The Returned Child
Kin of Fae Book 1
The Returned Child is a foreboding, lush fantasy novel in which teenagers navigate the mysteries of their home.
An ancient evil stalks the woods of rural Maine in Levi Peltier’s chilling horror novel The Returned Child.
There is magic at work in the Mills. Ten years ago, three children were found in the woods covered in blood and viscera. A girl, Jenny, was the sole survivor. That same day, a fourth child, Allen, was reported missing. Three days later, he was found, bloody and shivering. Now, in their senior year, Allen and Jenny both feel a shift in the air around their village. An eldritch spirit prowls the forest, snatching teenagers, eviscerating them, and devouring their organs. Before the school year ends, more than one mystery will be solved, and all the secrets of the Mills will be exposed.
Allen is an observant teenager, understanding the unease of the neighbors who look at him with suspicion but unable to alleviate their fears. He reveals only what he knows, heightening the narrative tension as he peels back the layers of ignorance and prejudice that led to the past and present deaths. Jenny and Quint, the Mills’ sheriff, share narrative duties with Allen, while a select few chapters are narrated by classmates of Jenny’s and Allen’s, including Jenny’s brother, Oliver.
The book is heavy with foreboding, but its pacing is slow and methodical, spread across three distinct sections. In the first section, the nature of the forest spirit is uncovered, and the truth about what happened to Jenny and Allen when they were young emerges. In the second section, the fae are confirmed to be integral to the present occurrences. And in the final section, the book becomes taut with mounting dread as Allen’s investigations into how to stop the spirit and protect his friends bear sickening fruit.
Contributing to the book’s disquietude is the language used throughout, which often focuses on the consequences of people’s actions. While the spirit’s violence happens off-page, the results are described in great detail. Gore and viscera are strewn or staged across the page. And the vivid imagery extends to the settings—the forest, Jenny’s grandmother’s house and handicrafts, and the eldritch fae are all fleshed out with lush attentiveness.
Further, the book melds pagan and Native American legend and folklore with seamless aplomb. Half of Jenny’s family lineage is from the Indigenous people of Maine, and this proves key to understanding the type of spirit wreaking havoc on the Mills. Allen’s comfort with and relationship with tiny sprites, the conifae, is also a key factor in addressing the horrors.
Information is doled out piecemeal; some clues are revealed too early, though. As the book goes on and bodies pile up, a second mystery emerges: the disappearance of Jenny’s mother. This thread runs parallel to the forest murders, showing the necessity of the earlier revelations. The book holds the intertwining threads of past and present, and of action and inaction, in a tight grip, its story never straying from the pursuit of justice.
Steeped in folklore, The Returned Child is an exciting horror novel about the corrupting nature of secrets.
Reviewed by
Dontaná McPherson-Joseph
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
