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The Returners by Gemma Malley
Book by Malley, Gemma
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First published March 2, 2010
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About the author
Gemma Malley
12 books467 followersGemma Malley studied Philosophy at Reading University before working as a journalist. She edited several business magazines and contributed regularly to Company magazine and the Sunday Telegraph before moving into the Civil Service in a senior communications role at Ofsted. The Declaration, her first novel for a teenage audience, and its sequel, The Resistance, were published to critical acclaim. She lives in South London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
April 27, 2010
This is one of those books I picked up, not excepting to be completely lost in an amazing story, and yet I find I was hopelessly lost in the book. Returners was not what I was excepting at all. Gemma Malley wove together perfectly historical facts, with her amazing world of Returners. People who come back reincarnated over and over again. They serve a purpose, to remember the lives they have lived.
Will Hodge is a character who has many layers and one I felt a range of emotions for. I felt bad for him, sympathized with him, wanted to hug him and tell him it would be alright, got really mad at him and yet towards the end, I really rallied behind him, hoping he would make the change he wanted to make. Will is a self-loathing teen boy, who's still coping with the death of this mother who was killed a few years ago. He is caught in the middle of his father's radical ways. Set in England, in the year 2016, Will finds that he's in the middle of a movement. Not only does he have to deal with an abusive, drunken father and not having any friends but, he's started to have very vivid disturbing dreams about parts of history other's would like to forget and he's being followed.
Will witnesses something, that could change not only the accuser's life for good, but it's the center of a bigger radical movement that his father is part of. Will finds he's a key player. He's the only witness to what he thinks he saw. His father wants him to lie about it, and his old friend Claire wants him to tell the police what he saw. Will feels as though he's going crazy. The people that are following him won't leave him alone and he's having a hard time remembering things, except for flashes of memories from various points from history's past.
When Will confronts the people who are following him, he finds he's a Returner, and they've been looking for him for 50 years. Returners have existed through out time, and come back again and again. They remember the worst things that humankind does to each other and are humanity's conscience. They are the protectors's of the insanity of humankind in times of distress. When Will is told he's destined to suffer, to remember these things (like he has done times before) and to feel the desperation and agony of humankind's choices, he chooses to believe he can change his destiny. It's not going to be as easy as he thinks. He finds out he's the cause of these horrible events. If he doesn't change the course of his destiny, he's going to be the cause of an even greater catastrophe.
With the help of Claire, Will knows he can make the change, but when his father forces him into his extremist ways, Will finds his determination for change shattered. Will is running out of time to save his one time friend and accuser of a crime he may or not have committed. Telling the police what he saw is going to cost him, but it can also be part of the change Will is determined to make.
Gemma brings to light, and has done so in a very tactful way, the horrible atrocities our world's history has played out over and over again. As a teenager, Will starts to remember being apart of that history. He caused some of it and other times he stood by, not wanting to be apart of it anymore. Her underlining message in the book is that we can all change. Will finds that standing up to his father, changing the course he's destined to repeat over and over again is going to be very hard, but can he do it? Will he make the change in time? Can one person's change alter the course of history?
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October 25, 2011"Hubo un tiempo en el que Will era un chico normal, alegre y divertido. Un tiempo en el que tenía amigos con los que disfrutaba de los días de sol sin ver en ellos razas o colores de piel, sin desamores. Pero ese tiempo quedó atrás cuando su madre, sin motivo aparente, se suicidó lanzándose a las frías aguas del río. Ahora Will se pasa la mayor parte del tiempo solo, en silencio e intentando asimilar la realidad que lo rodea con su sarcástica mirada; intentando comprender por qué hay personas que aparecen de la nada y lo observan como si lo conocieran. Hombres y mujeres extraños, con las miradas vacías y oscuras, que lo saludan o intentan entablar conversación con él, que lo persiguen de noche y de día y a quienes escucha gritar en sueños. Y entonces, un día, Will es testigo de un cruento asesinato perpetrado en mitad de la calle y en el que se ve involucrado su antiguo amigo de la infancia, Yan. Desde ese momento, además de lidiar con los “raros” que lo persiguen, y que cada vez se atreven a acercarse más a él, deberá dejar de lado su habitual hermetismo para elegir un bando dentro de la guerra política y de inmigración que se está produciendo, de manera cada vez más subversiva, a su alrededor. Sigue leyendo ---> http://www.eltemplodelasmilpuertas.com"
August 14, 2011
I was interested in reading this book purely because I loved Gemma Malley's dystopian series, The Declaration about what live could be like if we were dependent on drugs that made us live forever. It is such an interesting concept and was written so well that I felt sad when I finished the last book.
So, of course, I want more Gemma Malley, so this book appealed to me, so I grabbed it in the library the other day when I saw it.
Synopsis: London teenager Will Hodge is miserable. His mother is dead, his father's political leanings have grown radical, and his friends barely talk to him. To top it off, he's having nightmares about things like concentration camps. Then Will notices he's being followed by a group of people who claim to know him from another time in history. It turns out they are Returners, reincarnated people who carry with them the memory of atrocities they have witnessed in the past. Will realizes that he, too, is a Returner. But something about his memories is different, and with dawning horror, Will suspects that he wasn't just a witness to the events, he was instrumental in making them happen. Set in the near future, with the world on the verge of a new wave of ethnic cleansing, Will must choose to confront the cruelty he's known in his past lives, or be doomed to repeat it.
Review: The whole idea of what the Returners are is interesting first of all and something that could be quite viable in reality, especially if they are unknown to anyone that isn't one themselves. After reading this book, I liked the idea of them, but I still don't understand the reason for them. Will constantly asks their purpose overall for history but they are always so vague and mysterious. They can never stop the suffering that happens, just live through it as an experience, which I understand so the suffering of those lives on but why have the Returners continuously?
This book is also a political novel and tackles a lot of the social issues that have arisen in England since the recession. Does wealth overall everything fundamentally? Should those that are not English citizens actually be living here? What would happen if an extremist party did get into the government? All these questions are tackled and more and I know that any English person at least would relate to this novel and help understand these topics. There are some racy and taboo like comments said that make you blush throughout but this is all seen as a bad thing, which is the general opinion at the moment.
