Book Review: The Return of Ellie Black

Here’s my book review for The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean. Don’t forget to leave a comment if you’ve read it too. And check out today’s writing prompt at the bottom of this post.

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean was an excellent suspense novel and kept my interest the entire time that I was reading it. Once I started it, I just had to keep reading it to figure out what had happened to both Ellie and Chelsey, and how their narratives intersected and overlapped. While the ending of the novel didn’t shock me, the pacing of the novel was superb, and the different storylines were expertly plotted out and interwoven throughout the novel.

Most importantly, I think this novel brings about valuable and difficult questions to ask and answer regarding victims, what it means to be a victim, and what it means to be a victimizer. Most of Jean’s main characters were complex and believable, prompting any reader to ask themselves questions like: When does one officially roll over to the realm of being a victimizer after they’ve been victimized by someone else themselves? And what responses would actually be appropriate (legally and/or morally) when one has been victimized? Readers will also find themselves fully immersed in various scenes throughout the novel, as if they are in them and living them, due to how descriptive they are. 

While I appreciated how complex most of the main characters in this novel were, especially most of the female characters, I still didn’t feel like I got a detailed or nuanced background of the characters who readers will ultimately discover were the main perpetrators. While part of me understands why that might be the case— to avoid making excuses for such people and their heinous behavior, perhaps? — I still feel as if I didn’t fully get or believe why they did what they did by the time I reached the end of the novel. Maybe it doesn’t matter, and maybe other readers won’t be troubled by this. But for some reason, it made me feel like I was supposed to understand and take what they did at face value without ever being shown the why behind their actions. Along the same vein, I also felt that there should have been more graphic scenes depicting the main perpetrators’ violence and victimization of others, as well as their backgrounds, to make their heinous natures and actions more believable, which again I realize may not be a popular opinion or even a little bit necessary for other readers. So please, take that criticism with a grain of salt. 

Overall, I do highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy a good mystery, as well as characters who will keep them guessing. 

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© All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.

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Today’s Writing Prompt