A Sharp Scratch by Heather Darwent is my whole new personality for May. This book sinks its sinister claws in you from page one and grips you tighter and tighter until the very end.

Betsy is an insomniac, and married to a narcissistic a**hole, who goes out of his way to make her feel even worse about her sleep disorder. She quits her corporate job to work in a bookstore in the hope of alleviating stress and perhaps begin her journey to recovery. Patrick, her snarky boss at the bookstore, introduces her to a woman named Elise who desperately wants to help Betsy.

Betsy agrees to go to Elise’s retreat house – Carn - to finally cure her insomnia. From the moment Betsy arrives in Carn, it is evident that this is not your typical rehab centre. But just what is happening in Carn? She feels better, but is there something else going on?

I forgot how to breathe whilst reading this book, the atmosphere and tension as taut as a harp string throughout. Being confused about what was happening only adding to the sense of doom permeating every page.

Fans of “Weird Girl” fiction favourites like Bunny by Mona Awad or dark psychological thrillers like Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn will love A Sharp Scratch. Add it to your TBR.

Thanks to Penguin General UK, Viking and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Set in modern-day Edinburgh, A Sharp Scratch follows our main character Betsy who has suffered from insomnia for as long as she can remember. When her wedding day doesn’t go as expected she seems to lose her grip on reality. Betsy decides to accept an offer to join a group of women at a secluded wellness retreat called Carn. Here she hoped to get ‘fixed’, but what will be asked from her in return…?

The premise of this book sounded very interesting to me and felt Black Mirror-esque! The creepy secluded location and cult-like vibes are what drew me in and I enjoyed the parts where the atmosphere of Carn was explored.

Unfortunately, I found the book lacking in a few too many instances. My biggest issue was the pacing, the first 70-ish % of the book was very slow. The constant flashback scenes took me out of the story and the descriptions of life at Carn were not thrilling enough. The fact that not much happened in the first part of the story meant that the ending felt too rushed. A lot happened all at once but since the ending added in so many things to shock the reader everything stayed surface-level. Had some themes been explored further it would have added the depth it needed. And if the plot twists has been spread out more throughout the book, there would have been more time for the characters to contemplate the consequences of these events.

The characters themselves also fell flat for me. I found it hard to connect to any of them and therefore didn’t care too much about where they ended up.

Overall, I thought the book definitely had its moments but it left me feeling unsatisfied.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for the e-ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

A Sharp Scratch is a Black Mirror-esque imagining of the dark side of a supposed wellness centre for a very small group of patients with various undiagnosable forms of malaise.

The scene setting is thoroughly well done and it's apparent as soon as Betsy arrives at the facility that something is not right about the place. The pacing struggles a little in places, perhaps reflecting a grogginess carried into the days by the drug-induced deep sleep which Betsy has so desperately craved before her arrival.

For a mystery, I found the plot twists quite predictable in broad terms and finished the book mostly to confirm my suspicions rather than from a sense of needing to know. It was an easy read but I had higher expectations.

A Sharp Scratch was a scathing indictment of the wellness industry in a brilliant, bizarre book. You become enmeshed in the mystery of it all and the complex characterisation.

Darwent has such an intoxicating writing style – it pulls you entirely into these warped stories and their fleshed out worlds. She has an edge of allurance that seduces and then scares you. It is lush prose that feels evocative and enticing, but it has teeth and it will sink them in. Her works so far have had a touch of luxury and privilege but then work to peel back the facade to reveal the toxic underbelly residing beneath. This is brilliantly delivered horror with the implications making your skin crawl. There is plenty shown but some of what is left off page is almost worse. I love a book that makes your skin crawl and this definitely delivers on that front.

At the centre of it all we follow Betsy who has been plagued by illness her whole life. She is seen as a burden and almost a curse on those around her, unwilling to accommodate her needs. It is particularly searing given the current political landscape. Darwent is angry and that fury comes across in this book. It delves into plenty of thought-provoking topics and leaves room for nuance and discussion. There are no straightforward answers here but there is monstrosity to uncover. Betsy finds herself in this strange spider’s web with the lure of a cure to all her ailments. What happens next will lead her and readers down the rabbit hole. It reminded me of some of Mona Awad’s work and how it straddles that line between fantasy and reality so well. You have these bizarre flashes, technicolour moments of madness in a cool toned setting. As a reader, you cannot always tell what is real and what is not and that fascinates me.

A Sharp Scratch cements Darwent as a must-read author. It is a toxic cesspool but you cannot help but be beguiled by it. Her books have depth and bite and brilliance.

A taut and simmering book about the dark side of the wellness industry. Definitely for those with strong stomachs!

