This really worked for me. The hospital setting was claustrophobic and perfectly creepy. I loved the narrative voice and the descriptions of the horrors. Great pacing. I loved that you dont always know what's real or what is a hallucination or nightmare, although by the end I was ready to believe that Meg was really seeing the truth. Speaking of the ending, I think it will be controversial to some, but I liked it. Sometimes you dont get to know what happened next - it reminded me of older horror stories in that aspect.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley for review.

Caitlin Starling is the queen of unreliable narrator horror. As someone with a typically misunderstood chronic illness, I related to Meg entirely too hard. I zoomed through this; it gripped me and wouldn't let me go. I'm still trying to guess what might be real and what isn't, and the ending of the book slammed into me like a freight train.

This was such an interesting story. Meg was an unreliable narrator but you also couldn’t help but wonder how much of what she went through were hallucinations and how much the nurses and other people involved in the study were just gaslighting her to keep her in the hospital. I do wish the ending was wrapped up a little more, but otherwise I had a great time reading.

Visceral, claustrophobic, and compulsively readable. I inhaled THE GRACEVIEW PATIENT in a mad flurry, even as I dreaded what might happen next. Like much of the best horror, GRACEVIEW manages to be atmospherically terrifying whilst addressing real issues about autonomy, agency, and the injustice of the American healthcare system. It's a fever dream and a scream, and exactly why I adore Caitlin Starling's work.

Margaret has a very rare auto-immune disease and is in the hospital undergoing experimental treatment. In the radical treatment Margaret's immune system will be destroyed and then rebuilt in ways that are described as painful, unpleasant, and "necessary suffering". The underlying horror is very subtle in the beginning of the book. This is a gothic body horror story that reminded me of Lovecraft at the end. Margaret is an unreliable narrator, she is sick and on a lot of medication, so it's not clear if she's hallucinating all the horrifying things she's seeing or the hospital and the med rep are really doing something nefarious. I enjoyed the mystery and the increasing feeling of dread.

Margaret's world has consistently gotten smaller as she manages a rare autoimmune condition. Friends have dropped (or been pushed) away. Family is disinterested. Work is dependent on good days.

A phone call from her doctor offers hope: a fully-paid medical trial at Graceview Memorial Hospital. The long-term stay starts well with nice surroundings and kind nurses. The medical trial rep brings her flowers, food and much needed company.

As the medical treatment goes on - Meg starts seeing things that may be real or not. The walls are breathing. There is something growing inside her - is it rebuilding her immune system or something else?

Caitlin might just be my Queen of Creepy. This book gave me a serious case of the nopes. Every time something happened, I just sat there saying, "NOPE!" After reading this book, I may never be able to spend a night in a hospital. Ever.

While this book may not be for everyone, I think Starling has done another great book. The uncertain narrative and setting were eerie and shied away from being too over the top. The only complaint I'd have is that I didn't get much value from the romantic relationship but I appreciated the queer representation.

I was given the opportunity to review this book on NetGalley.

Margaret has a rare disease and she was selected for an all-expenses paid clinical trial. She entered Graceview Hospital to start the clinical trial, and everything went wrong from there. This book is a medical mystery/thriller.

This book was very well written. As a healthcare provider myself, I found a lot of the healthcare aspects of this book to be very accurate. I was drawn to this book for that reason. The mystery/thriller aspect kept you wanting to know more about Margaret's journey through the trial. In the later portion of the book, it started to get a little hard to follow because of the reaction and reality of the FMC. Overall, this book was intriguing to read.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Caitlin Starling, and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

The Graceview Patient is gothic horror for the chronically ill girlies who crave body horror, institutional dread, and medical paranoia with a side of what the actual hell is going on here.

Margaret (Meg) signs up for an experimental medical trial to try to reclaim what’s left of her life—and the procedure is just this side of ethically horrifying. The writing pulls you deep into Meg’s body, into her pain, her desperation, her disorientation. And just when you think you’ve acclimated to the psychological freefall… the hospital itself starts to change.

