This was a pretty solid mystery, using an interesting element that I’ve never seen used this way (no specifics, so I don’t spoil anything). There are a lot of characters and plot lines to keep track of, which was a little confusing at times. Overall, a solid 3 stars from me. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the least-thrilling thriller I’ve ever read.

Six couples rent a luxury cabin for a weekend getaway… What could go wrong? Everything. Everything about this book went wrong.

I am deviating from my normal type of review here because, y’all, I just really need to rant about some things, ok? I’ll try my best not to reveal anything too spoilery, but some things just need to be said. I really don’t know how this made it past editors or sensitivity readers. Park Row… are y’all good over there?

There are a few themes that the book touches on that I did really appreciate. One is the concept of privilege, how it skews our views on the world and how it can affect the actions and decisions we make. Another is the idea that not every woman idealizes motherhood and that is okay.

“When did a person start to feel like a grown-up, in charge of her life, brave.”

I also resonated with this quote in particular. As I hit my thirtieth birthday this year, it has made me rethink my younger self’s ideas of what it would feel like to be an adult at this age. I have tried hard this year to throw out my previous expectations of what I feel like I “should” have accomplished by now and remember that we all have our own timelines and paths to follow and that’s okay too.

It isn’t all completely terrible. In the spirit of finding a silver lining, I thought the opening line was really great, definitely attention grabbing. And the atmosphere at the beginning is creepy and sinister. I was first struck by how much I loved the author’s voice. Each character’s POV is unique in its style and illustrates their personalities. The cadence and rhythm of the phrasing and prose is truly outstanding writing.

But it all just seems to fade away after several chapters, where we start seeing the overuse of crutch words and phrases. The writing loses its luster. The characters are dull and stereotypical. And the plot is a meandering slog of mud. I was hardly invested. In fact, I actually considered DNFing it several times after many eye rolls at the continuous waxing poetic of the same issues over and over again.

The secluded cabin thriller we were all expecting is altogether overshadowed by the rest of the nonsense. There is nothing suspenseful nor mysterious in the plot. We pretty much know everything that’s happening and why. Honestly, it’s kind of boring.

Sure, if you want an anecdote about the importance of family being about our actions and our choices, rather than biological aspects, this would be great. While I do applaud that message and its profoundness, I didn’t need three hundred pages of adults whining about not knowing who their father is because he was an anonymous sperm donor to get it across to me.

There’s a lot of telling us about what the characters are supposedly like but with little to no evidence to back it up. Like Hannah constantly telling us that Liza is “unfailingly kind,” but I never actually got that impression from anything Liza ever said or did.

And no one is really that likable, to be honest. Maybe that’s the point. I don’t know. But there’s definitely a void of connection and understanding between me and everyone in this story. It’s all a surface-level view of many people and lacking in any depth. I must say, I’m a bit shocked and taken aback by how both the women and men are portrayed in this story. The women are incapable of existing without their male counterparts and the men are work-obsessed and selfish.

While there might be a teeny tiny part of me that does feel slightly empathetic to Hannah wanting to “protect” (which is the term she uses, not what I would call it) her brother, I just cannot under any circumstances justify covering up something that terrible. That’s just not what you do, it’s inexcusable to me personally. I mean victim-blaming and slut-shaming, really? I don’t like that the women in this story so willingly brush sexual assault under the rug, even if they were teenagers, even if it was family, it’s just awful and it made me angry.

I don’t understand why Bracken’s point of view was even included. It is completely pointless and utterly irrelevant to the plot. He had only two interactions with the other characters within the entirety of the story and even those were unimportant and essentially unnecessary. You could take out every single one of his chapters and the story would still read exactly the same. I guess you could make a loose thread of connection by saying that in the end he’s another example of the importance of family. But, I mean, why? When it truly has no bearing on the story in any way.

Henry’s story, while not as inconsequential as Bracken’s, is still barely relevant. It was interesting at times, but he really had zero effect on the sequence of events throughout the book. His story, both past and present, consumes much of the story and is given way too much page time for how little consequence he is to any of the rest of it.

Mako’s point of view is absent and, even though he is one of the more prominent figures of the story, I still barely feel like I know anything about him.

Cricket and Bruce are practically bystanders, whose only importance or relevance is their relationship to Hannah.

And, finally, Trina. Her motivations, I’m not really buying it. Her circumstances don’t feel significant enough to warrant her actions. Maybe with a little more of her backstory it could’ve felt justified, but as it is I’m hesitant to believe it.

Yeah, I know I’m being harsh, but rightly so because this story is seriously problematic.

