Before now I had never read a horror book written by a real-life army veteran. When I shut my eyes and think of horror, I think of clowns, spider creatures, ghouls, and ghosts. But true horror in this world is born in war, and thank god I haven’t had to see it firsthand, the concept of being in the army or living in a war-torn country scares the living snot out of me. I can’t even put it into words.
John Lynch, an army veteran turned author, draws from his days serving in the army, to create a horror story out of characters loosely based on his soldier friends. The book serves as a reminder to seek help for those experiencing PTSD; if the horror genre and mental health awareness need an example of how well the two can work together as a partnership, then look no further than The Warrior Retreat.
The book is essentially about soldiers coming home and settling into society after spending their prime years being trained and drilled into becoming killing machines for their country. The characters cope differently, one does very well, making a career in streaming video games— others, not so great; one is having night terrors and drowning himself in alcohol every night, and getting himself into fights; another is doing drugs and having constant sex with strippers; sadly… one struggles with depression and commits suicide. It’s the latter that precipitates Simpson, a soldier who started a family and got his life together, to arrange a retreat in the woods so the guys can get together, have a few drinks around a burning fire, talk about old times, and build a community where they could talk through their problems. As good as his intentions were, things go wrong very quickly.
I immensely enjoyed this short book, I could have read it in one sitting if it wasn’t for my constraints on time. John Lynch has a way with language and has taken a sensitive subject as war, and mental health, composing them humbly into a great horror story, using humor occasionally to describe something terrible. There’s no BS. The language used was like hearing the story firsthand from one of my friends, and I liked that.
A book worthy of a five-star review.