The book is set in 2016, and nothing really has changed to now. Really, for the political side to the novel, it is showing what effect the recession has just under ten years on. All the things that happen to people in money troubles, happen to Will and it is quite hard hitting for him and the reader with the lengthy descriptions of the fights his parents had before his mother killed herself, both violent and just shouting. This is a book I would say is definitely just for people in their late teens from about 14.
Will was an average character, he was really just a typical boy. I found him neither interesting nor annoying. Although, I found his constant admiration for Clare rather irritating and felt like shouting 'We know you like her!' The characters of the Returners that you met start off rather creepy and scary and I didn't blame Will not wanting to join them. However, they open up and we see the life of a Returner through the grandfather-like Douglas and teenage Emily. Now, I liked Douglas although he was way too philosophical at times. But Emily. To start, she seemed to have hinted to have had a relationship with Will's past self. But nothing ever came out, I have no idea if it was true or not, although I doubt there was something.
I liked the way it was written. There was never a point where the action and tension dipped, you always want to know who, what, why, how. Although the continuous use of short sentences could be annoying, I liked it. It made it much more interesting and different to read to me.
I liked also how Gemma Malley hasn't given everything away at the beginning and made it so what you think will happen halfway through takes a completely different direction by the end. It's definitely not a book to read to relax and feel good about yourself but it is worth a read for those that like dystopian fiction.
It's not as good and well-rounded as her previous trilogy but for those that are new to Gemma Malley or new to the dystopian genre, it's a good read and enjoyable despite the number of spelling mistakes I found while reading (hewas, just to name a few), one slight pet hate of mine and I'm sure others.
This is a worth while read for those that haven't heard of Gemma Malley before or are new to the dystopian genre but I would read this and then continue straight on to The Declaration series. The idea is a good and rather puzzling interesting one, I'm just not sure if it was executed in the right way yet.
Verdict: Worth a look but not as good as The Declaration by far. However, Gemma Malley does give some interesting things to think about which I think shall stay with me for a while now. I shall leave you with one of them:
'"But nothing Douglas. Everyone has a choice. Everyone. All the time. You can walk through a door or decide not to. You can let your past dictate your future or you can throw two fingers up at it and walk away."'
I give it a 3.5 out of 5
So, of course, I want more Gemma Malley, so this book appealed to me, so I grabbed it in the library the other day when I saw it.
Synopsis: London teenager Will Hodge is miserable. His mother is dead, his father's political leanings have grown radical, and his friends barely talk to him. To top it off, he's having nightmares about things like concentration camps. Then Will notices he's being followed by a group of people who claim to know him from another time in history. It turns out they are Returners, reincarnated people who carry with them the memory of atrocities they have witnessed in the past. Will realizes that he, too, is a Returner. But something about his memories is different, and with dawning horror, Will suspects that he wasn't just a witness to the events, he was instrumental in making them happen. Set in the near future, with the world on the verge of a new wave of ethnic cleansing, Will must choose to confront the cruelty he's known in his past lives, or be doomed to repeat it.
Review: The whole idea of what the Returners are is interesting first of all and something that could be quite viable in reality, especially if they are unknown to anyone that isn't one themselves. After reading this book, I liked the idea of them, but I still don't understand the reason for them. Will constantly asks their purpose overall for history but they are always so vague and mysterious. They can never stop the suffering that happens, just live through it as an experience, which I understand so the suffering of those lives on but why have the Returners continuously?
This book is also a political novel and tackles a lot of the social issues that have arisen in England since the recession. Does wealth overall everything fundamentally? Should those that are not English citizens actually be living here? What would happen if an extremist party did get into the government? All these questions are tackled and more and I know that any English person at least would relate to this novel and help understand these topics. There are some racy and taboo like comments said that make you blush throughout but this is all seen as a bad thing, which is the general opinion at the moment.
The book is set in 2016, and nothing really has changed to now. Really, for the political side to the novel, it is showing what effect the recession has just under ten years on. All the things that happen to people in money troubles, happen to Will and it is quite hard hitting for him and the reader with the lengthy descriptions of the fights his parents had before his mother killed herself, both violent and just shouting. This is a book I would say is definitely just for people in their late teens from about 14.
Will was an average character, he was really just a typical boy. I found him neither interesting nor annoying. Although, I found his constant admiration for Clare rather irritating and felt like shouting 'We know you like her!' The characters of the Returners that you met start off rather creepy and scary and I didn't blame Will not wanting to join them. However, they open up and we see the life of a Returner through the grandfather-like Douglas and teenage Emily. Now, I liked Douglas although he was way too philosophical at times. But Emily. To start, she seemed to have hinted to have had a relationship with Will's past self. But nothing ever came out, I have no idea if it was true or not, although I doubt there was something.
I liked the way it was written. There was never a point where the action and tension dipped, you always want to know who, what, why, how. Although the continuous use of short sentences could be annoying, I liked it. It made it much more interesting and different to read to me.
I liked also how Gemma Malley hasn't given everything away at the beginning and made it so what you think will happen halfway through takes a completely different direction by the end. It's definitely not a book to read to relax and feel good about yourself but it is worth a read for those that like dystopian fiction.
It's not as good and well-rounded as her previous trilogy but for those that are new to Gemma Malley or new to the dystopian genre, it's a good read and enjoyable despite the number of spelling mistakes I found while reading (hewas, just to name a few), one slight pet hate of mine and I'm sure others.
This is a worth while read for those that haven't heard of Gemma Malley before or are new to the dystopian genre but I would read this and then continue straight on to The Declaration series. The idea is a good and rather puzzling interesting one, I'm just not sure if it was executed in the right way yet.
Verdict: Worth a look but not as good as The Declaration by far. However, Gemma Malley does give some interesting things to think about which I think shall stay with me for a while now. I shall leave you with one of them:
'"But nothing Douglas. Everyone has a choice. Everyone. All the time. You can walk through a door or decide not to. You can let your past dictate your future or you can throw two fingers up at it and walk away."'
I give it a 3.5 out of 5
December 12, 2025
Wow this is so not what I was expecting and yet so so good! A simple way of forcing us to look at the most complex thing there is— the human nature. A really quick but compelling read, I got through it in a day but I will be thinking about it for more I’m sure.