This is horror at its most liminal. Is Meg hallucinating? Is there something in her? Around her? Is the hospital a parasite, a haunting, a trap? The vibes are Immaculate™: claustrophobic, clinical, and just slippery enough to make you question everything. I was fully locked in—and then…

THE ENDING.

Look. I don’t need a nice tidy bow. I like ambiguity. But this? This wasn’t an end. It was a fade to static. I need to know what happened to Meg. To Isobel. I need a whiteboard, a Q&A session with Caitlin Starling, and possibly a séance. I'm haunted, but also a little annoyed.

Four stars because the journey was unforgettable, even if the destination ghosted me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, even though I now require answers, closure, and possibly an exorcism.

I wasn't sure about this book at first; the prologue and first chapter were confusing and not at all intriguing. I pushed on, and I'm so glad I did. The story and writing style found a rhythm in chapter three, and once that happened I was hooked.

An unreliable protagonist slipping further and further into madness. And suddenly every thing and every one around her become clues, culprits in the awful things she's enduring.

This storing was captivating. Until the ending, which was a bit of a letdown. Still, I'm glad I read this.

This book cured my 4 month reading slump. I was hooked from the beginning and finished it in a little over a day. It’s creepy and mysterious in just the right way, and the author really has a skill for putting you directly in the mind of the main character as she spirals into madness. I was questioning reality through so much of this story, and it kept me guessing right to the end. Easily one of my favorite books of the year so far.

Woah...finished in a day. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review!!

It started off very slow for me but then about midway, got really interesting. Personally not a fan of hospital settings for the plot but I still enjoyed it. It felt like a very classic horror.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I started reading athe Graceview Patient, but it sure was a crazy ride by the time it was over! Were introduced to Margaret, who suffers from autoimmune issues and suffers from debilitating pain. She enters into a clinical trial at a hospital that she basically is told and makes her believe will improve her symptoms and let her return to a normal life. Initially all seems kosher. Slowly, we’re treated to a story that feels creepy, hopeless, and is so unlike anything I’ve read before. To, it’s part thriller and part horror. And just when i thought the story couldn’t get any more strange, it did! There were some moments I was confused about, but overall this was definitely something I’d recommend for anyone that likes a creepy read!

I chose this book because, like main character Margaret Culpepper, I also have an autoimmune disorder. Like Margaret, it sometimes seems like I’m playing Whac-A-Mole with symptoms since no specific treatment exists.

Fortunately for me, however, I have never gone through a treatment protocol that caused me to be miserably sick and totally disoriented. Author Caitlin Starling uses this as a jumping off point for the rest of the book.

What is real? What is manufactured by Margaret’s fevered imagination? Does some other explanation exist?

So many questions. “The Graceview Patient” is a page-turner, in part because I kept looking for answers and was never quite sure I’d found them.

Starling’s book is well-written, and Margaret, to me, was a sympathetic character who certainly had traveled a long, hard road to get to a place where she might have hope.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader’s copy. This is my honest review.

Good grief this book had me on edge. The locked in a hospital feeling is always hard for me and it really made me feel like I was there

This story follows Meg Culpepper on her journey as a patient undergoing an experimental trial. As the medications ramp up, Meg begins to deteriorate, physically and mentally. Are the things she’s seeing and hearing real or is she slowly losing her mind?

I really enjoyed this novel! It was well-written, suspenseful, and descriptive in an immersive way. It was a bit of a slow burn for me, but once events began to ramp up, the storyline stayed exciting.

4 ⭐️!

It is definitely outside the scope of what I normally read, but The Graceview Patient completely pulled me in. This anxiety-inducing medical horror had me confused in the best way and genuinely on the edge of my seat. It plays with perception and paranoia so well that I found myself questioning everything right alongside the protagonist. Starling knows how to make unease linger on the page, and while I am still unsure how I feel about the ending, maybe that is part of what makes it stick.

Another favourite read of 2025. This is one of the best medical horror books that I have read in a very long time. The setting, mood and the downward spiral of Margaret was delicious to read. I could literally feel her own desperation and helplessness. You also know that a book is superb when it literally gives you nightmares. This was fabulous and I loved it. No notes.