First of all just wanted to say wow this book was not what I expected.. The murder s where very brutal. This story is about a lodge in Scotland round Christmas time. Guests go to the hotel and events happen and a police man went up to investigate but the snow was thick and he had to stay there with them until the snow went.
This is horror story and the things that happened I did not see coming. I was shocked what happened to a few of the characters in the book who I liked.
I think this book could been a bit shorter and I liked how you got to find out background on the four characters.
Thank you NetGalley and Chris Coppel for letting me read this book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2021
I think this has to be the first vegetarian horror book I have ever read. Set in the Scottish Highlands during Christmas, a young constable is called to a new lodge to investigate the death of one of its guests.
Within hours, the snow sets in, trapping the young constable, owners and the hunting parties for who the lodge is specifically aimed at. Now confined amongst the numerous hunting trophies decorating the interior and the freshly killed animals waiting to be devoured, the body of the first victim disappears without leaving a trace.
It is a gory, fun book that does not take itself too seriously and eventually throws everything at the reader as the pace starts to step up a gear. This is a book you could read in one sitting and if you do not want every facet explained to you and accept you are being taken along for the ride this is a hugely enjoyable book.

A quick, enjoyable, and absolutely terrifying read. Sure to make you think twice the next time you see a taxidermied animal.

Andrew, a green horn on the force in a small town in the Highlands, receives a call late on night on the eve of Christmas Eve. The call is from a large lodge from outside of town, and the case appears to be an accidental death. Andrew gets in his car, and starts the hour long drive into the Highlands, while a large winter storm begins its onslaught of frozen precipitation. He arrives at The Lodge, and sees that the individual has choked on a pheasant bone from dinner. The snow has continually been coming down, and the guest, staff and Andrew all appear to be snowed in. They store the body in a safe place til crime scene investigation can arrive to determine the official cause of death.

Upon waking the next morning the body is gone, and strange things of a dark nature appear to be happening at The Lodge. Will Andrew figure out the cause of these strange disturbances, and locate the missing dead body?

This story was absolutely amazing. The twist at the end, was not what I was expecting at all. It is based on a very intriguing concept, and has a very "The Shining" vibe to it, especially the part with the topiaries. Once I started this, I could not put it down. The story balances between the current situation, and back stories of each of The Lodge's guests backstories, and how their lives are all intertwined. If you love thrillers and books about paranormal, you will absolutely relish in the pages of "The Lodge".

This was a bit strange! Horror and pastiche of horror rolled into one. When a man dies at a remote lodge, it turns out that the area is a good hunting ground and is popular with allkinds of hunters. Well the animals start fighting back and it's a fun, yet horror filled ride. A bit YA rather than for adults and reminded me of one of those novels that were popular in the 80s. A bit Stephen King in his early days. Mad and memorable but not for me.

What could be cozier than Christmas in a hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands? For newbie constable Andrew, the inn owners, and a handful of well-paying guests, the tables turn when the hunted animals take revenge.

The Lodge by Chris Coppel is a bullet of a book: fast, compact, and impactful. It's a short revenge tale that teeters on the edge of splatterpunk. There's plenty of creative gore and atmosphere, but not a lot of creepiness. The lodge and the surrounding countryside are as beautifully visual as the deaths are gruesome. If you're in the mood for something quick and grisly in an idyllic landscape, The Lodge is for you.

It reminds me a bit of a 90's whodunit: a big spooky house, a locked-in atmosphere, and plenty of mysterious bumps in the night. Every now and then, a character would hear a shout from another room, rush in, and immediately ask what happened. Oh dear, it was the deer!

Like any good horror story, The Lodge doesn't take itself too seriously. The bizarre reanimated animals are nightmarishly weird and creative in their retribution. Even the Christmas tree gets in on the action! And the human characters are good for a laugh: desperate for a positive Yelp review, the owners do their darndest to metaphorically sweep the deaths under the zebra-skin rug. The reader enjoys plenty of that "I know something you don't know" feeling when the characters find themselves in a pickle.

I think it would have benefitted from being either a little bit shorter or a little bit longer. There were some gaps in the backstories and I think they all could have been either fleshed out or summed up. However, I did enjoy knowing the backstories and after learning the guests' histories, I'll admit it sparked a bit of a grinchy smile when karma caught up with them. Once everything started to make sense (sort of) it did feel a bit rushed and too tidy. A bit over the top, but what else would you expect from a story like this?

