“That was the way of the world: if you were a woman, then you had a job to do, and that was to pretend to love everyone else walking all over your body, leaving imprints on your face. You were supposed to crave it, to beg for more.”
★★★★
Atria | 2023
Filed Under: “V is for this very surprising turn of events.”
Honestly, what the fuck was this?
But still – 4 stars.
This is one of the most ridiculous thriller novels I’ve ever read. It’s completely over-the-top, just off it’s fucking rocker. The plot read a dozen mainstream thrillers, burped and then said, “Hold my beer.”
And you just have to respect that.
All you ever hear is people complaining about remakes, reboots, how everything is the same and no one has an original thought in their head. Most thrillers and mysteries you read are, in some way, things you’ve read before with a different twist here and there. Then, when we finally get something original and outside the box, and people complain that it’s too weird or unbelievable.
I am a huge proponent of things that are original, unique and sidestep clichés. This novel is all of those things while maintaining the general vibe of what you would expect from a typical thriller.
And it’s also just bananas.
It starts off like every other thriller you’ve read — setting up characters and relationships with a secret or two, and putting it all in a closed-door mystery setting. But by the halfway mark, everything gets flipped-turned-upside-down like the Fresh Fucking Prince, and it goes off in directions you just wouldn’t have expected because it’s so ridiculous.
But I had the best time with it.
Alex, a hot mess and a writer watching everyone around her have success while she struggles, is invited to an exclusive writing retreat that will see one invited writer win a publishing deal. The retreat is hosted by the elusive author, and Alex’s personal hero, Roza Vallo, at an isolated estate in the middle of a blizzard. Also invited is Alex’s former best friend, who she’s had a dark falling out with. What could go wrong?
Um, like literally everything.
You get book release parties, writing retreats, best-selling authors, social media stalking and blocking, exposing a man’s lies, ruining a career, nineteenth-century estates, personal chefs, secret rooms, trap doors, formal dining, personal libraries, being forced offline, welcome gifts, sleepwalking, toxic friendships, roommate breakups, dangerous relationships, choosing sides, WIPs, writer’s block, the publishing industry, keeping secrets, fake names, awkward sexual encounters, sex dreams, demons, LSD in the party punch, creepy basements, blacking out, surveillance, blizzards, closed roads, frostbite, snowmobiles, broken radios, acting real suspicious, murder, locked cells, guns, theft, writing an ending, manuscripts on fire, betrayal, great escapes, and fresh starts.
The writing had an easy flow, natural dialogue, and was just descriptive enough to keep you in the setting without bogging down the pace. The plot twists were twisted like a pretzel and — while the characters lacked depth — they were clearly individual so that you felt the shift when one would be… dismissed from the narrative, as it were.
I stayed up until 2am on a work night to finish this because it had its damn claws in my figurative neck with all its far-fetched and unhinged vibes. It gives you drama, some sexual shit that swings between normal and bizarre, and a plot that hit the gas on absurd and took off down the road without a glance in the rearview. But the ending was a bit rushed, and I’m not sure that the excerpts from the novel within a novel really did anything to elevate the plot.
This is super entertaining, but really oddball, and has definitely put Julia Bartz on my radar.
🔪🔪🔪
A book deal to die for.
Five attendees are selected for a month-long writing retreat at the remote estate of Roza Vallo, the controversial high priestess of feminist horror. Alex, a struggling writer, is thrilled.
Upon arrival, they discover they must complete an entire novel from scratch, and the best one will receive a seven-figure publishing deal. Alex’s long-extinguished dream now seems within reach.
But then the women begin to die.
Trapped, terrified yet still desperately writing, it is clear there is more than a publishing deal at stake at Blackbriar Estate. Alex must confront her own demons – and finish her novel – to save herself.
This unhinged, propulsive, claustrophobic closed-door thriller will pull you in and spit you out…
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