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The Return

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The Return

By: Rachel Harrison
Narrated by: Sarah Scott
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A group of friends reunite after one of them has returned from a mysterious two-year disappearance in this edgy and haunting debut.

Julie is missing, and no one believes she will ever return - except Elise. Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and feels it in her bones that her best friend is out there and that one day Julie will come back. She’s right. Two years to the day that Julie went missing, she reappears with no memory of where she’s been or what happened to her.

Along with Molly and Mae, their two close friends from college, the women decide to reunite at a remote inn. But the second Elise sees Julie, she knows something is wrong - she’s emaciated, with sallow skin and odd appetites. And as the weekend unfurls, it becomes impossible to deny that the Julie who vanished two years ago is not the same Julie who came back. But then who - or what - is she?

©2020 Rachel Harrison (P)2020 Penguin Audio Friendship Genre Fiction Horror Scary Fiction

Critic reviews

"Hair-raising horror and pure entertainment.... The tension and nuance of Harrison's complicated female friendships add depth to an already delicious, chilling debut." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

"The Return is supernatural horror at its very best! Sharp dialogue, complex relationships and mind-bending action will have readers locking their doors and checking under their beds. Rachel Harrison has reinvented this genre and will surely be hailed as a pioneer among her peers." (Wendy Walker, national best-selling author of The Night Before)

"Combining suspense and horror with razor-sharp insights into the nature of female friendships, Rachel Harrison’s The Return is a creepy, nerve-wracking, page-turning addition to the emerging field of horror thrillers." (Alma Katsu, author of The Deep and The Hunger)

Featured Article: The top 100 horror books of all time


This list encompasses the full spectrum of what horror can be—campfire-worthy tales, stomach-churning gore, and incisive social commentary. The classics are accounted for, but it also spotlights more recent titles, because that’s the nature of the genre—it is as perennial as it is ever-evolving, conjuring whatever frights most haunt our collective consciousness. Each title does have one thing in common: It makes for devilishly good listening. So cut the lights and press play—if you dare.

Featured Article The top 100 horror books of all time
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I thought I was numb to horror because nothing scares me anymore. This book did! A true gripping scary book, w/ an actual monster. I love books that actually can’t happen in real life (I hope😂). This book is SCARY

A truly scary story

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Not my usual, but I thought it was by the description. Kind of slow, but by the time I was invested, I wanted to know what happened. It was definitely something I hadn't heard of before.

Disturbing

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I thought the characters were great, I loved the detailed descriptions of everything, and thought some parts were genuinely unsettling.

creepy

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A bit overly simple in dialogue, but makes up for it in narration. A bit silly too, but in a good way.

Fun

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I honestly thought this book was written by a man half way through. The characters seems shallow. But the mystery did keep me listening to the end. I wouldn't listen again.

the plot is good, but the writing is meh

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I found parts of this book to be entertaining, but realized it was mostly the banter between the group of friends that amused me. The story itself was terribly predictable. I found myself bored at times, especially during flashbacks of the narrators life that didn't include her friends. Overall, I'm not a huge fan of the book. It kept me interested enough that I finished it, but just barely.

Predictable

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Seriously Molly shut the bejezzus! She is freakin loud and obnoxious! But she is the character. The couple times I heard her I just wanna slap her mouth shut, and almost end the book, but thanks hod I stuck in. It’s a good book. Just don’t read it at night lol. Or alone.

Holly Molly!

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While the story good and entertaining, I can't say enough about the narration of this book. Sarah Scott captured the main characters so well! With change of tone, pace, and inflection she brings the characters to life. I felt like the voices were so believable because the narration defined each as a distinct individual character. In many books with a cast of central characters I can get lost as to who is who, but I knew exactly which character was speaking by the nuanced performance of each voice. I’ll be on the lookout for other books narrated by Scott.

Sarah Scott makes this title...

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Loved this! I was looking for a creepy scary book for Halloween time and this did not disappoint!

Creepy

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I wanted something spooky for Halloween season (well, Fall anyways) and this fit the bill. Not overly scary, but an interesting enough story to keep me listening the whole way through.

Decent read

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