I really enjoyed The Things We Do to Our Friends so I was very excited to receive a proof for A Sharp Scratch. Sadly, this did not live up to my expectations, although it was certainly still readable. It is always nice to read a book set in Scotland, particularly Edinburgh as I studied there and still live nearby. Heather Darwent’s writing is excellent, and even though this was not my favourite book, I was compelled to keep reading.

A Sharp Scratch begins with a sort of mystery - there is something wrong with Betsy, though we don’t know what, and she’s about to get married. You can feel the tension and that Betsy is not necessarily excited to be married - neither is her husband to be, it seems.

Betsy’s illness is so bad that it causes her wedding and her honeymoon, and her life generally, to be completely unenjoyable. She doesn’t sleep, but it’s more than just insomnia. Of course, no one takes her illness and her assertion that it isn’t just insomnia seriously. I think many women will be able to relate to this feeling about illness and being taken seriously. And so, Betsy ends up at Carn - a wellness retreat/rehab sort of place, but all is not as it seems.

I was frustrated to not understand what exactly Betsy’s ailment was until much later in the book, around 70%. I think the reader is meant to be left guessing, but I just found this frustrating when the whole plot and events of the book relate to her illness.

Equally, I couldn’t find myself caring or invested in any of the characters, even Betsy. They were just not well developed enough and seemed very two dimensional.

For most of the middle section of the plot, not a great deal is happening, and I was a bit bored. I felt that bits of information were fed to us, leading to a build up of something maybe being revealed, but then pulled away and I’m left confused again. By 70% I was still confused about what was happening, although I did correctly guess one part of the plot at around 40% in. Sadly, even the ‘reveals’ fell flat at the end of the book, although I did like the ending.

Whilst this is fairly dark, I think I was expecting something very dark and twisted based on some of the reviews I read before starting. To some people this will definitely be quite dark and shocking, and I think readers will likely be quite divided in their thoughts on this one.

Sadly this one was not for me, though I did still enjoy it and the premise was definitely fresh and interesting. I will definitely pick up Heather Darwent’s next book, too!

Can non-pharmaceutical therapy cure neurodivergence? Betsy, plagued by insomnia and prone to acting out her abhorrent dreams, is about to find out. Despite her odd behaviour, Betsy has survived the living together stage and has just married Harry. Having spotted Harry covertly meeting her bridesmaid during the reception, the couple have a row and Harry locks her in the honeymoon suite until the following morning. Or so Betsy tells us, but she is an extremely unreliable narrator. Hoping to save her sanity and her marriage, she secretly travels to a sort of wellness clinic, Carn, run by an apparently benign therapist, Elise, and a team of helpers. There she meets three other patients, Abigail (hyperacute hearing), Sally (phenomenal memory) and Caroline (reticent). Carn is based in a baronial mansion, hidden deep in the countryside. It’s appointments are luxurious and the food is superb. But there’s no such thing as perfection, and the whole confected bliss begins to unravel.
This is billed as a Psychological Thriller, and it does have aspects of both this adjective and this noun. But what it really is, is weird in a kind of Gothic Horror way, without really being either of these descriptors. I reviewed the authors previous book and I said there that “The characters are clearly differentiated and act according to their natures, although none of them is particularly likeable.” This also applies here, and is one of the reasons why the story is weird. Everyone is unlikeable, but also unbelievable, starting with why Harry married Betsy in the first place, and extending to the raison d’être behind Carn. Potentially this was a clever idea, but the plotting got a bit lost along the way; no matter how tortuous and peculiar there must be a logic behind it. Overall, an interesting read, but not an entertaining book.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Books like this one remind me of why I love reading! 5⭐️

Betsy struggles with sleeping (and that’s putting it lightly). It doesn’t matter where she goes, no one seems to be able to help her.
That is, until one day she gets an offer to go to a place called Carn, where they promise to fix her.
Once at Carn she starts noticing things. Strange things. What is really going on? Betsy needs to find out.

As someone with a chronic illness who’s constantly looking for solutions to make life more bearable, I instantly felt a connection to Betsy. Her desperation, her need to be heard, and always looking for a solution is so recognizable. Heather Darwent really knows what she’s writing about, and it’s one of the things I really loved about this book.

I felt like I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Once I hit the 40% mark, I couldn’t put it down anymore and read the entire other 60% in one sitting. I had to know what would happen next.

This is truly literary fiction at its finest. My favorite type of lit fic is weird stories where women start losing their minds and this one definitely falls under that category. That mixed with the mystery and the suspense? Perfection. I need more books like this asap!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for the arc.

P.S. This one really reminded me of The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. If you like this, I highly recommend checking out that one as well.

This book had a dreamy feel, but in a dark and unsettling way. A creeping, mysterious novel with a clever concept – exploring the sinister side of wellness, and how alone so many women feel in their health issues, because society promotes ignorance and silence around women’s health. The eerie setting of Carn was fitting for fans of dark academia.

