Literally could not put this book down and it kept me guessing to the very end - I had to read it in one sitting.

Three couples plan a weekend away. The men are delayed so the women go ahead. It starts off as a formulaic thriller but when the twists and turns start coming you realise you’re reading something a bit different. Highly enjoyable.

Gilly Macmillan, The Long Weekend

Gilly Macmillan’s The Long Weekend is a riveting novel - complex, dark and disturbing. Close friends have planned an idyllic weekend away in a remote, beautiful Northumbrian retreat. But their long weekend, it turns out, is also a ‘lost’ weekend. The landscape itself becomes impenetrably dark and dangerous as a storm approaches: “the clouds have dipped so low it’s as if Dark Fell Barn is being squeezed between land and sky. The valley is veiled with rain. The place still feels like a fairy tale and definitely not one with a happy ending.”

Characters venture out vainly searching for a phone signal that will enable them to connect with the people who are expected to arrive the following day. Lost or non-functioning mobiles themselves become an image of desperate and fruitless efforts to ‘connect’ with the others and make sense of what’s happening.

As the characters wander in a treacherous terrain, their normal selves break down under pressure and they discover that what were familiar relationships are in truth unreliable. They lose all sense of their own and other people’s assumed identities – identities that disintegrate as the weekend descends into fear and suspicion:

“She feels as if she’s stepped into an alternative version of her life, as if she has only the slightest of connections with reality. Reason deserts her. A sense of danger pulses. Emily. Ruth. Who are they, really? Anyone can be a danger to others.”

Just as the characters are confused about where they’re walking as the storm worsens, we as readers often feel unsure about whose headspace we’re occupying. Inner terrains are treacherous, and we experience our own form of disorientation. Drunkenness, deceit, mental instability and hysteria mount, challenging us to make our way through an unreliable, sometimes sinister human and natural landscape, in which everyone loses hold of familiar landmarks of place or identity.

The Long Weekend is a novel that makes us as readers watch our footing, looking carefully at our preconceptions about how we’re orienting ourselves as we navigate the tricky, often deceptive human relationships. On the surface, The Long Weekend tells us the story of a familiar outing of old friends, but underneath, as darkness descends, what we witness is an encounter with all that’s hidden in the normal social round of the characters’ lives. It’s a haunting and compelling journey.

Oh my gosh! What a rollercoaster of a book!
Emily, Jayne and Ruth head off for a long weekend away ahead of their husbands, only to arrive at the remote location to find a letter informing them that one of their husbands has been killed.

The letter makes them spin out of control and what should have been a relaxing weekend turns into a nightmare. Meanwhile the story is also told by the murderer’s perspective but the author keeps giving us misleading clues on his identity so I kept changing my mind on who it was!!

I absolutely loved it, as I said a true rollercoaster, full of twists and turns! Highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for letting me review this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It was a long read. This story was told from view points of different characters which I personally cannot stand as it's like groundhog day. Coupled with that you could not work out which character it was you were reading about. The story had so much potential but it was ruined.

I enjoyed reading this book as it had some unexpected twists which kept me guessing. I thought it was going to be a formulaic murder mystery where people are trapped in a remote house with no means of contact but that was just a small part.
I liked the first person narration and it made me question assumptions I had made.

I didn't like any of the characters, non of them came across as likeable but they were believable, I just wouldn't want to be friends with any of them.

I think the ending fell a bit flat especially the epilogue, everything was too neatly tied up.

Overall an enjoyable book and I would look out for others by the same author.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy.

The Long Weekend is a psychological thriller, full of twists, told from multiple POV.
A group of friends have arranged a long weekend away at Deep Fell Barn, a remote barn in Northumbria. Owned by John and Maggie Elliott, with no mobile coverage, it seemed like the perfect getaway for the three couples. When the husband of each couple cries off at short notice, the wives travel ahead, with the expectation that their husbands will join them the next day.
They arrive to find a letter and parcel warning them that “By the time you read this, I’ll have killed one of your husbands.”
I found this (as an ARC) quite difficult to track, with no chapters and a shifting POV without warning.
It was very atmospheric, chilling and fast paced, I read it pretty much in one sitting.
Another excellent thriller from Gilly Macmillan, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

I struggled at first with the shifting POV as it just flowed from character to character with no warning. But once I got used to it, I found it easier to follow, and I'm so glad I persevered!
I was on the edge of my seat for the second half of the book, trying to work out who the culprit was and it really kept me guessing until the end.