Did anyone get the ending they deserved? Meh. Are we supposed to feel compassion towards Mako by the end? I’m sorry but, no. He didn’t give us one single shred or inkling of redeemable qualities, regret, or even willingness to admit what he did.

And they are still, even after it all, defending and standing by a man that is in every way abusive - emotionally, mentally, physically, sexually. Even Liza!?!? Y’all, I cannot understand it nor feel good about it. I’m not ok with this. Am I the only one who is pissed off about this??? Surely I can’t be. I do not feel like this part of the story was handled with care nor consideration.

And even if I could somehow overlook and get past my feelings about this part of the story, there was nothing intriguing, immersive, or engaging about any of the rest of it. I can’t recommend this aimless absurdity of a book. Honestly, spare yourself from this mess.

It gets two stars only because I did read it and usually use one star for DNF books. This might be the longest review I’ve ever written. This was my first experience with this author but I know she has two previous books that were largely popular and I am interested in checking them out. Like I said in the beginning, I can see points of the writing that truly do shine. I don’t know what happened with this story that it ended up this way, but I am hoping that maybe it is just a fluke and her other writing will be better and more of that glimpse and spark I first saw in this one.

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six didn't hit the mark for me. The characters seemed slightly cliche (with none of them very likeable), the tension felt manufactured/a bit off balance and the baddie was underwhelming and unrealistically omnipotent. There were lots of dysfunctional people populating this novel. Maybe too many? I simply didn't gel with it from the start which is unusual for this author. It could very well be me as maybe this genre isn't what my soul was after when I chose it? Will certainly try the next book as Lisa Unger is such a safe pair of hands when looking for a good thriller or murder mystery.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Book was enjoyable for the most part. Sometimes it got a little wordy and I found myself skipping parts of the descriptions. The book switches narrators by chapter and at times that could get confusing. There was really 2 stories being told and they end up intersecting. Interesting twist.

Worth a read.



#SecludedCabinSleepsSix #NetGalley.

TW: Cheating, gaslighting, body shaming, toxic relationships, toxic friendships, cutting, death of baby, miscarriages, ivf, rape, suicide

*****SPOILERS*****
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?
Release Date: November 8th, 2022
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 396
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
1. The beginning started so good

What I Didn't Like:
1. All the different character perspectives
2. Hanna - she loves whining
3. All the characters are seriously horrible
4. Way too much happening

Overall Thoughts:
This book was pretty predictable but not in a bad way. I was very entertained while I read it. The tone and atmosphere in this book was pretty good.

I love books/movies where people go to an isolated area and something creepy happens.

Hanna is so unbelievably annoying. All she does is go on and on about her husband cheating and leaving her daughter behind. It's not even like they are having problems in the bedroom. We read about two separate times they have pretty outside the box sex.


I am so over the whole different characters for different chapters, but this book took it to another step and threw down a different timeline too. How confusing. I mean why would you do that to your readers? There are SIX different perspectives in this book!


This story has EVERYTHING in this book...too much if you ask me. It's all so over the top & ridiculous. There's cheaters, rapists, serial killers, murderers, abusive men, women seeking revenge, black mail.... It's just too much. Between the switching timeline, 100 characters, a peeping house owner, and complex plot just way too much is happening. I seriously got so confused at who all was cheating and who they were sleeping with too. Who was pregnant with whose baby...etc



This book is full of women being pregnant and having miscarriages. Like every woman mentioned is pregnant, has a baby, had a miscarriage, or lost their baby after it was born.

Get the fuck out of here.... Their father was a serial killer/rapist hahaha. What????


"It's not pretty, men shouldn't cry".
Oh I didn't know you had to be beautiful when you're upset. 🙄 What a stupid line!


Final Thoughts:
My dream ending for this book was that every and I mean everyone was locked in the house and it explodes killing a of the characters. That didn't happen. So the next best thing for me is to stop reading books from Lisa Unger. She's just not for me.

Recommend For:
• Complex stories
• Family dramas
• Multiple characters
• A lot going on
• People who bicker a lot

Lisa Unger continues to write fiction thrillers that are topical and sweep the reader quickly into their narrative. Three couples meet at a secluded deluxe rental. Each of the six characters are withholding something. Add in a creepy property owner, bad weather, sperm donation, revenge motive, etc. and the story moves quickly with the decent and despicable characters easy to identify.

Three couple rent a luxury cabin in the woods, for a getaway that is supposed to be relaxing and restful, but what they get is the complete opposite. There’s a deadly storm on it’s way, a too present cabin owner, and a personal chef who reveals there’s more crazy history to the cabin than what the guests may know. But the guests also have their own complicated pasts and even more complicated secrets!

