The retreat at health-and-wellness resort Tranquillum House promises total transformation.
Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage, and absorb the meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages.
Miles from anywhere, without cars or phones, they have no way to reach the outside world. Just time to think about themselves, and get to know each other.
Watching over them is the resort’s director, a woman on a mission. But quite a different one from any the guests might have imagined.
For behind the retreat’s glamorous facade lies a dark agenda.
These nine perfect strangers have no idea what’s about to hit them . . .

This is the first book I’ve read by Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies is still on my TBR list, and I really liked it. This had mixed reviews so going in with no expectations may have helped.

When I started reading this the idea of a retreat sounded quite nice, but I quickly changed my mind. The daily blood tests and five day ‘Transformative Silence’ were enough to put me off.

As the blurb was quite vague I was expecting a murder mystery before I started the book. The plot starts like a typical whodunnit, nine people arrive at a location with no means of contacting the outside world. What’s actually going on is much more sinister.

There is a sense early on in the book that something is not quite right with the retreat, but you’re not sure what. This builds up the tension in the book as you try to guess what’s going on behind the scenes. There are hints that the leaders of the retreat have plans that aren’t being shared with the guests, but I wasn’t expecting it to go much deeper than this.I certainly wouldn’t have guessed what was actually going on.

My rating: 3.5 stars, and I’m planning to move Big Little Lies further up my TBR list.