Thank you for this advanced copy. I tried to read and listen to this book more than once and nothing grabbed my attention. I skipped to the back and even the ending seemed uninteresting to me. Unfortunately Gillys last two books just haven’t been written to my liking. Not for me.

Yes I have been impatiently awaiting a new Gilly Macmillan book for a while now and I can 100% confirm that this book did not disappoint. Another really well written, immersive, gritty, dark, physiological thriller, that will have you completely gripped and trying to guess what was happening all the way through. I enjoyed the twists in this book and enjoyed the storyline and the great cast of characters. Another great job. Amazing.

I had already read this by the time I was approved on netgalley but I thought I would add my review anyway. This was a slow burn initially but really picked up pace in the second half and then I couldn't put it down. It's told from multiple perspectives, a format I really enjoyed, and it was executed really well. The characters were unpredictable, unreliable and unlikeable which gave the storyline an added edge as I really couldn't work out what was going to happen next. The only thing I didn't like was the lack of chapters and it not being clear whose POV you were reading. Other than that I was really pleased with this one.

I'm quite torn with this book. Initially, it didn't really grab me and I found it quite hard to get going. It didn't help that not many of the characters were particularly likeable. It was also not helped by the fact of not having chapters. So you'd be reading about someone, then a couple of paragraphs later, you'd realise the story had moved on to another character.

Just over halfway through it really picked up and I couldn't put it down.

I do feel (in my uneducated opinion), that a few tweaks and this could easily have scored higher. 3.5*

Thre couples were supposed to have a relax weekend but a letter let in the cottage by a four friend unleash chaos among the friends who it seems they all have something to deal with. I liked the twist and turns of the book and it was fast to read.

This was another fantastic read from the author.
Three couples going to a rural retreat for a weekend of relaxation. The women arrive first to a gift and note saying “By the time you read this, I’ll have killed one of your husbands” and do the mystery begins. The wives are stick with no contact and a storm.
This was fantastic, I loved the fallible characters all who had their own issues.
It was at times difficult to figure the chapter and character changes as each was a different character POV. I was gripped though and couldn’t put it down.
Thanks to Random house UK Cornerstone and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review #TheLongWeekend #NetGalley

Well this was a fun read!
Three couples go on a weekend away to a remote cottage in the middle of nowhere but only the women turn up… Where are the husbands and who wrote the note that was left for them?
The story is told from different perspectives and each character is as unreliable as the next, you literally don’t know what’s going on until a good way through.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it’s really well written, suspenseful, twisty and full of secrets and paranoia.
I was left guessing throughout.
4.5⭐️

It’s a long weekend for three couples at Dark Fell Barn, an isolated retreat - it sounds so ominous! The ladies arrived ahead of their husbands and find a letter claiming that one of their husbands will be murdered signed by the wife of the fourth couple. The premise sounds great, but the missing chapters and names of the POVs - there’s 4 wives, 4 husbands, and the married couple who runs the retreat, drove me nutty. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a gifted copy.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House UK, Cornerstone and Gilly Macmillan for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This is the first book by Gilly Macmillan that I have read and I was thoroughly impressed. The long weekend is the perfect psychological thriller. It is gripping, intense and utterly thrilling. The plot is enjoyable and the characters are likeable. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who enjoys thrillers. It would make a great TV series!

Deep in the Northumbria moors, three women arrive for a weekend getaway. Their husbands are joining them in the morning.

Or so they think.

When they get to their accommodation, the women find a note that claims one of their husbands has been murdered. being so remote, there's no phone signal nor internet. They're stranded, its a long twisty route back to the owners of the property and a storm's come in.

The situation spins out of control as each wife tries to find out what's going on, whilst trying to persuade each other its just a hoax and which husband has been targeted. Each is dealing with their own personal demons: one is an alcoholic new mum, another suffers PTSD and the other...who knows.

Whilst overall I enjoyed the story, it was let down largely by having no chapters, just one continual narrative and lack of large paragraph breaks when point of views were swapped. This often made it hard to keep up with who you were with and jarred me right out of the story. Though it had you guessing right to the end.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

i wasnt too keen on this one. I felt likei it wasnt what I was expecting from reading the description and it really didnt deliver.

I found this so frightening I had to stop reading one evening so I didnt have nightmares!
Piling up our darkest fears and twisting them into a night of terror, written so well with a horrible underlying
sense of deep unease that more is to cone if you turn your back.
Fantastic, superb writing and really well thought out plot, just dont read it before bed.