A man suffering poor mental health issues such as depressions and anxiety, is persuaded to take a yoga retreat in the French countryside. The location is calm and tranquil, run by Buddhists with some of their precepts among the rules.

As he explores the place and meets the other people there, he quickly becomes suspicious of individuals. Initially it is the instructor everyone calls the Teacher, who seems aggressive and gives 'menacing stares' all the time, but the number he mistrusts continually grows. With a group of other members behaving very oddly in their outdoor rituals and a strange archer, things soon change from a place of recruitment to a place of survival.

Having the story told from the first person perspective, events and opinions are naturally going to be unreliable, especially when taking mental health issues into consideration. The protagonist is immature, unworldly, self centred and paranoid and his tale is disjointed and repetitive. By the end of the book the genre appears to be a thriller full of mortal danger and lots of chasing.

The writing style is informal and somewhat unrefined, with far too many exclamation marks and the word 'I'. The conclusion does offer an explanation for the eccentric behaviours and happenings, but it feels as if the author has rather reneged on the story a bit.

I liked this book but I couldnt say I loved it. What I didnt like was the dialogue. It didnt work for me. I also found the book to be very repetitive. The ending was good though.

This was definitely more gripping than I thought it would be. I love when a story just wants you to keep reading and not put it down. I deeply enjoyed the moments when Max considered something to be a bit odd/off and I knew right away that things all over the place are not what they seem. While things got a bit repetitive, and the end lacked a little more of what I expected, it was still something I'd suggest to others.

Benjamin Compson lets his readers (and his characters) think they are going to spend time in a chateau in the beautiful French countryside but in truth he is taking them on a journey to the heart of darkness.
Take a pinch or two of 'The Hellfire Club', 'The Wicker Man' and 'The Devil Rides Out' and season the mixture with a fine dusting of 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' and you have found the recipe for this shocker, but the author has most definitely added some secret ingredients of his own.
There are moments here of pure terror; scenes which are dark and disturbing; chilling shocks and vile revelations; a hint or two of cannibalism; and a denouement which challenges the very best of contemporary Grand Guignol horror.

Sorry but this book was not for me, I found it all a bit silly and overlong which is a shame as it could have been good.
Max was tired and stesssed and needed to recharge his batteries, which made him decide to,go to a retreat to see if he could get help.
At first it all seemed great, he made plenty of new friends and the retreat was set in a beautiful forest with a huge lake.
But the retreat soon turned into a nightmare for max and two of his friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Retreat! From the first chapter, I was intrigued and the more I found out this mysterious yoga retreat Max attends in France, the more curious I became. The dialogue was a bit cheesy, and there was way too much use of an exclamation point, but I was gripped from beginning to end.

Unser Protagonist möchte sich eigentlich nur eine entspannte Auszeit gönnen, Yoga und Meditation praktizieren, wird aber letztendlich auf die Machenschaften aufmerksam, die sich hinter dem augenscheinlich friedvollen Retreat Center verstecken.

Wo die Geschichte einen sehr ruhigen Beginn präsentiert, nimmt sie ab der Hälfte zusehends an Fahrt auf. Immer wieder gab es Momente, in denen meine Augen nicht so schnell lesen konnten, wie mein Geist wissen wollte, wie es weitergeht.

Der Schreibstil des Autors ist angenehm und leicht zu verfolgen und hat mir ein paar wundervolle Lesestunden ermöglicht.

Even though I couldn’t stand the protagonist, the author presents a great story with plenty of momentum to keep you engaged. The treatment of mental health issues is interesting, especially when seeing them from the first person perspective, and perhaps shows how such matters can be very dependent on the perception of the people involved. I thought the ending was amazing!

Started off good but ultimately fell flat for me. the premise started off well but then i got confused and started asking myself huh what just happened.

