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A review by venanana
The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
5.0
Harrowed does not even begin to explain how I feel about this book.
Trigger warning for; Kidnapping, rape, rape of girls under the age of 18, death by car accident, murder, assault, blood, sorta copaganda, police abusing power, confined spaces, prolonged captivity
The Return of Ellie Black is a well thought out mystery that has a bunch of really small details that had me pulling out my Criminal Minds knowledge to figure out who the criminal is. I had a joke guess in the bigging, but as more of these tiny details piled up and I thought "why is this important, does this really need to be here?" to the immediate conclusion "oh shit, this IS important!" because this book is well crafted and so intentional that these little details DO mean something. Not 100% of the time or this book would be insane. Other details mean to build character and relationship, add to the already atmospheric setting of the book.
There is such a theme of sisterhood and motherhood and the connection between those two things. It's so evident from Kat's first chapter and her thinking "my baby, my baby, my baby" over and over while she runs to be with her found daughter, I nearly cried. Kat and Jimmy's chapters were incredibly emotional for me, grieving parents trying reach their traumatized daughter where she it. It sets up the later half of Ellie's chapters and her connections with sisterhood and motherhood.
Who ever casted the audio book needs to have some sort of reward because they did an amazing job; the voice casted for Ellie is actually perfect. She sounds like a young teen girl and it felt me feeling cold and adrift while she's talking about the worst parts of her story that no teen girl should ever have to go through.
The mystery isn't the most ground breaking thing, but it is still well planned and doesn't swing and hit you with something out of thin air. It is genuinely harrowing at times and doesn't ease up. There are moments of hope, and you really get to cling to those and hope. I think the last chapter isn't completely necessary and could have ended with the second to last, which left me struggling not to cry at work while I listened.
Trigger warning for; Kidnapping, rape, rape of girls under the age of 18, death by car accident, murder, assault, blood, sorta copaganda, police abusing power, confined spaces, prolonged captivity
The Return of Ellie Black is a well thought out mystery that has a bunch of really small details that had me pulling out my Criminal Minds knowledge to figure out who the criminal is. I had a joke guess in the bigging, but as more of these tiny details piled up and I thought "why is this important, does this really need to be here?" to the immediate conclusion "oh shit, this IS important!" because this book is well crafted and so intentional that these little details DO mean something. Not 100% of the time or this book would be insane. Other details mean to build character and relationship, add to the already atmospheric setting of the book.
There is such a theme of sisterhood and motherhood and the connection between those two things. It's so evident from Kat's first chapter and her thinking "my baby, my baby, my baby" over and over while she runs to be with her found daughter, I nearly cried. Kat and Jimmy's chapters were incredibly emotional for me, grieving parents trying reach their traumatized daughter where she it. It sets up the later half of Ellie's chapters and her connections with sisterhood and motherhood.
Who ever casted the audio book needs to have some sort of reward because they did an amazing job; the voice casted for Ellie is actually perfect. She sounds like a young teen girl and it felt me feeling cold and adrift while she's talking about the worst parts of her story that no teen girl should ever have to go through.
The mystery isn't the most ground breaking thing, but it is still well planned and doesn't swing and hit you with something out of thin air. It is genuinely harrowing at times and doesn't ease up. There are moments of hope, and you really get to cling to those and hope. I think the last chapter isn't completely necessary and could have ended with the second to last, which left me struggling not to cry at work while I listened.