A review by sprout_monster
The Retreat by Sarah Pearse

dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Solid read, but probably not anyone's 5 star. It's pretty fast paced and I liked the main characters and the island was very interesting.
The faults I had with it are minor. The conflict between Elin and Will didn't seem logical, seemed more like a worried brother, but it's played off like it was logical.
It makes sense to put off something that doesn't seem urgent for like literally 5 minutes. Elin was not just ignoring it, she was prioritizing a quick crucial phone call and then was gonna talk to Farrah! That's totally reasonable! Also this conflict was cliche.
I don't get why Hana doesn't disown Jo, like after everything, why would she still consider Jo her sister? I just can't relate. And the end character realizes something about herself and grows was meh, it kind of worked but kind of didn't. I do think that there were randomly too many people at the initial crime scene investigation and that was confusing, like it probably would've been better to use people's job titles rather than their names for the characters that popped up for only 5 seconds, and I couldn't quite remember the bf gf pairs, and there could've been a bit more character development, but I got the jist.

Anyway, I'd say it's worth a read if you're looking for an action-y, mystery book.

The very last ending was pretty satisfying, and wrapped up everything previously hinted at. 
The book had a lot of little hints that I think are too minor to be super predictable but enough for the ohh at the end.
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