What do You think about The Return (1994)?
The first few chapters were painful... I mean, before we finally get to the part about Shari Cooper. And even after that, um, this sequel just seemed absolutely pointless. One of the worst books I have ever read!
—Roanna
The Return, the second book of Remember Me, is about Shari Cooper returning to Earth. Shari returns to Earth by entering Jean Rodrigues' body -- an eighteen year old -- and becomes a Wanderer. Peter, Shari's friend, also returns to Earth to stay with Shari. Shari decided to go back to Earth to help people, especially Jean, and to publish her story about her murder in her previous life.I thought that this was a good sequel to Remember Me. The Return begins with Shari and Peter continuing their lives as ghosts and ends with both of them returning to Earth. But, the chapter order could have been better -- some of the chapter sequence didn't make that much sense and got a little confusing. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading this book and I look forward to reading the third and final book The Last Story.
—Meghan Chin
Sadly enough, this book almost got a two. I think if it wasn't for my love for the character of Peter, it probably would have. The Return did not live up to its predecessor unfortunately. This book had a lot of moments it could have done without (mainly, the random short story in the middle that was more self serving on the authors part seeing as how it didn't move the plot along at all) and the dialogue some of the time seemed more fanfiction than anything else. On top of that, I felt this book became too spiritual and relied more on this new notion of spreading a "message". Pike should have tweaked that to be less kitschy philosophical and told more about the fact that these two characters did get a chance at life again.The good things about this book, though? There are still laugh out loud moment. Despite feeling like the dialogue was off some of the time, when Pike did get it right, he really got it right. There were moments were this book was smart and funny which is what I had come to expect from reading the first novel. The character of Shari has actually grown through the series and the darker understory of Peter is intriguing. Overall, it is worth the read. But be prepared not to love it as much as book one.
—Dana
