Book Review : The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has our protagonist Alex, an aspiring writer and associate editor in a publishing company, attending a month-long writing retreat at the home of famous horror author Roza Vallo at her home, Blackbriar Estate in the Adirondacks. Among the four other aspiring writers is Wren, her former best friend with whom her problems remain unresolved. However, this is not an opportunity to be missed and Alex is thrilled to be attending unwilling to let Wren’s presence ruin this experience for her.

Roza has them following a rigorous schedule as far as the writing goes, expecting them to write a full- length novel by the end of the month, motivating them with a lucrative publishing deal for the “winner”, whose novel would be judged as the best. With her struggles with writer's block, escalated tensions with Wren, Roza’a unorthodox methods of running her retreat, the isolated location and eerie occurrences in the house which has an interesting history (to put it mildly) surrounding its original owners, Alex soon realizes that this retreat is not going to be a cakewalk. What follows is a thrilling ride with secrets, lies, manipulation and hidden agendas that has the group oscillating between sticking together and suspicion directed toward each other and their enigmatic facilitator/mentor Roza. What is to be seen is how far would each of them go to fulfill their dreams and at what cost.

The first-person narrative is shared from Alex’s PoV with excerpts from her book interspersed throughout the novel. With its atmospheric setting and Gothic vibes, complicated characters, consistent pacing and intricate plot, Julia Bartz’s The Writing Retreat is a dark and suspenseful psychological thriller with bold feminist overtones. Though not completely unpredictable, there are enough surprises along the way to keep you hooked. If you can suspend disbelief and don’t mind OTT , this will prove to be an entertaining read! This is the kind of book that you would want to finish in one sitting! Overall, The Writing Retreat is an impressive debut and I look forward to reading more from this talented new author in the future.

Many thanks to the author, Atria Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel is due to be released on February 21, 2023.