The Writing Retreat

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

1 star. What a struggle to get through. Messy teen drama in a supposedly adult thriller package.

Every single character sounds and acts like a whiny teenager from a mediocre YA novel. Be that the attendees of the writing retreat, who are in their mid-twenties to early thirties or the famous author host, who is in her mid-fifties. Every one of them was annoying to no end. Also, the characters' ages make no sense, considering their backstories. Several of them can't be the age the book tells us they are, unless they are all secretly time travellers.

All of the dialogue is weird, awkward and unnatural. Which is also true for the random sex dreams that are thrown into the mix and the odd descriptions of breasts and nipples. And every single item of clothing is described in tedious detail. The characters also seem to think that the name Poppy is the most exotic and uncommon name that they have ever encountered... another example of the strange writing choices. And let's not even talk about the historical fiction novel that one character is writing and the very many current-day expressions used in that book-within-a-book.

The blurb-promised snow storm doesn't occur until more than halfway through. There is almost no plot and what little there is, makes no sense, is incredibly obvious and just feels like messy teen drama most of the time. The first half of the book reads like a weird attempt at a gothic novel, only to turn into a strange attempt at horror in the second. Neither work.

I was so excited to read this book, but unfortunately, I only ended up being relieved that it was finally over by the end.