"He stared out across the lake and thought about what lay underneath. He thought about what he'd been told officially when he took the job and about what he'd heard in the months since-rumors, inconsistent, conflicting. He thought about what he believed. Shivering, he started to descend." This is what first drew me to this book. An entire book build on the idea that the dead have returned but didn't realize that they were dead or even that they had been gone was fascinating to the 'ghost story junkie". The problem came when nothing really happened except that more and more people kept returning. You knew what should be happening...you knew what was bound to soon happen...but it took way too long for it to all come together....and HAPPEN...and then it was rather anti-climactic. I guess I have to say that I liked it and I didn't like it. You would have thought that the story could have been told and told well in less than 93 chapters. ( )

3.5 stars. I received this book last year in a 3 month subscription box I received for my birthday. I picked it up now because I was matched with someone in a twin read and it was the only book we had in common. I admit, at the beginning, I didn't have high hopes for it, but the moment I actually started reading it, it fascinated me. There was so much suspense from page one, that it had me hooked. There were so many mysteries to solve, so many storylines that occurred at the same time. I just wanted to keep reading so all my speculation could be proved wrong or right.

And then... the ending happened, and I felt so disappointed. Whilst I understand this is based off a TV show, and I am giving the benefit of the doubt that another book will come for season 2 (I have found the show and it says 2 seasons) none of my questions were answered. This was a read that had such intensity to it, that the end left me feeling flat. I think more answers needed to be given at the end.

So, basically, I want to read the next book. My rating is based on the ending of this book, not the book as a whole. For me, it was engaging for most of the way through. The suspense of it all is thrilling.

Also, this is my first experience reading a book based off a show, not the other way around. I will 100% be watching the show now! ( )

Good plot and characters, very different concept and I enjoyed reading everything but the ending. So many questions, nothing was resolved, they hinted back to past events but nothing was ever explained. Wasn't impressed with that, I want questions answered. ( )

In a small French village, people's lives go on as usual although many of them have experienced tragedies and trauma. All of their lives are overshadowed by someone who has died, whether they know it or not. When the dead come back exactly as they died, the sleepy town is thrown into chaos. If that weren't enough, brutal murders occur, eerily similar to unsolved cases of years ago. The town's scars are reopened and raw. Only time will tell who will be strong enough to continue, who will die, and if the dead are here to stay.

When the novel opens, the cast of characters are stuck in some aspect of their lives or on the cusp of moving on. Jerome is separated from his wife Claire because both of them never recovered from her daughter's death. Jerome pushed everyone away and now lives alone, clinging to a psychic for solace. Claire is with sanctimonious, creepy Pierre. Their remaining daughter Lena throws herself into drink and drugs to forget. Adele is about to get married when her previous lover died on the day they were supposed to be married. Julie throws herself into work and rejects her former girlfriend after being attacked years ago. Toni continues to be haunted by his past choices and his mother's judgment for them. While their day to day lives are fairly normal, their pasts are with them every single day.

When they return, the dead appear exactly before they died and have no memory of what happened. Outwardly, they appear completely normal and coherent. Inability to sleep and an insatiable hunger plague them. Each of the main characters are visited by a zombie who causes secrets to resurface and their entire lives to change. Each person reacts to them differently. Claire sees the return of her daughter Camille as a gift from god while Pierre sees it as the beginning of the end times. Adele sees the return of her late fiance Simon as a psychological vision because she is remarrying. Julie protects little Victor even though she's never seen him before and sees him as abused and broken as she views herself. Toni falls back into old habits with his unstable brother Serge. One man, Michel, sets his house on fire and kills himself. The dead mean something different to everyone and all transform their lives for better or worse.

While much of the story is a drama between characters, some chilling imagery and eerie events take place. When Camille comes home, a torn up rabbit is found in the garbage and all of the photos with her in them are torn to shreds. A few murders are found with signs that parts of the victims were eaten, mirroring those of years ago. Around the underwater city, animals were so scared that they would rather drown themselves than face whatever scared them. Overall, I wish there was much more horror in this book. So much of it was slow and quiet, focusing on the character's relationships and secrets, but I was truly expecting a huge horrific ending that never came.

The Returned is the heartbreaking story of the dead returning to life, opening old wounds and uncovering buried secrets for the living. Although the story undeniably has flaws and some revelations that come out of nowhere, the book was enjoyable. The anticlimactic ending really through me off and it felt like there was something missing. This book was based on the French television show Les Revenants which was remade into an American TV show The Returned. Although the French show is pretty much universally acclaimed and the American show was cancelled, I will check both out to see the comparisons between each other and the book. ( )

I don’t understand this book – I just don’t really understand the point of it.

When I picked it up I thought it would be the book that The Returned television series was based on – my mistake, it’s actually a book based on the television series (both of which are based on another book which is rather loopy). Book spin offs from TV shows happen and we’ve reviewed a few before so while it wasn’t what I expected I was curious about where it would go, given the mystery and unanswered questions of the series

It turns out, however, that “based on” is not exactly an accurate description of this book. “Blatant copy” is much more accurate. This book is a recap of the show. Literally, someone took the script sat down and just wrote it as a novel. The characters, plot, setting, conversations – pretty much everything is exactly the same. It actually reminds me of a blog recap without the commentary. I almost DNFed this book from sheer redundancy since I already knew what would happen in painful detail – but I held on to the end to see if anything changed. Lack-of-things-to-spoil-alert: nothing did. Not one damn thing

The only real difference between the two was medium. Since this was a book we had a lot less of the dramatic visuals and ominous music that were so prevalent in the TV series (which is absolutely terrible because this entire tv show was BASED on the atmosphere – it’s like taking a Michael Bay movie and removing the explosions an half naked Megan Fox – there’s nothing left to it afterwards). We lose a lot of the ominous because of this – for example, when Victor appears on the tv show he is so utterly creepy that the average viewer wanted to kill him with fire – that’s completely lost in the book. And Victor is oddly chatty and not ominously silent.

Instead what we have is the ability to see things through the character’s eyes, from their point of view. Yes, this book is a switching POV 1st person. And this is AWFUL. It is awful because it takes all the nuanced depiction of the atmosphere, well acted portrayals and layered conflicts and decides to info-dump the hell out of all of it. Do we need to see Jerome struggling with the conflicts over Lucy, his family and his general feelings of failure and inadequacy? Nope because he’s going to info-dump all of that in one big self-reflecting chunk of text! Lena dealing with survivor’s guilt and fear with her returning twin sister? Sure we could show a series of developing conflict – or we could have her exposition an appalling info dump.

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