Thursday 25 February 2016

Review - The Girl Who Came Back by Susan Lewis



When Jules Bright hears a knock on the door, the last person she expects to find is a detective bringing her the news she’s feared for the last three years.

Amelia Quentin is being released from prison.

Jules’s life is very different now to the one she’d known before Amelia shattered it completely. Knowing the girl is coming back she needs to decide what to do. Friends and family gather round, fearing for Jules’s safety. They know that justice was never served; every one of them wants to make the Quentin girl pay. 

The question is, what will Jules do; and which of them – her or Amelia - has the most to fear?


Susan Lewis has a knack of writing the most hard hitting of subjects in a very realistic way, just like you are privy to a behind the scenes look at a news report - ordinary families suffering very extraordinary things. 

In The Girl Who Came Back we see the Bright family; popular, hard working and with a huge family ethos, hit to their very core when the girl that they had befriended, Amelia Quentin does something so shocking that it will destroy them forever, as Jules Bright narrates the story of their life.

The tale of their family, and life as it came to be is woven subtly, drawing you deep into their world, as the reader, I saw roughly what was coming - but not the exact, awful details of how it came to be. For what happened to them Jules Bright wants revenge, justice, but knows she can get neither - until ex detective Andee Lawrence turns up at her door to inform her that Amelia Quentin is due to be released from jail early, and is coming back to re-make her home in Kesterly. 

The characters are extremely well developed, instantly there is something so sinister about the Quentin family, Amelia especially, she really is the stuff of horror movies, in fact I'm sure there could be a spin off book about her alone, and the Bright family are equally as well and realistically constructed. 

To me the plot was seamless and so compelling I found it near impossible to put down until I'd read to the end to discover whether Jules eventually finds peace. I found the ending satisfying and poignant. 

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.









1 comment:

  1. I used to read her books but not done for a while . This sounds good.

    ReplyDelete