ARC REVIEW: The Resort – by Sarah Goodwin

Title: The Resort
Author: Sarah Goodwin
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: January 5th 2023
Publisher: Avon
Finished reading: December 30th 2022
Pages: 384

“Something was wrong about this place. There was a danger here that I could feel but not explain.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Avon in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

!! Happy publication day !!

I had a fantastic experience reading Stranded back in 2021, and I’ve been meaning to read more of this author ever since. I do love a thriller with a remote setting, so of course I couldn’t resist the sound of The Resort. The isolated setting with the snowy mountains and abandoned ski resort sounded like the perfect atmospheric backdrop for a thriller, and I’ve been looking forward to read it ever since. Imagine my surprise when I ended up having mixed thoughts instead… And sadly my reading experience wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Bavaria setting, and the atmospheric descriptions of the remote location really made the German Alps come alive for me. The snow storms, the isolated cabins, the danger lurking around every corner… It made me forget all about our heatwave for a while, which is always a bonus. Part of the story almost has that survival thriller feel to it, and the surroundings were key during that part of the plot. The blurb of The Resort is slightly misleading though, because it isn’t exactly an abandoned ski resort, but more six cabins in the middle of nowhere… This wasn’t where the story went wrong for me though.

I think that one of the main issues I had was with the main characters. I never really warmed up to them, and only started to like Mila less and less once I started to get to know her. I found her to be self-centered, spoiled, horrible towards her sister and unlikeable in general; this made it a lot harder to care about if she would make it or root for her as she struggled to survive. To make things worse, in the first half she is basically just about the only character in play, and things could get quite dull and repetitive as the story follows her during the days at the abandoned cabins. It felt like the plot was running in circles in parts, trying to milk out the situation and the resulting suspense fell falt for me.

The second part of the story did pick up considerably, but I wasn’t sure what to make of it all. Apart from the fact that it was over the top and not completely credible, I was also able to guess who was behind it almost straight away. This really put a damper on things, because I kept hoping I was wrong and that The Resort would offer a clever plot twist instead. Everything was wrapped up a bit too conveniently as well, and as a whole this story just wasn’t satisfying for me.

I can’t deny that the writing itself was engaging though, and I liked what the setting added to the plot. I do wish there would have been more focus on the mystery behind Witwerberg and its mysteries… As it is, what happened there (apart from Mila’s time there) mostly felt like an afterthought. All in all, The Resort sadly ended up being a bit of a mixed bag for me and not as good as I hoped after Stranded.