Monday, January 25, 2010

[ARC Review]: "The Returners"

Title: The Returners
Author: Gemma Malley
Publisher/Publication Date: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books (March 2, 2010)
Genre: YA
Summary (Amazon):
London teenager Will Hodge is miserable. His mother is dead, his father’s political leanings have grown radical, and his friends barely talk to him. To top it off, he’s having nightmares about things like concentration camps. Then Will notices he's being followed by a group of people who claim to know him from another time in history. It turns out they are Returners, reincarnated people who carry with them the memory of atrocities they have witnessed in the past. Will realizes that he, too, is a Returner. But something about his memories is different, and with dawning horror, Will suspects that he wasn’t just a witness to the events, he was instrumental in making them happen. Set in the near future, with the world on the verge of a new wave of ethnic cleansing, Will must choose to confront the cruelty he's known in his past lives, or be doomed to repeat it . . . again.



 


Places to pre-order The Returners at:



My Review:

For a quick, powerful read, The Returners is a book you don't want to miss!

I can't say enough good things about this book-- it literally has it all! An interesting and unique story line, a bit of a mysterious plot to start out with, and characters that you can relate to-- what more could you possibly want?

I don't want to give a lot away, so I won't go into detail, but I will say that Gemma Malley did a wonderful job at creating a YA fiction novel that could just as easily be enjoyable for an adult as well. And, best of all, the story has a moral, an underlying reason to read the book besides the obvious enjoyment factor.

Powerful, eye opening, and real are all great words to describe this novel. It's not just another fantasy novel, no, it's something more than that.


4.5 Stars! After finishing this novel, I immediately added Malley's previous novels to my wish list. Even if you are past the YA stage of life, this is the perfect book to read on a weekend, fast paced and exciting, and nothing like most of the books on the market right now. I highly recommend The Returners, and I'm glad that I read this book, even though at first I was a bit hesitant, unsure if I would like it. I guess this is yet another example of “Don't judge a book by its cover!”.

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ARC thanks to Bloomsbury!
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Enjoy!




Until Next Time,
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1 comment :

Teddyree said...

I haven't heard of this one but it certainly sounds like a great read and one to keep an eye out for!