Gemma Fairclough’s New Novella The Retreat: Cults, Secrets, and Sacrifice

Gemma Fairclough’s New Novella The Retreat: Cults, Secrets, and Sacrifice

The latest release in the Northern Weird Project heads into Cumbria, spending time with a family destroying and money grabbing cult

Gemma Fairclough’s The Retreat is the fourth release in The Northern Weird Project, published by Wild Hunt Books. Once concluded, this features six novellas, published across 2025, by authors who are living or writing in the North of England. These are a mixture of both the supernatural and the strange, stories with a strong sense of local setting. The series includes Matt Wesolowski (Don’t Call Mum) which I reviewed a few months back, Stephen Howard (This House Isn’t Haunted But We Are), Jodie Robins (The Off-Season), Neil McRobert (Good Boy), and Katherine Clements (Turbine 34). 

This series of loosely themed novellas has caught both my eye and imagination and are highly recommended for their original interpretations of unsettling goings in in the North of England.

The Retreat is one of those novellas which I wished was longer, as the story has several unexplored avenues and characters which were ripe for further development if more pages were available.  I am a huge fan of stories about cults, with the best often being those which do not go heavily over the top, with it being easy to see how the gullible might be sucked into their orbit. The Retreat is built around this type of cult, there are no monsters here, except those of the humankind.

Even if The Retreat is brief it still packs significant material into its pages and has several narratives which are cleverly knitted together. Initially the reader is presented with the author profile of  

Richard Blackley, one of the main characters in The Retreat, whose research has taken him into the sights of the cult, of which more is slowly as his compelling narrative.

In another gripping sequence, from 1992-4 (pre-internet days), we read one side of a letter exchange between Julie (Richard’s sister) who is a patient at the Hartman Retreat Centre, Blundane, Cumbria (North of England). The exchange is with her parents, in which Julie gets increasingly agitated, with her parents clearly worried, as we read between the lines. However, this takes place years before Richard’s own research, in the nineties he and his sister had drifted apart, with him thinking her problems were of her own making.  

Once Richard’s research is in full swing he interviews Lucy, a former patient at the Hartman Retreat Centre, but from after his sister’s time there. This forms a big part of the story, dropping into a gripping narrative, which will have you asking why does somebody join a cult? When the story cleverly backtracks to school, childhood, health problems and her former best friend Faith, it becomes easier to see why.  

The scenes in the centre, where we are introduced to enigmatic but clearly dodgy guru and founder Charles Hartman crackles, as the inmates (sorry, paying customers) are urged to abandon their ‘toxic behaviour’, otherwise being ostracised or work, risk being dropped in the outdoor toilet septic tank! It is clearly dangerous brainwashing but is fascinating how it all plays out. 

Did Lucy know Julie? Probably not. But who knows for sure. Due to the structuring of the story not all questions are answered, this is frustrating in parts, but similarly stylistically fits perfectly with the manner in which the story is presented. Other material includes a biography of Charles, who in a larger work, might have been given a lot more to do rather than sleaze around in the background, rattling on about his contact with ‘The Supreme Being’ Michael. 

Elsewhere, the story diverts to ‘The Magic Mountain’ sequence, which backtracks into Richard’s ‘Those Who Trespass’ blog and his interest in the ‘right to roam’ across British countryside. This narrative remains deliberately restrained, even if the cult does edge towards Richard in the real world, he is beset with problems of his own. In some ways Richard’s compelling sequence involves redemption, for the sister he feels guilt for abandoning all those years ago, becoming a sad and compassionate figure.  Even if the terrific ending doesn’t answer all the questions, it remains a moving and satisfying conclusion which goes full circle. 

Tony Jones

The Retreat by Gemma Fairclough

Richard’s sister Julie returns home from a mysterious wellness facility in remote Cumbria in 1994. He’s convinced that this place was a cult and was the cause of his sister’s eventual suicide. Finally, after years as an unaccomplished academic, he decides to investigate the disturbing accusations against the Hartman Retreat Centre.

Then he meets Lucy, a young woman whose story is eerily similar to his sister’s decades before. Richard is determined to unearth what’s really been happening at the Hartman Retreat Centre but more importantly, who is Charles Hartman, the celebrated healer who casts a powerful hold over all who come to the retreat. Told through letters, interviews and found texts, lovers of Gemma Fairlcough’s Bear Season will be swept up in a sinister world of wellness gurus and mystery.

Advance Praise:

“A suspenseful novella that defies easy categorisation. It’s a gothic thriller, a medical horror story, a warning; most importantly, it’s a great read!” Johanna van Veen, author of Blood on Her Tongue

“The Retreat is both victim statement and witness testimony…On the surface a story about a cult and its charismatic, sinister leader, it’s also a moving portrayal of illness and the search for wellness…and how in that quest, friendship and love can sometimes lose their way.” Tim Lebbon, author of Secret Lives of the Dead

“Eerie and unsettling, The Retreat draws you in, weaving a sense of uncertainty as it blurs the lines between fiction and reality. A commentary on the cultish possibilities of wellness culture…I took one bite of this book and couldn’t stop until I’d devoured it all.” Angie Spoto, author of The Bone Diver

“A deliciously dark, compelling story of desperation and exploitation that leaves the reader with a chill on the spine. An addictive book!” Elizabeth Lee, author of Cunning Women

“A chilling tale of the terrors and tragedies involved in a shady healing cult, led by a charismatic and manipulative individual who preys on the lonely, the desperate and the lost… Gemma Fairclough’s unnerving narrative is stripped of melodrama and all the more horrific as a result.” Rosie Garland, author of The Fates

Check out our other reviews of The Northern Weird Project

Matt Wesolowski’s Bold (Don’t) Call Mum

This House Isn’t Haunted But We Are by Stephen Howard

Turbine 34: Yorkshire Moors Folk Horror by Katherine Clements

Why ‘Good Boy’ by Neil McRobert is Your Next Must Read Book

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