Review: The Returned

The Returned by Jason Mott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I'm in a conundrum with this book.

For starters, it has the most beautiful poetic descriptions about life, loss and mourning. These are still lingering in my mind. It possesses a strange literary beauty, where the main characters' feelings can manage to touch lightly -and not so very lightly- some of those fibres that evoke human relations. I imagine this book a unique personal experience on its own, as each reader can find some sort of issue, sentiment or feeling to relate to.

The puzzle for me is the plot. As a fiction and fantasy lover I was immediately drawn to this book about people returning from the dead. Basically, this was the deciding factor for me to read it. I had previously read the short stories that were released in anticipation of this book: The Sparrow, The Choice and The First. I was very much enthralled by what was this book going to tell me regarding these no-longer-dead people appearing everywhere in the world. It sounded Apocalyptic!
However when getting into business, these returned felt merely like an excuse to describe social relationships and how unsolved issues, fear of differences and change, may cause social unrest.
In turn, all the explanations I expected to have in this book weren't present. For instance, we don't know why the returned 'returned', if they aged, where they 100% as human as when they were alive, what happened to the bodies if they had previously been buried, where they still in their coffins? The ones who came back from a very very different era, how dis they feel about all this technological, social and geographical change? There are so many unresolved issues in this book I feel it wasn't entirely finished.

In sum, I would recommend the first part, and the whole setting of the story, but I strongly advise to take the ending lightly. Keep in mind: don't expect any explanations and you'll be utterly satisfied!

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This book was provided to me by its publishers, Harlequin, through NetGally in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for giving me this opportunity!



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