This was like a fever dream and sadly not in a good way. I was struggling to understand what was really going on in the first half of the book, and then found I didn’t really care in the second half.

It would have been interesting to know more about Betsy’s condition and its history, it felt a bit slapdash and was a missed opportunity to dig into women’s health issues.

That being said, the setting of the ‘wellness centre’, Carn, was great, as was the grisly truth about it towards the end.

It was ok for me, although I can see how someone who enjoys surrealism in a book would enjoy this! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I didn’t love this book but that’s not to say there weren’t aspects I enjoyed. This read was so wild - I loved the setting, I loved the mystery and intrigue, but what I couldn’t get behind was the pacing. The entire last quarter of this book felt so off kilter to me and it really drew me out of the story. In addition to this, I really couldn’t get along with our main character, Betsy, who was super one dimensional in my opinion.

A great concept, just not perfectly carried out!

This is a gripping and twisty psychological thriller that dives deep into the darker side of wellness culture—exploring its manipulative dynamics, cultish undertones, and that very human need to feel part of something. I was completely hooked from the first chapter.

Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that Elise, who runs the retreat, gave me serious unsettling vibes. The way the story gradually shifts from idyllic escape to something much more claustrophobic was masterfully done. Darwent continues to prove she’s a name to watch in the genre, and I’m already looking forward to seeing what she writes next.

Betsy has struggled all her life with sleeping and has tried everything to help it to no avail. When she's offered the chance to attend Carn a wellness retreat that promises to help and truly heal her she jumps at the chance and soon she discovers her imperfections don't make her weak they make her unique and that she's special and everything will be fine if she follows the rules.

This was a wild ride. This hooks you from the first page and gets darker and darker the further you go. This was unsettling, and i enjoyed that as a reader, we were slowly fed pieces of information. There were so many twists that I had no idea how this would end and I'm still shocked by it. Highly recommend.

Intensely dark but compulsive. It’s written so evocatively that you can’t help but be drawn in. Atmospheric and compelling.

As a character, Betsy is complicated and probably all the more real because of that. With her lucid dreams and insomnia, how can she not be enticed by a clinic that suggests she is special rather than the nuisance her family, friend, and even her new husband say she is.
I found the set-up of the novel plausible, mostly, and while a few plot twists felt engineered the overall structure was satisfying.
The ending worked for me, although I think I’d put this in a cross genre of mystery/horror to prepare readers for the outcome.
Thank you to NatGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this novel.

Excuse me whilst I piece my brain back together!

This was such a suspenseful read - I now understand the ‘I released the breath I didn't know I was holding’ phrase. This book was so bizarre and tense I was peeking through my fingers for most of the chapters!

The way we gradually learn about Betsy, the main character, and the way her condition has affected her life in the past and present day, felt very unnerving. Purely because my brain kept trying to fill in the gaps and I kept imaging the absolute worst. I also felt very angry on Betsy’s behalf, the way her family treated her and the way her friend and fiancé dismissed her.

As if I was there myself, I had no trouble imaging Carn, and all it's various rooms. Like Betsy I would have probably explored but upon discovering certain things, I don't think I would have continued to be so trusting of everyone there. Especially as the story progresses and everything gets even more dark and disturbing. And even more so when I learned the cost of what it took to help me! Those final few chapters I did not see coming!

The plot of the book is very intriguing! I kept being on the edge of my seat trying to figure out how it will all pan out and the mystery behind Carn.
The characters are very mysterious which adds to the mystery of the plot and make the book a quick read.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending but perhaps it just didn’t suit my style.

It is a very unique book with a rich, twisty, dark and tense plot which I would recommend to fans of tense and out-there mystery. My lower rating is due to the type of the plot not being in my usual reading style - but nonetheless it was an enjoyable read and one that many people will definitely enjoy.

I just don’t know.

From the blurb I was completely in, I was on the way with Betsy to Carn and I love a dark wellness trope. My problem was none of the writing felt cogent.
While I wanted to see the likely lethal consequences of Carn it felt flimsy and I couldn’t be as horrified as I wanted to be because there were too many flaws.

Safe to say Darwent is still a brilliant writer but this was not the right fit for me.

I enjoyed the first three quarters of this book, as I found the story interesting and wanted to find out the secrets of Carn. By the end, however, i felt the book had lost its way and was becoming more and more far fetched and less engaging.

This book starts off quite normally but it quickly becomes so dark and bizarre. I really enjoyed trying to solve the mystery around Carn and what exactly was going on there. I wanted to shake Betsy throughout the story especially at the start as she passively lets others rule her life. It’s a slow burn but the pay off was worth it. I enjoyed this weird little book.