I did actually enjoy this book quite a bit! It had a great pace and the atmosphere Dawson created through her narrative was spooky and intriguing. Ghosts, a haunted hotel/resort, dual timelines done well? Count me in. However, there are some loose ends that I feel didn’t get tied up and ya girl wants answers!!

Sarah is on a new adventure. Having recently left her abusive, narcissistic ex-boyfriend, she goes to a 6-week artists retreat in the mountains of northern Georgia. This retreat is hosted at Tranquil Falls, what was once a posh health spa/resort for well-to-do men and women in the late 1800s. Tranquil Falls is withholding a dark past and traumatic secrets that start to affect the artists staying in cabins built on the land south of the old hotel. It throws their work off center and Sarah starts having a lot of dreams associated with past guests at the resort where the secrets of the past start coming to light. Sarah then has to decide if she’s going to pursue justice for the ghosts of Tranquil Falls past or keep herself safe.

There are SEVERAL things that Dawson brings up throughout this book that aren’t resolved in the end. I’m going to wait to add in all those things in more detail when I have my computer and can format this so spoilers will be hidden 🙃🤪😂 some people in these reviews are complaining about stereotyping the artists, but that didn’t really bother me. What was getting on my last nerve was Dawson’s use of short hand in the prose! If it were part to the dialogue it wouldn’t bother me since that’s how people talk, but in the narrative itself saying things like “pic” instead of “picture” or “veg” instead of “vegetable” might be my new biggest pet peeve in writing. It was something I’ve never noticed in books before but DANG it happened a lot here and every single time I would get so annoyed lol.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the advance copy of this book!!

I loved the title and the book cover, but I really didn't like the book. The plot was really repetitive, and even good writing couldn't change the predictability this story or the one-dimensional characters.

3/5

Sarah Carpenter is starting over - away from her narcissistic ex-boyfriend who never had the best intentions for her. Headed to a secluded artists' retreat at Tranquil Falls with no cell signal or internet to distract her, she plans to fall back in love with her passion for pottery. However, while digging a hole for a pit kiln, Sarah discovers the body of a young woman who died in a disturbing way. This starts a series of events that makes Sarah wonder if someone is out to get her or if she’s losing her grip on reality. As she investigates the beautiful valley and crumbling resort that seems to be the center of it all, Sarah will unearth a chilling past of Tranquil Falls that can no longer remain buried.

This book was so frustrating. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit as I was reading it, and loved the atmosphere that Delilah S. Dawson created, but the ending annoyed me so much. There were multiple things that happened in the book that were left unexplained, and the ending wrapped up way too quickly. I feel like there should’ve been another few chapters to finish wrapping up the loose ends. This is mainly a vibes and character-driven book, which I normally love in fiction and horror, but the plot that was there felt repetitive and rushed - which led to that unsatisfying ending. The central theme of this book was emotional abuse and the power it holds, but this book could’ve done so much more. I felt like it was too safe and went in a direction that multiple thrillers and horror have gone before already, which was disappointing. I didn’t hate reading this, but because of the ending I would be wary of recommending this.

“He is completely unaware, this man, her husband, that women always wake when danger is near. That they are always listening, always watching, that they can sense how the air changes when they are targeted. Like wild creatures their eyes pierce the darkness, taking in every detail of the approaching enemy. If only, like wild creatures they had ready claws. He does not understand women. He does not need to. You don’t need to understand a porcelain cup to shatter it completely.”

Thank you to Random House Publishing, NetGalley, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

It Will Only Hurt For A Moment is a gripping thriller about Sarah, the MC, who attends a secluded summer artist residency on the site of an old, abandoned hotel, in part to escape an abusive relationship. The director informs Sarah that the hotel was once a prominent and luxurious spot for the wealthy to visit for restoration and rejuvenation. Strange and unsettling things start happening from Sarah's first day at the residency, and we follow her through the mystery of the location and what is happening to the artists.

I was immediately immersed in this story, and while the overall theme of a thriller amongst artists isn't new to me, the details and characters were unique and captivating. I continued to guess at what would happen next and felt the ending was not fully predictable, which I really appreciated. I especially liked the growth of the characters and their relationships during the story. I think this book will be very memorable for me and I would highly recommend it to others.

Just a note that this book contains heavy content of sexual assault, abuse, and more related to those topics, so please be cautious picking up this book if needed. These topics are covered during the entire book and not just parts of it.

Overall I'd give this book a 4.5 as I really enjoyed it and it was a quick and engaging read.

I’m not going to lie, that cover is what initially drew my eye and made me want to read this. I haven’t read anything else by this author yet but I’ve heard amazing things about Bloom.