February 17, 2011
The Returners is a dark and twisted story of a not too distant future.
Will is an insular character who has spent years trying to shut out his emotions. The book begins with him sitting by a lake watching the ducks and remembering his mother’s suicide. The Returners has two strands running through it. Firstly there is Will and his troubled past. He is struggling with his life, his toxic relationship with his father, his anger at the loss of his mother and his own self-imposed loneliness. Then there is the society in which Will lives. Britain in 2016 is an angry place. Malley explores what might happen if the recession goes so deep that we enter economic depression and the conflict that this ignites in people as they look for someone to blame for their suffering.
The questions and social conflicts that Malley explores in The Returners are ones that I often find myself thinking about. What gives us a right over territorial boundaries? Who says I’m entitled to more opportunities, wealth and prospects just because I was born in a certain place? How can we show our angry unemployed workforce that immigration is a positive force for our country? And does our country really belong to us anyway? I loved that The Returners probed some of these political issues without ever feeling like I was having a lesson in politics.
Back to the character of Will and how he ties these themes into a story which also explores the notion of reincarnation. Will has dark and torturous dreams. Ever since Will can he remember, he has been seeing people that have a vague familiarity. He calls them freaks. The people who seem to recognise him and that he recognises but yet doesn’t know at all. Will seems psychologically traumatised by his past but he doesn’t open up and discuss the paranoia that troubles him. He keeps it locked up tight inside.
The two parts of this story weave together in a twisting tale of violence and corruption. The Returners is certainly not a feel good read. It is almost a study of inner darkness. Yet it is an important book. It doesn’t skirt around the important issues of our time. It is contemporary, brave and compelling. This book is for readers who like their reading gritty and challenging.
Will is an insular character who has spent years trying to shut out his emotions. The book begins with him sitting by a lake watching the ducks and remembering his mother’s suicide. The Returners has two strands running through it. Firstly there is Will and his troubled past. He is struggling with his life, his toxic relationship with his father, his anger at the loss of his mother and his own self-imposed loneliness. Then there is the society in which Will lives. Britain in 2016 is an angry place. Malley explores what might happen if the recession goes so deep that we enter economic depression and the conflict that this ignites in people as they look for someone to blame for their suffering.
The questions and social conflicts that Malley explores in The Returners are ones that I often find myself thinking about. What gives us a right over territorial boundaries? Who says I’m entitled to more opportunities, wealth and prospects just because I was born in a certain place? How can we show our angry unemployed workforce that immigration is a positive force for our country? And does our country really belong to us anyway? I loved that The Returners probed some of these political issues without ever feeling like I was having a lesson in politics.
Back to the character of Will and how he ties these themes into a story which also explores the notion of reincarnation. Will has dark and torturous dreams. Ever since Will can he remember, he has been seeing people that have a vague familiarity. He calls them freaks. The people who seem to recognise him and that he recognises but yet doesn’t know at all. Will seems psychologically traumatised by his past but he doesn’t open up and discuss the paranoia that troubles him. He keeps it locked up tight inside.
The two parts of this story weave together in a twisting tale of violence and corruption. The Returners is certainly not a feel good read. It is almost a study of inner darkness. Yet it is an important book. It doesn’t skirt around the important issues of our time. It is contemporary, brave and compelling. This book is for readers who like their reading gritty and challenging.
March 27, 2016
You know what sucks the first half of this book is great and then it kind of took a nose-dive and I lost interest and no longer cared for the characters which sucked, yeah this isn't the first Gemma Malley book I've read and this book sounded so good but I was a little disappointed with this book as it had so much potential for being a great book. But it was way too short and it was rushed.
A summery for The Returners:
Will Hodge is being followed by people who insist they know him, though he does not remember them, and his terrifying dreams have begun spilling over from night-time into day. He is also a witness in a murder trial and is coping with the death of his mother. Life couldn't get much more difficult. Or could it?
Slowly, Will discovers that his past is not all that he thought it was, and the people following him aren't really strangers. They are Returners, and they have an important message about some truths Will has forgotten - terrible truths he may wish he had never known...
I will continue to buy Gemma Malley's books but yeah I did feel a little let by this book which is sad really.
A summery for The Returners:
Will Hodge is being followed by people who insist they know him, though he does not remember them, and his terrifying dreams have begun spilling over from night-time into day. He is also a witness in a murder trial and is coping with the death of his mother. Life couldn't get much more difficult. Or could it?
Slowly, Will discovers that his past is not all that he thought it was, and the people following him aren't really strangers. They are Returners, and they have an important message about some truths Will has forgotten - terrible truths he may wish he had never known...
I will continue to buy Gemma Malley's books but yeah I did feel a little let by this book which is sad really.
September 21, 2010
I forced myself to read the first three chapters and I couldn't even bring myself to finish the book. I've tried a couple of times, but it just didn't keep me interested.
May 11, 2010
Another fantastic story by Gemma Malley!! Great plot and the characters were just wonderful!! Very twisting plot and full of surprises especially at the end!
October 23, 2011
My goodness! It took me forever to finish this book.
I really can't say that I found it intriguing or interesting enough.
I really can't say that I found it intriguing or interesting enough.
August 16, 2018
I have read every book by Gemma Malley and absolutely loved all of them, except for this one.
It was very confusing to say the least and I don't really feel like I actually understood the whole of the book until I reached the end, which made it better somehow, but I like to understand the book as I'm reading, not at the very end of it.
Will, the centre of the story, has constant nightmares, feelings of being followed and just generally quite a sad and depressing life because of this and because of the memory of his mother's suicide. His father is extremely racist, wanting rid of all those who live in Britain but weren't born there. He is somewhat like a Nazi sympathiser.
After confronting the Returners, the people with sad eyes who follow him, he learns that they are people who always come back after they die as somebody else, but they always return to live for the same purpose: to experience pain and suffering.
Will learns that he too is a Returner, it took him so long to return and remember who he is because he didn't want to return, he refused to, because he doesn't return for the same reason as the others. He returns to inflict pain, to kill, and suddenly remembers all of his past lives. He was the leader of a concentration camp, sending people to their deaths and he was a school shooter in another life.
