I am familiar with Delilah's Dawson's work, and her rhythm and cadence are both lulling and strategic, since the gotcha moments really getcha that much harder! The twist at the end of this story was *chef's kiss* and I audibly gasped and had to explain myself to my kid sitting nearby. No spoilers, but this was very VERY satisfying! Thanks to #Netgalley for the ARC!

3.75 stars!

This novel follows Sarah who, having recently left her toxic ex-boyfriend, heads to an artist retreat to rekindle her love of pottery. While there, she’s drawn to the off-limits hotel on property and becomes wrapped up in the history of the women who stayed there. This novel goes into the trauma women faced in the past as well as the present and has a strong emphasis on self-discovery and empowerment.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this novel and felt like I had a good grasp of the writers retreat. I loved Delilah S. Dawson’s writing and imagery. The ending left a bit to be desired but didn’t detract too much from the overall feel of the book. Don’t pick this one up if you need all loose ends tied up - this definitely leaves story aspects up to the imagination which I actually enjoyed about it. Overall I liked this read and look forward to picking up more of this author’s work.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group Ballantine, and Del Rey for access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Dawson has the uncanny ability to craft worlds and characters that make you laugh then terrify you then make you laugh again. In "It Will Only Hurt for a Moment," the reader finds themselves transported into an art commune that is hiding more secrets than one would expect of a few hippies in the woods. While some of the bumps are predictable, there are scares aplenty and enough twists to satisfy many fans of the genre. In many ways, Dawson's strengths led to vivid picturing of events - some of which will terrify from a horror perspective and others due to personal trauma. If you have personal triggers of any type, I'd recommend doing your research and as always, plan accordingly. Sometimes, the most frightening monsters are the ones we deal with every day.

Appreciate the opportunity to review and highly recommend checking it, if it matches your tolerances and mindset.

I have heard nothing but great things about this authors other novel, Bloom, so I was excited to get to read this one. However, this book did not do it for me like I'd hoped. This book has great commentary and themes relating to what it's like to be a woman in today's society along with in the past, how (unfortunately) women will likely always be treated as lesser than. how women are seen as crazy or need medication and therapy because they have feelings or disagree with a man. Overall, the themes of this book really did resonate with me and that women are not property or things to be told what to do, are not "crazy" for being opinionated, and God forbid are not what a man is entitled to. I did, however. think this book was way too long andabruptly ended without clearing up some questions about certain characters. I do think that I would read from this author again though. as maybe this just wasn't for me. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Publishing for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was incredibly excited to receive an ARC for this book, because I recently read Bloom by the same author and absolutely loved it.

One thing Dawson knows how to do very well is create a beautiful, atmospheric setting. It’s my favorite part about her writing style.

I went into It Will Only Hurt for a Moment with high expectations, but it was, unfortunately, a let down for me. I didn’t find the characters engaging at all. I kept having to force myself to pick it up and continue reading.

The graphic sexual assault scenes were really unsettling and unnecessary for me, especially when there were no trigger warnings to indicate that I would need to be prepared for something like that.

Sarah decides to join a group of artists at an artist retreat in the middle of nowhere. There is no WiFi, no television, etc. This seems perfect to Sarah, who is hiding for her emotionally abusive ex. Everything seems to go wrong, though, and she’s constantly in the middle of it. Then she starts to have weird dreams… but are they dreams or something more?

I don’t get why this book currently has a 3.34-star rating. It explores important topics, particularly the way that men have used and abused women for centuries. Perhaps some people didn’t like the supernatural theme or expected it to be like The Violence. I, however, thought it was well put together.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased review.

After reading Dawson's last horror Bloom, I was super excited at the opportunity to read ,It Will Only Hurt For a Moment however it didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

One thing the author does is create an incredible atmosphere. It makes the reader feel very immersed in the book & I loved that. She did the same in the book Bloom.

I just felt like this book was too long, didn’t really go anywhere and the ending was pretty abrupt , without the closure I thought there should be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love this author and our library has purchased her work in the past. I loved the atmosphere and felt it really went far in increasing the suspense. The dual timelines were effective in showing how far/not far women have come regarding basic rights. I found the sexual assault scenes to be very brutal and disturbing. It's not that they were incredibly graphic, they were just powerful. This is an incredibly suspenseful story of a haunting that is just so memorable. Having said all that great stuff, this was not perfect and not my favorite by this author. The plotting became repetitive and character actions sometimes strained credulity. So, this was a good horror read, just not her best.