This book was a ride! I could not stop reading and did not want to put it down for a minute. The plot was so interesting and unique and is told from the past of the characters and alternate view points as well! A bit of Henry’s story didn’t feel like it fit in with the story at first but then intermingled with everyone else’s towards the end which I liked a lot and finally understood his role in the story line. The only one that didn’t make much sense to me was the owners line. I almost wish he had more of a sinister role to play than what he did, I felt like more could have been done with him. But overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend once it’s released!

Locked room thrillers are always interesting and can play out in many different ways and since this is my first book by Lisa Unger i was interested to see how she would play this story out. Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six is about three couples, Mako and Liza, Hannah and Bruce, Cricket and Joshua. Its Hannah’s birthday so Mako rents them a cabin in the woods, what could possibly go wrong right? There's also a mystery DNA kit they all got from ‘Santa’ for Christmas thats weighing on some of their minds but no one is willing to talk about it.
The characters were definitely interesting, with the multiple POVs you get to see how everyone views each other ( Even the POV of the person who owns the cabin???), their feelings etc. But at the same time I ended up getting lost, everythings happening all at once and in such a confusing matter since POV’s change so fast. The characters weren’t likable at all for me, Hannah was somewhat tolerable but the rest of them weren’t. They all held secrets from each other, lacked depth and I just didn’t connect with a single one. Hannah was the only one I felt a tinge of connection with.
The pacing of the story went from slow to fast to slow and back to fast, and it just made the story less enjoyable. I feel for thrillers you either want it slow, or you want it fast and just going back and forth between the two paces can feel like a drag.
Overall the book was okay, and I will in the future be trying another book from this author.

I found this book hard to put down as I wanted to figure out the character's secrets. The plot did remind me a bit of a recent Linwood Barclay novel in places but I did enjoy it and raced to the end.

Some of the characters were pretty unlikeable and the Henry storyline almost seemed pointless, I expected him to play a bigger role in the latter part of the book I have to admit.

However, it was an enjoyable thriller.

Thank you to Net Gallery for the advanced copy.

My many thanks to NetGalley, Lisa Unger, and Park Row Publishing for sharing this digital ARC copy.

When each member of the family received a genealogy test for the Holidays, they decided to take them. Still not knowing who sent them? Now, these answers may reveal more than anyone is ready to hear, leaving a disturbing question. How well do you know your own family?

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six is a psychological thriller about three couples from the family, who vacation in a luxury cabin in the woods of Georgia. With the threat of a hurricane, hidden motives come to light, affairs are revealed, and a dark secret is discovered, concluding in murder.

There are numerous characters and multiple points of view to keep track of, some of which are completely unnecessary. The timeline is written alternating between the past and present. I did not connect to any of the characters since they really did not have any background and what we did learn about them was very superficial.

The plot is beyond convoluted. Yes, big cabin with no power and a killer on the loose. Easy enough, but all of the unimportant things did not matter. There are too many characters, and some of the storylines are never resolved.
There were some good parts to this book: The plot did have potential, and the isolated cabin elevated the creepiness, but overall I was hoping all the pieces would come together for me in the end. Nope. I was left feeling confused with at least one if not two unanswered questions. I have read other books by Lisa Unger and they have been hit or miss for me. Unfortunately, I really wanted this to hit, but it was a miss.

#SecludedCabinSleepsSix #NetGalley
Women.
Three couples rent a luxury cabin in the woods for a weekend getaway to die for in this atmospheric and gripping locked-room thriller by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.
What could be more restful, more restorative, than a weekend getaway with family and friends? Especially in an isolated luxury cabin in the woods, complete with spectacular views, a hot tub and a personal chef. The reviews are stellar.
But a deadly storm is brewing. The owner seems just a little too present. The chef reveals that the beautiful house has a spine-tingling history. And the guests have their own complicated pasts, with secrets that run blood deep. The perfect weekend is about to turn into a nightmare.
Loved the characters and the plot.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for giving me an advance copy.

I LOVED this book! The build up was sort of slow and I couldn’t figure out how the stories connected until like seventy percent in. But once it clicked, it really made sense and they fit in together nicely.

