The Return

I wanted to love this book. I did like it. It was a quick and easy read, and I believe the author will improve since this is a debut novel. Spoilers included.

I thought the relationship between 4 women who had been friends in college was interesting enough, and we can all related to growing up and growing in distance from our “childhood” or young adult friends, and many females will relate to the competitive nature of close female friendships. That being said, the climax of the book kind of reminded me of that weird feeling you get at the end of the Wonder Woman movie, where everything is going great, and then it's kind of a strange show down that feels a little out of place. The connection between the Julie and Elise never felt so strong that what would happen happened, it kind of felt thrown together. I know I read over and over again that their bond was closer... I also got pretty tired of the shortened cutesy names “Maebs” and so on.

You never quite know what Elise is except some kind of “other” being, all the while getting alien abduction vibes, and I never really understood why the hotel itself seemed to be doing creepy stuff, unless just the nature of Julie's being caused it to feel creepy?

That being said, it was overall enjoyable, I wouldn't work actively to dissuade someone from reading it, it comes in right that 300 page mark that doesn't require a lot of effort, and it was a pleasant Easter weekend read from my hammock.