chelsea has her own trauma that ties her to this case in a special way; she lost her sister years prior and now wants to save Ellie and fix everything she’s been through. Soon though, she learns there’s a lot more to Ellie’s story than meets the eye. Ellie isn’t the only victim in this case, and Chelsea won’t stop until she knows the truth and gets justice.

As for what I thought of the story? It was fantastic! The characters were written so well, the book itself was also written flawlessly, and the novel was multifaceted without getting overly complicated. This is quite a suspenseful thriller, with a lot of shocks that I never saw coming. I can’t think of much I would change! 4.5 stars, rounded up for being a debut thriller.

(Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Emiko Jean and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

First book I’ve ready by this author and it won’t be the last.
This story is a nail biter and will have you reading well into the night.

Characters are likable, some not so much.

You won’t see the twist coming!

Can not wait to read more by this author.

Ellie was abducted, but now she's back. And strangely, things aren't going well, or at least it seems like there are still secrets.

This book wasn't what I expected, but the psychological thriller piece captured me and I was carried through to the end so quickly! Emiko Jean adds enough twists to keep you guessing!

My first time with this author and I enjoyed every minute of it. The author did a great job weaving the past and the present into the story. She did not over tell each part of the story, it kept you engaged. The twist at the end brought the story all together

Rating 4.25

I've been seeing a lot of hype for this book and it didn't disappoint. It was well written and had good pacing. It was a quick and bingeable read (though I didn't rush it).

I found the story engaging and suspenseful as Detective Chelsey Calhoun tries to unravel the mystery behind Ellie Black's disappearance and reappearance two years later. Detective Calhoun's own history and experience with missing girls adds to her determination to find the culprit even as it blurs the line between personal feelings and professional responsibility. 

I thought the author did a good job describing the psychological effect of Ellie's kidnapping - the dependency she had on her abductor and the bonds formed for survival. There are themes of misogyny and discrimination prevalent throughout the book adding to its depth.

I didn't feel the twist at the end was necessary, and also wasn't surprised by it. I suspected something was going to be revealed at the end though not necessarily how.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable thriller and I can see why so many readers have been raving about it. 

Thank you @simonbooks for this finished copy! #simonbuddy

"Chelsey wondered if her father, if people in general, should spend less time protecting daughters and more time worrying about sons. The dangerous things boys do. How they might be raised differently."

Wow! I can't believe that this is the author's debut thriller! It was so well done, and I loved the mystery surrounding what happened to Ellie when she was taken. I liked that we got flashbacks of that time periodically throughout the book. Those chapters were dark, disturbing, and sad, but so well written.

I loved Chelsea and thought she was a great and complex character. She never got closure from when her sister disappeared 20 years ago, but I think that gave her even more strength and determination to find out who took Ellie.

This was already a fast read for me, but once I got about 3/4 of the way in, I could not move out of my chair until I finished!

Thank you, @netgalley, @emikojeanbooks, and @simonandschuster, for the #gifted e-arc and physical copy of this book!

I received a free ARC ebook of <i>The Return of Ellie Black</i> from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This novel is an engrossing beach read. Ellie, a teen girl missing for two years, mysteriously reappears. Local detective Chelsey has lots of questions but Ellie remains reticent. The trauma of her experience has her sleeping in a crawlspace, not washing or allowing anyone to touch her. Chelsey has her own family trauma: her sister Lydia had disappeared fifteen years earlier. Her family disintegrated under the stress and her marriage is strained since Chelsey isn't great at relationships.

The basic premise of this plot is too similar to Robert Dugoni's Tracy Crosswhite series. Tracy, too, is a Washington state based detective haunted by the disappearance of her sister. All cases of missing girls are viewed through the lens of what might have happened to her sister. She also has difficulty in maintaining a relationship.

Despite the similarities, this novel will keep readers guessing.

This book has my attention from the very beginning. It ticks all the boxes of a great thriller/mystery novel. I specifically enjoyed the fact that it was one of those mysteries where you solve it from the end rather than the beginning. The victim has returned, and now detectives must work to connect the dots of their abduction and capture the abductor. The book will have you on the edge of your seat and wanting more. The characters are fantastic and written so well. The plot and all of its twists were well executed. I highly recommend this book and will watch for any new books by the author. This was a fantastic read!

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks!

I had a difficult time getting into this. To be fair I was in a reading slump when I picked it up so I may give it a try again later but this wasn’t what I was in the mood for when picking it up.

