Last October I read Harrison's second book, Cackle, and although my relationship with it was torrid and something of a love-hate affair, it ended up being probably the most fun book that I read all year. So I knew that my October 2022 reading must include more Rachel Harrison. So while I was waiting for her third book to be ready for me at the library, I went ahead and checked out her first.

My only problem with The Return is that I could have read the entire thing in one day if life and work hadn't interfered. It's chick lit horror, page-turning and cinematic in an "I already feel like I'm watching this on Netflix" kind of way. If I went to the beach, this is the book I would bring with me to read there.

I think what gets me with Harrison's books, at least the two that I've read so far, is that although they are on the surface very heterosexual (lesbian side character in The Return notwithstanding), full of women reeling in the aftermath of straight breakups, women in unsatisfying marriages to men, women having affairs with their married boyfriends, these are the most lesbian straight books I've ever read. They lend themselves to queer readings so easily that I can already hear people jumping down my throat about this, pointing out that intense friendships between women are a thing and not everything has to be gay, Britt! But like... these books feel pretty gay to me. The subtext feels buried by only the thinnest layer of dirt. I might be digging just a little, but I'm not even breaking a sweat while doing so.

That digging might best be done elsewhere than a little Goodreads review, though, so I'll just close by saying that if you like spooky hotels, looming shadows and building dread, slow-burn horror, friend drama, and gross stuff, The Return is for you.