In this life, the life of Will Hodges, he doesn't want to be a murderer so he tries to be good, but it is extremely hard for him as killing and causing pain is his only reason for returning.
Overall, the book is actually very interesting and definitely makes you think, but I personally just found it quite boring and it seemed to drag on and on.
However, I enjoy romance novels, so I can definitely see someone who enjoys mystery and fantasy really enjoying this book.
It was very confusing to say the least and I don't really feel like I actually understood the whole of the book until I reached the end, which made it better somehow, but I like to understand the book as I'm reading, not at the very end of it.
Will, the centre of the story, has constant nightmares, feelings of being followed and just generally quite a sad and depressing life because of this and because of the memory of his mother's suicide. His father is extremely racist, wanting rid of all those who live in Britain but weren't born there. He is somewhat like a Nazi sympathiser.
After confronting the Returners, the people with sad eyes who follow him, he learns that they are people who always come back after they die as somebody else, but they always return to live for the same purpose: to experience pain and suffering.
Will learns that he too is a Returner, it took him so long to return and remember who he is because he didn't want to return, he refused to, because he doesn't return for the same reason as the others. He returns to inflict pain, to kill, and suddenly remembers all of his past lives. He was the leader of a concentration camp, sending people to their deaths and he was a school shooter in another life.
In this life, the life of Will Hodges, he doesn't want to be a murderer so he tries to be good, but it is extremely hard for him as killing and causing pain is his only reason for returning.
Overall, the book is actually very interesting and definitely makes you think, but I personally just found it quite boring and it seemed to drag on and on.
However, I enjoy romance novels, so I can definitely see someone who enjoys mystery and fantasy really enjoying this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 23, 2018
I have a vague recollection of reading this some time in the past which is kind of ironic considering the topic of the book itself. While I felt a repeated deja vu throughout this book, I can't seem to remember when I actually would have read it before. I also couldn't remember much of the main plot, which is pretty weird.
Anyway, the review.
It's a good book. honestly, the opening paragraph of this review sums the book up quite well - it's good, but not overly memorable. When you read it, you often think, "this is good" or "cool" or whatever, but a few months later you'll forget all about it. At least, that's how I felt.
Gemma Malley is an author I used to love when I was in my preteens, and I'm not sure if that's why her books feel very adolescent to me, or if it's because they actually are. Basically, I feel too old for them now. The protagonists are usually "cool" mid-teens, who the reader is supposed to look up to in some way. But I'm older than most characters and actually find their attitudes a bit pathetic and petty.
The story was good but I felt like there were a few loopholes, honestly. The idea of the "Returners" is interesting but not developed enough - who actually 'controls' them? Where did they come from? What is their real purpose? I felt like their purpose was a bit wishy-washy. Douglas's refusal to change his attitude because it "isn't their role" or whatever just sounded a bit... lame. Like a cop-out, I guess. I really would've liked to know more about the Returners and why they actually exist.
It's only short and this may contribute to it feeling quite young, but it is well written and really enjoyable to read. Will is almost an anti-hero, and as the reader I both loved and hated him. His thoughts and attitudes were quite sporadic and it was sometimes hard to keep up, but that may have been the intention. I did like how we learned things at the same time as Will - we followed him through his own story. It was also really interesting how Will decided to handle the life he'd been forced into.
4 stars.
Anyway, the review.
It's a good book. honestly, the opening paragraph of this review sums the book up quite well - it's good, but not overly memorable. When you read it, you often think, "this is good" or "cool" or whatever, but a few months later you'll forget all about it. At least, that's how I felt.
Gemma Malley is an author I used to love when I was in my preteens, and I'm not sure if that's why her books feel very adolescent to me, or if it's because they actually are. Basically, I feel too old for them now. The protagonists are usually "cool" mid-teens, who the reader is supposed to look up to in some way. But I'm older than most characters and actually find their attitudes a bit pathetic and petty.
The story was good but I felt like there were a few loopholes, honestly. The idea of the "Returners" is interesting but not developed enough - who actually 'controls' them? Where did they come from? What is their real purpose? I felt like their purpose was a bit wishy-washy. Douglas's refusal to change his attitude because it "isn't their role" or whatever just sounded a bit... lame. Like a cop-out, I guess. I really would've liked to know more about the Returners and why they actually exist.
It's only short and this may contribute to it feeling quite young, but it is well written and really enjoyable to read. Will is almost an anti-hero, and as the reader I both loved and hated him. His thoughts and attitudes were quite sporadic and it was sometimes hard to keep up, but that may have been the intention. I did like how we learned things at the same time as Will - we followed him through his own story. It was also really interesting how Will decided to handle the life he'd been forced into.
4 stars.
February 11, 2022
Many years ago I read Gemma Malley’s ‘The Declaration’ series and having enjoyed it a lot I was chuffed to have discovered she had also written this book. The premise is exciting - a small group of people who live multiple lives, being oppressors and victims in some of history’s most gruesome events. These returners are pre-destined to be good or bad and absorb the collective guilt of humanity … but is destiny really a thing ? After all these years could they fight back against their roles, aggressor or victim? Can they change?
But while I think you may agree the premise sounds promising sadly the execution was less so. As a YA novel it was pitched at an older audience, the themes and depictions challenging, but the detail did not match. The inaccuracies over legal roles , the neglect of detail in the plot and the gaps in explanation around the mysterious mess of the returners all grated. None of the characters elicited empathy and I was bored at times, frustrated by the lack of progression in a story whose theme had such promise
Sorry Gemma - 3 is generous - and perhaps this generosity is a hangover from my fond memories of The Declaration …
But while I think you may agree the premise sounds promising sadly the execution was less so. As a YA novel it was pitched at an older audience, the themes and depictions challenging, but the detail did not match. The inaccuracies over legal roles , the neglect of detail in the plot and the gaps in explanation around the mysterious mess of the returners all grated. None of the characters elicited empathy and I was bored at times, frustrated by the lack of progression in a story whose theme had such promise
Sorry Gemma - 3 is generous - and perhaps this generosity is a hangover from my fond memories of The Declaration …
June 24, 2024
This book is quite visceral but I think it sends a prevalent message. It revolves around the issue of bigotry and the sort of aftermath of xenophobia, how it doesn't just affect immigrants (where here the effects on them are truly horrific) but everyone.
