Unfortunately this book was not for me at all. It was just all over the place and didn't hold my attention..I wasn't even able to continue it, I had to DNF.

The Last Session by Julia Bartz is a mixed bag of compelling psychological suspense and uneven execution. The story follows Thea, a social worker haunted by past trauma, who finds herself unraveling dark secrets at a mysterious therapy retreat in New Mexico. The setup is intriguing, with Bartz tackling heavy themes like religious and sexual trauma with thoughtful commentary, especially in the book’s first half.
But once the plot shifts to the retreat, things take a surreal turn. A reincarnation subplot and fever-dream-like sequences muddle the narrative, slowing the pace and making it harder to follow. The thriller aspects feel less refined compared to Bartz’s previous novel, The Writing Retreat, and the story drags at times, with some parts feeling overly long.

Despite these issues, the atmospheric setting, thought-provoking themes, and Thea’s complex journey still make this a worthwhile read for fans of psychological thrillers. While it doesn’t quite match the intensity of Bartz’s earlier work, it offers a haunting exploration of trauma and healing that lingers after the final page.

First things first: this cover is fantastic! As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to pick this up as my next psychological thriller. The page corner turned down to reveal the "Psychological Evaluation Form" is a really neat touch.

Now, onto the storyline: it was engaging throughout, with hints of deeper connections between some characters and their pasts that effectively built suspense. However, the last third of the book almost felt like a horror story to me—I found myself wanting to shout, "No! Don't go towards it, run away!" The cult-like vibes and hidden surprises will definitely keep you entertained.

While this writing style wasn't my favorite and I felt the plot unfolded a bit slowly and was somewhat unrealistic, I know this book will be very popular when it releases. I would recommend it, even though it wasn't my top choice.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I loved the Writing Retreat and was excited to get to read another book by this author. I was intrigued by the plot and the first part of the book. However, it al flopped from there. It went on and on, without any real build up to what was happening. The characters become less interesting as time went on and I just didn’t much care about them or the ending by the time I got to it. I appreciated the opportunity for an advanced copy and look forward to what the author does in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an eARC of The Last Session in exchange for my honest review!

Julia Bartz's previous book, The Writing Retreat, had become one of my favorite books of 2023, so I'd been quite pumped to dive into The Last Session. I'm happy to say that it effectively dishes out some slow-burn thrills, drawing us into what presents itself as a place of spiritual healing, but oh no, it may just be a good old cult. Sure, there are points where I'm arching a major eyebrow at certain odd choices that the characters make, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and go along for the ride. I especially enjoy the personal baggage that Thea has to unpack and the design of Moon as an utterly charismatic character who's capable of being quietly menacing when she wants to be. I'm additionally intrigued by the ways in which both this book and The Writing Retreat weave queerness into the story. It's not necessarily a central element, but it's still understatedly vital, informing us as to what these characters are like and how they're trying to figure out their own identities.

Overall, I'm officially rating The Last Session 4 out of 5 stars, and I'll continue to highly anticipate Bartz's work.

WTF did I just read?? This book was batshit crazy and I kinda loved it! I want to know what Julia Bartz has against retreats. This story had so many different elements and was really all over the place, but like the Writing Retreat, I really enjoyed it. Some parts lost me completely (spaceships) but the first half of the book was amazing and then what a turn it took! I didn’t think I was going to like the new directions, but somehow it all worked.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this author's last book, 'The Writing Retreat', and this is in a similar vein where a group of folks are in a secluded location, when things get weird, and they need to either escape or face their demons. Thea is a social worker in a NYC psychiatric ward, where a catatonic patient is brought in. Thea thinks she looks familiar and realizes she's the former child actor from one of her favorite movies as a teenager, 'Stargirl'. She had a crush on the love interest, Sebastian in the movie, and many people thought she looked like Catherine, her current patient. When Catherine checks herself out, Thea is concerned and follows her out to a wellness center in New Mexico. That's when things start to get weird. She meets 2 other participants that are journalists/podcasters, investigating the owners-Sol and Moon, and teams up with one, Jonah, to find out what really happened to Catherine. When she starts to go through the 'treatments' put together by Sol and Moon, I had to seriously suspend disbelief. They know what she's dreaming, and believes she and Catherine are priestesses reincarnated to save the current world, if only they perform one major sacrifice. So at this point, most folks would get the hell out of there, but not Thea since she feels a 'connection' to Catherine and believes she's destined to save her. Well bad gets even worst, and I had to keep reading to determine what will happened to Thea and if she will escape with her life and sanity intact.
If you like stories about cults, psychiatric disorders, and locked room mysteries, this is for you!

