Heather Darwent’s A Sharp Scratch dives into the world of wellness retreats—with a dark twist. The story follows Betsy, who’s spent years trying to “fix” herself, when she gets invited to Carn, a mysterious retreat that promises real change. At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally find peace. But as Betsy gets more involved, things start to feel off—and it turns out healing might come with some serious consequences.

The book has a cool premise and some eerie moments, but the pacing can be a bit slow. If you’re expecting a fast-paced thriller, this might not quite hit the mark. Still, the way it explores the wellness industry and the pressure to “fix” ourselves is really interesting.

Overall, A Sharp Scratch is a thoughtful, unsettling read. It’s not the most action-packed thriller out there, but if you like slow-burn suspense with a side of social commentary, it’s worth a look.

Something a little different i thought when i read and saw the brighty coloured book design.

This deserves every single five star! Well ..... i have read alot of different types of book but this one is unique in its features. It really did keep me on edge the whole way through , very difficult to predict and for this it was totally refreshing.

We meet our main character Betsy who faces challenges with her insomnia and just wants to feel better, welcome to Carn a chance to rehabiliate; accepts its all a bit strange . I wont say any more to give it away but this is totally different and for this i devoured this read very quickly , two days gone. The characters are easy to resonate with as we can see lots of characteristics in ourselves. Betsy undergoes her treatment and the food sounds amazing and of course its for free ? Does anything come for free ? Already i felt my suspicions start to build, and the captivating place of Carn and what it offers. Although the helpers and people seem so genuine but after a while the fascade starts to slip as we know people dont run and work to clockwork. The complex characters in this book dont appear to be playing along as they should be. What will become of them ?

The writing is highly descriptive. unique and totally absorbing. If you want to be engrossed and immersed and slightly horrified at times then please do read this .

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this prior to release. Good scene setting but very slow pacing which made it a challenging read for me. Have heard great things about this author so will read her other work

An interesting premise that hooked my attention at the start however quickly dulled after the 20% mark. I liked how there were girls with different illnesses that couldn’t be treated by regular doctors so they try an unconventional retreat to help them be “cured”, however unfortunately it doesn’t get that interesting again until about 80% into the story. We never really learn about the origins of Carn and its leader Elise or the backstories of the girls and that’s something I would be interested in.

I can’t fault the author’s writing and would definitely try another book of theirs.

Thank you to netgalley and Penguin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review ✨

7/10

I had such a good time reading this. Just like with her debut, Darwent offers a tense, complex and intriguing experience with an incredibly interesting character at its centre. I really didn’t want to put this down once I stared reading because the purposeful withholding of information, both about Carn and Betsy, kept me in the dark but wanting to learn more.

I also really appreciated the conversations this book touched on; in particular the discussions of what it means to be the right amount of ill for those around you felt poignant and complex. And its complexity is what I think the book does best. It doesn’t offer easy answers, easy topics, or easy characters to read about. I absolutely loved the way that the book challenged me to take it apart and put the plot back together through its tangents and anecdotes.

My only real issues with this book come with its reveal and pacing in the second half. As the plot intensified throughout I felt some aspects of its escalation felt a little rushed, before coming to a halt early in the book’s third act. As for the unraveling of the mystery, I feel that really, with the amount of intrigue and suspense built through the book’s careful guarding of information, my expectations may have been too high. Now, this is not to say that the events here were not horrific, but perhaps the delivery of this information or the consequences thereafter could’ve had more punch. To me the tone of the book, and perhaps my expectations from reading Darwent’s debut, lead me to wanting more detail and perhaps something even more extreme. Despite this, I do really love the thematic implications of every going on here.

On the whole this was great! I had so much fun really digging into this story and I am very glad to have read it. Really it exceeded my expectations.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I don't like to give two stars so I will say 2.5 rounded up to 3.

I have not read the author's previous book which seems to have been well received. I did not enjoy this book very much. I did not engage with any of the characters or with the bizarre and unlikely storyline and and it took me ages to read it. I found it quite odd and distasteful, shock for shock's sake really.

The book reminded me of The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi but The Centre is more coherent and believable and the processes, distasteful though they are, at least work!.

It was clear that something very odd was going on at Carn but I don't think the book explained why people would think of doing these things in the first place, let alone do them and why they imagined it would work. I suppose the men were just as much dupes as the patients.

I felt that we knew very little about Betsy - what actually was wrong with her anyway? Some kind of sleep disorder and bad dreams I think , surely something which could be treated by conventional medicine. How did Patrick and Elise identify their special girls? What exactly did Betsy do to Harry? I must have missed that. What did he do to her? Did he lock her in her room or was that her imagination? Was it a human bone in the forest? If so, whose?

i think there is a better story in there somewhere but for me it needs more development and explanation and the pacing could be better as it is very slow for most of the book and then finishes at breakneck speed. As this was an advance copy, maybe it is a first draft that I have read and it will change before publication..

A slow paced , gothic/ dark academic story involving mental health struggles and a wellness centre that doesn't quite help the way they should. I went into this book expecting a faster paced thriller purely based on the cover , it didnt quite live up to my high expectations however I did like the premise of the book , I just wanted more from the story , I felt parts were a bit vague and a lot of important information was left out . I would recommend this book more as weird girl literary fiction rather than a thriller. I would read more from this author and definitely suggest trying this book.

I absolutely adored The Things We Do To Our Friends so I was super excited to receive Heather’s latest book in advance of its publication for a review

This book follows Besty, a troubled girl who is in need of a cure for her insomnia. She is invited to Carn, a wellness retreat for girls like her. But it’s maybe not exactly what she had in mind. This twisted thriller will have you second guessing everything.

I felt extremely suck in reading this book. Elise’s character gave off major cult leader vibes and I could easily see this plot as something out of American Horror Story. The psychological aspect of it was eerie and blurred the lens of reality. I definitely would recommend this read but please do check out the trigger warnings first!

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.