I can't quite decide which genre The Lodge belongs in. The cover says it's a thriller, it reads like horror, but it's more of a vegan revenge tale with gore in it. The spook-factor is a little low, so there's not a lot of dread, but plenty of revulsion. The reader can see everything coming from a mile away. In a vengeance tale, I consider this a good thing.

Whatever it is, The Lodge is just a lot of fun! Probably not so entertaining if you're an avid hunter, but if you're in the mood for a jolt of gross-out horror, this is just the ticket.

I read this book during a blizzard. And yes, I did make a vegan dish for dinner.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is definitely an interesting book.

Its also very strange and weird which I usually enjoy but this just took it a bit far for me. Like it was trying to be as weird as possible without the story leading us to that point.

I enjoyed the flashbacks and I enjoyed everything being pieced together slowly through those flashbacks but I think the actual story in The Lodge became just too far fetched and too preachy.

I also think the story would have been better being just live animals....the antlers etc was just a step too far...and made it comical rather than scary....and the times when it was real animals...was menacing.

It felt like the author was trying to be as eccentric as possible and make it as bizarre as possible and think we lost some shocks and most of the cohesive story telling due to that.

I also think the pro vegetarian propaganda was a bit too much.

I did like the flashbacks alot though hence the 2 stars but overall just thought it was just too extremely fantastical and too forceful with its vegetarian message for me to enjoy it fully. I always think suggestion and guidance works better in books and prefer to make up my own mind...but this was out and out telling us what to think rather than leading us to the correct options...

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Lodge is an inventive horror story depicting what happens when the hunters become the hunted. This novel has stunning imagery and paints the picture of isolation vividly.

Right, I know this wasn’t everyone cuppa, but I’ma go out there and say I LIKED IT. I’ve ummed and ahhed for about a week now fully torn but it’s time to commit.

Maybe it’s because I grew up in a hunting family (did not enjoy it) or maybe it’s because it’s based in Scotland or PERHAPS it had just the right amount of heebie-jeebies in it to make sure I kept an eye on the neighbour foxes whereabouts. You know. Just in case…

So now we’ve got my weird feelings out of the way, this is a book about animals getting their revenge on meat-eaters. A terrifying prospect because if they were to start a Planet of the Apes style uprising, we’d all be royally fucked.

The TL;DR:
✨ Set up in those Scottish hills. You know the ones where they have those terrifying single track roads and no 4G
✨ One newly appointed police chap who just wanted an easy Christmas shift
✨ A ~spooky~ old house full of mounted animal heads and a taxidermist on call
✨ A bunch of animals hellbent on their revenge

It’s an interesting premies and, naturally, I was intrigued. So let’s get started with our pal Andrew AKA the new copper on the block. The wee scamp gets lumped with the Christmas shifts and whilst he’s hoping for a quiet one, someone only goes and dies at the local lodge. After battling a snowstorm, he meets his new bff in the form of fellow vegetarian, Elena.

Elena. Elena, Elena, Elena. You were a little annoying but you’ve lived an interesting life so I’ll let you off. Determined to change the minds of the hunters, Elena lived behind the scenes tending to their every need.

The storm rolls in, phone signal quickly scarpers down the shitter and the animals (including the dead ones who hadn’t quite left this world yet) flip-reversed things became the hunters.

If you don’t like descriptive death or grotesque things, then I highly recommend leaving this book on the shelf. It ain’t for you. Move on.

Yes, some bits are a bit mental and some bits are a bit like ‘really? You went there?‘, but you know, it adds to its charm. Throw in that it’s also a really short read so keeps you hooked whilst rattling through the increasingly gory story that will 100% make you question your meat-eating habits.

I’m off to eat a carrot.