I wouldn't choose to read it again, however I have read it once and what I got from it has stayed with me and I am glad I read it. I feel like a lot of schools could really make a difference by giving this book to students given what it conveys, though I am an adult and I personally found it to be quite a piercing read.
The author does a very good job of showing the perspective of Will especially creating his paranoia and horror, but also allowing the reader to identify with Claire and see the bigger picture along with having empathy for not only Will's pain but the people interacting with him. I won't give any spoilers, but that is definitely what I would let people know about this book before reading it. It made me cry and feel horrified at times but I feel like that's a sign of a good writer with something impactful.
I wouldn't choose to read it again, however I have read it once and what I got from it has stayed with me and I am glad I read it. I feel like a lot of schools could really make a difference by giving this book to students given what it conveys, though I am an adult and I personally found it to be quite a piercing read.
The author does a very good job of showing the perspective of Will especially creating his paranoia and horror, but also allowing the reader to identify with Claire and see the bigger picture along with having empathy for not only Will's pain but the people interacting with him. I won't give any spoilers, but that is definitely what I would let people know about this book before reading it. It made me cry and feel horrified at times but I feel like that's a sign of a good writer with something impactful.
June 24, 2019
Gotta say I really enjoyed this, found it to be a fast-paced and compelling story, great lot of twists and turns that I never saw coming! Neat idea too, and glad it was a standalone because often I just want to read something from beginning to end all in one go! But I'd be interested to read more about the Returners. I also would have liked a bit more insight into Will's past lives, because I found a lot of them to be a bit too vague. The Auschwitz one was obvious (the ash really gave it away), but none of the other scenarios were even remotely recognisable, so I couldn't place them in history, they were just random, unspecific horrors. Some were mentioned later on, but out of context, so it was too difficult to match up.
June 1, 2022
I had picked this book to read for my English class to complete a project assignment and throughout reading the it I was very interested and intissed by the plot. Will Hodge, a teenage boy is approached by strange men informing him that they are Returners. Returners are reincarnated people from the future that travel back to the past to try to correct the terrible events that the future holds. These men inform Will that he must change himself and his views/actions so he doesn't become the reason these events happen. Over all reading about Wills emotions and his perception of the events unfolding was very interesting. The aspect of the returners was fascinating and the events they describe.
November 1, 2018
This book was INCREDIBLE. To read it in 2018, it's mind-boggling to realize it was written in 2010, considering just how much it felt like it was written in the year it was set, 2016.
The Returners is a gripping work of social and political commentary on both anti-immigration sentiments and the idea of neutrality in a polarized society. If you're into history, sociology, and politics, read this! Seriously!
The Returners is a gripping work of social and political commentary on both anti-immigration sentiments and the idea of neutrality in a polarized society. If you're into history, sociology, and politics, read this! Seriously!
June 20, 2020
2020 Extreme Book Nerd Challenge.... Category #42.
Challenge Topic: A book with an immigrant.
Imagine being reborn again and again with all the knowledge of humanities horrors and being forced to either be the recipient or the bringer of all these horrors. The author managed to bring this story to life and the main character has "forgotten" who and what he is.
I struggled a little with the writing style. For me it was a little choppy, but the story was a good one.
Challenge Topic: A book with an immigrant.
Imagine being reborn again and again with all the knowledge of humanities horrors and being forced to either be the recipient or the bringer of all these horrors. The author managed to bring this story to life and the main character has "forgotten" who and what he is.
I struggled a little with the writing style. For me it was a little choppy, but the story was a good one.
July 16, 2018
I didn't think I would like this book at first, nevertheless I kept going and finished the book .The ending was so fucked up yet so good .The plot was a little sketchy at times but I like the way the author built up the climax.
February 9, 2021
I loved this book. The description of the book does not give the book justice. Bit of a twist throughout the book which I did not see coming at the beginning of the book. Sad in places in the book and some broken themes surrounding family and love.
Would read this book again!
Would read this book again!
February 11, 2018
Very complicated ending with who actually killed Will's mother, also, why did he forget what happened?
October 4, 2018
Really not my thing - just did not really connect with the characters. I thought the idea was good but it was too vague
August 6, 2019
Not my type of book at all. Didn't intrigue me enough and I didn't understand what was going on. Just disappointing.
March 3, 2017
Ms. Malley deserves credit for tackling such a big question as the problem of evil and suffering--humankind's proclivity to intolerance and genocide. Will, the central character, discovers he is a Returner, a soul who returns to earth again and again, apparently to witness and absorb human suffering. There is a twist, though. Some Returners are the perpetrators in the almost ritualistic evil that seems to have plagued human civilization from time immemorial. Will's struggle is to decide whether he will put a stop to this cycle. The premise of the book is interesting, even provocative, but there is something unsatisfying in the execution. In the end, Will rejects his "destiny" as a perpetrator of the next holocaust and opts for exercising free will. But if such events are part of the human condition, won't another Returner simply assume the necessary role of perpetrator? One wonders what larger purpose Returners really serve, who or what sent them, and what larger force determines destiny. If Returners are both victims and perpetrators of grand scale genocides, of what moral substance are normal non-Returner humans made? What role do they have in mass violations of human rights and human dignity? In creating these beings, questions are raised but unsatisfactorily explored. An interesting book, but not fully satisfying. Recommended for ages 14 and up. There is some "mature" language and content. (Will's father in the book suspects his wife of having an affair with one of the hated "foreigners" who have hijacked Britain.)
September 5, 2024
I am of two opinions about this book. It was amazing how much it sounded like the current political discourse being shouted over the airwaves today despite this book being published about 14 years ago. I would give it 4 stars for debunking that message but I really didn't like any of the characters.
May 2, 2010
’The Returner’s', the second book of Gemma Malley’s that I have read, was an interesting idea that I have never before heard of. Though the pace of the book was slow-moving (even for a book of only 257 pages), it was still an enjoyable read.
This is again one of those books that I simply cannot tell you about in detail, because it would completely ruin the plot. So, I guess I’ll just have to edge around that as best as I can.
