Title: Return
Author: Yvonne Navarro
In: The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women (Marie O’Regan)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Ghosts, Horror
Dates read: 13th November 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2012
5th sentence, 74th page: My coach says I’m goo enough for the pros.
Mara has Returned.
Return deals with death a little bit differently from some of the other stories in the The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women collection. Death in this is treated as a way of finding peace and an ending to some pretty horrible things in the living world. It was seriously tragic, but I liked how death was a nice ending.
I love that throughout this story Mara says absolutely nothing. All of the drama and horribleness unfolds as she just… sits there. The moments that are revealed are spine-tingling and horrifying. And the fact that it all unfolds around a girl who just sits there and watches… it somehow made everything all that much better.
Outside of death and peace, this is all about facing up to the consequences of one’s actions. The fact that the consequences are horrible and twisted… well, it’s a good reminder that every action has consequences.
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