Melanie's Reviews > The Writing Retreat

i feel like… if more people knew that this book is sapphic then more people would pick it up. maybe people don’t want to say that because it has sapphics doing bad things, but there are sapphics doing good things too… so i don’t know. but i was truly bamboozled (in the best way) when i opened this up and realized! and how much of a discussion on comphet, and how that can make figuring out your sexuality harder to figure out/accept, were held within these pages!

but this is a mystery thriller about a (you guessed it) writing retreat, where four people are invited each year to write a story alongside a famous author who has quite the following. yet this year, there are going to be five attendees, one being our main character and one being her ex best friend. the retreat is held at a very isolated victorian mansion in the winter, and our aspiring writers have no connection to the outside world. But when one of the other attendees go missing, the mystery really begins.

everything i typed above is the reason i picked this up, and truly i had such a good time with this. i never wanted to put it down, i loved the setting, and i was really enthralled by our main character and her mind. But this is really a discussion on how society makes women competitive with each other in all aspects of life, but especially with achievements. how the world makes women feel like there isn’t enough room for multiples, you have to be singularly the best. And then when you add everything i said in the first paragraph, about sexuality and trying to figure that out in a world that automatically makes this inhospitable environment… this was a really thought provoking book and i really was very impressed by this debut. I think this is my favorite thriller of the year, and i really recommend it.

trigger + content warnings: anxiety, panic attacks, blood, intrusive thoughts, mention of child abuse in past, ptsd, child abandonment + neglect in past, a few mentions of the holocaust and n*zis, domestic abuse in past, brief homophobia in past, talk of suicide, mention of cancer, mention of loss of a loved one, gun violence, gaslighting, manipulation, missing person, unwanted + unknowing filming happening, captivity, talk of aids, racism, sexism, drugging, mention of bullying and harassment in past, and dubious consent in a sexual encounter

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