I found this one interesting but it was definitely a slow burn. I never found myself connecting with Thea but I appreciated all the weird elements to this book.

I just didn't enjoy this one at all. I will not be leaving reviews anywhere as I do not like to bring negativity to any author. I tried hard to like this book. I read 70% and finally just gave up.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc.

I enjoyed bartz first novel so I was intrigued by the last session’s premise and it started strong. A young social worker who has past trauma is intrigued when a new patient shows up at her facility. The girl looks familiar but is mute and unable to tell her story. Once it is discovered she is a once famous child actress , Thea, is pulled into her story and tries to uncover what led her here. However, Catherine, the actress/patient, leaves suddenly and Thea feels compelled to follow her. Thea finds herself in a wellness retreat (nine perfect strangers vibes) that suddenly turns dangerous and cult like with each passing minute. Thea needs to get to the bottom of this place for not only Catherine’s sake, but for her own, as she realizes her past is tied to Catherine’s and this cult.

I was into the first 1/3 of the book, but it started to get too far fetched and lost me after that. I actually was looking forward to finishing it, which was a shame because of the strong set up and the strong writing. I am really hoping the next one is similar to the writing retreat and less similar to this one!

Thanks to the publisher for providing the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

* 2.75⭐️ 5🌶️ (not a ton of spice but a VERY taboo scenes)
* Gives seven perfect strangers vibes and the perfect wife. This is the authors second book - the first book was the writing retreat
* By now, all “wellness retreats” are absolutely bonkers.
* These type of books, really any book with a single woman working clinically in a psych unit always are made to seem like they should also be admitted as a patient in the psych unit.
* She was in a relationship with a man named Ryan until she told him her “disgusting shameful secret” and he left her instantly.
* The catatonic mute new patient of hers looks like a younger version of her. She is drawn to the woman and just feels like she’s seen her before or knows her. She starts putting the pieces together when Catherine is discharged from the inpatient unit by two people claiming to be her parents but weren’t. She starts sleuthing into everything Catherine touched while she was in the hospital to see if she left any clues for Thea.
* This leads her to the New Mexico wellness intensive three day retreat in New Mexico that seems very much cult-y and stuff just gets wild from there.
* This book was strange. You think it’s a mystery of who this girl is and then it kind of feels like it is a story inside a story. The second story about this TV show and Catherine and Thea. It just seemed like the story was randomly put into the middle. It was less mystery finding a missing person and more about spiritual journeys. There’s orgies and just weird stuff that happens in this book. I’m trying to figure out wtf is the reasoning
* Thea was just dumb. I’m sorry. You had multiple excuses to not participate in anything and you still did. The thing about this is sol and moon didn’t force anyone to participate in their sessions. It was all voluntary.
* Very predictable. Like I said before. Sex cult meets religion trauma. Kinda unsure about the ending. It wasn’t bad.
* Read this if you like: locked room mystery, culty vibes, reincarnation, everyone’s a suspect

✍️ Therapist
✍️ Celebrity
✍️ Remote Retreat
✍️ Cult Vibes

I read Bartz’s debut The Writing Retreat in 2023. Loved her writing style, but I wasn’t super thrilled with how that book ended. I knew I wanted to read her next release since I found her first book to be so compelling.

With that said, I found the start of The Last Session to be interesting and I wanted to read on. Unfortunately as I got 1/2 way through, it became off-putting for me and just bizarre. I felt more annoyed when it ended than fulfilled after finding out what happens.

This book is a great but confusing thrill ride. It switches through different POV and timelines that make it difficult to follow at times. The story and the way its written will draw you in and not let go until the last second.

*Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

I absolutely ADORED The Writing Retreat, but what the actual fuck was this book? It had all of my favorite elements: cults, flashbacks, obsession. And yet, it went nowhere with it. There were too many plotlines going on for any real character development, and most of it ended up being moot.

I'll absolutely still read more of her books because they're absolutely WILD, but this one was just not it.

Working in the mental health field I was excited to get this and see what she did with it and I wasn't mad at it all. It wasn't an accurate portrait of a mental hospital so don't go in think that it's suppose to be. The first part I was hooked but then it started to get culty and weird so I push through.and ended up liking it.



