My thoughts
This was a BOTM pick for me. It is so worth reading y'all.. It's this author'd debut thriller and she should be proud. I'm sure she is very proud. This book kept me turning pages until the very end. Lots of twists and turns and revelations.
What happens to young girls, young women, once they are returned after being abducted. If they are held for a few years and taught that they can't survive without their captors. If they are brutally attacked and beaten. And worse. Over time they break. No matter how strong it's bound to have a very profound effect. Bound to cause lifetime trauma. Even with extensive therapy and that is if they can afford this therapy. In this book you'll meet one young lady who was taken. Her and the others. Even a child. A nine year old child. These girls are treated worse than your worse nightmare.
When I found out who was doing this to these girls it made my skin crawl. I traveled along with Chelsey, the detective who is on the case when Ellie Black is found. Ellie has been missing for over two years when she suddenly reappears. It's obvious that something horrible happened to her. Near malnutrition and scared of being touched by anyone.
Ellie has a few secrets that she is afraid to share. If she shares them someone might find out. They might come for her again. Everyone tells her she is safe but she doesn't feel safe. Will she ever feel safe again? She can't even sleep in her own bed. She can't wear any of her clothes from back then. She can't hug her parents. Something horrible happened to Ellie and she doesn't want it to happen to Willa...
Who is Willa?
I picked this book for my BOTM because it sounded so good. It sounded like a thriller that I would enjoy. I never dreamed it would be this. A story of how a person survives the worse things they could. When they are faced with other lives. When they are told they are responsible for the other lives. What would you do?
A detective, Chelsey Calhoun, is on the case. She knows that Ellie is not telling everything but who can blame her. She's been through so much. She's so terrified of everything. Chelsey wants more than anything to help Ellie. To make her feel safe. But how. What will it take. Chelsey lost her sister fifteen years ago to a murder so she knows what it's like to lose someone. But how do you help someone who is still hiding secrets.
This story is told from Chelsey's pov and goes to Ellie when she was being held. All she endured. All Chelsey was afraid of and what she would do to help Ellie. Chelsey has a lot of guilt going on and will do anything to help save Ellie.
All is revealed in this book. No stone left unturned. There are a few things that took me totally by surprise and that does not often happen. I can usually figure out who did it. Or why. This time it was anyone's guess. I certainly did... Guess that is.
Well done.
About
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.
“I stayed up late into the night turning the pages until I learned the truth of what happened to Ellie—and gasped when Jean delivered a truly jaw-dropping twist.” —Jessica Knoll, New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women
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.
The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.
“I stayed up late into the night turning the pages until I learned the truth of what happened to Ellie—and gasped when Jean delivered a truly jaw-dropping twist.” —Jessica Knoll, New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women
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.
The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.
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