I loved Dawson's book, The Violence so was really looking forward to this one and it was great! Sarah leaves abusive boyfriend, Kyle to go to an artists' retreat at Tranquil Falls for three months. There, she meets six other budding artists, determined to have the time to devote to their craft in a peaceful setting. But she has no idea what awaits her as she begins to have strange "visions" and finds odd things that shouldn't be there as she investigates the older buildings. It's creepy, it's dark, but it's an awesome tale that had me hanging on every word!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Sarah is fleeing an abusive relationship. Even though she hasn’t made anything in years, she was accepted into a retreat for artists at Tranquil Falls. with no Internet or cell reception, she hopes to find herself again. What she doesn’t anticipate is finding a body and learning about the very dark history contained behind the decrepit walls of a once grand hotel.
Quite a bit happens while Sarah tries to focus on her pottery. That never quite works out, though, since death seems to follow her around. It was a strange and creepy tale. While the ending wasn’t my favorite, I enjoyed most of the journey.
I don’t like to put trigger warnings in my reviews, but DM me on Instagram(@reneesramblings) if you’re interested

I didn't like this book and it's a shame because it had some potential. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ebook arc. All opinions are my own.

The characters are fine for the most part. They're all a certain stereotypical caricature and they don't really have that many personality traits outside of the little box that the author created for them. I think the worst one is Bernie. She just thought "what is the worst man I can think of?" and then multiplied by 10. His only personality trait was that he hated women.

The writing was really good, but then there was a like every so often that made me roll my eyes. Two women are talking about a man and one of them thinks about how their conversations are never going to pass the bechdel test. That's not a normal thing to say. There's also a character that says another character has main character syndrome. Just really odd choices.

I did not know that this book had trigger warnings and so I went into this completely blind. Safe to say, the multiple graphic sexual assault scenes threw me off. They were completely unnecessary as well. There are a lot of ways to indicate that a relationship is abusive without having to show something like that.

The idea and atmosphere of this is probably where the novel shines because I was pretty interested in the mystery up until the last two chapters. It all went downhill in the final act. A new villain is randomly introduced and it's not even explained how they knew to go down in the basement. We are also left with a lot of loose ends. There are two characters that disappear and we never learn what happened to them or if they are even still alive. The overarching message about the patriarchy was interesting, but it wasn't explored well at all.

Seriously the ending is terrible and I feel like the author had no idea how to finish the story so she just pulled a random ending from a hat. It definitely drags the novel down a few stars.

I really wanted to like this book. The description gave several themes I love, like fresh starts, nature, no connection to the outside world, an awesome sounding artist’s colony, and in the first half, those things felt moody and creepy and mysterious. By the second half, I was just trying to get it over with.

I enjoyed the ideas of the characters, but most of them felt like a stereotype of a person and not like someone I would want to get to know. Sarah herself is a bit plain and at times, difficult to connect with, in my opinion.

The atmosphere was great, with the secluded nature trails and waterfalls, creepy cabin, the forced proximity of sharing time with strangers, and the reveal of what was previously going on at the old hotel felt gradual enough, and interesting as we found out pieces of information from the building itself as well as Sarah’s “dreams.”

I felt that the last few chapters and the villain reveal was rushed, added as a shock value plot twist that probably most people could see coming a mile away. I was unimpressed by this clumsy ending most of all.

As I said, I wanted to like this gloomy, artsy atmosphere and the series of increasingly creepier events, but the book did not land anywhere near where I’d have liked.

Trigger warnings for this book (includes spoilers): Sexual assault, drugging, domestic violence, self-harm, animal mutilation/animal death, asylum/improper medical practices.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

When Sarah Carpenter is invited to an artist colony, she is all too happy to escape her current life, only to be thrust into the haunting and atmospheric Tranquil Falls.