When a catatonic woman shows up at the psychiatric unit, social worker Thea swears she knows her from somewhere. She’s shocked to discover the patient holds a link to a traumatic time in her past. Upon regaining lucidity, the patient claims she can’t remember the horrific recent events that caused her brain to shut down. Thea’s at a loss—especially when the patient is ripped away from her as suddenly as she appeared.

Determined to find her, Thea follows a trail of clues to a remote center in Southwestern New Mexico, where a charismatic couple holds a controversial monthly retreat to uncover attendees’ romantic and sexual issues. Forced to participate in increasingly intimate exercises, Thea finds herself inching closer not only to her missing patient, but also to tantalizing answers about her harrowing past. However, time is running out, and if she stays for the last session, she too might lose her mind…or worse

I thought the premise of The Last Session sounded really interesting. Unfortunately the execution isn’t working for me and I decided to dnf. Thank you to the publisher for the free ebook.

I’m so torn on this book. The concept of this book was very interesting and definitely a bit unhinged. The beginning started out with a bang and I couldn’t put it down. Once the cult shenanigans entered the chat, there was never a dull moment. I was a bit confused for the last quarter of the book and things got super weird. For some, you may like it, but for me I could have done with 75 less pages. This book goes deep into the psyche of cult followers and the mesmerizing atmosphere of the retreat will have you on the edge of your seat. Honestly, I just can’t stop picturing Moon as Lottie from Yellowjackets.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for this eArc of The Last Session. This was my first book by Julia Bartz and I will definitely be picking up her other book.

The Last Session has an interesting premise.

Overview: Thea is ambling through life when she finds out her best friend is kicking her out of their shared apartment. She's grasping at what to do next when an interesting case stumbles, almost literally, into her work as a therapist. Catherine, a celebrity from a film she's always felt a strange connection with appears at the psychiatric facility where she works as a patient. She's not speaking, she tries to stab Thea with a pen, then when she disappears with people who are not her parents, Thea finds a note she left behind that leaves her to believe she's been kidnapped against her will.

Thea follows a trail of breadcrumbs to a secluded desert retreat that quickly presents itself as a cult. The characters believe they're reincarnations of a story that has played out repeatedly in past lives, and Thea is a part of it. Catherine is telling Thea to run, but Thea is dedicated to figuring out what is going on in this strange desert retreat, no matter the cost.

So, why the 3 star review? I have been trying to read this book for months. The writing isn't bad, it's an interesting plot, but the story keeps falling flat. I don't really care about any of the characters, and with stakes like what's ben created, I want to care. Root for them, against them, get annoyed with them, something. I struggled with this on Julia Bartz last book as well. She's got great premises, but maybe I'm just not her ideal reader.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3… I expected this one to be a little out there after reading The Writing Retreat, but I think it was a bit TOO out there for me.

Thea is a social worker in NYC. The star from her favorite childhood movie is admitted to the facility she works at in a catatonic state. Before they can find out what happened to her, she leaves the facility, but not without leaving Thea a clue. Thea tracks her down and attends a weekend retreat in at The Center in New Mexico, where she believes her former patient is. But Thea has some traumatic events in her past that come out during her weekend retreat and reveal a possible connection to her former patient…

I don’t generally enjoy books about cults because they tend to be so over the top and this one just got too unrealistic for me to wrap my head around. There was so much focus on this movie from Thea’s childhood, reincarnation and remembering things from past lives of being a Priestess and it was just not my cup of tea. I felt like it was predictable in some senses, but in others there was no way you’d figure out where it was going, but not in a good way.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of this was really interesting but something about the execution just didn’t work for me. It jumped around a lot and the ending was kind of lackluster. Full circle moment I guess, but I just didn’t enjoy it too much. There was a lot of emphasis on Thea’s trauma, but also it jumped around to the whole Catherine-Thea mystery too much, so when the ending went back to Thea’s trauma, it felt almost out of place. That sounds horrible to say because this kind of abuse happens to people all the time, but it was just hard to follow. I didn’t think this was bad by any means, just sort of average for me. Definitely can see this being a popular book this year though for sure.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria for the e-ARC!

