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A review by emmanovella
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
2.0
This review contains spoilers.
I.. what? Was I given a different book? Reading the synopsis, I expected to have some build up at the retreat, everyone settling in thinking all is well then BAM someone dies, nobody knows what happened but oh no we still need to write but also figure out why the women are dying... instead... literally nothing happens for over half the book??
No seriously. We spend a good 60% of the book just settling in to the retreat, everyone writing, nothing going on and then one of them goes missing. They don't actually know if she's dead. SPOILER AHEAD
SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER
She isn't dead. She's in a cell in the basement. The girls know this. So no? The women don't start dying?? Literally all the action and thrill is in the last 15% of the book, but by that point, I hadn't been sold a farfetched extravagant thriller. I'd been sold some slow, literary book. I wasn't down for it after it being so dragged out.
I know I read an arc, so there would potentially have still been edits, but it was interesting to me that the latter half of the book, when the pacing picked up, so did all the typos. It's like the first half was over edited and over polished and the end rushed. It could've been so so good but it was just... eek. to me.
The inclusion of excerpts from Alex's manuscript really don't need to be included in my opinion. I skipped the second last one as it just didn't add to the story for me at all.
This was a slog for me to get through and I'm so disappointed. I absolutely believe had this been described differently I could have enjoyed it but it really didn't work for me.
I.. what? Was I given a different book? Reading the synopsis, I expected to have some build up at the retreat, everyone settling in thinking all is well then BAM someone dies, nobody knows what happened but oh no we still need to write but also figure out why the women are dying... instead... literally nothing happens for over half the book??
No seriously. We spend a good 60% of the book just settling in to the retreat, everyone writing, nothing going on and then one of them goes missing. They don't actually know if she's dead. SPOILER AHEAD
SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER
She isn't dead. She's in a cell in the basement. The girls know this. So no? The women don't start dying?? Literally all the action and thrill is in the last 15% of the book, but by that point, I hadn't been sold a farfetched extravagant thriller. I'd been sold some slow, literary book. I wasn't down for it after it being so dragged out.
I know I read an arc, so there would potentially have still been edits, but it was interesting to me that the latter half of the book, when the pacing picked up, so did all the typos. It's like the first half was over edited and over polished and the end rushed. It could've been so so good but it was just... eek. to me.
The inclusion of excerpts from Alex's manuscript really don't need to be included in my opinion. I skipped the second last one as it just didn't add to the story for me at all.
This was a slog for me to get through and I'm so disappointed. I absolutely believe had this been described differently I could have enjoyed it but it really didn't work for me.