Brilliant thriller. Loved that you felt like you were in Scotland. Twists and turns with every turn of a page. Cant wait to read more by this author

Thank you to @troubador_publishing and @netgalley for this copy of The Lodge. This book was extremely unique. Set in the highlands of Scotland in a remote B&B, the guests are snowed in, the phone lines are down and the guests are dropping like flies. What began as a Christmas hunting trip sees the hunted animals become the hunters and no one is safe....unless you're a veggie😂
.
.
This was a really unique concept. To begin with I assumed it would be the classic remote b&b, dead guest, whodunnit? Format until the animals began taking their revenge. At times this read like an 80s horror movie and bordered on ridiculous but it was a fun read and I really enjoyed how each of the guests stories were linked 👌
.
.
#troubadorpublishing #matadorbooks #netgalley #netgalleyuk #thelodge #chriscoppel #creepyreads #goodreadschallenge #readingislife

Andrew, a police officer, gets called up to a hunting retreat lodge when one of the guests suddenly chokes and dies at the dinner table. Once he arrives, he's promptly snowed in with all of the guests, the owners, and a cute American girl who's family previously owned the lodge. The first man's death is only the beginning and Andrew needs to figure out what's going on as everyone begins to drop dead around him...

This was so good. Agatha Christie vibes without much of the whodunit. The descriptions were spot on and so disgusting. The story flowed well for me and it was overall a quick read. I felt my nightmares forming as I was reading this! I loved the connections and twists at the end... ugh this was fantastic! It would've been great as a novella as well but I didn't mind the length one bit. It's still super short. Definitely give this a read. It was a wonderful palate cleanser in between more emotional reads- if you like horror as a palate cleanser like me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this thriller. It was a unique twist on the hunter becoming the hunted. I felt like it was a little too long. It dragged towards the end. But all in all, a decent thriller.

This was definitely an unexpected read. It wasn't at all what I thought was going to happen after the first two chapters. It was good though and kept you wanting to read to find out whats going to happen.

The idea and storyline of this book is really unique and I was drawn to it because who doesn’t love a book set in their home country! It is a horror, it is a bit gory, but it is also quite lighthearted and humorous in areas, with a little bit of romance chucked in for good measure.

I struggled with the believability of some of the characters actions (rather than any paranormal activity) particularly around the romance part, it just didn’t seem particularly believable and it was very quick, though it is a shorter book. I didn’t really feel much towards the guests, I’d have liked to have found out a bit more about them and their backstories a little earlier on, even to see their view on things that happened.

It’s also quite a short book, but the perfect length to keep you reading and interested throughout, whilst also being able to tell the story. I do, however, think that the ending seemed a little rushed and there wasn’t any pausing or thinking time for the characters, they just automatically knew what was happening...

I’d recommend this as a shorter read though I have been a little scared to eat meat since reading this!

When police officer Andrew is called to the local lodge, during a severe snowstorm, because a patron has died, he expects a fairly straightforward case.  After all, the man simply choked on a quail bone.  But strange things seem to be happening.  Did the zebra rug really lift up by itself to trip someone?  Is the giant christmas tree really still growing inside?  Did those taxidermied animals really move?  As the snow traps them inside and more guests come to sticky ends, Andrew needs to get to the bottom of what's really going on.

Told with flashbacks to each of the character's pasts, interspersed throughout the story, The Lodge slowly pieces together the real mystery at hand.  This is a definite horror book with an intriguing mystery, and if it wasn't for the last 20% I'd probably be giving it a higher rating, for it's uniqueness at least.  But the end of this book just......got out of control and ridiculous. I had suspended my belief during the story, to immerse myself into this world where the hunted animals might be trying to take revenge, but that ending required a leap too far.  One part of the mystery was plausible and interesting, the other part, just too weird and senseless.  

If you're a horror fan and don't mind far fetched endings, this one is super fun up until that point!

Enjoyable read if a little bit “clunky” in places but one I didn’t want to stop reading with the need to find out what would happen next. The epilogue tied it all together - realisation leads to action of a horrendous kind.

Very well developed characters and an extremely engaging story. Well thought out and very suspenseful story line that keeps the reader guessing until the final twist! This is the book to read this year! Highly recommended!

Horror / Mystery
A well told story , which keeps your attention.
Andrew's back story holds you, as real time events take bizarre turns.
would recommend

Nice, quick read! I enjoyed this book. It reminded me a bit of House on Haunted Hill. It was a bit too predictable to give it a 4 star rating for me, but still enjoyable.

Spoilers!

I enjoyed the premise of the book and the main character! The way the author carved in the character back stories was helpful and flowed nicely between the chapters. However, the ending didn’t do it for me. It was predictable and killing off Elena seemed unnecessary to me. Also, the book was a weird length to me. Either it needed to be condensed to just the basic plot or lengthened to give more character development. Additionally, I wish the author gave more character development to the other guests! I had no feeling during the attacks because I had no emotional investment in those characters. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and it kept me entertained!