A very strong 3.5 stars that I rounded up to 4 stars for the purposes of this review. This was much better than Last Girl Ghosted, but still had some issues. The biggest one is that at least one of the narrative voices could have been entirely cut (the owner of the cabins) and possibly another one as well. But the book at one point gave us too many people’s points of views while we were reading storylines from the past and getting back into the present timeline. The central concept being around what makes a family is an intriguing one, but I don’t know if Unger really got there in the end because the story felt so bloated after a while. When we were firmly in the present timeline the book just got heads and shoulders better I felt.
“Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six” follows Hannah, her husband Bruce, her best friend Cricket, Cricket’s new boyfriend, and Mako (Hannah’s brother) and Liza (Mako’s wife). The story starts at Christmas with the family getting together (minus Cricket) and someone leaving the family DNA tests from a company called Origins. You quickly get a sense of the family’s messed up dynamics. From there the story jumps forward with Hannah’s tech billionaire (millionaire at least) brother insisting the couples all get away to a luxury cabin that is on him. But when they arrive Hannah feels unsettled, like someone is watching them. And she quickly finds out someone is and why.
The characters were intriguing. Not all good, or all bad people. Just people who kept making bad choices it seemed.
I liked the overarching storyline, (the watcher and why they are watching) but it took a while to get there. As I said above there were a lot of points of view which slowed the flow of the book down a lot. After a while I started to get bored and wondered if anything was going to happen. We eventually get there, but it felt a long time coming.
The cabin itself we hear it get described, but it felt not as opposing as I thought it would.
The ending was a bit of a letdown. I think because it just kind of ends. You can guess what comes next, but I rather that Unger had wrapped things up even more neatly.
