The Return

Starred review from December 2, 2019
The reunion of a missing, presumed dead woman and her three best friends leads to hair-raising horror and pure entertainment in Harrison’s compulsively readable debut. When Julie disappears, Elise is the only one among her friends who refuses to accept that she’s most likely dead. Elise is proved right when Julie returns two years later, claiming to have no memory of the time since she vanished. Overjoyed, their other two best friends, Mae and Molly, organize a trip to upstate New York to reconnect. When the friends arrive at an isolated, extravagant hotel, they’re disturbed to find Julie a changed woman. Previously a vehement vegetarian, she now craves meat, and her body seems to be deteriorating before their eyes, breaking teeth and losing eyelashes. Chalking up her erratic behavior to trauma, Elise and the others try to make the best of their weekend, but as past frictions flare up between the old friends, the eerily empty hotel grows more oppressive the longer they stay. Mounting dread builds to a blood-soaked climax as the truth of Julie’s disappearance is revealed. The tension and nuance of Harrison’s complicated female friendships add depth to an already delicious, chilling debut. Agent: Lucy Carson, the Friedrich Agency.

January 15, 2020
Two years ago, Julie disappeared while hiking alone in Acadia National Park. Now she's back. Julie's husband, Tristan, and her best friends, Elise, Mae, and Molly, were devastated when she didn't return home from her trip. After a year, a funeral was held with no body. Everyone close to Julie was certain she was dead except for Elise, and on the two-year anniversary of her vanishing, Julie proves Elise right. Tristan finds her sitting on their porch swing with no memory of the time she was gone. With so many questions surrounding Julie's return, Elise is surprised when Mae arranges a girls' trip to the Catskills' eclectic (themed rooms!) Red Honey Inn over Columbus Day weekend. Julie is the last to arrive, and her emaciated appearance is jarring. She's not the vibrant woman Elise remembers, but she's undeniably her beloved friend, and the four look forward to a fun reunion. The weather is frightful, though; Elise's room is frigid; and Julie is acting very oddly, to say the least. Julie was a vegetarian, but now she has a ravenous hunger for rare meat and smells like an abattoir. Then there's the shadowy figure Elise keeps glimpsing in her room. Harrison skillfully portrays the bond between the four longtime friends, complete with secrets and tension, but always against a background of palpable affection. As Elise, who narrates, says, "I'm so happy to be with them and to be the version of myself I am when I'm around them." Unfortunately, though, it's increasingly obvious to Elise, Mae, and Molly that they need to get to the bottom of what's happening to Julie, who is deteriorating before their eyes. Harrison successfully sustains a low, visceral dread throughout that eventually builds to a shocking crescendo, and whispers of The Shining haunt the Red Honey Inn's gloriously gaudy halls. Patient readers who appreciate a slow burn with an explosive payoff will be rewarded. This girls' trip has teeth. A stylish and well-crafted horror debut.

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February 15, 2020
In this creepy debut, four college friends reunite when one of their own, Julie, disappears. Elise, the closest to Julie and the increasingly unreliable narrator, never truly believes Julie is dead. Two years later, Julie reappears on her front porch with no memory of what happened. The unnerved friends plan a girls' weekend at a remote mountain inn to celebrate?except Julie is not the same. She looks gaunt, feels cold to the touch, and has a ravenous appetite for raw meat. As the weekend progresses, things go from bad to worse both among the friends and throughout the hotel. People fall ill, blood drips from the vents, the rooms seem to shift, Elise sees a shadowy figure in dark corners, and Julie's behavior goes from odd to troubling to absolutely terrifying. Combining satisfying and extremely unsettling psychological suspense with just the right touch of supernatural horror and a compelling and thoughtful new adult story centered around the power, emotion, and limitations of female friendship, The Return is an intense read that will appeal to fans of Nic Joseph and Amy Lukavics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)