Jason Mott - the Returned

Hm... This is the beginning of Amazons short summary:

"All over the world, people’s loved ones are returning from the dead. Exactly as they were before they died. As if they never left. As if it’s just another ordinary day."



 

I, being a great fan of everything which looks the least bit apocalyptic, thought that this one could be made for me. So, what's the story?

 

People are returning from the dead, it is not like they rise from their graves and pretend never to have been dead, they just appear, somewhere - not necessarily on the same continent where they died.

 

Lucille and Harold Hargrave are an older married couple, living in Arcadia, a small town in the , having lost their only son Jacob over 40 years ago. One day, an agent knocks on their door an presents them with their eight year old son, who has returned somewhere in China. Harold, not being sure what to think about the returned is very distant with his boy, whereas Lucille is from one moment to the other back to being the best mom in the world.

 

People all over the world are getting more and more problems with the returned (what should one think, when the dead rise and they are getting more and more each day), so the so-called Bureau (the agency which is in charge of returning the returned to their loved-ones) sets up camps for them. Harold, forced by his wife to spend some time with his boy, is caught by soldiers and put together with Jacob into the camp. In the beginning the life there is okay but soon Arcadia becomes one of the larger camps. After a short time the inhabitants have to move in order to make room for the once dead - of course this is not a cause for joy. Soon there is a riot, changing the Hargraves lives forever!

 

Somehow "The Returned" did not meet my expectations. It is more or less a family drama set within abnormal circumstances. The characters are well made, and lovable - especially the Hargraves and agent Bellamy. But not very much is happening, the book is not boring, do not misunderstand me, but thinking about it, there are more than 300 pages, and well... .

 

I award 6 out of 10 for good characters and a nice setting.

 

I started with the 5th installment of Fabian Lutz "Zombiedeutschland".

Update: I just realized that there are prequels... perhaps I will read them as well, as they seem all to be real short stories with only a few pages, available for a few cent...