3.5 rounded up. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was an interesting book, and I feel like maybe I need to sit with my thoughts on it to figure out how I felt with it. I did really enjoy most of the characters, or at least the concept of them all together as a group. It was a very slow-paced book (or maybe it FELT that way because it was 115 chapters, even if they were short chapters), and I felt like I spent a lot of time with the characters, but I also feel like I don't really know a lot about them besides Cara and Meg? I was definitely interested in the mystery surrounding the book. I think the ending was really out-there and a bit too convoluted for my taste, and felt a little bit rushed despite the slow pacing of the book. I'm also not a big fan of the "science" presented in this book - really screamed more pseudoscience to me, but I understand that this is a thriller where we'll have to suspend our disbelief. I still overall enjoyed the story and would like to read more about the characters in the future.

I loved the idea of a thriller set in a rehab and the author executed it perfectly. As she mentions in her author's note, the author has experience in this setting and it shows with the humor and compassion with which she portrays the cast of characters that populate this high-end, secluded, and experimental rehab. The resolution of the mystery was kind of silly, but the characters and the secluded Pacific northwest setting made this a win for me.

I tried to read this book 3 times but I just could not get into it. I found the writing style not for me. I couldn't really connect with anything in this book.

Great read!!

Meg is an addict who decides to go undercover to figure out what happened to her sister, Haley, who overdosed in The Clinic. I don’t want to say too much and give it away, but y’all— it’s GOOD!

I liked that this was set in a rehab facility. Cate did such a great job writing a realistic depiction of addiction! The shorter chapters kept my attention and I couldn’t put this down! It’s twisty, it plays with your mind, and will hold you captive from rhe first page all the way to the last!

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC 🫶🏻

Meg’s sister Haley is a patient at a highly exclusive rehab known simply as The Clinic when she is reported dead of a self-inflicted drug overdose. Meg doesn’t buy it though – this wasn’t Haley’s drug of choice and Meg believes Haley was too selfish to unalive herself. In order to find out what really happened to Haley (and maybe get a handle on her own opioid addiction), Meg checks herself into The Clinic as a patient, but she never could have anticipated the dangers lurking around every corner.

This is one of those books where it’s hard to say too much about the plot without giving it away, but suffice it to say this is a dark, twisty, and original thriller! Right off the bat, that gorgeous cover is giving spooky gothic vibes, and you just know some scary will be going down in that place. The Clinic is a character in itself – imposing, isolated, and filled with foreboding. The story is told from two perspectives, Meg and Cara the facility manager. Meg’s addiction and withdrawal are written skillfully and authentically, making her an extremely unreliable narrator, which keeps the reader on tenterhooks throughout. Just like Meg, you don’t know what’s real, what she’s hallucinating, and when she’s being gaslit by the staff and her fellow patients. The tense short chapters and unpredictable twists and turns make for a propulsive read that kept me turning pages well into the night!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me an advance copy of this book.

This book had a lot of potential, the setting was great, and Haley’s character was good as well. I didn’t love or connect with Meg’s character and it was hard to sympathize with her choices and motivations. Unfortunately for being a “street smart” tough, undercover cookie, Meg is kind of dense in a few situations. She seems to know alot about alot, and then has no idea what the word co-dependent means.

For all the dark trauma seemingly in this book, the twists felt very bureaucratic. They tease at some very dark plot points in Meg and Haley’s history, which are all explained away with some repressed mistaken memories.

This was a very quick book with short chapters, but I felt like a lot of the characters and leads were half baked and some of the twists and reveals I was guessing at were left dead in the water. Turning your head to other, less exciting results.

I think if you want to suspend your disbelief, and you like dark themes with twisty plots you may enjoy this one more than I did.

It's kind of funny that a book centered around addiction would be as addicting as this was. That being said, I did have a few questions while reading it. Having not gone through addiction and recovery myself, I was flabbergasted that most of the therapies they did were patient led. Is that normal? They also seemed to just be able to do whatever and go wherever they wanted. Was it because they were considered VIPs? Were there regular patients elsewhere in the facility or are they able to make enough money off of a half dozen rich addicts? When I set these questions aside and allowed the story to simply entertain me I enjoyed it so much more.

