This is really a story about female friendships, toxicity in relationships, expectations placed on women, and the performative survival instincts women use to feel like they're measuring up to societal standards. When Elise first hears that her best friend, Julie is missing, she doesn’t believe it. Elise, Julie, Mae, and Molly are all very close friends though Elise has always felt closer to Julie.

Understandably, her friends were heartbroken. After a significant amount of time passed, with no sign of Julie, a funeral was held. In spite of this, Elise genuinely didn't believe Julie was gone. I was NOT expecting this slim novel to be so awesome, so horror-based, and so suspenseful. Loved it. It would have been an automatic 5 stars, but some things didn't jive for me. The Wilsons manage to escape, but Lucille dies trying to protect Jacob. Fred nearly kills Jacob and Harold, but is moved to sympathy after Jacob states that he doesn't know the reason why he returned instead of his wife. Now, the mystery surrounding who Callie is and why it was important to find out was much more interesting to me.Poet and debut author Mott has written a breathtaking novel that navigates emotional minefields with realism and grace. With one final push, she leans low into the cot, searches the bedding with both hands carefully. Then frantically. Julie has been missing for two years and presumed dead, but now she has returned. Something doesn't seem right with Julie and what should be a happy reunion turns odd and scary when the friends getaway together at an isolate extravagant hotel. Religious concerns are handled with delicacy. This is a Southern, Fundamentalist, not well-educated small town. Most, although not all, of Arcadia’s bewildered citizens accept the Bible. However, they cannot agree on which parts of the Bible actually apply to the Returned, or how, or what God wants Arcadia to do about them. Mott offers no judgments of his own, instead sensitively showing us how Louise, Pastor Peters, Federal Agent Bellamy, and others interpret both religious teachings and the Returned by the lights of their individual histories and character. This story started out okay, but I have to admit that it really didn’t hold my attention well at all.

The people whose story I appreciated the most was that of Camille and her identical twin sister Lena, whose lives had been severely affected by Camille’s death, and subsequent return. The other people in the book just didn’t really interest me though, and it was quite difficult to keep slogging my way through this book. Die Stimmung im Buch ist sehr düster und schon ein bisschen gruselig. Zartbesaitete könnten hier "Probleme" bekommen. Für mich war es aber genau passend, denn das habe ich auch von dem Buch erwartet. Ich finde durch diese Stimmung ist eher ein Buch für Erwachsene als für Jugendliche.

By Stephen Chbosky

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale. The novel also occasionally looks at the phenomenon from the viewpoint of the Returned, who appear to have no knowledge of or explanation for their return, and only want to live their lives. The Returned are described as being largely identical to their pre-death selves except for strange quirks that are frequently described as odd or unnerving by people who formerly knew them. With spare, elegant prose and searing emotional depth, award-winning poet Jason Mott explores timeless questions of faith and morality, love and responsibility. A spellbinding and stunning debut, The Returned is an unforgettable story that marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction. The Red Honey Inn is VERY secluded. With its creepy rooms and strange staff, weird things start happening. So Mae books them all rooms in a themed room hotel out in the middle of nowhere where they will have a chance to rekindle the magic that has always made their relationship with each other so special. ”Sometimes when we’re all together, I get confused about who is who. Where one of us stops and the others start. We overlap, bleed together.” Maybe I’m just paranoid, but as they take me on a tour of this hotel, I start to feel creeped out, creeped out in a Stephen King sort of way. I’m grinning though because this has all the makings of a modern gothic extravaganza.