At times, the idea of the ‘returners’ (you’ll have to read the book to find out who they are) was a bit confusing at times, however this cleared up towards the end of a novel and things became a bit easier to understand. The itself was easy to follow, with only a few main story lines being presented.
‘The Returners’ is set in the near future, in the year 2016 – which, in my opinion, lent to the reality of the story because it was so close to home. Similarly, the morals of the book felt quite relevant to todays society.
The story involves Will Hodge, the protagonist, being followed by people that he cannot remember. He calls these people the ‘Freaks’. A local member of the community, who is an immigrant, is also seen at the scene of a murder and is taken away by the police and thrown in gaol as a suspect.
I really like the cover for this book, by the way. The person walking in the door adds a creepy aspect to the cover (that and the blood) which was one of the reasons I chose the book in the first place. I also was really intrigued by the tag line on the front; ‘A past life doesn’t mean a good one‘.
Will, as a narrator, reminded me a little of the protagonist from ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, Holden Caulfield. Though I didn’t really like Holden’s voice (it got really annoying after a while), I did tend to agree with his views on society – that people were ‘phony’, and that we only do the things we do because we must conform. That wasn’t what Will was trying to convey in ‘The Returners’, but I still felt that the style in which his opinions were written was very similar to that of Holden’s.
Throughout the book, I often found myself empathizing for the characters in their different predicaments. I pitied Will, as he struggle to accept who he was and tried to cope with the loss of his mother. I felt for his feelings of alienation (yes, it’s very year 12 belonging related) and rejection and how he tried to use a facade to cover how he was really feeling about all this. And I understood his disgust and brazen, forced acceptance of who he really was. That was one aspect of the book that I really enjoyed. It is a wonderful book indeed that allows for such empathy with its characters.
I did, however, guess the ending and one ‘plot twist’ that appeared in the story. If you’ve read it, I’m talking about the truth behind the death of Will’s mother – if I say anything else, I’ll give it away. And I wouldn’t want that.
Despite the fact that I often guess the ending of books, I felt that this one was especially predictable, which in this case was annoying, as the book wasn’t really marketed as a light-hearted read. So that was a real underlying factor for why the book received the rating from me that it did.
Just a quite intermission, Bindi has just joined my while I was writing this, and I think she wanted me to mention that ‘The Returners’ smells nice.
OK, back to the review…
All in all, the book was interesting, it was new and different, and the writing style was similar to that of Gemma Malley’s previous books ‘The Declaration’ and ‘The Resistance’. However, I felt that the book was a little slow to unfold, even for a book this small, and it was quite predictable and also a little confusing.
I don’t mind Gemma Malley’s style of writing, and I think it’s quite different from many other writers of dystopian fiction that I have read (which aren’t many, though hopefully I’ll get the chance to read more in the future). I’ll be looking out for any more of her books in the future.
This is again one of those books that I simply cannot tell you about in detail, because it would completely ruin the plot. So, I guess I’ll just have to edge around that as best as I can.
At times, the idea of the ‘returners’ (you’ll have to read the book to find out who they are) was a bit confusing at times, however this cleared up towards the end of a novel and things became a bit easier to understand. The itself was easy to follow, with only a few main story lines being presented.
‘The Returners’ is set in the near future, in the year 2016 – which, in my opinion, lent to the reality of the story because it was so close to home. Similarly, the morals of the book felt quite relevant to todays society.
The story involves Will Hodge, the protagonist, being followed by people that he cannot remember. He calls these people the ‘Freaks’. A local member of the community, who is an immigrant, is also seen at the scene of a murder and is taken away by the police and thrown in gaol as a suspect.
I really like the cover for this book, by the way. The person walking in the door adds a creepy aspect to the cover (that and the blood) which was one of the reasons I chose the book in the first place. I also was really intrigued by the tag line on the front; ‘A past life doesn’t mean a good one‘.
Will, as a narrator, reminded me a little of the protagonist from ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, Holden Caulfield. Though I didn’t really like Holden’s voice (it got really annoying after a while), I did tend to agree with his views on society – that people were ‘phony’, and that we only do the things we do because we must conform. That wasn’t what Will was trying to convey in ‘The Returners’, but I still felt that the style in which his opinions were written was very similar to that of Holden’s.
Throughout the book, I often found myself empathizing for the characters in their different predicaments. I pitied Will, as he struggle to accept who he was and tried to cope with the loss of his mother. I felt for his feelings of alienation (yes, it’s very year 12 belonging related) and rejection and how he tried to use a facade to cover how he was really feeling about all this. And I understood his disgust and brazen, forced acceptance of who he really was. That was one aspect of the book that I really enjoyed. It is a wonderful book indeed that allows for such empathy with its characters.
I did, however, guess the ending and one ‘plot twist’ that appeared in the story. If you’ve read it, I’m talking about the truth behind the death of Will’s mother – if I say anything else, I’ll give it away. And I wouldn’t want that.
Despite the fact that I often guess the ending of books, I felt that this one was especially predictable, which in this case was annoying, as the book wasn’t really marketed as a light-hearted read. So that was a real underlying factor for why the book received the rating from me that it did.
Just a quite intermission, Bindi has just joined my while I was writing this, and I think she wanted me to mention that ‘The Returners’ smells nice.
OK, back to the review…
All in all, the book was interesting, it was new and different, and the writing style was similar to that of Gemma Malley’s previous books ‘The Declaration’ and ‘The Resistance’. However, I felt that the book was a little slow to unfold, even for a book this small, and it was quite predictable and also a little confusing.
I don’t mind Gemma Malley’s style of writing, and I think it’s quite different from many other writers of dystopian fiction that I have read (which aren’t many, though hopefully I’ll get the chance to read more in the future). I’ll be looking out for any more of her books in the future.
September 29, 2021
It was a very interesting book.
December 1, 2010
This is one of those books I picked up, not excepting to be completely lost in an amazing story, and yet I find I was hopelessly lost in the book. Returners was not what I was excepting at all. Gemma Malley wove together perfectly historical facts, with her amazing world of Returners. People who come back reincarnated over and over again. They serve a purpose, to remember the lives they have lived.