As a child with an adoptive father who never knew my biological dad and called him my “sperm donor,” I really liked the theme about family and who our family is. Obviously this is a thriller and has all the suspense and twists one would expect but it ended on what I felt was a pretty happy note for me. I felt like I, too, have gone on similar emotional journeys as some of these characters in terms of the meaning of family and I found it really relatable. (Or as relatable as a fictional thriller can be relatable)

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six
I received this book from NetGalley and Legend Press in exchange for an honest review.
Three couples rent a luxury cabin in the woods, what could go wrong? Apparently a lot, and most of which is just too much to be reasonable. This books explores the “Me too” movement, DNA, and Serial killers. It had so much potential but really fell short for me. There were so many characters in this book, none of which ever fully developed so you just don’t feel connected to them. This book just wasn’t it for me, the last 15-20% was probably the best for me and that’s because I knew it was almost over. 3/5 stars for me rounded up.

Oh this was not very good. It had a lot of cool elements going for it, family secrets, secluded cabin, weird owner watching people through hidden cameras. But this was ultimately just very confusing, disjointed and unsatisfying. The initial cast we are presented to (parents, children and their spouses) are not the entire cast of the mystery. In fact, I was not sure how many people were involved in this mystery for most of the novel, and what was fluff. I did not really enjoy this - I kept waiting for it to get better and just blow my mind, but it didn't.

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
💀💀/5
Hannah is feeling anxious about leaving her newborn with her mother in law to go on a couples getaway. Something about the trip just doesn’t seem right. Hannah doesn’t voice her concern and chalks it up to being a new mother. As all three couples arrive at the cabin darkness is lurking in the woods. As time goes by and each person starts to disappear it becomes clear to Hannah she should have trusted her gut. Will Hannah make it back home to her baby or will she not make it out of the secluded cabin that sleeps six? This book was thrilling and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six
By Lisa Unger
NOTE:
Before reading this book...get a pen and notebook to take notes on characters and relationships to each other...it's important to do or you will get LOST!

One of the Family members invites the other members to a secluded Cabin for a vacation and time to relax.
This story is a bit of the typical cabin story where people are secluded and can't get away plus bad things are beginning to happen.

I felt the story started off strong then cooled off in the middle. In the end I felt it picked up however the end was predictable.

I was so excited to get my hands on an early copy of this locked-room thriller about a brother and sister who embark on a well-deserved vacation with their spouses, best friend and her new boyfriend. When they arrive at their isolated luxury cabin in the Northern Georgia woods, they discover that a snowstorm is on the way and the cellphone service these tech-moguls rely on, is intermittent. There’s more…they’re starting to think they’re not alone. When one of them goes missing even before the first dinner, my heart started pounding, the tension sky-rocketed…and didn’t stop until I discovered why.

I really appreciated the atmosphere developed in the opening! Unger dropped me into the scene of a VERY different Christmas dinner - one where the turkey “carcass is splayed in the middle of the table. Carved, flesh torn away, eaten, ribs exposed,” and there were bright red stains on the wineglasses and lipstick smears on the napkins. My thriller ‘head space’ was initiated and I was ready for the haunting plot. Elegant Overlook is a misleading name for this cabin and everyone is about to find out why.

I loved the different reactions to the uncanny gifts the secret Santa left under the tree, the many perspectives on the vacation, the freaky ‘memento mori’ decor, and the tense relationships that were so cleverly developed. The author’s examination of (1) what constitutes ‘family’ and (2) of the price we’ll pay for those we love is stellar, but I was jolted by her warnings about reliance on technology, the power we give a DNA kit to tell us who we are, and the privacy we’ll trade in an effort to unearth our origins.

It may have been a holiday from Hell, but I loved the suspense and the thrill.

I was gifted this copy by Legend Press and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Absolutely visually descriptive with a great woven story between 6 characters. The plot was a bit confusing when switching between people not introduced yet, but overall loved the point of view, imagery, and even foreshadowing with different scenes being set. The atmosphere is built cranking up each chapter and gets even spookier as the books plot hits a final crescendo. The ending is exactly what I wanted and it couldn’t have been better. I’ve never picked up a book by this author but look forward to reading more of her work. Absolutely brilliant.

You know what pairs good with this chilly climate? Hot cocoa and closed room mysteries!! I love to read Lisa Unger’s books, her writing is compelling and hard to put down. Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six is also one such book plus it has unhinged morally grey characters and great suspense. Altering POVs of the characters kept me very interested in the plot. 6 people - friends and family go to a cabin on a staycation and someone has been stalking them and cherry picking one by one to taunt them! Who is it? Is it the creepy cabin keeper? The husband who poses as if he is unfaithful? or is it someone else? These are the questions that were lingering in my mind while reading this tense and momentous thriller! All the things said in this book about family, is true and heartfelt. Some people might find the twist predictable!

Thank you Park Row books via Netgalley for the arc!

I really wanted to like this book better. My problem was I didn’t care for any of the characters. I do think it is worth the read however.