Alex hopes to overcome her writer's block at a once-in-a-lifetime retreat hosted by her reclusive idol. In the snowy and secluded manor in upstate New York, the women-included Alex's former friend turned enemy-start writing under the eratic direction of Roza Vallo. Alex, who is admittedly a bit of a mess, scrambles to keep up with Roza's gruelling schedule as things in the manor go increasingly wrong.

I'm a sucker for writing about writing and books within books. Extracts from the novel Alex is writing appear alongside her narration, running parallel to the plot. The framed novel provides an interesting additional layer to the happenings in the house.

Bartz's writing through The Writing Retreat is fast paced and engaging, even if the characters occassionally fall flat. A group of immature writers apparently incapable of reading the room. As the nefarious threads come untangled the novel careens toward its ending, which appears almost out of nowhere. It felt a bit rushed, while ultimately getting wrapped up a little too neatly.

A perfectly enjoyable winter thriller that will make you feel cold to your bones and, maybe, make you run a little faster up the basement stairs.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the advanced copy!

Five writers are locked in a home with their idol and famous author to write a manuscript in two months — and one will be picked to publish. Everything goes horribly wrong and soon they are imprisoned.

This was a good book, but fairly predictable. I did enjoy it, but it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read.

I think someone wrote up a checklist of all the "in" things in popular books right now: gothic location, authors, locked room mystery, questioning your sexuality, old frenemies coming together, maybe a little paranormal, and remote location with snowed in conditions, then this book would have checked them all. But if the author did follow a check list, you can't tell while reading the book! Everything flows together nicely and it all worked incredibly well! This retreat is a dream come true for several young female potential authors who get to spend an entire month with their idol learning the craft of writing. But what starts out as a dream turns into a nightmare and Alex is stuck trying to write her novel and save herself at the same time. I could have used a bit more time getting to know each of the characters and felt that Alex was a bit overboard with the whole victim thing. I also felt like there was more to her background that was removed during editing that I would have enjoyed know. But, the story hooked me right up to the end! I'll be keeping a look out for another book from this author!

The Writing Retreat was a twisty and turning suspense thriller. While the story took a few turns that I wasn't quite believing I went with it and enjoyed the ride. The story is about a famous writer who selects 5 wannabe authors to her home for a retreat. Alex is one of the lucky ones picked. Alex has been stuck with writers block for almost a year and is hoping this retreat will pull her out of the funk she's been in.

The story is entertaining but certainly not a light story by the pool. Thank you for Netgalley and Atria books for my review copy.

This one was not for me. It started out good, and I liked the premise of the story, but then it went off base in my opinion. I didn't connect with the characters and all the sex and demon sex. I would have liked a stronger plot with less sex. I did like the setting for the retreat.

Wow. This was certainly a unique read and NOT what I was expecting. The premise really drew me in - the mystery, the vague quality and the suspense. And it really started off with a bang. But it got a little slow in the middle and the events started to get a but unbelievably bizarre.

I might have to re-read this book to get its full impact, but for a debut, I was impressed and would definitely pick up more thrillers from this author in the future!

This story turned into something completely different than I had imagined. Prospective authors are invited to a covetous writers retreat with renowned author Roza. I wondered about the industrial output dictate with writing and the events transpiring between Alex and Wren.
Much of the plot is sick, sinister, and quite depraved. It’s a cross between the Shining and Misery.
I thought Alex was incredibly loyal to Wren and a better friend than Wren was to her. I wouldn’t have been so charitable. I did like it when Alex realized Wren had no power over her and took her own self back, an important crux in the plot.
All things being said, I won’t be signing up for any retreats in the wilds any time soon.

Sadly, this book wasn’t for me. I felt no connection to it and found the plot confusing. It felt as though it was bouncing all over the place.

This gothic tale of a friendship gone awry is a fun and quick read! The setting is great and the antagonist superb. I love anything set around the struggle of aspiring writers, add in female relationship turmoil and you've got a great and exciting read.

My fault for hearing the premise and having dreams of something similar to Haunted but not as brutal and soul crushing. Not quite what I was hoping for, definitely for a different audience.

First off thank you so much for letting me read an ARC!!

This was a weird debut! Not going to lie I wanted to DNF this book several times.

Our main character Alex is a last minute inducted contestant to go to a writing retreat to her favorite author’s house and learn everything she has to offer.
Alex is an inspiring author herself along with used to be best friend Wren. They both go on this retreat and Alex is nervous because of there falling out.
This is where things start getting weird. First, we meet the other members of the retreat. Then weird shit starts happening and last, the even weirder ending.

I particularly loved the beginning of this book. I also loved the story within a story plot. But then we find out why Alex and Wren had a falling out. Then Alex has a very sexual drug induced experience. Then people start dying and how the author just disappeared? I don’t know it just didn’t wrap together well for me. It was almost as if the whole thing was a dream.