This debut thriller from Emiko Jean gets a solid 4 stars from me! This psychological thriller kept my attention and I didn't want to put it down until I had read it cover to cover. Elizabeth Black went missing two years ago and suddenly appears two years later, walking alongside the road. But she won't say where she's been or what happened. Chelsey Calhoun is the lead detective on her case and is desperate to find her abductor, scared there's other victims out there. Filled with twists and turns, Emiko Jean does a fabulous job of reeling the reader in and telling a well-crafted story. Trigger warnings throughout!

The Return of Ellie Black is a twisty thriller that will keep you up thinking about it. I loved trying to figure out what was going on, but it was impossible! A truly great book by Emiko Jean. Detective Chelsey Calhoun gets a call that a girl she's been looking for for years has been found in the woods. Her name is Ellie Black. This case has kept Calhoun up nights searching for answers. Ellie's parents were so distraught and she wanted to help them get answers. Ellie's father came to the police station and reviewed the files to see if he could remember anything that could help.

Calhoun calls Ellie's parents as she's driving the 2 hours to the hospital Ellie has been taken to. She explains that Ellie was found in the woods and she's on her way to interview her now. The parents don't wait and tell Calhoun that they're on their way, too. It's definitely Ellie, but she's in pretty bad shape. She's lost a lot of weight, has been beaten, and seems to be out of it. Ellie won't tell Calhoun anything about where she's been and who took her. Why? Wouldn't you want to give information on the person who took you years ago? Chelsey thinks it's odd but hopes with time Ellie will feel more comfortable and open up. When Ellie's parents arrive, they are beyond thrilled to see her, but Ellie won't let anyone touch her. She's been through something awful and Chelsey wants to know what? Where has Ellie been for 2 years?

This case hits close to home for Chelsey as her own sister vanished when they were teens. Her boyfriend was found dead with his car down a cliff and Lydia's clothes and hair were found in the car. It was presumed that Oliver had killed her and then himself. Chelsey has never gotten over the loss of her sister, Lydia, and wants to help find Ellie's kidnapper so that he can't take another innocent girl. As Chelsey looks for answers and gets few from Ellie, it's hard to understand. Will Ellie come around and decide to help Chelsey? Is there a reason Ellie is afraid to share information with Chelsey? Why won't she let her mom cut her hair or her nails? What has Ellie been through? Will she be able to bounce back and reclaim the life she had before? Read this book and find out! An absolutely stunning debut thriller from Emiko Jean. I look forward to reading her next one! I rate The Return of Ellie Black 5 stars with my very highest recommendation. I'd like to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for advanced copy of The Return of Ellie Black in exchange for a fair review. The book is out now and should not be missed! #TheReturnofEllieBlack

A girl that has been missing for two years stumbles out of the forest. She refuses to say who took her or where she's been. One local detective isn't deterred and will not rest until the truth is exposed. A real page turner.

A vanished girl reappears two years later with a murky past that may now be related to multiple abductions.

I really wanted to feel a tie to Ellie but I struggled to. I wanted so badly for her to be this character I rooted for but her journal entries/retellings of what had happened to her felt forced. I did, however, find myself really attached to Chelsey, so at least there was that! Overall I felt that everything was pretty laid out. The ultimate reveal felt obvious about halfway through and the extra little twist was hinted at earlier in the novel as well, so I wasn't too shocked by that one either. While I didn't find anything to be overly thrilling or suspenseful, this was a neat enough little mystery novel that was an easy and quick read. Though I think that now, in retrospect, I enjoyed <u>The Project</u> by Courtney Summers a little bit more and would recommend that one first.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. What did I just read?! This was incredible mystery/thriller mad I loved every single page. I couldn't put it down and finished the entire book in two sittings! Highly recommend

Thank you @SimonBooks @SimonAudio #SimonBooksBuddy for the free book and audio.

ARC/ALC Review ↝ Emiko Jean has easily become one of my favorite thriller writers. This story while fiction is not far from the true heinous crimes being committed daily. So often we hear of missing person cases and never receive answers behind the abduction. With this story however, readers are taken on a rare journey with the victims, investigators, and families of the crime. Due to the subject matter, I did find myself taking breaks during pivotal scenes as they were viscerally hard to get through. Nonetheless, it was a page turner, and true testament to Jean’s bold and beautiful writing ability.

