Written by Lisa Unger, published in 2023. Summary and review.

Secluded Cabi Sleeps Six is a mystery thriller about, well, six people in a secluded cabin… though they don’t do much sleeping (spoiler).

Our group, Mako (yes like the shark), Liza, Cricket (yes, like the bug), Hannah, Bruce, and Joshua have chosen a secluded, highly luxurious cabin nestled in the woods (complete with personal chef and hot tub), for a “relaxing” weekend away. It won’t be relaxing (spoiler).

Mako is Hannah’s tech-mogul brother, known for his generosity and douche-baggery, has decided this would be the perfect birthday gift for Hannah and their respective spouses/SO’s. The group is in desperate need of this getaway, craving good food, great company, and plenty of relaxation, far removed from the constant noise and pressures of modern life.

But of course, things don’t go so well, and their idyllic weekend is about to take a dark turn. A storm looms on the horizon, threatening to disrupt their plans and trap them at the cabin.

What happens from here is a deep dive into how terrible each friend, family member, guest, and stranger (those few characters outside the “six”) are.

Mako is a giant a-hole, rich off a tech/gaming company, though likely squandering or floundering away into oblivion. His dark past rears its ugly head though gets several free passes from his loving sister, Hannah.

Hannah is relatively normal and sems to often be the voice of reason, though she blows pretty traumatic events under the rug. Doesn’t handle stress so well.

Liza is the hippie yoga wife of Mako. Not super involved throughout the story… or is she?

Cricker, a friend of the family, like a sister to Hannah, and secretly (not so secretly) in love with Mako (who yes, is still a terrible human).

Bruce is married to Hannah, and essentially his only flaw is he works a lot.

Joshua is the attractive new boy-toy of Cricket, and one with some shadiness.

Then we get our outsiders:

• Henry and Piper, kids who grow up together and eventually find love. Henry has a real rough time growing up. His mom is a ghost and his Dad is non-existent… until he isn’t.
• Bracken is the cabin AirBnB host. Frankly, he doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than to be a creep and likely wanted to be a distraction or potential bad guy of the story… though I felt his arc was poorly written and never gave me much thought.
• Trina, aka Da Baddest Bitch, which is a joke and not a joke. Learn your rap and read the book. You’ll get it.

All in all, I enjoyed this story. I won’t spoil anything… probably need to avoid doing that in my reviews and summaries anyway. This is a work in progress.

We’ve got a group of messed up adults slowly getting more and more messed up as the story progresses. Ultimately, people get hurt, or killed (or do they?). I’ll admit I did not have any inkling as to how this story was going to end. The main “reveal” was not my favorite per se, but I can respect the thought process. Bad leads to more bad.

TLDR: A fun yet dark thriller about a messed up group of adults attempting to relax for the weekend, and failing epic-ly. Ultimately things get out of control and there in lies the fun. Would Recommend. 4/5 Stars.