Book Review: The Lodge by by Chris Coppel

The Lodge Release Date: 20th September 2020
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Ever wondered what it would be like if hunted animals were able to fight back? The Lodge unveils the mystery of a hunting lodge in the remote hills of the Scottish Highlands during the Christmas holidays. After the report of an accidental death at the lodge, Andrew, a young constable from the nearest town, drives up through a growing blizzard. Snowbound, Andrew and the guests take cover at the lodge as the terrifying ordeal unfolds. These animals have souls. Souls that won't rest until they've had revenge... But will the hunters become the hunted?

I requested The Lodge for review because it sounded like a gory horror set in one of my favourite places on Earth: the Scottish Highlands. I was hoping it would be an atmospheric and spooky read, but I immediately felt let down by the writing style.

The writing felt very juvenile, with lots of exclamation marks within the prose which I do not like. It tends to feel childish and stunted when authors do this, especially to the extent the author of The Lodge used them.

There was also a lot of info dumping, which is not something I typically expect from my horror books. One moment I was reading about the goings on at the hotel, and then I was suddenly switching to what was basically a biography of one of the characters, which talked about what seemed to be their entire lives up until they got to the hotel. It was boring, it was jarring, and I didn’t care for it. I feel like this could have been done much more smoothly, if it was even necessary.

Because of this writing style (and the instalove that had?? no?? place?? in such a horror book, I wasn’t able to get into the book and I’ve had to rate it quite poorly. I didn’t enjoy it at all.