Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.
It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.
Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.
But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.
Someone on the r/horrorlit subreddit requested good cult thrillers. I love a good cult thriller, so when this book was repeatedly recommended, I picked it up from the library. It’s told primarily through two separate perspectives and across two separate timelines. The author does a great job weaving everything together to keep it from being too confusing though.
The journey of the book was entertaining and kept me invested, but it really didn’t stick the ending. A lot of elements were tied together in improbable ways, and some of the reveals felt like the author included them for shock value, without fully thinking through the layers involved. But, that is a common issue with modern day thrillers, and overall it wasn’t a horrible ending.
I will say- this is less a cult thriller and more a kidnapping/brainwashing thriller. Also trigger warning for rape, but all off screen.