The Clinic by Cate Quinn
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This book is twisty and sure keeps you on your toes for the entirety of the novel. However a little slower than I enjoy myself reading :)
I loved the premise of a woman who died in rehab being further looked into by her family- it was a little unbelievable yet relatable all at the same time. The book deals with talk of su!cide, dr^g use and other triggering activities and content. But none of it was enough to make me uncomfortable. However, I'm not easily swayed by triggers.

The takeaway is that. Yes. I would HIGHLY recommend this book to fellow thriller lovers. I did enjoy the journey.

For fans of remote, atmospheric locations and locked-room mysteries, The Clinic is a layered psychological thriller which takes place in a carefully guarded rehab facility. Meg goes undercover as a patient when her famous sister suddenly dies while seeking treatment, and every character she meets is secretive and shady.

I liked the unreliable narrator, mental health, addiction and science aspects, but it was way too slow of a burn and there were so many characters to keep track of I almost needed to make myself a master list. While the plot was unique, the twists at the end were way too far fetched and implausible. I'm not a fan of thrillers where I have to extend belief in order for the ending to make sense, so the payoff didn't work for me. I also found the book much too long at nearly 450 pages. Overall, this had the building blocks of a good thriller but this one was just meh for me.

4⭐️📖 To this first book of 2024. Thanks Net Galley for an ARC. In this twisty ride, we follow Meg, an unreliable professional poker player who finds her estranged sister has died in rehab. She doesn’t believe the story that her sister committed suicide, so she enters rehab (an alcohol and opiate addict herself), trying to learn what happened.
The short chapters with shifting narrator kept me coming back for more. This felt deeper than a traditional thriller. The reader eventually finds the author wrote this book with a deep respect and understanding of addiction—which I think made the book more than your average thriller.

Today is January 1st. I really wanted to finish this book before the end of 2023 but I'm kind of glad I didn't because now this book gets to be my first 5 star read of 2024 and my first review of the year. This book was filled with excitement. The plot of the book is like nothing I've ever read before. I will be thinking about this book for awhile. The characters were well written. They were likeable and interesting. The development of the story flowed well and kept my attention all the way to the end. My favorite aspect of the story was that the author didn't give away what was happening to quickly making me continuously question what was actually happening. I had so many theories in my head about how this was all going to play out and I never once considered the outcome to be what actually happened. I greatly enjoyed this book and plan to read past and future books by her. Thank you Netgalley for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very enjoyable read.

Meg works as a poker player and undercover security agent for a casino in L.A, while her sister is a singer and would-be actress. When Meg is told that her sister Haley died by suicide at an expensive rehab facility, she decides to use her own issues with drugs and alcohol to investigate what happened. She doesn't believe her sister capable of suicide, and needs to discover what really happened.

The story is told from two points of view - Meg and Cara - the relatively new manager at the facility. During the slow and steady start to the novel, we meet the few celebrity guests at the facility, the unusual owner, and the therapist. The local police, having determined the death was a suicide, nevertheless attempt to investigate the facility, much to the annoyance of the owner Dr Lutz, who becomes increasingly less and less willing to co-operate. Cara discovers several unusual practices at the clinic, from unethical billing practices to non-approved treatment plans.

The descriptions of the clinic are very atmospheric, as it is remote, and often shrouded in fog. The celebrities staying at the facility are very unlikeable for the most part, and Meg is not honest about her own drug addiction. Lots of unreliable narration!

While the novel started slowly, it soon picked up the pace, and the big reveal really did take me by surprise. I knew things were not as they seemed, but didn't guess the twist. The ending felt rushed unfortunately, and not so believable. However, i really liked the book, and the writing.

Set in a rehab facility which is something I haven't read before. I enjoyed the storyline, the characters and the mystery, Lots of twists and turns, self-discovery while dealing with trauma and addiction. The lengths we would go to find the truth. Overall it was a good thriller and I would read more by this author.

I would like to preface this review by saying thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of The Clinic in exchange for my honest opinion.

When Meg's sister is found dead in a secret rehab clinic, Meg decides to get down to the bottom of what really happened to Hayley.

I liked the concept of this book more than the execution. This whole book felt like it was dragged out longer than it needed to be. There were so many twists and turns in this book to the point where you're like "OK, I get it now". I did appreciate the back stories with all the characters and the duel POVs but this book definitely could have been 100 pages shorter.