Synopsis:

Sarah Carpenter, a potter, is fleeing an emotionally abusive and controlling boyfriend, Kyle, and headed to Tranquil Falls, an artist's retreat on the grounds of an abandoned hotel. Surrounded by the forest, waterfalls, and no cellphone signal, Sarah hopes to reinvent herself and reinvigorate her love for pottery. However, when she uncovers a corpse in a scratched-up coffin, her attempt at tranquility is shattered. Her shocking discovery starts an unsettling chain of events: the costume artist knits an endless scarf; the musician plays the same carousel song until his fingers bleed; and the calligrapher smiles with ink-stained teeth. While all the artists are falling apart, Sarah is plagued with haunting dreams of the corpse she discovered. As she investigates the crumbling hotel and its dark past, she refuses to let the past remain buried.


Review:

Let's start with the positives.

Dawson crafts compelling characters and an interesting plot. The two main characters, Sarah and Ingrid, are vastly different, so watching them interact is fun and intriguing. As Sarah's nightmares begin to haunt her daily, we watch as she struggles to maintain her grip on reality and find a new version of herself. How the nightmarish past and Sarah's present intersect is highly impactful and well crafted. Dawson writes with finesse and striking imagery.
What I loved most about Dawson's novel is the feminist commentary that discusses the blatant misogyny that most women face at some point in their lives. Sarah shares a studio with Bernie, a selfish, aged prick who refers to her as a little girl and tells her to take her "perky ass" and sit down. In response, Sarah explains that it's not the first or last time she's had to contend with a swaggering jerk who believes he is entitled to whatever he wants because he's a man. Sarah is used to this type of abuse as her ex-boyfriend subtly demands that Sarah serve him and follow his wishes. When she doesn't, he gaslights her into believing that she is in the wrong and that yes, she is overreacting. Kyle continually told her that she was crazy for thinking Kyle was too controlling or anything similar. How many times have women been told this exact sentiment? Isn't it so crazy that a woman would desire independence and the freedom to laugh at what she finds funny?!? (Sarcasm intended).
Dawson also takes on a much heavier part of womanhood: sex. In Sarah's dreams, she hears a man explain that "it's not a wife's prerogative to tell her husband no. [She] swore an oath under God to obey [her husband]." Holy crap, this struck a chord with me. I have a very vivid memory of sitting in pre-marital counseling and my pastor looking me in the eyes and saying, "Now Lara, you know a wife has to submit to her husband." While he might not have said that I was expected to have sex with my husband whenever he desired it, the message was clear: submit to whatever my husband's desires and demands are. Multiple times in the novel, several men talk about their husbandly rights, and it is disgusting to read. Thankfully, my husband is a normal man who respects me and would never push sex on me. But the idea that women are just supposed to lie down whenever their partner wants sex is all too real. While it would seem like such a sentiment is an old-fashioned idea, it's not. Consider Craig Kahler, who demanded that every single night his wife, Karen, have sex with him, even if she didn't want to or didn't feel like it. While I consider myself a feminist, the idea of consent is NOT a feminist idea. Consent is about respect and equality, and so many times we hear that a man cannot rape his wife. Marital rape was not even considered a crime in all 50 states until 1993. Only in the past 31 years has marital rape been viewed as illegal in the eyes of the law. Dawson's story, however, clearly points out that rape is rape and consent is consent, no matter the marital status or year. As readers, it is impossible not to be disgusted by such a belief, which is Dawson's goal.

Now, Dawson struggles to write an interesting exposition and sufficient resolution. The novel is off to a slow start and the resolution is a little too perfect. Dawson even falls into the trap of having a character simply explain everything that happened, much like a villain monologue. These are genuinely my only two contentions with the novel.


Ultimately, Dawson's commentary and dark imagery make this novel stand out. Make no mistake, this is a horror novel, and there are some haunting moments, but the commentary about womanhood is truly the horror of the story. I give this novel four stars and would highly recommend it.

This is not a faced paced, twisted thriller. Repeat after me this is not a thriller!!! Don’t go into it expecting that. This is a slow burn horror. It’s what I would consider a “weird book for weird girls” iykyk. If you’re going to read this, read it for the vibes. Don’t read it for the mystery/thrill because you will be disappointed, but that’s also not the point of this. I loved the setting/atmosphere SO much. It was so spooky and I really felt like I was there. Vibes 10/10. This will be such a good fall read.

