Rachel Harrison is a writer from New York and The Return is her debut novel. Her story begins as Elise’s friend Julie goes missing during a hike in Acadia National Park, Elise doesn’t worry. Julie is willful and tempestuous and has been so ever since college. But weeks turn into months, and though Elise and other close friends mourn at Julie’s funeral, Elise who has always been closest to Julie, feels deep down that she can’t really be gone. Two years later, Julie reemerges from the woods, emaciated, with no memory of where she’s been. The friends decide to meet for a girls weekend at a remote Catskills hotel to reunite and things go downhill from there: navigating college friendships in their post-college lives, to dealing with Julie’s strange behaviors and hotel staff who start disappearing. The Return is at times funny, edgy, touching and gruesome. I’ve never read anything quite like it before.
Rachel Harrison and a Female-Centric Horror Story
