The Return

I discovered Rachel Harrison last year and will very happily read anything she writes as she’s quickly become a favorite. Now that I’ve finished The Return, the only book I haven’t read yet is Bad Dolls, a collection of 4 short stories, and that’s only because it’s not available at my library right now (I have it on hold!).

In The Return, Harrison’s debut novel, the intricacies of friendships and how they grow and change are perfectly captured. Friendships can be hard to maintain, especially when it comes to the ones that start when you’re a teenager and follow you into adulthood (even as you grow into what can sometimes be an entirely different person) making a million mistakes along the way. It was refreshing to read about a group of friends loving each other while struggling with this reality instead of having perfect 10+ year long relationships. And of course the horror only made it better!

Elise, Molly, and Mae, the three friends Julie left behind when she went missing, all deal with her return differently. Upon seeing Julie for the first time, Elise immediately knows something is wrong, that Julie isn’t the same, but Molly and Mae are determined to find the Julie they’ve been missing in the one that came home. The three women struggle to agree on how best to treat Julie while Julie slips further into strangeness and the culmination of it all is perfect.

I’ve heard people refer to Rachel Harrison’s books as both ‘cozy horror,’ and ‘feminist horror,’ and I’d say both apply.

The horror can be high stakes, but the whole book isn’t edge-of-your-seat nightmare fuel. It’s the kind of horror you recommend to someone who doesn’t typically read horror and is a little interested, and you want them to read something excellent to get them hooked.

The feminist themes and strong women are present in every Harrison book and it’s something I love to see in horror.