Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!
Breathe In, Bleed Out initially pulled me in from the book cover. I love a good thriller, so I was tuned in. When we start, we meet Hannah, the main character, who is going through a lot. She lost her fiancé (who we find out later was left to die by her and technically not her fiancé) horribly, having nightmares from it, messing up at work, and now going on this weird-sounding wellness retreat with her best friend Tess and her other three old friends. From the jump, the retreat sounds sketchy, and she feels it. On their way there, they stop at a bar and run into a marine who has it out for them and is a secret serial killer. Who would have thought? Going back to Hannah, she has a doctor who will play a huge part later, but is quiet in the first 3/4 of the book. Honestly, I didn’t suspect him. I was aiming more towards Tess. Back to the marine…he’s crazy. As the crew leaves for the unmarked retreat, he follows suit and wants to end them all. Luckily for him, the serial killer gets killed, but another serial killer?! Crazy, I know.
As the days go on, Hannah is weirded out by the guru Pax, who is running the joint with his assistant Kimi, who obviously doesn’t want to be there. Hannah starts her investigation on this place because, honestly, it’s just weird. Why would anyone think stuff like this helps? Thanks, Tess, for suggesting it and not being the killer. SMH. One by one, Hannah’s friends get killed off (except Tess), and she’s certain it’s an old miner from an old tale. Honestly, I’d have to write an essay to bring all the details in, but bear with me here, I’m missing a lot. To cut to the end, her doctor was crazy and needs his own therapist…just saying. Thankfully, it wasn’t Tess, but the girl still has problems. One word that Hannah leaned on throughout this book was release, and that’s what she got at the end when she finally released her pain from Ben and probably all her other problems, cause she has a lot.
Overall, this was a fun ride. I enjoyed the book and trying to guess who the killer was. I did have one theory that it was Ben and he wasn’t actually dead, but that would have been too crazy. I'm excited to look into this author more!

A grieving and traumatized Hannah is convinced by her friends to attend a wellness retreat in the middle of the dessert. Everything goes sideways! I wanted a blood-soaked slasher for the summer, and this delivered! Some fun red herrings and an enjoyable payoff at the end! I was initially disappointed about one thing that is revealed later in the book, but as I’ve sat with it, I think it makes a lot of sense and actually makes the book hold together well! There is also some heavy content in this book around suicidal ideation, grief, and medical malpractice, so while it’s a fun gorey slasher, do proceed with care for yourself!

BREATHE IN, BLEED OUT reads like a movie script, and that's exactly what author Brian McAuley predetermined. (Wouldn't that be a great movie title?)

In the afterword, he reveals his intention was to write a homage to classic slasher films. Among his many influences, he cites the SCREAM film franchise as most inspiring. However, the movie that the novel reminds me the most of is 1981 Canadian slasher film MY BLOODY VALENTINE - probably because of the miner costume that the killer adopts.

There are plenty of grisly kills to please slasher fans, but what makes the novel work for me is the characterization and the honest, first-person narration by main character Hannah. She's suffering from PTSD after eye-witnessing the mysterious death of her fiancee, and experiencing troubling hallucinations. She's undergoing counseling, but relying more on the drugs to alter her moods.Whenl they begin to affect her job performance, she agrees to her best friend's offer to go on a spiritual retreat and find herself.

What also makes the novel special is McAuley's subtle depiction of how fraudulent these healing centers can sometimes be. Guru Pax is a gem of a character, as well as a murder suspect. However, there are plenty of characters to be suspicious of - - and that includes Hannah. Maybe she's an unreliable narrator who is indeed "crazy".

There are a couple of "tells" in the novel that prompted me to change my rating from Five Stars to Four Stars:

1) FIRST PERSON story telling: If your main character in a slasher novel is also the narrator, then (unless she is an unreliable narrator) readers know that she will survive and be the Final Girl. This knowledge did not pull me out of the story or interrupt my enjoyment.

2) SECOND PERSON killing descriptions: When the chapter changes from first person narration to second person - it's an indicator that a murder is about to happen. This also did not interrupt my enjoyment. Rather, as soon as I started the chapter I knew another gruesome kill was coming and began to look forward to the change in narration.

Thanks for NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advance review digital copy of this novel. I submit this review without obligation, simply because I enjoyed the story and wanted to share that.

Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley was my first slasher read, and it was such a fun, fast-paced ride. Set at a remote spiritual retreat in the middle of Joshua Tree, this story blends wellness culture with pure chaos, and I devoured it rather quickly.

After a traumatic wilderness trip leaves Hannah returning without her fiancé, Ben, she’s haunted not just by grief, but by the mystery of what really happened that day. She hasn’t told the full story, and Ben’s ghost haunts her in more ways than one.

When her friend group gets an exclusive invite to a healing retreat run by the mysterious Guru Pax, they all agree to go, hoping for some kind of closure. At first, Hannah is skeptical, but she slowly starts to find peace in the bizarre rituals and “transformative” activities, that is until people start disappearing.

The kills are brutal, graphic, and wild in the most entertaining slasher way. I found myself pointing fingers at everyone, constantly trying to guess who the killer could be. The twist completely caught me off guard and was unexpected in the best way. I also appreciated the sharp, sometimes comical commentary from the characters that added a little humor to the horror.

The pacing and structure were so well done, every time something awful was about to happen, you could just feel it. It had that perfect movie-like energy, and honestly, I would love to see this adapted for the screen.

This book was full of tension and just enough emotional weight to make you believe in the characters as well as question everyone and everything. Definitely check the trigger warnings before diving in as there’s a lot of gore and some heavy themes. If you’re into slashers with a psychological edge, this one’s a must.

Thank you to Netgalley for the early copy and for the perfect Camp Netgalley read!

Thank you NetGalley and Poison Pen press for this ARC read.
4.5 ⭐️
This book follows Hannah a Medical intern who just recently lost her fiancée but no one knows the details to the tragic hiking story. During her recovery period she get put on leave at the hospital and goes to a very exclusive spiritual retreat with her friends near Joshua tree, what could possibly go wrong in the middle of the desert with no out side communication.
This book is perfect for any thriller fan and slasher fan a must add for your spooky season reads this season.

I need this to be made into a movie ASAP!

A good slasher storyline mixed with some Scream vibes set in the desert near Joshua Tree at a “health” retreat. Anytime you mix a random, unheard of by most health retreat in the desert and some local legend stories of an angry miner who haunts the area you know it’ll be a good read.

The addition of the FMC being haunted by her fiancé’s death while hiking just added to the creepiness.

Pretty sure I hit the jackpot with this one and it was such a good read!

Thanks NetGallery and Poisoned Pen Press for this incredibly fun ARC!!

This should be a must read for any horror fan!

Hannah is invited to a spiritual retreat in the desert by her friends after tragically losing her fiancé in a hiking accident. Soon the group start disappearing one by one after being targeted by a mystery killer.

This book constantly kept me guessing and every time I thought I knew where it was heading I was proven wrong.

Full of amazing plot twists and a great read!

Quick summary: After losing her fiancé, Hannah is spiraling. Her best friend convinces her to join a wellness retreat with a group of friends to heal and regroup. But once they arrive, strange things start happening. As the days pass, her friends begin to disappear one by one, and Hannah realizes there’s something much darker going on at this so-called healing center.

Review: This was a quick and engaging read with strong pacing and a writing style that felt smooth and readable. The story held my interest, and the ending did manage to surprise me a bit, which I appreciated. The setup was solid and promised a mix of mystery and horror.

That said, the retreat setting and “creepy wellness” theme felt a little underwhelming. It’s a trope I’ve seen a lot, and while the execution was decent, it didn’t feel especially fresh or scary. I went into it expecting something more slasher-style or genuinely unsettling, and it never quite reached that level of horror.

The characters also felt a bit underdeveloped. I didn’t feel particularly connected to any of them, which made it harder to stay emotionally invested in what was happening. Still, it was an easy read with some intrigue, and I think it would work well for readers who enjoy fast-paced horror with a light mystery element

Okay who am I & where the hell is Tracy... the complete jessie turned wuss, who is easily flagged & is feart of her own shadow!!

My first sample of a bloody slasher/horror.. let just say i surrendered to my fears..!

I'm new to Brian's work, and very much enjoyed this fast paced, mystery filled intense read, that's is full of action packed gore with creative kills ⚒️ and some questionable characters!!