I gave this 3.75/5

The opening line, fuck her, was strong and I agreed without even knowing who “her” was but as the book progressed I realized Alex was a narcissistic psychopath and I disagreed with the comment.

I felt like this book was a compilation of unrealistic, bizarre and far fetched events that left me feeling uncomfortable and slightly disgusted.

The entire cast of characters were unlikable which made me root against every single one of them. I almost DNF’ed this one but I held on for the sake of chatting it up with my book friends. Most of us came to the conclusion that this book was peculiar and didn’t fit with the genre it claims to be.

I thought this book had so much potential, but unfortunately it did not live up to it. I had no interest in the book within the book and felt that the plot was just messy. A lot of weird explicit sex scenes, including one with a demon? It just gets so weird! Definitely not what I was expecting.

✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼 / 5

This was such a crazy debut! It was a bit of a slow burn in the beginning, but I stuck around because of the great writing and the fact that I truly had no idea where the story was going. Things really picked up in the second half and didn’t stop until the very end! While I don’t think this one is for everyone, I thought it was entertaining and had so much to offer. I’m looking forward to Julia’s next book, and I’m rooting for a collab with her sister, Andi Bartz!

Thank you NetGalley, Atria and Julia Bartz for this arc in exchange for this honest review.

I was really excited for this one! The plot sounded like it was going to be right up my alley and while this one started off strong, it just completely took a wild turn that I could not get behind. I’m no prude but this one just had too much sex for me and the demon plot I just couldn’t get behind…this book was just not for me and I’m so disappointed because I was so excited for it!

2.5 stars for me but rounding up to 3.

An intriguing and intense story that I give major kudos for feeling very authentic and original. However the third act felt too long to me and I found myself skipping some of the excerpts of The Great Commission because it felt irrelevant. I realize it was a parallel to the story but just did not hook me as much as the plot.

This one was a wild one, but I am sure most of you could have guessed that by just the title. I mean, a writing retreat without some drama, c'mon right? However, drama wasn't the only thing to dread while being at a secluded manor with a famous author, two of her staff, and the five chosen winners to the writing retreat itself. What could lie ahead? Well you will have to read and find out!

I will say that the first half of the book was a slow burn. I felt Alex was a little whiney/always the victim. So what if Wren didn't want to be friends anymore? Move on and make new friends. This is a perfect opportunity to do so. But what does she do, dwell on the past and put on a pity party. Ugh boring. Wren, where do I start with her. She's toxic in herself. So I'd say Alex dodged a bullet there anyways. But like can you just be civil while at your idol's home? The others: Taylor, Kiera, and Poppy all seemed normal, but as we all know, everyone has secrets...and secrets always find a way out. This is true for Rosa, Chita, and Yana as well. Because who would have more secrets to bury than a famous author and her staff who choose to live in a secluded manor?

All in all, this book picked up about 50-55% and then was a wild roller coaster of thrills and turns. Some of which I never saw coming. I may have been led down one trail and didn't hop of the train, because well, it just seemed too plausible. Definitely a 4 star read for sure!

Weird is the first word that comes to mind when I think of this book, and not in a necessarily bad way. This thriller follows Alex as she stays in a secluded mansion for a writing retreat. She's with her favorite author, and 4 other writers including her ex-bestfriend.

The positives!
- It was not a slow start book. Within 2 chapters you're hooked.
- The setting itself was spooky - an old mansion, in the middle of no where surrounded by trees and snow. It also happened to be the site of a double homicide
- It was really interesting how the author didn't really include any men in the story. I feel like a lot of times conflict revolves around men in thrillers about women. This book didn't have that at all.

The not so positives
- I usually love a book within a book but I found the Daphne story to be boring and almost like a retelling of the actual story. Like the parallels were obviously there and almost too much for me
- throw any sense of logic completely out the window
- demon sex


There was a lot of sex in this book which was surprising just because as a thriller I wasn't expecting that at all. I didn't feel like it necessarily added anything to the book either. I struggled with rating this because I skimmed almost all of Daphne storyline, but enjoyed the actual book premise a lot so for that 2.5 rounded up to 3. Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, what a ride! I did not know what was going to happen on every page of this book. It had everything and also maybe too much -- crime, writing, drama, gay sex, gay sex DREAMS, demons, murder. Like, the pot is boiling over, guys!

I think maybe it was doing too much and that as a consequence the characters were shallow, or at least too shallow for me to care bout them.

3 stars.

I can't believe this was a debut! It was super unique, if not a bit absurd, but had me hooked - Bartz truly went for it. The characters weren't particularly likable (except Keira) but it worked for me. They definitely were super stunted adults acting more like teens. If anyone tells you that they guessed what happens in this one I can assure you they are lying because there is absolutely no way lolol. With that said, do I want every thriller to be like this one? No, but I can't wait to see what Bartz writes next.