Book Review: "Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six" By Lisa Unger

I love a good domestic thriller. Throw together some improbably rich people in a luxurious setting, a power outage, and a dangerous storm, and I'm hooked.

Lisa Unger's latest work, Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, involves 3 young couples on a weekend getaway to a remote cabin. Little does the group know an obsessed stalker is pulling all the strings. A stalker whose motivation can be summed up in two words: genetic genealogy!

Most of the action takes place over the course of one weekend at a cabin in the Georgia woods where the couples have arrived for a few days of pampering and unplugging. We have new parents Hannah and Bruce as well as Michael (aka Mako, brother of Hannah) and his wife Liza. Best friend Cricket and her latest boyfriend round out the group. Each couple has their own issues and, of course, their own secrets.

The cabin is indeed luxurious, but also slightly creepy. Hannah feels like she's being watched (spoiler alert: she's not wrong). Soon she discovers that the land was the scene of a murder/suicide and one of the victims supposedly haunts the area looking for her lost child. After the storm hits, the disasters keep piling up: no wifi, no electricity, a huge tree falls and blocks the only access road, Liza disappears, and why does Cricket's new boyfriend look eerily familiar?

There is one major character whose story is told in flashbacks. It's unclear until the end how Henry fits in with this crowd, but I thought he was the most compelling and sympathetic. 

If I'm honest, the characters are shallow and most, except for Henry and Hannah, are not fully realized. They're more like caricatures. You have the rich tech bro and his perfect wife, the party-girl looking to settle down, and an unhinged mastermind with an extremely specific agenda. 

This is a fast and fun read. Be prepared to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the story. While there are parts that are silly and cliched (how about not going to the scary, deserted guest home alone?), at its core Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six is a story about family.

What makes a family?

Is it the people you're born to or the people you choose along the way?

By Mary Beth Newbill | Librarian, Southern History Department, Central Library