I loved the (kind of) dual stories going on. The past storyline was SO interesting. Honestly, I really enjoyed both storylines and the parallels between them, and the slow decent into madness by the characters.

I do think this was slightly too long imo. And the ending wrapped up a little too nicely for my liking. Most of the story was a 4-5 for me but the ending was more like a 2. I almost would have liked it to get weirder and less based in reality

This was such a great read. Fast paced, gives you the spooky vibes that you would expect to come from it. Twisty, lots of turns and keeps you guessing to the end. We have so many secrets and so much going on in the book and will definitely keep you thinking. I love how we have a very good mix of plot and character within this and I loved every single one of the characters in here.

We follow our main character as she is trying to escape her life for a fresh start and ends up uncovering something sinister and some things are not what they seem. I cannot wait to see what else our author Delilah Dawson comes out with because I need more of her writing style. A must have on the TBR.

Pub Date: October 22, 2024

Thank you @netgalley, @randomhousepublishing and author for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I ended up not enjoying the beginning of this book. It was ok, but felt very young.

Thank You Net Galley

☆☆☆

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After reading Dawson's last horror romp, Bloom, I was incredibly excited at the opportunity to read her next foray into the genre. However, It Will Only Hurt For a Moment failed to reach the heights of Bloom for me.

The story takes place at an artists retreat, where our MC, Sarah, goes to find herself again following a traumatizing relationship. She wants to rediscover who she is and fall in love with her work again. But the retreat begins to fall into chaos, as secrets of the grounds and its history begin to drive everyone mad. And Sarah needs to get to the bottom of it.

The one thing that Dawson absolutely excels at here is atmosphere; it's oozing with tension. Unfortunately, it doesnt really go anywhere. As chaos envelopes the group, it become repetive, and feels like it takes too long to get to the big reveal. All of which are sometimes the pitfalls of the genre, but still. And the ending is very abrupt without much closure or finality. And the last act is a bit of a letdown.

I didnt hate my time with this one. There are parts I definitely enjoyed. Though i dont know how readily I might recommend this.

Sarah is running away from her life, leaving behind an abusive boyfriend and mother. She is starting over with an artist retreat at Tranquil Falls. At the retreat she hopes to find herself and her art again. She has high hopes for her new life until she finds a body of a young woman and weird happenings start occurring around the retreat. She is thrown into a mystery of what really happened to the young woman and what is currently happening at Tranquil Falls.

I want to start off by saying this is absolutely not my typical read, but I did really enjoy it. It was slow to start out plot wise it was more background building, to an extent about Sarah. Then we are introduced to Tranquil Falls and the artist retreat. Once more characters Ingrid Reid, Kim and the other artists are introduced the story picks up the pace. Some part of the story, the mystery was very obvious and I did figure out before the end what was going to happen by hunch. But it did not make the story any less enjoyable.

I had a hard time wanting to read this book at night because it really put me in the setting, which made reading at night spooky for me. I did most of my reading during the daylight hours. So if you like to be on the edge of your seat and feel a little jumpy like whats happening next this is a great book for that. I would say it's a solid mix of mystery and paranormal.

There are some sensitive topics involved in the book so I'd advised to read any and all content warnings. I appreciated that some parts of this sensitive topics were more historical events and not whats happening in that moment.

A few things were left unexplained by the end which was slightly frustrating, the ending was very rushed. I also wasn't super fond of the generalizations made about the artists. example having only black wardrobes, being melodramatic or edgy. This was the one thing that made me constantly roll my eyes. Other than that i would say it was a decent 3.5/5. Props to the cover art it really drew me to the book and made me request an arc that was in my normal genre.

Thank you NetGalley Delilah Dawson and Del Rey for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

After Sarah leaves a toxic relationship, she heads to a remote artist’s colony to revive her passion for pottery. Only, the premises have a dark past that want to be revealed. I absolutely loved this eerie novel, and I found myself wanting to solve the mystery the entire way. My only gripe was the ending felt unsatisfying; I wanted more resolution.

Atmospheric, engaging, and completely entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where horror is popular.