NetGalley Buddy Readers discussion

From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Writing Retreat, a white-knuckled locked-room thriller about a social worker who, after coming face-to-face with her dark past, must infiltrate a mysterious wellness center in the deserts of New Mexico.

When a catatonic woman shows up at the psychiatric unit, social worker Thea swears she knows her from somewhere. She’s shocked to discover the patient holds a link to a traumatic time in her past. Upon regaining lucidity, the patient claims she can’t remember the horrific recent events that caused her brain to shut down. Thea’s at a loss—especially when the patient is ripped away from her as suddenly as she appeared.

Determined to find her, Thea follows a trail of clues to a remote center in Southwestern New Mexico, where a charismatic couple holds a controversial monthly retreat to uncover attendees’ romantic and sexual issues. Forced to participate in increasingly intimate exercises, Thea finds herself inching closer not only to her missing patient, but also to tantalizing answers about her harrowing past. However, time is running out, and if she stays for the last session, she too might lose her mind…or worse.

Theresa and I are buddy reading this one - goal to be done by Monday, 4/7

I won't be finishing or starting by Monday but I do have it as well so hopefully sometime next week!

YAY! I'll definitely watch for you to start!

Thru Part 2: (view spoiler)[ So Thea meets her "twin" who used to be someone she idolized as a teenager, at the clinic she is an art therapy instructor. She then gets picked up by people who claim to be her parents but aren't. Thea ends up going to a retreat that she believes her "twin" (Catherine) was involved with. Jonah, a PI, has teamed up with her to try to figure out what is going on with Catherine. Who they've just been shown is at the retreat doing an intense mediation retreat. Not really sure what all is going on here. There are a lot of side stories. (hide spoiler)]

just starting! Wow, the prologue really sucks you in

(view spoiler)[ what on earth? on a boat? or somewhere else? sounded like maybe a cave she is stuck in?

but she's with another body? *shudders* I can't even imagine! (hide spoiler)]

Thru Part 3: (view spoiler)[ Well, Jonah isn't the good guy we thought it was. Too bad they all seemed to have been part of the plot, except for the two that actually left. Grace and Thea have been thrown down the watery pit. (hide spoiler)]

Okay, getting confused with the fast intro to the whole group. making a list lol

thru ch 14

(view spoiler)[

Dr. Thea - "red" , runs art therapy in psych ward, not a doctor (greatest fear: caves) 9 ex: Ryan?)
Amani - co-worker, with Derek
Rachel - new co-worker?
Nurse Femi - co-worker
Diane - boss
Dom - friend, grad school, dating Amelia
Frank - security guard
Caleb - security guard
Hazel - receptionist

Jane Doe - aka Catherine O'Brien
Parents - Killian and Lisette
Officer Rivera and Officer Kim - investigating Catherine leaving with not her parents. oops
Jonah - PI who had drinks with Thea and then went back to her place but left without staying.

Ace - manic (greatest fear: intimacy)
Ben - 60, mostly quiet, schizophrenic (greatest fear: failure)
Lonnie - scared of women?, suffers from psychosis and routinely goes off medication, (greatest fear: women)
Lydia - older, verbally violent (and punched an old roommate) (greatest fear: clowns? )

Melissa Bellmont - co-heading reunion (8th grade?)
Pam Fletcher - other co-head of reunion
Adam - ring leader of bullying?
Scott - Adam friend
Mike - Adam friend

Pastor John - sounds like a bad guy

OMG do I need to know teachers? - Mrs. Hobbs, Principal Duffy,

Cynthia - previous therapist
(hide spoiler)]

omg why does the author name every person possible?

Part 1

OMG the sheer amount of names makes me want to cry lol

(view spoiler)[ so . . . is this going to be something where she wakes up and sees space outside? why is the author noting every. last. person. with a NAME that walks into the book (no matter how unimportant).

and I'm really sad she hasn't sorted through - the abuse she suffered from an adult and the abuse from her schoolmate
I'm so sad she hasn't told a therapist to try to process the abuse and try to get beyond it

and ryan was a jerk for leaving her like that. he should have recognized it as abuse too

but wow, she's putting such an odd amount of energy into Catherine when she should be looking for a new place to live! Yikes! (hide spoiler)]

Part 2

(view spoiler)[
what on earth? the retreat was such a bad idea -

but the dreams are weird, right? and the shrine? what on earth?
do they really believe they are reincarnated or . . .something? what do they plan to do to Thea?

and Jonah is just disappointing. I like Mikki though.
and Karen, I'm sad she's a plant too. how much do they know?

and it was gross, stealing her diary
(hide spoiler)]

Part 3 / 87%

this has gotten so so weird and not at all the direction I thought the story would go

(view spoiler)[ well. so this is all weird

Joe/Jonah is a jerk and so it Sol. And Moon - she's scary. Just killing at will. I'm sad about Catherine, that she sunk her money into this group and that she's not able to leave
and yikes, Steven too. They killed Talia - I wonder why they told Thea that's where he was. What a cruel, gross joke to play

and now Grace went into the vortex and Thea has been shoved into it.

and now maybe Karen isn't a bad guy?

I don't know. it's all so weird. and it's exhausting to keep up with all these characters. I don't get why learned about her art group and all the different people and their histories when it didn't actually mean anything to the story. . . (hide spoiler)]

And done. . .

(view spoiler)[ I really wanted to jump on board with this whole cult thing but I think the author introduced too many people to start so I never knew who to concentrate on. I thought the movie/actress connection was sketchy at best and I struggled to like or understand Thea.

I wish we'd gotten way less background noise and it had just focused on this odd cult. If the cult time had been slower, the build up more gradual, I think I would have liked this more.

(hide spoiler)]

Just started!

oooh, can't wait to see what you think!

Oof juts got you both rated it 2 stars YIKES. I'm a little bit into Part 2 (30ish%). (view spoiler)[Isn't it said that therapists need the most therapy? lol. Though I guess she isn't really a therapist right? She's a social worker. Definitely not the same thing. Thea needs a new therapist BAD. The trauma she suffers from OMG. How horrendous. I definitely feel like there are threads in this book that don't even get pulled and Bartz didn't know where/how to put them in. Like the 8th grade reunion stuff, like she just wanted to tell the reader about Melissa and Adam and she felt she had to add this thread to the book. But IDK if it's necessary. What does is REALLY matter that Melissa married Adam? She still could've told us about Thea's awful past without adding this tangent in and the Facebook messages and the like. Now that Thea's at the retreat, it seems like it will be completely irrelevant. Because she must still be at the retreat in that terrifying Prologue! (hide spoiler)] At least the pacing is good and it's reading fast!

YES! it's a quick read and the pacing was good - but I agree, so many strings, so many added people that were just unnecessary!

Well, that was...dumb. lol. I agree, Trisha, she should've focused more on the cult and less on Thea's everyday life. Even the end (view spoiler)[and Thea going back home and back to church wasn't even necessary. She didn't confront Adam, she didn't confront Pastor John, she just let it go. She "healed." Then why even go home. Garbage. (hide spoiler)] Definitely 2 stars yikes.

Awe, darn, I was hoping you'd like it more.

but, yeah, it would have been so much better had it just focused on the weird cult! Too many details just bogged it down

welp. i was excitedly waiting to see what you thought of this one. Writing Retreat was kind of unhinged but my book club liked it. So disappointing.

I have that to read next as a backlog ARC. 😬

I actually really liked The Writing Retreat so I was bummed I didn't like this one more. . .