Sunday, 18 August 2019

The Retreat by Sherri Smith


‘Each woman has come to the retreat for different reasons. Each has her secrets to hide. And at the end of this weekend, only one will be left standing’.

The premise appealed to me. The idea of a retreat as the place of secrets and potential murder was to good to resist. My own idea of hell is going to a spa; especially with groups of women. I’ve been invited to hen weekends at spas. I hate them. The thought of sitting around in a dressing gown with women I’ve only just met fills me with horror. So, a novel exploring the dark side of the wellness industry seemed perfect for me and I have enjoyed others exploring the same experience like Liane Moriaty’s ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ or Mark Edwards ‘The Retreat’.

It took a while for me to get into the novel,  because I couldn’t relate to any of the characters. Each woman narrates her own chapter creating different perspectives on the story as it unfolds. Katie is the lynchpin of the group. She is a washed-up child star still living off her glory days as child sleuth Shelby Slade. Katie is rapidly working her way through her fortune and thinks back fondly to her manager AJ who looked after her. Unable to find work as an actor Katie has a void in her life that she fills by spending money. She has an unexplained scar on one cheek and I had the sense there was a story to unfold that would be as much of a revelation to Katie as it would be to me.

Ellie has suggested the retreat because she wants Katie to benefit and have a breakthrough. She is marrying Katie’s brother Nate and in her chapters we learn that they live under Katie’s penthouse in a building she owns. We learn that Katie is very dependent on her brother and there seems to be an underlying resentment over Nate having to support his sister so heavily. Ellie pushes the benefits of the ayahuasca tea ceremony, hoping that the spiritual journey will be an awakening for Katie. Early on I felt there were a few aspects of Ellie’s story that didn’t add up. She has no family around her and her British accent is questioned by people they meet. Ellie’s perfect exterior is hiding something darker.

Ariel is one of Katie’s friends and is set up as an unwelcome rival to Ellie. Ariel is overweight and low in confidence. She once slept with Nate and had hoped this would develop into a relationship. She is vulnerable and seems to be running away from a relationship with a married man. She drops  hints about something she might have done to her lovers pregnant wife and seems to be open to the transformation the retreat offers.

Carmen is also a friend of Katie’s but comes to the retreat from a totally different background to the others. She lives in the poor area of the city with her siblings and her father, who has Parkinson’s disease. She desperate wants to escape the poverty she’s in and can’t even afford to fix the boiler, even though she works long hours as a home care worker. She is her father’s carer and is struggling to support the family on her wage. She often has to ask Katie for hand-outs and is desperate for the self-care of a retreat but also susceptible to any opportunity to make money - even if it is illegal.

Mixing with these four are Dr Dave and his partner Naomi who facilitate the group and the other attendees. Simon and Marie are staying away from the main house in their own cottage; giving them the opportunity to keep their own secrets. The mysterious Lily recognises Katie right away and is her biggest fan, but is it her that leaves the Shelby Spade balloon in the grounds?

We’re never sure of the motives of any character and that hooked me. I love an unreliable narrator and here there are four. Because I’m a counsellor I was interested in the unraveling of these characters and their real inner stories. I thought Katie’s self realisation was well written and it kept me reading. Although I’d worked out early on which girl was hiding her true reasons for the retreat I still enjoyed watching it unfold and the denouement  still held surprises for me. I found myself more drawn in towards the middle and read the rest in one afternoon because the suspense had me hooked. This is a great exploration of toxic friendship and how vulnerable people are preyed upon by the unscrupulous within the well-being industry.

Thanks to Sarah Mather and Titan books for my gifted copy.




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