Decent, fast-paced read that definitely kept my attention throughout, but seemed to lack that extra punch to take it over the top. The premise of the book brings a lot of promise and hope for something of a masterpiece but maybe that's where I went wrong. There were points where the author's writing seemed to get very repetitive and bland, but would pick back up almost immediately, so that just lead me to believe that maybe with some extra editing this could've been transformed into something bigger. It was one of the quicker reads I've had the pleasure of coming across this year and throughout the book there were many points that had me locked in, unable to put it down. Definitely looking forward to future books from Benjamin Compson and hoping that it's only up from here!

Special thank you to NetGalley and The Book Guild for this ARC in exchange for an honest rate and review.

A captivating thriller that unfolds at a yoga retreat. I absolutely loved that setting. This kept me guessing at every crazy turn. Excellent unpredictable and explosive twists.

This book truly took me on a ride I didn't know I was going to go on. This book definitely reminded me of Midsommar. Yoga retreats were never something I wanted to go on, but especially not now. It was a very unpredictable read.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

This story was a really engrossing mystery that keeps the reader guessing a hooked from start to finish -
such a gripping plot. Great thriller

Thank you Netgalley and The Book Guild for this ARC of ‘The Retreat’ by Benjamin Compson.

Oh I really desperately wanted to like this more than I did. I will be completely honest and say I was close to not finishing this however the fact it was fast paced gave me the push. I just found this story to have quite a lot of rambling inner dialogue. It felt too much at times. Also there was too many exclamation points. Sorry I had to say it!

Max is emotionally worn out and decides to participate in a weeklong meditation retreat in the French countryside to heal and relax. Things there are strange and suspicious from the start and quickly spiral into very dark and sinister shenanigans.
This was a fast read with many inconsistencies and even more exclamation marks. It was really really annoying. The beginning featured an insane amount of exclamation marks, which didn't help to take the story seriously. Please do edit those out. Please. They distract.
Additionally, the writing style felt very juvenile and immature.
Max therefore also felt quite immature as a character and a lot younger than he was supposed to be.
The Teacher raised red flags left and right and felt unqualified to lead such a retreat from the first sentences he utters. Why the participants all chose to stay and go on with this is beyond me.
Yet, The Retreat was a quick and easy read and the very twisty ending (together with the decreasing amount of exclamation marks after the halfway mark) redeemed it a lot.

Thank you, NetGalley and The Book Guild for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Retreat started out with a lot of promise and a rock-solid premise. Heartbreak, mental health, rural retreat in France, weird noises in the woods, and even weirder staff sounds like my kind of book.

Max is struggling with mental health, he just went through a tough break-up, and he decides that a secluded meditation retreat is the perfect place for him to recharge, relax, and find himself again, of course things don't go as planned. The Teacher is in your face intense and the entire staff seems off, there's a curfew but nobody will explain why, and Max seems to be the only one concerned.

Compson held my attention throughout and I really enjoyed the story. The Retreat is a fun and easy read that I enjoyed from start to finish! Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

This had a gripping storyline throughout and it kept me entertained from beginning to end. The dialogue was far fetched and pressured in several places (what felt like premature confessions of loving and caring for people). It got really odd about 75% of the way through but like I said, it kept me interested. Overall a fast read!

The Retreat by Benjamin Compson was an engrossing mystery that will keep any reader on the edge of their seat from start to finish.
Compson’s writing sucked me in. The author's gripping plot that immediately grabbed my attention and kept me engaged throughout.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and The Book Guild for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The premise. What happened to the premise? I was expecting a dark and twisted journey with Max but this book left a sour taste in my mouth.

Max just went through a break-up. He's burned out and mentally struggling. So, he decided to travel to France to visit an isolated meditation retreat. Everything was going well until Max starts noticing strange things happening in the retreat. What lurks behind the weird behaviour of the staff? What are the noises in the woods at night?

I'd spoil the answers but then it wouldn't be fair. A little bit like Midsommar, I can tell you that much. But less engaging and totally went off the rails with the supernatural and fantasy stuff and I hated it! No way. If knew that it would come to this, I wouldn't even give this book a second glance.

But anyway. I did enjoy the first few chapters.

The Book Guild and Netgalley, I thank you.