Book Review: The Retreat | Mark Edwards

Haunting!!! Don’t read this book alone at night unless you keep the lights on!!!

The Retreat is my first book by Mark Edwards and I absolutely loved it! I wasn’t sure what the genre would be at first, because it has such a tone of the supernatural about it. I think it is best for readers to just let it unfold. I didn’t know which genre it would be, and I liked it all the better for the intrigue it held in that regard. I loved the theme of possibility—the notion that what we believe as children sometimes carries into adulthood. The thought that we all have that, I don’t REALLY believe in ghosts, but maybe I do? That is the feeling you have while reading this book, and it adds to the spooky, unsettling quality of the story.

About the Book

This was home. Why had I waited so long to come back? […] I was sure that here, finally, I would be able to write again. Rediscover my voice, my inspiration.

Lucas Radcliffe is a horror writer seeking to escape from tragedy in his life. Lucas is working on his second novel and suffering from extreme writer’s block. He travels to a small town in Wales where he grew up to stay at a Writer’s Retreat. Maybe the change in setting will shake his ideas loose. As he settles in, Lucas can’t help but become captivated by the house and its beautiful, reserved hostess Julia.

You pretty much have the run of the house, except…can I just ask you not to go into the basement? It’s not…safe.

Julia has her own haunted past. Just two years earlier, not long after they moved to Wales, Julia’s husband died trying to save their daughter Lily from drowning in the river. But Lily’s body was never found, and Julia can’t let go of the hope that Lily might still be alive somewhere. She opened her home as a writer’s retreat to pay the bills. Julia can’t help but feel that as long as there is a possibility that Lily is alive, she needs to stay here and wait for her.

It was as if the world beyond this house ceased to exist when the sun went down.

Lucas can’t help but feel that he could help Julia find answers to Lily’s disappearance. But the deeper he digs into the mystery, the more unsettling it becomes. You see, Lily isn’t the first girl to go missing from this town. A girl has disappeared every 35 years as long as anyone can remember—a sacrifice to the Red Widow, made by the town to keep the other children safe. Lucas doesn’t believe in urban legends. And yet, how can he explain the tragic history of this town? And if he is able to, will the answers provide relief, or reveal more horrors to come?

Reflection

Wow, what a truly wonderful book! The scenes were incredibly descriptive—almost like watching a film. The setting of the house and the woods were so perfect for this book. It felt eerie and mysterious, and you can see why the urban legend has taken ahold of this town. It would be hard not to believe, living in such an isolated place where the woods almost have a power of their own to those who enter them.

In a letter to readers, Mark Edwards wrote: “There are few things I like better than receiving a message from a reader whose love of books has been sparked or rekindled by one of my novels. The more people we can turn on to the joy of reading, the better the world will be.”

I loved reading this, because this is the goal of the educational program I work with in the school district—to find a way to ignite a love of reading in those who’ve lost it, or even never found it. To use reading as a tool to disconnect from the chaos of the world around us, and to also use it to bring people together.

Thank you so much to the publisher Thomas & Mercer and to Mark Edwards for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.