After really enjoying Julia Bartz's debut thriller, I was excited to dive into The Last Session. I can confidently say this is the worst thriller I have ever read, and I would have DNF'd it if it was not an ARC read.

The mystery at the center of the plot, and how it unravels, felt stilted and underdeveloped. The main character made the worst possible decisions, downright illogical ones, despite her expertise as a social worker and mental health counselor. The writing style was meant to create and enthrall readers, but instead it just came off as trying to hard to be more complicated than it really was.

2.5 ⭐️ - I didn’t realize going into the book that the book revolved around a cult. The book was so extreme it was not enjoyable.

Thea is a social worker who has a patient who is a celebrity. Someone came to the hospital to take the celebrity home, but it wasn’t her parents. So Thea goes & tries to find her. The book then turns into a cult murder mystery?

I really struggled to not DNF, but I was determined to finish it & give it a shot.

Thank you NetGalley & Atris Books for the eARC.

I’ve heard a lot about the Writing Retreat and it piqued my interest on this book. I was unlucky enough to receive a copy from netgalley of this upcoming release. I have never had to fight so hard to read a book. This was genuinely just not a good time. The writing wasn’t good, the storyline was boring, and the characters were insufferable. I would write an in depth review of this book if the memories of reading it didn’t haunt me. Just don’t read it.

The Last Session by Julia Bartz is an intriguing psychological thriller that keeps readers engaged with its dark themes and twisting narrative. The story centers on a group therapy session gone awry, as the protagonist delves deeper into the secrets and manipulations surrounding her past. Bartz does a great job creating tension and suspense, and her writing is sharp and evocative, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing.

However, the book's over-reliance on sexual themes detracts from the overall experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review an early copy of The Last Session.

2.5 stars rounded up because the beginning of the book sucked me in and I couldn't wait to see what would happen. Unfortunately, this book was not for me and I could have gone without knowing what did happen... I think maybe this author is not for me. I wanted to love this one and the premise sounded so intriguing! Cult-y vibes abound and I was here for it. Until about 45% through the story, that's when things really started going off the rails. I don't typically have an issue suspending disbelief, but this was just something else entirely.

When social worker Thea meets her newest patient in the psych ward, a woman in a catatonic state whom no one knows where she came from or how she arrived there, she feels an instant connection to her. After the woman departs from the ward suddenly, Thea feels like she may be in trouble and sets off to find where she has gone. She finds herself at a retreat in the middle of the desert based on a clue she feels like Catharine left to lead her there. What happens at the retreat is far from anything you could ever imagine...Thea finds herself having strange dreams, therapy "sessions" with the retreats owners tend to go a little haywire for all of the participants. Who can be trusted? No one, literally no one. And you will roll your eyes at their every move.

This was chilling.

Similar to Julia's first novel, I thought The Last Session starts out strong, intriguing--if only because Thea's painful flashbacks to her childhood and the weird relationship she has to religion felt eerily like some of my own experiences. I think for this reason, I was riveted. The pacing was a little choppy at times, but I couldn't help but find any excuse to keep reading this book.

Around 63% of the novel, things started to slide away. The reincarnation plot/culty themes felt messy and distracting. This was Julia's weakness in The Writing Retreat--a believable start that erodes into the esoteric in a way that I feel detracts from the quality of the beginning. I was dissatisfied in Thea's resolution with her childhood abuser(s), but if Thea found the closure she needed, I'm happy for her.

I will continue to keep an eye out for Julia's books. She proves she has promise.

Anything relating to cults should inherently make you feel uncomfortable. Yet our main protagonist willingly travels to a mysterious wellness center secluded in the deserts of New Mexico.