Will Hodge is a character who has many layers and one I felt a range of emotions for. I felt bad for him, sympathized with him, wanted to hug him and tell him it would be alright, got really mad at him and yet towards the end, I really rallied behind him, hoping he would make the change he wanted to make. Will is a self-loathing teen boy, who's still coping with the death of this mother who was killed a few years ago. He is caught in the middle of his father's radical ways. Set in England, in the year 2016, Will finds that he's in the middle of a movement. Not only does he have to deal with an abusive, drunken father and not having any friends but, he's started to have very vivid disturbing dreams about parts of history other's would like to forget and he's being followed.
Will witnesses something, that could change not only the accuser's life for good, but it's the center of a bigger radical movement that his father is part of. Will finds he's a key player. He's the only witness to what he thinks he saw. His father wants him to lie about it, and his old friend Claire wants him to tell the police what he saw. Will feels as though he's going crazy. The people that are following him won't leave him alone and he's having a hard time remembering things, except for flashes of memories from various points from history's past.
When Will confronts the people who are following him, he finds he's a Returner, and they've been looking for him for 50 years. Returners have existed through out time, and come back again and again. They remember the worst things that humankind does to each other and are humanity's conscience. They are the protectors's of the insanity of humankind in times of distress. When Will is told he's destined to suffer, to remember these things (like he has done times before) and to feel the desperation and agony of humankind's choices, he chooses to believe he can change his destiny. It's not going to be as easy as he thinks. He finds out he's the cause of these horrible events. If he doesn't change the course of his destiny, he's going to be the cause of an even greater catastrophe.
With the help of Claire, Will knows he can make the change, but when his father forces him into his extremist ways, Will finds his determination for change shattered. Will is running out of time to save his one time friend and accuser of a crime he may or not have committed. Telling the police what he saw is going to cost him, but it can also be part of the change Will is determined to make.
Gemma brings to light, and has done so in a very tactful way, the horrible atrocities our world's history has played out over and over again. As a teenager, Will starts to remember being apart of that history. He caused some of it and other times he stood by, not wanting to be apart of it anymore. Her underlining message in the book is that we can all change. Will finds that standing up to his father, changing the course he's destined to repeat over and over again is going to be very hard, but can he do it? Will he make the change in time? Can one person's change alter the course of history?
Will Hodge is a character who has many layers and one I felt a range of emotions for. I felt bad for him, sympathized with him, wanted to hug him and tell him it would be alright, got really mad at him and yet towards the end, I really rallied behind him, hoping he would make the change he wanted to make. Will is a self-loathing teen boy, who's still coping with the death of this mother who was killed a few years ago. He is caught in the middle of his father's radical ways. Set in England, in the year 2016, Will finds that he's in the middle of a movement. Not only does he have to deal with an abusive, drunken father and not having any friends but, he's started to have very vivid disturbing dreams about parts of history other's would like to forget and he's being followed.
Will witnesses something, that could change not only the accuser's life for good, but it's the center of a bigger radical movement that his father is part of. Will finds he's a key player. He's the only witness to what he thinks he saw. His father wants him to lie about it, and his old friend Claire wants him to tell the police what he saw. Will feels as though he's going crazy. The people that are following him won't leave him alone and he's having a hard time remembering things, except for flashes of memories from various points from history's past.
When Will confronts the people who are following him, he finds he's a Returner, and they've been looking for him for 50 years. Returners have existed through out time, and come back again and again. They remember the worst things that humankind does to each other and are humanity's conscience. They are the protectors's of the insanity of humankind in times of distress. When Will is told he's destined to suffer, to remember these things (like he has done times before) and to feel the desperation and agony of humankind's choices, he chooses to believe he can change his destiny. It's not going to be as easy as he thinks. He finds out he's the cause of these horrible events. If he doesn't change the course of his destiny, he's going to be the cause of an even greater catastrophe.
With the help of Claire, Will knows he can make the change, but when his father forces him into his extremist ways, Will finds his determination for change shattered. Will is running out of time to save his one time friend and accuser of a crime he may or not have committed. Telling the police what he saw is going to cost him, but it can also be part of the change Will is determined to make.
Gemma brings to light, and has done so in a very tactful way, the horrible atrocities our world's history has played out over and over again. As a teenager, Will starts to remember being apart of that history. He caused some of it and other times he stood by, not wanting to be apart of it anymore. Her underlining message in the book is that we can all change. Will finds that standing up to his father, changing the course he's destined to repeat over and over again is going to be very hard, but can he do it? Will he make the change in time? Can one person's change alter the course of history?
April 10, 2021
When I was reading this I wrote three pages of notes about stuff that confused me, plot holes etc so that's saying something. My biggest issue with this is that a lot of the character motivations are very weird, the dads only motivation is that he's racist and don't even get me started on Will, I still don't know what his motivation was besides being a "pick me" boy. Also isn't Will meant to be like 16? 16-year-olds do not act like this....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2010
The Returners is a thought-provoking, interesting and surprisingly intellectual read. The premise is that Will, a teenage boy, is a ‘Returner.’ He is someone who has lived through past lives and returns again and again. These ‘Returners’ have a certain responsibility and destiny during their time in their lives. Will doesn’t remember who he was or what he is now supposed to do. The death of his mother and his father’s careless attitude toward him have left the young man beyond lonely and hurt.
Out of all of this, we begin to get glimpses of who Will may have been. Gemma Malley employs vivid nightmares and waking visions of different times in history filled with hate and littered with unimaginable pain to show us what Will has lived through in his previous lives. The plot moves along somewhat slowly to begin with, but once the nightmares begin to build in intensity, so does the plot. Malley’s clipped writing works so well for the story and makes many of the scenes that much more effecting.
It is days later. I can smell it. Death. Burning flesh. It fills my nose, fills my chest, I am choking, spluttering, it is consuming me. I am screaming, screaming, screaming… ~ pg. 38
Will’s increasing self-awareness and resurgence of his past leads to an incredible ending. The historical background information, combined with the looming political war, creates such a devastating image of the future. Malley has done something incredible with The Returners. The story is, at times, difficult to read, but impossible to put down. The picture she paints of a world where discrimination, racism, abuse, and shady political agendas run rampant is sadly not unlike things we still experience today, but she presents them so cut and dry. It seems like she is just telling us, ‘this is how it is, now can we do something about it’? Will becomes a friend, a brother, he becomes the reader. Everything he feels, we feel. At times, it is devastating. Other times, it is absolutely terrifying.
