Title: The Warrior Retreat

Author: John Lynch

Release date: November 11th, 2022

I connected with John some time back, when he was a full-time reviewer, and it’s been great seeing how he slowly began to the writing journey. I remember beta-reading a short story a few years ago (that ultimately got published) and was stoked to see how he’d progressed and how he was finding homes for his short fiction. That all lead up to the inevitable – the debut novel. So, when he announced this, I’ll admit, I was tentatively excited.

Excited for John to have created something longer than a short and was packaging it and getting it out there, but also tentative because of the subject matter. I’m not an overly ‘war-centric’ reader. Nor do I watch much war-based movies/shows. The PTSD aspect though, and how the synopsis reads still had me keen. When John reached out I happily agreed to give this one ago and see what we find when these guys arrive in the woods.

What I liked: The story follows a group of soldiers stationed together who get rocked by an unseen explosive device. Each suffers various injuries – mentally and physically – and each are changed forever from this event.

Lynch does a great job of bringing us to that place, based off of his own time serving in the military, and the characters are fleshed out and (while frustratingly at times sophomoric) feel like guys you’ve met before.

We do open with a unique sleep paralysis moment, which gives us a mildly touching character moment that will steer you in one direction.

When we do get to the cabin, the events that occur are horrific and (while all too-brief) showed their survival instincts and their ability to pull from deep within, no matter how many years it’s been since the deployment ended.

Lynch did a stellar job of showing how much the deployment took a toll on each one of the characters and how horribly it affected them.

What I didn’t like: While I liked this novel, there were a few things that ground my gears. The first is that the novel sets us up for a retreat in the woods. I kind of expected that to be the majority of the novel, but in actuality it’s only the last 25% or so and that time goes by really fast. I think it would’ve been more powerful if the entire novel would’ve taken place there and we see the events leading up to it in flashback form, but that’s just my thoughts.

The characters are cartoonish at times, and we get a significant amount of juvenile/sophomoric humor and insults. We also get a few random moments of depravity – an encounter in public at a bar and two guys picking up a bartender that didn’t add much to the characters storylines. It could very well be inspired by real convos (I won’t spoil anything from the afterword), but it could very well put a lot of readers off.

Lastly, and this was a big one, the opening sleep paralysis moment definitely makes the reader think this is going somewhere and then it essentially forgotten about, only briefly returning at the end. I really wished this would’ve been more expanded upon and the supernatural aspects heightened.

Why you should buy this: For me, and I’m just one reader, this is a solid debut novel that had a few-missteps. What I didn’t jive with may very well be the parts others love the most. I thought the idea was fantastic and I was really, very excited to get into the crux of all of these damaged soldiers going through group therapy together.

If you like Military-based horror with a side-serving of extreme Splatterpunk, look no further. I think many folks will really dig what Lynch has to offer and I’m very excited to see where he goes from here.

3.5/5