Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Returned


The Returned
Jason Mott
3.5/5


First Sentence
"Harold opened the door that day to find a dark-skinned man in a well-cut suit smiling at him."
Publisher's Description:
Jacob was time out of sync, time more perfect than it had been. He was life the way it was supposed to be all those years ago. That's what all the Returned were.

Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time ... Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep—flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old.

All over the world people's loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows how or why this is happening, whether it's a miracle or a sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he's their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human.

With spare, elegant prose and searing emotional depth, award-winning poet Jason Mott explores timeless questions of faith and morality, love and responsibility. A spellbinding and stunning debut, The Returned is an unforgettable story that marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction.

Dear Reader,

What a unique idea The Returned bring us. What would you do if a deceased loved one came back from the dead and returned home to you? And no, this isn't another zombie novel. These people are returned alive and well, exactly as they were. Jason Mott gives us a novel that really makes you contemplate that question, a question that hasn't crossed my mind too much.

The story sticks with one family and one small town. This family is of a close knit southern kind, one that wouldn't have been my favorite pick but I can appreciate these characters none the less. The mother is extremely religious, where as her husband is borderline atheist. This was something that I greatly appreciated Mott for doing, giving us a complex relationship atop of a complex situation. When their son, who drowned in a river a decade ago, comes back to them as one of "the Returned", we see what happens when two different mindsets are given something one can only wish for. However, problems start to come up and we see struggle within society on how to deal with this, issues like overpopulation and even where to put the Returned?

I think the Author really picked something unique to write about and I could see this as being a cross between being a blast and being emotional to write. Personally, I did find myself thinking about what I would do if someone I loved came back to me. I know it would be a strange situation indeed. However, since I haven't lost a parent, child or significant other... the characters were somewhat hard to relate to. I think this might have been the reason why I didn't give this a 4 rating. The book mostly touched on the emotional aspect of this situation and only skimmed the waters of what this might mean to the country or world as a whole. I really respect this Author for bringing us such a unique novel and writing it with a very strong voice, you just know he had lost someone recently enough to give us such a writing performance. If you read the very ending, you'll get a little blurb by the Author that shows you his loss and what sparked him to write this book. I would definitely recommend this book, especially for those of you who've lost someone close to you.

Happy Reading,
AmberBug

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...