The scareomeater was hitting boiling point for me.. the most terrifying part was the whole secretive wellness retreat slap bang in the A**e hole of nowhere they things scare the beejees out of me.. like communicating with wildeness & nature, reaching highs spiritually, clean eating with mediation & yoga all while sleeping in a Yurt... No Ta!!

I'm shocked 😲 I enjoyed this read.. I loved reading the inspiration behind this slasher.. enjoyed the writing style 🩸

Big thanking you to Brian McAuley PoisonedPenPress & Netgally for my instant ARC!! This was my book pick for #campnetgalley 2025

CALIFORNIA. AVIDYA HEALING RETREAT. Five friends find themselves spending a weekend under the teachings of Guru Pax in search of spiritual restoration. Hannah is very much looking forward to starting over with a clean slate after her fiancé’s death. And nothing screams “fresh new start” than a wellness retreat in the middle of nowhere.

Hannah cannot seem to get rid of his fiancé. After he died during an outing in Northern California’s wilderness, the events of the tragic accident that took his life keep haunting her. Even during her shifts as a medical intern, she still feels followed by him in a very vivid way. The torment of his memory is so loud and persistent that it ends up affecting her work and consequently results in her being placed on indefinite leave. That’s when her best friend Tess invites her and a few of her former college friends to an exclusive retreat in Joshua Tree. Avidya, a place with no online presence and only known by word of mouth.

On the way to the retreat, the group stops by the town of Joshua Tree and Hannah stumbles upon a museum. She learns about the legend of Waylon Barlow from the gold-mining days in the 1890s. There used to even be a nursery rhyme that would warn the kids to stay away from Dead Man’s Due Mine. Coincidentally, that is the direction towards the retreat, north of the valley, on Dead Man’s Due Road.

“This place is not what you think it is.”

The way I was losing my mind whenever I thought I was sure about this whodunit mystery. And then I was completely wrong! The thrill of thinking you’re close to finding out and the whiplash you get when you’re far from knowing who the creepy killer is. Amazing! I had so much fun reading this slasher story. Gosh, I really do love complex, badass, final girls.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an e-ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.75 out of 5 stars (rounded to 5 stars)

Breathe In, Bleed Out is such a fun and intense slasher horror read. It delivers on all the cult-classic vibes—from the character archetypes to the eerie, cinematic tension that builds scene by scene. I felt like I was watching a horror movie in book form. The plot twist truly kept me guessing until the very end, and the author's note gave the story even more weight and purpose. This was my first Brian McAuley book, but definitely not my last.

fun and campy! definitely in the rotation of horror novels I would recommend for someone looking for some Summerween fun. It’s not groundbreaking by any means and the characters are a tad insufferable, but slashers aren’t mean to be serious.

Hannah has been in therapy to heal some past trauma. Her therapist suggests an inpatient program, which she isn’t excited about. Luckily, Hannah’s friend invites her to a wellness retreat which sounds like a good getaway.

This book was a quick and fun read! If you like slasher movies, this one is for you! The story switches from Hannah’s point of view to the others in the party and that makes for a fun way of reading.

I love the desert retreat setting with a “guru.” It’s a slasher horror, but you know what’s going on so it’s not scary. You should be able to sleep at night.

The next generation “I Know What You Did Last Summer”.. the perfect level of camp. lovable characters. emotional depth. Plot twist at the end!! I loved every second.

What a great addition to the slasher genre!

A group of friends attend an isolated desert healing retreat. The land has a blood soaked history and is rumoured to be haunted. When people start disappearing and a figure dressed in historic mining clothes attacks, it begs the question whether this is a supernatural or human attacker. Could it be a maleficent spirit or psychopathic person?

I was wholly invested and the farther I got into the story the wilder my theories got. The ending/reveal itself was a bit of a bummer compared to what the lead up was giving readers.

Definitely an enthralling and bloody book that is not to be missed.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Poisoned Pen Press for a copy!

Brian McAuley's "Breathe In, Bleed Out" takes the topic of wellness culture and turns it into classic slasher horror in a way that’s both darkly funny and deeply unsettling.

The story follows Hannah, a young doctor grappling with severe mental health struggles and an addiction to Xanax ever since witnessing the accidental death of her boyfriend one year earlier. Her best friend, Tess, invites Hannah to join their friend group as they attend a digital detox retreat in the California desert run by Guru Pax, someone with his own secrets to hide. Hannah agrees, hoping the retreat will help her release the personal issues she's been struggling with and provide the peace that has been absent ever since Ben's tragic death. Instead, she finds herself plagued with paranoia, panic attacks, and vivid hallucinations.

