The Returners (review)

Already dealing with his mother's death, his father's drinking and increasingly radical political beliefs, and his own social isolation, Will is unprepared for the bad news brought his way by the strange figures following him. It turns out that Will is a returner, destined to endure horrific torture (often being killed in the process) and then be reborn to do so again; such individuals carry the conscience of the world, essentially shouldering the evils that mankind seems to keep repeating with each new generation. Even worse, Will eventually regains enough of his memories to realize that he is different from the others: he is the very worst of humanity, the one inflicting the tortures. Once aware of his role (and those of his suffering peers who care for him but emphasize his fated existence), Will refuses to acquiesce and play his part in the racial-purity plot being enacted in 2016 London, instead attempting to resist his destiny. Will is at once a creepy yet somehow amiable narrator, struggling mightily but without much success even before the bombshell that he is essentially evil personified. However, the fated, passive roles of good and evil in the world, and the muted, martyred characters that play them, offer little for the reader with which to grapple or connect. In addition, Will's unending horror of a life (his mother was actually murdered by his father, his dad's best friend doesn't blink at killing people to make political points) strains even the outer bounds of realism and, likely, reader sympathy. Despite the book's issues, plot-driven sci-fi fans may relish the quick pace, frequent plot turns, and the fresh look at the belief that history always repeats itself.