The Return of Ellie Black

De: Emiko Jean

Narrado por: Mizuo Peck, Tessa Albertson, Nicole Lewis, Rebecca Lowman, Joy Osmanski, Angel Pean, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Erin Ruth Walker, CJ Wilson

A USA TODAY Bestseller

“The Return of Ellie Black is a page-turning suspense novel, a shrewd character study, and a captivating mystery, all at the same time. The last fifty pages are magnetic. I couldn’t put it down until I’d experienced every last twist and turn.” —STEPHEN KING

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.

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 thriller that will shock and surprise you right up until the final seconds.

©2024 Emiko Jean (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

A Solid Debut Novel

🪵ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇᴛᴜʀɴ ᴏғ ᴇʟʟɪᴇ ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ ʙʏ @emikojeanbooks 🪵
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
🎧 10 hours

✨ᴍʏ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ:
Ellie Black has returned out of the woods in Washington after being missing for 2 years. Detective Chelsey Calhoun is on the case. Detective Calhoun also had her sister missing about 20 years ago when they were teenagers. The more Chelsey talks with Ellie about where she’s been the last 2 years the more things unravel.

I think this was a solid debut novel. I loved the different POV’s and how it all came together at the end. Some of it was anti-climactic but I enjoyed it a lot.

Story good, narration dull

Good story. Keeps you interested. But the narration almost makes you give up. Give us some damn inflection so characters dont seem so flat and uninteresting!

Great story overall!

Narrator’s did a good job but were flat at time. Still held my attention. Loved the story but would have like more details in the resolution at the end.

Page turner !

I heard about this book through Book Tok ! It was such a great book and I did not want it to end!

Great listen

Kept you on pins and needles. Highly recommend.

Hard to listen to a times but very well written.

Great character development

I kept wanting to see what was going to happen next. Very well written. May consider for my book club selection next time!

The suspense!

I love the (spoiler)…. I can feel what Chelsea felt. It is a great story. Definitely worth a listen.

Amazing

Dont walk, run and get this book. It was absolutely enthralling and I don’t often write reviews at all.

BUCKLE UP!

4.25 stars for The Return of Ellie Black - one of the best mystery/thrillers I've read this year. Let me start by saying, I do not read many abducted girl/captor/captive tropes. I find it too disturbing and even though I am a committed Dateline-aholic - I have my limits like anyone else. However, you know from page one that the abducted girl is returned, so I gave it a shot. I was excited about the Olympic Peninsula and PNW location because I live in Seattle and found that the setting of old growth forest as well as remote and rural homesteads worked perfectly for this story about a girl who goes to a party and then disappears for over two years. This is a gorgeously complex story with layers you rarely see in your average abducted girl trope. One of the layers is the disparity between what happens when a white girl goes missing versus a girl of color. The author's deft hand with themes of racism and white privilege really is subtle but pays off. The detective investigating the abduction is herself of Asian descent and little details like the cops she work with wearing tee shirts that say, "It's ok to be white" were infrequent but powerful. I found the quote, "Some daughters were worth less than others" to be profound. Another layer that I have not seen done before is what happens to the mind set of the victim when they are in captivity and afterwards. This story really examines that psychological shift which I guess would be something akin to Stockholm Syndrome. Obviously this book may be triggering but I did find it a very compulsive read and finished it in less than 24 hours. The mystery aspect of it has some substantially steep twists and turns, so buckle up! Highly recommend.

Very dark

I had a hard time with this one. It is extremely dark and even though I wanted to continue, about half way through I just couldn’t.