Review of “The Resort”: A Strange, Surprising Comedy Mystery That Challenges Why We Seek Solutions

What does it mean to have the perfect vacation? Who are we really, when we’re looking for answers? Is our job just a distraction from our life, or are we living an illusion that’s somehow more real than reality? And what is reality, anyway? If you need more questions answered while you laugh and cry and wonder aloud (and sometimes on the page), read this book.

I had never read anything by Scott Anderson before I picked up The Resort: A Novel. To be honest, I was expecting a quaint comedy about family vacations gone awry—a pleasant diversion of little consequence.

Introduction to The Resort

The Resort is a 2018 American horror comedy film directed by John Asher and written by Clay McLeod Chapman. It stars Leslie Bibb, Tilda Swinton, Michael Sheen, Hilary Duff, and Lake Bell. The film was released on December 14th in select theaters. The film takes place on a secluded island where people go to live out their fantasies of being shipwrecked or living out an ersatz reality TV show gone wrong. The general plot is that the guests are living out their fantasies on an island resort which is a front for human trafficking and slavery. The outside world believes the resort is just a place like the one seen in “The Beach” by Alex Garland or “Survivor” by Chuck Palahniuk.

Character names in The Resort

Chris
Bree
Lex
Sam
Detective
Nayeli Morales
Brandon Adams
Lizze Gordon
Maria Olsen
Sarah
Tim Wakefield
Jessica
Comic Book Girl 19
Helicopter
Henry
Mike
Mrs. Kendall
Rafael López

Story of The Resort

“In 1970s New York City, Lisa is an aspiring actress studying at the Actors Studio under legendary acting coach Stella Adler. But even as she is winning roles in short films and local stage productions, her boyfriend John is working behind the scenes to turn the once-luxury resort into a nightmare of debt and neglect.” “Coming from Playwrights Horizons’ recent staging of Misery, I knew that we would be making no small production. The Resort deals with heavy themes such as sexual abuse and self-destructive relationships between actors before turning it into something wilder than anything I could have anticipated.

A clumsy but strangely engrossing comic thriller, The Resort

The Resort is a clunky but oddly gripping comedic thriller that follows Lawrence, an older man amid a midlife crisis. He gets a chance to buy an heirloom resort and spruce it up for more patrons but soon finds himself descending into disaster after a disaster when he tries to maintain his newfound paradise. The story unfolds as he struggles through his day-to-day life and tries to reign things back in order while avoiding the ambitious advances of the resort’s security guard Richard. The thriller spans over 400 pages with no clear disinterested point; its appeal comes from how bizarre everything seems along with how much one could learn about resort management throughout this wild ride.

What do you think about The Resort?