‘Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six’ by Lisa Unger

Author : Lisa Unger
Title : Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six
Pages : 340
Publisher : Legend Press
Publication date : February 28, 2023
Source : Netgalley

| ABOUT THE BOOK |

What could be more restful, more restorative, than a weekend getaway with family and friends? An isolated luxury cabin in the woods, complete with spectacular views, a hot tub and a personal chef. Hannah’s loving and generous tech-mogul brother found the listing online. The reviews are stellar. It’s his birthday gift to Hannah and includes their spouses and another couple. The six friends need this trip with good food, good company and lots of R & R, far from the chatter and pressures of modern life.

But the dreamy weekend is about to turn into a nightmare. A deadly storm is brewing. The rental host seems just a little too present. The personal chef reveals that their beautiful house has a spine-tingling history. And the friends have their own complicated past, with secrets that run blood deep. How well does Hannah know her brother, her own husband? Can she trust her best friend? And who is the new boyfriend, crashing their party? Meanwhile, someone is determined to ruin the weekend, looking to exact a payback for deeds long buried. Who is the stranger among them?

| MY THOUGHTS |

I hadn’t read a book by Lisa Unger in a long time, and boy do I wish I’d left well enough alone. The promise of a locked room mystery is one I can never resist, but this is definitely one of those times where I could have used a bit more strength to resist the temptation.

‘Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six‘ was almost able to add a sleeping number seven to the list as I yawned and struggled my way through the first half of this book. It takes for-bloody-ever for these three couples to even arrive at the cabin. Which is most decidedly nothing like a cabin at all. Pretty much all these characters get to talk and have a point-of-view. And guess what? They’re all hiding something, and they’re a bunch of massively unlikeable, privileged, blind and whiny people. Not to mention stereotypical. The rich narcissist who only cares about himself, the hippie yoga woman, the dependable first-time mum, the wacky hasn’t-yet-grown-up one, the strong and silent type … and I couldn’t care one iota about any of them.

Added to that there are even more POVs. There’s the cabin owner, whose chapters bring absolutely nothing to the story. An “unknown” person who is clearly up to no good, and if you pay attention you can pretty much figure out who this is in the first quarter. And on top of that, there are also flashback chapters with yet another character. At some point, these threads will all come together in a rather over-the-top conclusion that left me utterly cold.

I personally found this to be a convoluted mess of messy things. The location lacked atmosphere. The plot was slightly chaotic, and with numerous twists too far. There is no chilling, thrilling suspense. And if you take away all the eating, drinking and doing of drugs the characters get up to, the book would have been at least 100 pages shorter. Even the addition of a ghost story vibe didn’t help. It felt a bit desperate, to be honest. A rather sad attempt to add some tension, which was sorely lacking throughout the entire story. It seemed like for most of the book I was just impatiently waiting for someone to die.

This was unfortunately one of those books that made me feel I had wasted precious hours, and wished there was a way I could get those back. Incredibly underwhelming, I’m sorry to say, and in hindsight I probably should have just DNF’d it.

Amazon UK [to be published on February 28th]

My thanks to the publisher for the advanced review copy, which I received via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.