3.5 stars rounded down

This one was definitely a rollercoaster for me. I adored The Writing Retreat, so was so excited to get my hands on an ARC of The Last Session. It started out great and sucked me in right away. And then it shifted to the cult, and I was all in - I love a good cult story. But things got weird. And don't get me wrong, I love a weird book. But this was too weird even for me at parts. I feel like it started great, had a lot of potential, then things went off the rails. It levelled out a bit at the end, but not enough for me to love it. I had a hard time with the back and forth on whether or not we were meant to believe this was a supernatural story, or if that was all made up. I think if those elements had been taken out, I would have liked this more.

I definitely love how Julia Bartz writes, and will be picking up future books.

After loving The Writing Retreat last year, I couldn’t wait to dive into The Last Session. I enjoyed many aspects of it but some parts I wanted more from.

The premise was right up my alley - psychiatric/social work setting (my line of work) in combination with some cult stuff! Bring it! Thea is a social worker at an inpatient psychiatric unit. When a patient who arrived catatonic disappears, Thea is driven to look for her at a wellness retreat in the middle of the desert.

Thea is a bit adrift herself, self medicating with alcohol (so common in our field, not just in books) and has untreated trauma from her youth. The first half of the book flew by. I was curious about what Thea’s connection to the missing patient is and how it will all play out.

The retreat itself was bonkers and very cult-like. In this day and age when “coaching” is not a regulated profession and people can get away with taking advantage others’ vulnerability, Moon and Sol were quite interesting representations of that world.

The middle part of the book lost me a bit. I am quite good at suspending belief, actually I tend to like books that go off the rails. This felt just a bit too much in the larger context of the story - like it was trying to be too many things at once. Then the last third of the book turned into a wild action movie, which I really enjoyed! I am looking forward to what Julia Bartz comes up with next.

Thank you to @atria for my ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Last Session is a locked room thriller about a social worker who decides that she must come face to face with her past and goes into a wellness center in New Mexico that is in the desert, which is mysterious. The book had me turning pages until the very end. All of the characters in this were interesting. This was written well and all of the twists and turns were great. I enjoyed this one a lot and would recommend to any reader who likes thrillers or mysteries. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books/ Atria/Emily Bestler Books for this read in exchange of my honest review of The Last Session by Julia Bartz.

📚The Last Session by Julia Bartz

⚠️CWs for inpatient psychiatric setting, involuntary hospitalizations, HIPAA violations, mental illness, sexual assault, cult, gaslighting, manipulation, pedophilia, adult/minor relationship, substance abuse, animal death, isolation/confinement, suicide, and more

Rating: ⭐️⭐️/5

A VERY generous 2 stars, might I add. This book was so frustrating!!!!! It’s been a while since I’ve read a good cult thriller, so I was really hoping it would be a fun read at the very least. I was actually really enjoying the first 30% or so. As much I don't love fictionalizing psychiatric care, I thought the setup and initial mystery was engaging enough. But then out of nowhere things started going rapidly downhill and never improved. And that ending?! Not worth the physical toll of being subjected to the audiobook tbh.

I also had similar feelings about Julia Bartz's debut as well, so I think maybe she’s just not an author for me. You win some you lose some!

I have never read anything by this author, but I will be looking out for other books they write in the future. I really enjoyed the story as well as the pacing of the story.

I’m really bummed I didn’t get the chance to read this: it get removed from Netgalley before I got to my Arc. I’m sure this is a great book and I’m excited to see further reviews

The Last Session was not at all what I expected! It started off at a mental hospital, with our MC Thea working as one of the employees there. Things begin to get strange when a patient comes in who looks exactly like Thea, and is in fact an actor that Thea remembers from her childhood. This was all right up my alley, and I was very excited to read it based on the description.

As Thea searches for this patient, though, the storyline lost me a little bit. The book turned out to be about reincarnation, which was a hard left turn from the social worker description I came for. I do love a cult thriller, so I was still interested to see where the story would take us. In the end, though, there wasn't quite enough of a solid real-world explanation for my taste.

This book is definitely different and interesting, even if it wasn't quite for me!