Things open up with Thea working at a psychiatric unit hoping to help her childhood celebrity Catherine who comes in catatonic. We learn Catherine has been missing for a few years and has spent time in a cult. When Catherine goes missing yet again, Thea goes on a mission to help her, also trapping herself in this weird cult group.

Peculiar does not begin to describe it… the cult bases itself on an old b-list movie called Stargirl, making it hard to get behind. There are a lot of descriptive scenes, dreamlike states and unreliable narratives setting the scene at this cult.

As a big fan of The Writing Retreat, I was excited to dive into Julia Bartz’s work. She does not disappoint with her fast paced plot and engaging style. The story was weird to say the least. The twist at the end was based on a real New Mexico feature, which is creepy and fascinating all at once. I did google it, and learned something, increasing my enjoyment of this book.

Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an e-ARC of this via Netgalley.

This was a fine thriller. It has notes of The Silent Patient. Some of the phrasing was repetitive, but I'm sure that'll be solved with further editing.

Overall, this book was better than the author's debut.

I will promote the book to my followers at @stressiereads this month.

Thanks!

I had a hard time connecting with this book because of Thea, the main character. I didn’t understand why she went to the center. She didn’t have a real reason why, so the events that happened seemed like they were careless, especially when she had opportunities to leave. I wanted to jump in the story and shake her! Eventually, it all felt like her doing. The members of the center were vial and unlikeable.

The Last Session by Julia Bartz is a psychological thriller about a social worker, Thea, who works in an inpatient psychiatric facility. Thea meets an unusual patient who eventually turns out to be her childhood celebrity idol. This patient goes missing and Thea travels to a wellness retreat in New Mexico to find and rescue her.

Books about therapy/therapists always catch my eye given my profession so when I saw this on NetGalley I immediately requested it.

The first part of the story is fine. The main character has a complicated history, which impacts her day-to-day choices and makes her a questionable narrator. As a therapist I found myself cringing many times at her decisions (not unusual for most books I read that have therapists in them).

As the story progresses, what could have been a true psychological thriller goes completely off the rails. I considered DNFing many times but held out, hoping for some surprising plot twists that would make it worth it (note: those never came).

Readers who enjoy thrillers about cults, mystical past lives, etc. might enjoy this book but if you are looking for something more grounded in reality then this is not for you.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for granting me a complimentary advanced reader copy of the ebook. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and based off of this draft; the final publication may be different. Expected publication date is April 1, 2025.

I absolutely loved this book! The culty-thriller vibes were amazing. Sometimes I wasn’t sure what I was reading (kind of like Bunny by Mona Awad) but I couldn’t stop.

This was an amazing follow up to the writers retreat. The only negative I had—I didn’t u destined the connection from her eighth grade reunion, and the messages to melissa and pastor John. They didn’t really add a ton.

Thanks so much for the arc!

TW: sexual assault, grooming

As a big fan of The Writing Retreat, I was super excited to dive back into Julia Bartz’s work. As with both her prior novel and The Last Session, her writing style is fast paced and engaging making you not want to put it down. I’m happy to say that you can trust Bartz to write a thriller you can’t put down.

The writing may have been great but the plot on the other hand was weird to say the least. We follow this 33 year old social worker Thea as her childhood celebrity icon Catherine comes into her psych hospital catatonic. As the book progresses you find out Catherine was MIA for almost 5 years and has been in a cult out in New Mexico. Where things get really strange is the basis of the cult’s philosophy - an old B-list movie called Stargirl where a 13 year old priestess has an affair with a pharaoh 20+ years her senior and a young guard. The more descriptions we get of the movie, and we get a lot, the stranger and grosser it becomes. I do love a good cult story but this strange movie being the basis of their rituals was just really hard to get behind. Sure cults are weird but to believe that in a past life they all lived out a part in this Stargirl movie was a big stretch.

Definitely check your trigger warnings. There were a lot of disturbing scenes, especially involving underage girls, that could upset readers. There’s also a random orgy? Not for the faint of heart.

As weird as some of the plot points were, The Last Session was really hard to put down and I’d recommend to fans of The Writing Retreat and fast-paced thrillers.

Not your typical thriller / mystery book! I went in completely blind and absolutely loved the beginning of the book - it gave me Freida McFadden vibes but in the best way possible.