I’m not sure what I expected when I went into this one. I was initially intrigued from the beginning but it lost me a little in the middle.

I tried so hard to get into this book, but it was so hard to stay focused on it. It wasn't my least favorite book I've ever read, but it definitely wasn't my favorite. This was my first time reading a book from this author, and I was pretty disappointed. I'll still give their other books a try, though. Just because I didn't thoroughly enjoy this book doesn't mean others won't, so I'll still recommend giving it a try.

I heard absolutely nothing but rave reviews about Dawson's other novel Bloom and so I was pretty thrilled to try her new one out. All in all, what a let down. The descriptive SA and rape scenes and the overplayed narcissistic abuse was too much to handle. I mean, I get it, but it was almost sickly repetitive. My stomach couldn't handle much of it, there honestly should've been some heads up trigger warning there. I felt like this was a clumsy burn to the end and I was able to see it a mile away. Hopefully, this title will find it's audience, bit it just wasn't me.

2.5 stars.
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. This was my first ARC ever approved on there. I was super invested in the first half, then there was so many boring moments. I think I was just not the right reader for this book.

What I did like about this book was that I could relate to the FMC a lot, the messed up mother problems, the abusive relationships which I am no longer a part of but I've been there. The book is fast paced, very easy to read. The author has done well with the imagery descriptors. Getting lost in the book is no doubt very easy to do. There were just boring moments through out the book and so many conversations that annoyed me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-copy of this novel!

I thought this book was alright, but it took a while to really get going. I feel like nothing was really happening in the first half of the book and it was mainly just Sarah wandering around overthinking everything. I didn't mind this at first, but nothing was happening and I was beginning to wonder if there was even going to be anything supernatural in this book at all. It did start to pick up at about the 60% mark. I thought the ending was fine, but it left a lot of questions unanswered. Like, a lot a lot. Felt like there should have been another chapter or two to finish wrapping up loose ends.

Positive: It's moody and spooky and leans into the "most men are trash" vibes that are still very much in the zeitgeist. The side characters, especially Ingrid, are vibrant, and the author weaponizes the haunting landscape to add tension to every square inch of the story. All of the pieces are here to build something resembling a "lock-in" murder mystery, or a more ghost-oriented slasher fic, but unfortunately that's not the direction this headed in.

Negative: Coming after almost a decade of post me-too literature, I worry that the audience for this type of book has moved on. There's an over-reliance on therapy-speak and emotional trauma that, maybe before authors like Gillian Flynn, Tana French, and Amanda Montell, felt insightful. Here it does too much of the heavy lifting, and because we're so inundated with instagram slideshows breaking down the difference between love-bombing and gas=lighting, it felt more like reading through a listicle of red-flags to watch out for in your relationship that an actual mystery.

