Review - The Return

[valkryor]

The Return by Rachel Harrison was touted as a feminist horror and I don't see how? I mean, maybe because there were four friends who are women who are still friends and go on a girl's trip together? Is a depiction of female friendship enough to call a book feminist? Honestly, I don't think so, unless there was something there so subtle that I missed it. In any case, it was a good read, suitably creepy and upsetting in all the right ways, but that ending.

Not gonna lie, y'all, it wasn't great.

It was an ending, sure, but it felt incomplete, rushed. I kept waiting for more resolution and then it was over. There were other characters mentioned, and then nothing? Like, what happened to them after everything went down?

Horror novels work because there's an emotional connection between the character and the reader. Adding characters in and then dropping them without a word feels cheap to me. Even a sentence: Character X wanted to focus on their career and Character Y sold the house and moved to the other side of the country. That would have been enough. But nope. No resolution for you, throwaway characters.

So yes, I do recommend it, because the atmosphere and the setting is pretty great, good and creepy. But if you need more from the ending, you're going to be a tad disappointed.

Comments

[cinnamaldehyde]

A feminist horror? Like... the patriarchy is the evil? I mean, I can see that....

Boo to a bad ending, though!!!

I watched a horror film lately that had me saying "Oh, you're a gay couple! Guess you're going to die first" and yes. Disappointing.

[valkryor]

Nope, no Patriarchy is Evil, just four women being buds and going away for the weekend together. There was nothing special about their friendship, nor their lives, that would constitute anything particularly feminist. Maybe that it was women was enough.

And that's really fucking sad.

It's so obnoxious that we can't move past certain tropes. It's frustrating as fuck.