A hand on my shoulder, another on my head – friendship, understanding, I feel it all, like osmosis through my skin. ~ pg. 132
Malley has created a contemporary masterpiece that doesn’t fit any mold or conform to any standard. The Returners will make you think, make you question things, and leave you with a sense of responsibility; a purpose. Maybe even a destiny.
I don’t want to give any major plot points away, so go pick this one up. Devour it, treasure it, and never forget it. I know I won’t.
Opening line: There was this day, a few weeks ago. ~ pg. 1
Favorite line(s): Everyone has a choice. Everyone. All the time. You can walk through a door or decide not to. ~ pg. 243
Out of all of this, we begin to get glimpses of who Will may have been. Gemma Malley employs vivid nightmares and waking visions of different times in history filled with hate and littered with unimaginable pain to show us what Will has lived through in his previous lives. The plot moves along somewhat slowly to begin with, but once the nightmares begin to build in intensity, so does the plot. Malley’s clipped writing works so well for the story and makes many of the scenes that much more effecting.
It is days later. I can smell it. Death. Burning flesh. It fills my nose, fills my chest, I am choking, spluttering, it is consuming me. I am screaming, screaming, screaming… ~ pg. 38
Will’s increasing self-awareness and resurgence of his past leads to an incredible ending. The historical background information, combined with the looming political war, creates such a devastating image of the future. Malley has done something incredible with The Returners. The story is, at times, difficult to read, but impossible to put down. The picture she paints of a world where discrimination, racism, abuse, and shady political agendas run rampant is sadly not unlike things we still experience today, but she presents them so cut and dry. It seems like she is just telling us, ‘this is how it is, now can we do something about it’? Will becomes a friend, a brother, he becomes the reader. Everything he feels, we feel. At times, it is devastating. Other times, it is absolutely terrifying.
A hand on my shoulder, another on my head – friendship, understanding, I feel it all, like osmosis through my skin. ~ pg. 132
Malley has created a contemporary masterpiece that doesn’t fit any mold or conform to any standard. The Returners will make you think, make you question things, and leave you with a sense of responsibility; a purpose. Maybe even a destiny.
I don’t want to give any major plot points away, so go pick this one up. Devour it, treasure it, and never forget it. I know I won’t.
Opening line: There was this day, a few weeks ago. ~ pg. 1
Favorite line(s): Everyone has a choice. Everyone. All the time. You can walk through a door or decide not to. ~ pg. 243
June 19, 2010
The Returners is a newly published novel by Gemma Malley.
Will Hodges’ life is a mess! His mother is dead, he has no friends and he thinks he is being followed by a strange group of people who tell him they know him. But Will can’t remember them …at first. And when he does, he doesn’t like what he can remember. While Will is struggling with unsettling memories, he learns that his past is a lot deeper than many people’s, and he has to find out if he is strong enough to break links with the powerful hold that history has on him. This compelling novel, set in an alternate future, challenges readers to consider the role we all have to play in making our society, and asks how much we are prepared to stand up for what’s right.
When I received this in the post, I was really excited. I have read Gemma Malley’s other books, The Resistance and The Declaration, and I really, really enjoyed them!
I think The Returners had really good ‘ingredients’ to it, and the synopsis makes it sound really amazing, but to be perfectly honest I thought the book was let down when hardly anything actually happened. It wasn’t until the last couple of chapters some things started happening.
However, Gemma Malley is an incredibly good writer, and if it had been a less good writer I would have completely hated this book, but the way Gemma Malley describes the characters interactions and their emotions makes it much more enjoyable, even though there was hardly any action.
I think Will Hodges as a character was very well described, though at times I thought he was a bit self centred and didn’t really care about other people’s feelings, until he started finding his own past.
Gemma Malley always creates a believable future that we humans could create, and I thought that the situations the characters are in in this future (it is 2016) are very realistic and is very possible, not just fiction.
All in all, if it wasn’t for the very good writing quality, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. The lack of a plot and action made the novel fail to hit the awesome mark, but it still left a lasting impression after I read the last page, because of the interesting questions raised during the book.
Rating = 3 Stars
I would recommend this book to other Gemma Malley lovers, but not to people who would like lot’s of action, like in Gemma Malley’s other books.
Will Hodges’ life is a mess! His mother is dead, he has no friends and he thinks he is being followed by a strange group of people who tell him they know him. But Will can’t remember them …at first. And when he does, he doesn’t like what he can remember. While Will is struggling with unsettling memories, he learns that his past is a lot deeper than many people’s, and he has to find out if he is strong enough to break links with the powerful hold that history has on him. This compelling novel, set in an alternate future, challenges readers to consider the role we all have to play in making our society, and asks how much we are prepared to stand up for what’s right.
When I received this in the post, I was really excited. I have read Gemma Malley’s other books, The Resistance and The Declaration, and I really, really enjoyed them!
I think The Returners had really good ‘ingredients’ to it, and the synopsis makes it sound really amazing, but to be perfectly honest I thought the book was let down when hardly anything actually happened. It wasn’t until the last couple of chapters some things started happening.
However, Gemma Malley is an incredibly good writer, and if it had been a less good writer I would have completely hated this book, but the way Gemma Malley describes the characters interactions and their emotions makes it much more enjoyable, even though there was hardly any action.
I think Will Hodges as a character was very well described, though at times I thought he was a bit self centred and didn’t really care about other people’s feelings, until he started finding his own past.
Gemma Malley always creates a believable future that we humans could create, and I thought that the situations the characters are in in this future (it is 2016) are very realistic and is very possible, not just fiction.
All in all, if it wasn’t for the very good writing quality, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. The lack of a plot and action made the novel fail to hit the awesome mark, but it still left a lasting impression after I read the last page, because of the interesting questions raised during the book.
Rating = 3 Stars
I would recommend this book to other Gemma Malley lovers, but not to people who would like lot’s of action, like in Gemma Malley’s other books.
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