REVIEW: The Wilderness Retreat by Jennifer Moore

The Wilderness Retreat by Jennifer Moore

Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense

Read: 4th May 2023

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Amazon

Published: 23rd February 2023

★★★ 3 stars

DESCRIPTION:

I release myself from the shackles of the outside world and embrace the wilderness within.

As Bella drops her son off at university, she’s devastated. It’s been the two of them ever since Asher was born. The only thing helping her through is the upcoming week-long wilderness retreat in Sweden. It’ll be her chance to reconnect and recharge.

At the retreat, Bella basks in the beauty of the modern lodge, with its luxury rooms and picture-perfect views, the glistening lake and lush forest. For the full detox effect, everyone must surrender their phones.

The holiday seems idyllic until the person who ruined Bella’s life years ago arrives, threatening everything she’s worked hard for and will do anything to protect. Suddenly, a terrified Bella is trapped in the wild, knowing someone wants her dead…

MY THOUGHTS:

The premise for this book had me intrigued. Single mum escapes to the Swedish wilderness for some much needed "R and R". The setting was atmospheric and the tone was the definitive of creepy. It was a little reminiscent of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" as everyone finds themselves secluded in this retreat, surrendering their phones and having to succumb to a full digital detox. Sounds legit...but I'd still like to keep a hold of my phone. You never know when you might actually need it!

We meet Bella who is bidding a tearful farewell to her son Asher as he embarks on a new journey of university life. Bella is a composer of film scores and recently made something of a name for herself for a very creepy thriller. This retreat is a birthday gift from her sister Rachel as a way of relaxing and recharging after always putting herself last whilst raising her son alone. As she waves Asher goodbye, her next stop is the airport where she will catch her flight to Sweden and begin her wilderness retreat.

However, the getaway in this idyllic setting soon proves not to be the refreshing break she had hope it would be, despite the luxury rooms and stunning views and surrounds. Then a storm cuts them all off from the outside world and suddenly all hell breaks loose.

I don't want to give too much away so all I shall say is that when secrets from the past that refused to stay buried start to be revealed, questions begin to surface about an incident from nineteen years previous. 

There are sick guests, mysterious characters, sinister references, creepy nuances...a reminder to never go on one of these wilderness retreats myself! Have none of these people read a psychological thriller before? Seen a scary movie? Enough to not put yourself in such a situation.

At any rate, the pace was fairly slow throughout and Bella was damn annoying. So much I felt was repetitive that it took away from the impact of the tale which had the promise of being such an atmospheric one at that. In the end, the story was kind of drawn out and with so many different characters it did get a little tricky keeping track of who was who.

Overall, an OK thriller but nothing memorable.

I would like to thank #JenniferMoore, #Netgalley and #HQStories for an ARC of #TheWildernessRetreat in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Jennifer Moore is a novelist, freelance writer and children's author (writing as Jenny Moore) from Devon. Her short fiction has been widely published on both sides of the Atlantic and she was the first ever UK writer to win the Commonwealth Short Story Competition.

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