The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean on May 7, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense, Fiction / Women
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
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This book is riveting and dark, exploring abuse, mental health, and family dysfunction. Its intense content may be triggering but is realistic and well-written. It digs into deep fears and identity issues. It reveals how family secrets and closed doors shape children’s lives and mental health. It started slowly but when it picked up, it really picked up pace.
Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.
It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.
Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.
But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.
I loved the dual timelines and how it all pulled together. This one was so twisty and unexpected.