Meg, a troubled addict, decides to go undercover to find out what happened to her sister Haley who overdosed in a rehab clinic. Meg checks in to the posh clinic determined to find out what happened to her sister. This page Turner kept me turning the pages to find out exactly what happened.
This book was an exciting read delving into the mind of an addict and how far people will go.

I loved the setting of a rehab center. I don't see that often in thrillers or books in general. It was very realistic of a rehab center and the events that occur. I loved the twists and turns that i did not see coming.

“To solve your sister’s murder, you need to solve yourself.”

The Clinic by Cate Quinn follows a rehab center that caters to the rich and famous in the remote Pacific Northwest, where it appears actress Haley Banks has succumbed to her addictions. Her sister, Meg, dealing with her own addictions, does not believe that Haley has committed suicide (accidental or purposefully) and decides to enter The Clinic to investigate who possibly could have killed her, under the guise of getting clean. However, things are not at all what they seem when you add in the constant struggle of power and money in healthcare facilities, and rich characters who are all narcissists, sociopaths, or master manipulators trying to get what they want.

The premise was intriguing, and the setting was superb. Quinn knows how to set a scene and play chess with her characters. Red herrings are abundant and the whodunit nature of this storytelling will keep you turning the pages.

I enjoyed the tie-ins with the casino and backstory of the characters. While the main villain I felt was predictable from the start, I had wrong guesses about others’ involvement. This book had a lot going for it; unfortunately, I feel like the plot needed to be polished A LOT more, as some parts were discombobulated and too much crazy was occurring.

Maybe I just know too much about this subject and how real fraud in this industry is – the house I live in used to be an in-house out-patient drug rehab in South Florida (Florida Shuffle, anyone? – though I’ve never heard it called that before). There was definitely truth, but also glossing-over in Quinn’s tale of addiction centers.

Trigger warning: this novel dealt with a lot of topics that could trigger a lot of different emotions, mainly with mental health, childhood trauma, addiction, recovery, sobriety, and suicide. While the main theme of the book was mystery centering on Healthcare Fraud, power, immoral vs. unethical behavior, and sociopaths – the underlying themes about trauma driving addiction are very prevalent.

With some polishing and fine-tuning, I would have truly enjoyed this novel. But some things were just way too easy and unbelievable (oh look, this door is locked but I happen to have a lockpicking kit on me!) to get passed over in this psychological thriller. Good Bones for sure, but it was missing something for me (or maybe it was just too much going on). 3.4 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for this promising ARC; all opinions are my own.

“One person’s trauma is another person’s bad day.”

This was overall a good thriller that kept me interested with a bevy of characters. It had an interesting ending and the plot was moderately fast-paced as well. 4 Stars

When Meg hears of her sister’s suicide from a rehab facility, The Clinic, she’s skeptical. Facing demons of her own and fighting addiction, she enters The Clinic under false pretenses to investigate what she believes is her sister’s murder.

The Clinic is a well written story of addiction, the bond of sisters who lived through trauma, and mental health.

The twists were so well throughout and done so incredibly. I did not see them coming!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of The Clinic!

Immerse yourself in an extraordinary and thought-provoking psychological thriller that will captivate your mind until the very last page! From the outset, I found myself irresistibly drawn into the narrative, unable to put the book down. The author skillfully weaves an unsettling atmosphere, vividly described scenes, and a tapestry of suspense, drama, and mystery. The pacing, driven by a unique plot and complemented by succinct chapters and dual perspectives, adds to the overall enthralling experience. The characters, led by an unreliable narrator, navigate a maze of secrets, contributing to breathtaking twists that culminate in an ending that left me utterly astonished. This book is an exhilarating rollercoaster ride that I wholeheartedly enjoyed, and the cover is a fitting complement to its brilliance!

Meet Meg, a tenacious casino employee in LA, whose life takes a dark turn when her famous actress sister, Haley, is reported dead at a remote rehab facility. Disbelieving the whispers of suicide surrounding Haley's demise, Meg decides to infiltrate the facility herself to uncover the truth. Faced with her own battles against addiction, Meg delves into a web of secrets and psychological turmoil within the clinic. The narrative skillfully explores themes of addiction, mental health, and psychological complexities, creating a gripping and unputdownable thriller. While the ending may stretch believability, the overall intensity of the story earns it a solid recommendation, delivering a four-star experience!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!