When I'd heard that this novel was to be a feminist horror/ thriller, I was really excited for the opportunity to receive and read this ARC. While the contents are technically of a feminist nature, the execution of the concept fell flat for me.
We are following 26-year-old Sarah as she flees from her abusive ex and senile alcoholic mother to seek solace at an "off-grid" artists' retreat. It quickly becomes obvious that escaping her troublesome past won't be as easy as Sarah had anticipated.
I feel that the beginning of the book should include certain content and trigger warnings as there is animal abuse and death as well as explicit rape scenes which I wasn't entirely prepared for and which threw me off guard. While we are on the topic, I found the barbarism to be unnecessary and simply for shock value, as it did not add anything to the plot. The use of animal cruelty didn't reveal any new information, didn't accelerate the pacing and was only included for "gore factor" which feels tactless and lazy, in my opinion.
For a book which dubs itself a "feminist horror", I feel that it fell short on feminism. The whole book, Sarah was degrading and projecting her own insecurities and standards onto the other woman at the retreat. For instance, Gertrude Rose is too dramatic, Antionette is too regal, Kim only cares about male validation and Ingrid is some weird goth. Sarah is so judge-y, I honestly was rooting for her downfall the whole book.
For a lack of better ways to describe what I mean to say; it felt as if the author was just using Sarah as a way to project her own thoughts and beliefs into the narrative. For instance, goths are weird, gory, and angry. 19-year-old boys should be angsty, eating all day and listening to Nirvana. The chef was just an angry, controlling snob. I could go on!
Sarah is over all just a very negative and unlikable character. The entirety of the novel she is looking down her nose at all the other artists for being "weird" and "unorthodox" with their mediums; music, fashion, calligraphy, sculpting, glass cutting, but may I remind you that Sarah makes vases and plates... VASES AND PLATES. I could cut her some slack if she chose to be original with her medium but it's so anticlimactic and run-of-the-mill. I don't see where she gets off on being an absolute prick.
As for the writing itself, I felt that the author tried using 3rd person perspective but it fell flat. Instead of telling us her feelings and what she's thinking, it was used as a way to "question prompt" the audience. If the writing was executed well, I would be asking myself those questions and it wouldn't need to be prompted for me. In addition, I felt it to be redundant and often many chapters were extraneous and offered no real value to the rest of the text other than to show us how millennial the author is. For instance, referencing Taylor Swift and Nirvana and using the word "pic" unironically (repetitively). I know not everyone minds pop-culture references in their books but when it's used on every other page, it begins to feel like a brand deal and product placement. I think that if I had to read any more mentions of Apple and their products. TikTok, and Instagram than I did, I was going to DNF this ARC. AirPods could be generic earbuds and it wouldn't have affected the story at all (except for making it better). I am 22-years-old and I know that if I was planning to go on a 6 week retreat sin internet or cell reception, I would think to bring a few books with me. But naturally 26-year-old Sarah is still relying on her phone to use the reading app... because that makes sense.
I felt that there were so so so so so many plot holes:
1. The animal deaths added nothing to the plot and we never learn the reason they were maimed and killed.
2. A character died and Sarah thought they looked like they died of fear and they were found holding a certain recurring object in their hand, but we never learn the significance of the object nor how the character really died.
3. There are glass shards found in some clay but we never learn why or how it was put there- it's implied that a ghost would have done it but there was never any ghost! And the "ghost" only manipulated the glass shards...
4. THE ENTIRE CONCLUSION!
There are many many more but I don't want to be a spoiler.
Sarah has vision-like dreams about the retreat in its earlier years of operation but if this is a feminist novel, and we can all agree the 97% statistic is valid, then why is Sarah the only woman at the retreat with this connection? Shouldn't all the women be affected? And, with the 97% in mind, why does Sarah walk around the place thinking she is the only person who has gone through some life-altering traumatic event? Sarah's attitude is justified but all the other characters are just dramatic cry babies dealing with their first ever inconveniences?
I think this book would be better categorized as a thriller than a horror because WHERE WAS THE HORROR? Unless the scariest thing was meant to be Sarah's superiority complex, nothing was scary! I could predict the ending less than 30% through the book and I'm the kind of reader who believes in suspension of disbelief to enjoy a book... there was no suspending my disbelief with this novel. It was as easy as 1+1. I expected page-turning. heart pounding, mind racing horror and instead I got a glowing blue orb 10 pages from the end of the novel...
I feel that if this was to be a well-done feminist horror novel, the rape scenes would have to be less tacky or just not exist. We know rape is bad! We know marital rape was once normalized. We know the feeling of having our "no," go unappreciated. Was there meant to be a moral or theme or was it just an explicit example of what rape can look like? If the point of the scenes were meant to show how women feel about getting raped then I feel the same effect could have been reached without the play-by-play and, instead, the 3rd person narrator could have dome what a 3rd person POV is meant to so and just show us her thought process and how he feels without telling us what is being done to her. It felt like a 6th grade execution of a women's rights poster board project. "Raping women is bad!" "Consent is key!" "Men used to use women as incubators which is not fair!" Like yes, these are all very obvious points only left to be doubted by incels and ingrates. The only reason this book was given two stars by me, instead of one star, is because of Ingrid. She was the only likable character in all 328 pages!! Over-all I absolutely hated this book and would probably not recommend it to a friend. Maybe I'd recommend it to someone I hate- not for them to learn anything but just because I want them to suffer as much as I did.

It Will Only Hurt For A Moment is creepy and enjoyable thriller.

When Sarah decided to leave her controlling boyfriend and resume her passion for pottery, she did not expect to find the remote art colony to be haunted. The ghosts of the past and villains of the present collide in a story of reclaiming identity.

This book, unfortunately, was not for me. There are many graphic sexual assault scenes that were upsetting. I also found the plot to develop rather slowly and it lost my interest.

Thank you for the opportunity to read in advance!

I enjoyed this book. It's so unsettling and atmospheric, and perfect. After reading it, I feel even more wary of mountain retreats. One unexpected aspect that I loved was the feminist rage portrayed in the novel. The depiction of how women were treated at the "Spas" made my blood boil. I appreciated Dawson's open ending, but I wish I could have seen what happened after she and Ingrid left the hotel. The ending was effective because it satisfied me and kept me thinking about the afterward. The author's writing was vivid; as I read, I could almost feel the mist from the waterfalls and hear the birds and silence around the retreat. Overall, I'm impressed, and I eagerly await her next book!

The premise to this novel sounded fascinating, but the constant sexual assaults and repetitive language was tiring for this reader.

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.