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 page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.
Format Audio CD
Published May 7, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Audio
ISBN 9781797174686 (ISBN10: 1797174681)
About the Author
Emiko Jean is a New York Times best-selling author of adult and young adult fiction. Her books have been published in over thirty languages. Her work has been featured on Good Morning America as a GMA book club pick, by Reese Witherspoon as a young adult book club pick, and in publications such as: Marie Claire, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Cosmopolitan, Shondaland and Bustle. She lives in Washington with her husband and two kids.
Learn more about the author
My Thoughts
I recently finished listening to The Return of Ellie Black, and honestly, it was just okay. The story had some interesting moments — the premise of a missing girl returning home after missing for years definitely had potential — but it didn’t quite deliver the emotional punch I was hoping for.
The narrator did a decent job overall, and I appreciated the attempt to alternate voices for different characters to enhance the experience, but I found that it could actually be a bit distracting. The pacing felt uneven too; some parts dragged on while others felt rushed, which made it a little hard to stay engaged.
The characters were fine but not especially memorable. I kept waiting for some deeper development or big revelations, but most of it felt pretty surface-level. By the end, I wasn’t totally sure if I even cared what happened next. I appreciated the mystery aspect as Ellie's disappearance and life away from home was slowly revealed piecemeal, but I lacked any real emotional connection to the characters or story.
Five words: mediocre, mysterious, promising, slow-paced, detached
Buy Now:
Visit the publisher for purchase options
My final word: It’s not a bad audiobook — if you need something to pass the time on a commute or while doing chores, it’ll do. But if you're looking for something that really pulls you in and sticks with you afterward, this probably isn't it.
Warnings:
Violence, kidnapping, abuse, murder, rape
My Rating:
The Cerebral Girl is a middle-aged blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.
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