The Returned by Jason Mott

Thank you to Samantha Allen at Cherish PR for the review copy of Jason Mott's The Returned.

"All over the world, people's loved ones are returning from the dead.

Exactly as they were before they died.

As if they never left.

As if it's just another ordinary day.

Jacob Hargrave tragically drowned over 40 years ago. Now he's on his aged parents doorstep, still eight years old; the little boy they knew they d never see again. As the family find themselves at the centre of a community on the brink of collapse, they are forced to navigate a whole new reality and question everything they've ever believed.

No one knows how or why this mysterious event is happening, whether it s a miracle or a sign of the end.

The only certainty is that their lives will never be the same again."

This isn't the sort of book I would usually jump at the chance to read, but reading the description intrigued me and made me want to read it.  As I started to read, I realised that it wasn't really what I was expecting, although I'm not sure what else I had been expecting in a book about people coming back from the dead years later.  It isn't zombie-esque, but the "returnings" causes the world to go into utter meltdown.  This book is about the story of a particular community and how they cope, or don't cope as the case may be.  

It doesn't really focus on the people coming back in the way I had expected - as in they didn't have deep and meaningful conversations about how much they've missed each other, and what caused their death....it is more about the world's reaction to their return.

Having started reading, and immediately thought that perhaps this wasn't for me after all, I continued and actually really enjoyed it.  It isn't the sort of book that you can lie in bed at night and dream about it happening to you, but it was enjoyable.  It kept me turning the pages and at times, it was very moving.

I'm not particularly religious, and so I couldn't necessarily relate to that element of the book, but I see how it was important and I respect that.  It is about faith, and how different people react when confronted with the same situation.  It's also about love, and the things people do; things they never thought they would.  All in all, enjoyable I thought.