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This was another short story released to interest people in The Returned, and focusses on the story of a little girl. Apparently she's also mentioned in the novel, but I didn't remember that.

Of all the three short stories (there's also The First & The Choice, this one stayed with me most. Even though it is also very short and this is very obvious in the ending, which feel more than just a little bit rushed, I quite liked it. I only wish there would have been a bit more explanation as to where the returned are coming from and how does it work, since this isn't really addressed in the novel either. ( )

*Cross-posted on BookLikes and Wordpress.

The Sparrow is a huge improvement over its predecessor [b:The First|17860385|The First (The Returned, #0.5)|Jason Mott|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1367950860s/17860385.jpg|25003921]. Whereas The First serves as an introduction to a world where the dead suddenly return alive, The Sparrow delves into the moral issues that arise from it. Are the Returned human? Are they still the people they were when they died? How is this possible: Is it magic or can science explain it? And do we sacrifice our humanity in seeking the answers to these questions?

Married couple Heather and Matt face these questions when they discover Returned little girl Tatiana. Heather embraces the child, accepting and caring for her while husband Matt treats the Returnee as a thing to be exploited:

"These things aren't people. They're something else. And if there's a way for us to capitalize on this, then I'm all for that."

Heather is appalled at his reaction but replies with compassion, hoping to change his mind:

"If I could see my mother again... If my mother somehow shows up in all of this, if I get a call that she's been found in some far-off part of the world, I'd pray to God that the person who finds her would take care of her, that they would get her back to me, that they would have the decency to let me decide whether or not she was real, whether or not I could love her again."

Fear and uncertainty in the face of this bizarre phenomenon is to be expected, but the actions taken driven by these feelings have shown to be, in some cases, unaccountably violent and homicidal. In an attempt to understand Matt's rejection of Tatiana, Heather believes that since he's never experienced loss, he's unable to reconcile what the Returned can mean to those left behind in their grief:

'Heather was certain that Matt's problem with Tatiana stemmed from the fact that he had never lost anyone. Both of his parents were still alive. His brothers and sisters, even his grandparents, were all still alive. He had never known the loneliness of waking in the middle of the night from a dream of spending time with a mother who had been dead nearly a decade.'

The object of contention, Tatiana, is shown to be a normal human child and nothing indicates that she is otherwise. She possesses memories of her former life with loving parents, who took it in turns to make up bedtime stories to entertain her. Unfortunately her short life, and that of her mother's, was cut short when violence came to her home in what I assumed to be the Rwandan genocide in 1994, leaving her father bereft and alone (who was away at the time, helping those in need).

I'm definitely looking forward to the next installments of this series. ( )

This was my favorite of the three prequels to The Returned. A husband and wife find a girl alongside the side of the road. The husband thinks of her as an "it" and wants to exploit her. The wife treats her like her own child and does everything she can to help her. I liked the ending to this story. A quick lyrical read. ( )