The Refuge by Carly Hillman

The Refuge
by Carly Hillman

ISBN-13: 9798892426824
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Released: September 8, 2026

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
When wildlife ranger Johnny Hayward discovers a terrified young girl hiding in the grasses, he investigates how the girl, Maeve, came to their land. But when the police arrive, she tells them that Johnny is her father. He goes along with the lie.

Decades later, Maeve’s daughter, Ava, grows up believing that same lie. Ava’s love for the Refuge, where she lives in the staff cabins with her mother and is a tour ranger, prevents her from dwelling on the fact that her mother never leaves the grounds—and won’t explain why. But after crushing on a temporary security guard about her age, Ava begins to question her sheltered upbringing. What is her mother so afraid of?

Angry that her mother and Johnny won’t give her answers, Ava turns to the internet to connect with her extended family, accidently revealing their location to a man still hunting for them.


My Review:
The Refuge is general fiction. It's told from five different viewpoints and jumped around in time. It's not really a mystery as Johnny quickly uncovered what probably happened and that's why they allowed Maeve to stay on the wildlife refuge rather than trying to find her parents. But Ava's never told the truth and, at 18 years old, she finally questioned living in such isolation. She started pressing for true answers rather than the obvious lies she'd been told. The wildlife refuge was a nice backdrop for the story, but it's more an explanation of how a person could live in isolation. It's a huge chunk of land and the staff lives on site, so a person doesn't have to leave. It even has security guards to keep out poachers, so it's safe.

While the main characters were well-developed, complex people and I always understood why they acted the way they did, I didn't really enjoy the story. It was like watching a slow train wreck. Maeve's mother, Evelyn, made a series of bad choices, made it free into a good life, but choose to be pulled in again. She paid a high price to get Maeve free from the consequences of her actions, but Maeve also made bad choices and lied to those she loved. She had a one night stand to get pregnant because she wanted a baby. Because Ava didn't know why they didn't have contact with her relatives or why they hid on the refuge, she made a series of bad decisions. With the exception of Maeve's father and Johnny, men are hardly mentioned.

The police seemed remarkably inept in this story. They're told Maeve was a lost child and the other staff knew it, but the police just dropped the case when told it was a misunderstanding. We're never told how the bad guy got away with killing a person. And even if a bear mauled the dead body at the end, I'd think the police would know a gun shot wound when they saw it and not just dismiss the case.

There was one almost-sex scene (not particularly graphic). There was occasional use of bad language. It was a decent story, it just didn't appeal to me, especially as I was expecting an actual mystery genre novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.