McAuley does a great job of peeling back the shallow facade of "woo-woo" self-help culture and shows what happens when people ignore their inner demons too long. Hannah’s struggle with guilt and trauma, and how she's chosen to deal with it by distancing herself from her friends, gives the book real emotional weight. The isolated Joshua Tree setting feels eerie and surreal, and lends to the sense of dread permeating the story. Even when reading about the yoga and sound bath treatments, everything has that creeping, uncomfortable feeling of being just a bit "off."

"Breathe In, Bleed Out" is fast-paced, smart, and incredibly entertaining. It is the perfect blend of satire, psychological thriller, and gory horror, that will keep readers fully engrossed until the last page.

This book felt like it was written by someone who grew up watching Scooby Doo and then made it for adults. Not in a literal "group of teens goes out to solve a mystery" kind of way, but a "friend group gets more than they bargained for and needs to figure out what's going on" way. And I really loved it.

Breathe In, Bleed Out is about a woman who travels with friends to a remote healing retreat one year after the tragic death of her fiancé. While each hope to get different things from the experience, they have no idea what the retreat actually has in store.

I was so surprised by the number of times I actually laughed out loud while reading this modern-day slasher. I found it to be even more funny than it was gory. And it was fun trying to put the pieces together of what was going on. The end wasn't entirely shocking to me, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment either. I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys fun slasher vibes with a ridiculous cast of characters, cultish vibes, and...therapy?

A fun slasher with a disappointing ending.

We follow Hannah, a woman trying to get over witnessing her fiancé's untimely death. When she's invited to a health retreat in Joshua Tree with her friends, things are not quite what they seem. Guru Pax is unsettling, the retreat is built near the infamous Dead Man's Due Mine, and Hannah's starting to see more ghosts than just her fiancé...

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It read like a b-slasher movie in the best way, despite the "spiritual retreat is actually sinister" plot being relatively overdone. However, the ending felt rushed and quite honestly, the reveal of the slasher's identity was disappointing. The motive was weak and there were many other characters that would have made more sense. I hate when horror novels try so hard to make a twist unpredictable that it just becomes flimsy.

Hannah’s fiancé Ben was killed in a tragic accident. Now her life is spiraling. Hooked on Xanax and drowning her sorrow in fast food and alcohol, she hesitantly agrees to go on a wellness retreat when her spiral causes her to nearly kill someone at work. But something more sinister is happening at the retreat… can she figure it out before the past catches up with her?

I was completely hooked from the beginning with this one! I kept wanting to know what really happened in Hannah’s past and what was going on at the retreat that I couldn’t put it down! I honestly had no clue who was behind everything until the very end when it was finally revealed and I love that!

Definitely more of a lowkey horror read and this is going to be the perfect fall book! Highly recommend picking this up!

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
At first, I didn’t expect my request to be approved to read this gem — and thank goodness it was, because I truly recommend picking up this book without exaggeration.

In short, the story follows the main character, Hana, whose fiancé dies in a tragic accident. Fate then leads her and her friends to a remote wellness retreat, hoping to heal from the traumas of their pasts. But destiny has other plans, and horrifying events begin to unfold. What happens to the retreat they had counted on for peace?

Since I’m a fan of mystery and thrillers, the book’s description immediately caught my attention — and I’m so glad it did. The writing was fantastic, the suspense well-crafted, and the pacing kept me fully engaged. I especially appreciated how every chapter ended on a compelling note that made me eager to dive into the next.

As for the characters, their development was gradual and driven by the events they endured. It felt natural and thoughtful — not rushed or illogical — which made me connect with the story even more.

The plot twists in the final chapters were so surprising that I found myself sitting up straighter, fully alert to what would happen next.

I didn’t give it a full five stars only because of the high level of detail — it almost felt like watching a cinematic film. While that might be a plus for many readers, personally, I prefer stories that are a bit less descriptive. Sometimes I appreciate it, sometimes I don’t — it really depends on my mood.

That said, this book is absolutely worth your time. It’s intense, smartly written, and definitely deserving of the attention it’s getting.