"The Hunting Party" Review

Today's book centers around a group of college friends meeting up to ring in the new year. Anxious for their holiday, the train ride and first night start off with a bang! Everyone is in high spirits, the champagne is flowing freely and although there are a few tense moments, all goes fairly well. But as the days drag on and the friends find themselves snowed in at the lodge, tempers flare, resentments resurface and unrequited feelings come to light. Keep your friends close. But just how close is too close?

"The Hunting Party" is a Thriller/Mystery novel written by Lucy Foley. It was released in January of 2019.

If you would like to purchase "The Hunting Party" you can find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You can follow the author, Lucy Foley, on Instagram and Goodreads! You can also check out her Facebook page!

All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps

Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.

“Some people, given just the right amount of pressure, taken out of their usual, comfortable environments, don’t need much encouragement at all to become monsters. And sometimes you just get a strong sense about people, and you can’t explain it; you simply know it, in some deeper part of yourself.”

I gave this book 3.5 stars on Goodreads. I enjoyed the spooky atmosphere of this book throughout but it was a little slow to get into. After finishing page 100, I did notice a definite improvement in the pacing and an increase in my overall enjoyment level. I do think that this was well written but the characters are incredibly hard to root for. I found myself really not caring for (or about) any of them. It was hard to get invested in their lives and wellbeing. The back half of the book (maybe more like the last 1/4) was great, that is when the true action really kicked in. This was a definite slow burn. Towards the middle of the book, you are still learning the backstories of the characters and exploring their mindset or headspace.

I did set this book down on a few occasions and had some issues because of it. There are quite a few main characters. These characters include the main friend group and their respective significant others (as well as a few individuals who are not in the group but work for the lodges that the group is staying at). Having so many characters made things quite confusing. Each character has a different relationship with all of the other characters. Their jobs, personal lives, marital statuses, partners, living circumstances, and various other facets of their personalities are brought up in the front half of the book. Trying to remember all of these details and differentiating the characters was difficult and even exhausting at times. If you are going to read this one, I suggest you read it in a timely manner. I may not have had as much issue with it if I read it in fewer sittings.

Though I did have some issues with it, I still thought it was a good read. As I have mentioned before, a 3 star read is still a good read. I can still see the value in the book and take away enjoyment I got from reading it while also acknowledging its faults or the areas that did not land with me. This was still a good introduction to Lucy Foley and I will be checking out her future releases.

Overall, I would recommend for readers 17+. This is a book which has murder as a central plot line. Of course, the themes and situations are better suited for older audiences. As always, know what you are getting into before you read a book. If these types of books are not your thing or may upset you, I urge you to avoid them. Reader's discretion is advised with every book that I review.

“Remove all of the distractions, and here, in the silence and the solitude, the demons they have kept at bay catch up with them.”

With all books that I read, I make a playlist to go along with the book. These playlists are full of songs which encapsulate the feeling of the story as a whole, capture the essence of a particular scene, or just remind me of one of the characters. You can find my playlist for "The Hunting Party" on Apple Music or Spotify.

Have you read "The Hunting Party"? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

As always, thank you for reading!

XO,

Madison