Member Reviews
Thank you to netgalley and publisher for the arc of This book
5 stars (sorry its late had technical issues at time submitting my review)
Such a great read, compelling, twisty. Dark and addictive made me want more! Edge of seat page turner! Highly recommend
Scotland? At Christmas? That's where you sold me. This was a heart-pumping edge-of-your-seat thriller that really delivered!
An enjoyable shortish read. Wasn’t expecting the storyline to go where it went but still managed to hold my attention. Thanks for the opportunity to read
The Lodge by Chris Coppel was a good choice as a quick read for the Halloween month. I loved the setting, a remote B&B in the Scottish highlands, where the guests are trapped by a snowstorm. It was a horror story, but it never really scared me because the premise seemed so ridiculous. That's not to say I didn't like the premise, where the hunted become the hunters. But this was never really scary for me, just kind of gory.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
THE LODGE is a compelling and engrossing Horror Suspense tale with a cozy overtone [amazing because of the Horror elements and body toll] from Chris Coppel . A family of three emigrate from Maryland to the Scottish Highlands to renovate an abandoned, isolated, manor farm into a Mindfulness Vegan retreat. In that region, it's a no-go; but the young adult daughter hires on with the subsequent buyers, who go all out to offer a hunting/fishing lodge [at exorbitant prices, targeting the wealthy upper class]. The first Christmas season goes well--until the deaths start--and Supernatural elements intervene.
This story is tautly plotted and never telegraphs its revelations. We learn about the characters gradually, as the real truths unfold, keeping suspense tension high, and the denouement and aftermath are startling but ultimately satisfying, as after consuming a finely-crafted meal, one experiences the sensation of fulfillment and satiation.
GAH I AM SO MAD! This book is perfect for me but it just was not what I wanted when I was reading. This had a lot of promise but it fell short
The Lodge is set in the perfect winter atmosphere in the Scottish Highlands. The story starts with an officer Andrew going to investigate a death in an isolated hunting logde. But due to an ill-timed storm he is stuck there with other guests waiting for the storm to pass. And the horror ensues.
This was a very unique horror story and the premise was promising. I did feel that the story dragged on for longer than required and did get boring at certain points.
This is freaky, cinematic and (I think) an original premise. I was sad when it was over and am hoping for a sequel.
This book was everything I look for in a book. It was so exciting. The plot was fantastic. It really had me on the edge of my seat, and my heart racing. It was very well written and flowed well.
I enjoyed this book. The theme reminded me of "Zoo" by James Patterson - animals seeking revenge for being mistreated. I was a little disappointed in the ending. Someone making a mistake without even knowing that they made it. If the animals were better than the humans, they should have been able to forgive rather than punish.
From the cover and the blurb this book looked right up my street, and i expected it to really good.
I can't say too much without giving the plot away, but when the book was 'normal' I actually really enjoyed the plot, and getting to know the characters but when it got 'weird' I literally laughed out loud at how awful and unbelievable it was. It was simply ridiculous to be honest and far from the sort of book I would choose to read.
It was only a short book but I couldn't read more than a couple of chapters at a time, so it took me a while to read it.
Not sure I would recommend it to be honest - sorry :(
The story itself is gory, but the cover doesn’t over exaggerate the blood. The Hunters become the Hunted.
The synopsis is short, only a few lines, but that’s all it needs to get you to read this story.
Coppel made the error of not capitalizing letters after ending the dialogue with an exclamation mark or question mark. I’ve seen this with a lot of independent authors, though, so it didn’t stick out as much as I suppose it should have.
Within the first few pages, I was hooked.
The Lodge is a good combination of horror, comedy, and light-hearted mystery. I love the idea of the animals fighting back to be quite quirky and completely unusual and I quickly became engrossed in the whole thing. It’s not massively long and gives you a decent pace of reading so it didn’t take me too long to get through this one, The ending wasn’t astounding by any means, but I still enjoyed it as an easy read to give you a little bit of something different.
Ended up liking this one a good deal! True, it sort of reads like vegan propaganda, but the secluded snowed-in atmosphere adds some much-appreciated chill. Plus, when it hits it REALLY hits....
Bonus for some Evil Dead 2 vibes, too. Recommended!
This book is an unusual Christmas story; in fact, I would call it “horror Christmas story”. A man has died from choking on a quail bone at a hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands just before Christmas and Andrew, a constable from the nearest town travels out to the remote lodge to check to ensure that it was an accidental death. It is snowing when he arrives and by the time he is ready to leave, it has snowed so much that he is snowbound with the rest of the guests and the owners of the lodge. The lodge is full of hunting trophies and animal products such as taxidermy (deer heads, elephant feet, leather chairs, etc.) and they start to fight back at people who are meat eaters. Slowly, one by one, the guests are killed as the hunted animals fight back.
This was quite a short novel coming in at just over 200 pages and was a quick read. While I didn’t find the book scary, I certainly found sections that made me squirm because it just grossed me out. I thought the author did a really good job of setting the atmosphere by describing the remoteness of the lodge, along with the bitter cold and snow. I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads and I can say that if you read this book, you’ll never look at your leather sofa the same way again!
Thank you to Netgalley and Matador for an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book is available now for purchase.
After a call comes in about an accidental death, Constable Andrew is dispatched to a remote hunting Lodge in the Scottish Highlands. He fights a growing blizzard to get to the Lodge and ends up being snowed in with the owners and guests. Horrifying events take place over the next few days, the hunted animals are starting to fight back.
WOW! I absolutely loved this book; it was wild. The whole time, I got Stephen King vibes; it’s dark, morbid, and terrifying. For me, I felt like this was a perfect horror book, with a very unique/imaginative plot that was executed so well. The banter between Andrew and Elena gave us a comedic break, their banter was great. The Lodge is a fast paced page turner, I highly recommend!
Oh boy, I had such high expectations for this book. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t that great. I had so many issues with the plot and the characters weren’t very likable.
I so badly wanted to like this one but unfortunately, it was a DNF at 20%. I just could not get into the story. The writing felt unnatural, especially the dialogue. Thank you for the chance to read this early, though.
For me, this was terrible. I can’t even begin to describe how badly I feel it missed the mark on what the blurb sets the expectation to be.
We spend way too much time on dialogue, description and the life stories of all the guests at this lodge and, in the end, none of it had any impact on the core of the plot,
The novella really drags because of this and when we’re brought back to the present, almost zero opportunity is taken to create tension, suspense or scary moments.
I get the point it wanted to make about hunting and meat-eating, but it was so heavy-handed and silly.
I realize that saying that this is unbelievable doesn't make sense for fiction and what is suppose to be horror, but it's just bad. Murderous animals...but like stuffed, animals without limbs being able to move fast and scare people is just too much. Maybe there was a different explanation at the end but I wasn't going to keep reading to find out.