I highly recommend the tandem reading experience of the audio & physical book as I did. The full cast performance was unforgettable.

When Ellie Black wants to buy a new phone, she decides to have a motel party and charge a fee for everyone coming to raise the funds for it. When the only bathroom is in use and will be for an unknown amount of time, she runs across the street to go to the bathroom, and never returns. Her sister and parents are devastated and when the police come, it's Detective Calhoun that is taking the case. As her first case as a Detective, she can't help but feel connected to it personally - while she was a teen her sister disappeared and later declared murdered by her boyfriend. Two years after Ellie Black vanishes, she is found by hikers in the woods, dirty and malnourished. While being questioned, Ellie has no words to offer of where she was or her captors. There is very little she is willing to share, and she is acting like a totally different girl than the one who disappeared. As anyone who may have been captured she may have severe trauma that has changed the fabric of who she is. With many unanswered questions, Detective Calhoun must try and piece together what happened to Ellie and find the perpetrator who took her. This book has a few twists and surprises and I felt compelled to find out what happened. There were things that I did not expect, which was refreshing!

This book came onto my radar because I had read Emiko Jean’s previous contemporary / romance novel Mika in Real Life and loved it. If Jean’s name sounds familiar, that’s because she also wrote the popular YA series Tokyo Ever After. Now with The Return of Ellie Black, Jean takes on the mystery / suspense / thriller genre through the case of Elizabeth Black, a missing girl who reappears out of the blue after disappearing without a trace two years ago from a town in Washington. Ellie’s case is being handled by Detective Chelsey Calhoun, a small-town cop whose passion for solving missing person cases stems from her own sister’s disappearance 20 years ago. Chelsey sets about investigating what happened to Ellie, but the task proves to be more difficult than anticipated due to Ellie’s refusal to cooperate. When links to other missing girls start to surface -- some of whom, like Ellie, might still be alive – the urgency to solve the case reaches fever pitch. But with Ellie not cooperating, will Chelsey crack the case in time to prevent other girls from being taken as well?

This is a story that surprised me in many ways. First (and most important) is the fact that this is definitely NOT another one of those run-of-the-mill thrillers with a helpless (and usually stereotypically drawn) female protagonist at its center who is eventually saved by some guy in uniform (and maybe they live happily ever after if a romantic attraction is thrown in there somewhere). Instead, this story deals with many real-life issues that we continue to face in our society on a daily basis -- toxic relationships, discrimination of all types (i.e. race, gender, class), misogyny, racism, dysfunctional families, police corruption, class distinctions (i.e. rich versus poor), etc. – in a way that gave the story depth (which meant that, at times, I forgot that I was reading a thriller). The narrative alternates between the third person perspective (where we get to “hear from” various characters in the story, though mostly from Chelsey) interspersed with a first person “confession” of sorts from Ellie herself, where she recounts in detail everything that happened to her. For me, this type of narrative (alternating between different voices) can be a bit of a hit or miss, but in this instance, it was done in a way that made sense and also didn’t feel jarring. In terms of the plot, this one was particularly well done in the sense that I was truly kept at edge of my seat and most significantly, I actually didn’t see any of the twists and turns coming. I mention this because I’ve read my fair share of mysteries / thrillers over the years where I’m usually able to figure everything out by the halfway point, but that was definitely not the case here – I was genuinely surprised by how things turned out, not to mention all my guesses ended up being wrong (not a bad thing at all when it comes to thrillers).

Having said all that though, what I loved most about this book was the main protagonist (Detective Chelsey Calhoun). It’s not lost on me how rare it is to have the main character of a mainstream mystery (thriller/suspense) novel be a strong, smart, competent, kick-ass, no nonsense cop who is both female and Asian (full Japanese, not mixed race). And yes, it is Chelsey (as the lead detective on the case) who “saves the day” throughout the story, including at the end (I’m proud to admit that I cheered each time Chelsey triumphed, lol). Most importantly though, Chelsey came across as a real-life person – someone who has her own vulnerabilities and insecurities (especially in her personal relationships) while also having to deal with the realities that come with being female and Asian in a cut-throat profession where she has to fight like hell to prove herself every step of the way.

Emiko Jean is an author whom I’m glad to have discovered and whose backlist I’m happy to explore. I admire authors who are able to write across multiple genres and so far, based on what I’ve read of her work, Jean seems to have talent in this area. I hope to read more of her work soon.

Received ARC from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley.