Rachel Harrison’s debut begins with a missing person case, but as in many of her works, there is an early twist that makes the reader aware that there is a major distortion of reality.

Julie has disappeared in Acadia National Park. Two years have passed without anyone knowing anything about her whereabouts and without a memorial being erected in her honor. Jules returns and cannot remember where she was or what happened.

Her best friends Mae, Molly and Elise are curious but relieved and plan a meeting at a boutique hotel in upstate New York in the hope of reconnecting (and perhaps getting answers to the question of where their friend has been all this time).

Relief turns to fear, as the returned Jules is different from the one they remember: she is gaunt, gives off a foul odor, and her general demeanor is strange and unsettling. While the drama takes place in a hotel, the novel exudes a sense of claustrophobia often experienced in tightly paced crime novels that involve locked rooms.

The creeping fear increases in view of the atmospheric properties of an unknown place with… a now unknown friend.

It explores the group dynamics of complex friendships and the longing to recreate what once was. The scary thing is that we will probably never really and truly know who our friends are.