Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Writing Retreat

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

21 reviews

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This kept me interested, and I thought that the plot was written well. I was a little less jazzed about the inner lives of the characters, particularly Alex. Something felt a little too spelled out for me, and then when I read that the author is a therapist, I could nail it down. Sometimes the inner monologue feels too clinical. It's like the author knew what was normal for folks to think and go through and just listed those out. But people are messier than that and usually don't, in the moment, make those connections. It just took me out of the story a little bit.

Also, the sexual encounter that Alex talks about sounds non-consensual. She told her roommate to stop, the roommate didn't, and that's not consent. I was miffed that this wasn't specifically called out. Especially by a therapist?

Oh, also the narrator was too breathy, and I had to turn it up really loud, and I didn't think that was great. I felt like I missed words a lot and had to rewind.

Content Warnings

minimicropup's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Narration 👎: The narration wasn’t bad, but I had to nope out once the accents started. It was too cheesy and knocked me out of the story every time.

Main POV 👍:
Our MC is working in the publishing industry, with dreams of becoming an established author. They are self-pitying, socially awkward, and struggling with their identity after a falling out with their roommate and the aftermath of a public incident that followed. It all resulted in them being stuck in a shame spiral with writer’s block.

Atmosphere 👌: Complex, mysterious, intense
Mostly set in the renovated Victorian mansion of a world-renowned horror writer during winter in a very isolated area of upstate NY.

Cred Rating 👌: OTT

Over-the-top in the best way. Juicy, satirical, absurd, weird, and atmospheric. For the first half of the book I felt the way I used to feel as a kid reading a Goosebumps novel. This was the adult version of that for me.

Growls and Howls 🐺:

Missing minor details so that sometimes I felt lost in the story. Someone will walk into a room and things happen, but we aren’t sure where everyone is relative to each other. It’s hard to describe, but like, Rosa would walk into a room and some crazy stuff would go down and I’d be wondering where she is in the whole mess? Or if you mentally cast your characters, one of the main characters is Egyptian, but we don’t find that out until 15-20% of the way into the book after we’ve met and imagined her multiple times with no previous physical description given.
I loved that the characters were all complex and morally grey, even our ‘villain’. It was hard to feel black-and-white about any of them, yet the OTT feel was maintained throughout so that the villain monologue worked (rare). It made sense that the reveal would be that in depth and didn’t rely on everyone standing there enraptured but not trying to escape.
I’m not a fan of steamy, smutty erotica in thrillers and heard this story had a lot of it. Although there are descriptive sexual scenes, they didn’t feel gratuitous, and contribute to the plot and character development.
🙃->🙂 I’m also not a fan of high stakes survival thrillers, but the premise, mystery, and characters were well-written that I didn’t have to nope out of this one and classify it as an “oops”.

Reading Journey 😏: Tour of a museum with a lot of history. Break off and go exploring in the non-renovated areas.

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Weird, atmospheric, “haunted” vibes horror morphing to an OTT fight-for-your-life thriller horror
Morally grey characters with realistic friendship and relationship dramas
“Who-to-trust” psychological thrillers
Friends-to-lovers-to-enemies elements
Commentary on publishing, authorship, and the pressures put on writers to entertain us

Vibes: 🫢🫨🤕

Content Heads-Up: Drug use (unintentional), confinement, torture

Format: Scribd Audio and Digital

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yuyuv's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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ruthypoo2's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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abookandaspotoftea's review

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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lovelymisanthrope's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I originally heard about this because it is the Literally Dead Book Club pick for April.
“The Writing Retreat” follows a young woman named Alex. Alex is struggling in her personal and professional life. She is an aspiring author, but she has not been able to find the right idea to write about. All of her struggles are compounded by her recent falling out with her longtime best friend, Wren. Things seem to finally be looking up for Alex, when she is invited to attend an exclusive writing retreat at the mysterious home of best selling author Roza. Alex and a handful of other talented young women come together at Roza’s estate for a month-long writing retreat. Unfortunately, this amazing opportunity might be too good to be true when other members of the retreat begin to vanish, and there seems to be something far more sinister at play.
I was initially really excited to pick up this book, because I love to read stories about authors, who are struggling with their craft. Alex‘s character is so relatable. She is a struggling 30 something who is just trying to find her place in the world. She has a fire within her and she wants to write a story because she loves to read the inspiring works of others , but she cannot seem to stoke the fire high enough to be able to come up with her own idea. I really enjoyed seeing her character struggle with her relationship with Wren. After college it is really difficult to maintain friendships for various reasons. Alex‘s story with Wren really highlights how some people are your friend for certain chapters in your life, and that is okay.
Unfortunately, this book fell kind of short for me. It ultimately did not keep my interest, and I had to force myself to finish the story. The ultimate mystery behind what is happening during this writing retreat started out interesting, but it quickly transpired into a plot line that I felt was absolutely ridiculous. By the end of the story, I felt like it was all so unbelievable that I was disconnected entirely. I also ended up not liking any of the characters by the end, which makes it difficult for me to be invested in their stories.
This book was not for me, but I will still keep Julia Bartz on my radar and try a different book in the future.

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ssarahbbeth's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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kris386's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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blewballoon's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I started this and stayed up until 2am reading it, then finished it the next morning. I was certainly gripped and the suspense sucked me in, but that doesn't necessarily mean the plotting and characters were great. I can't read too many books with this type of dark content, but I would say if you like thrillers this is effective enough. Check the content warnings and other reviews.

Content Warnings

romonko's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I was given the chance to read and review a copy of this book by Net Galley. I appreciate the opportunity. I had seen pretty good reviews on the book, and I thought I would enjoy it. Unfortunately, It wasn't for me. First of all I don't remember disliking a main character as much as I disliked Alexis in this book. At first I thought the was going to be an unreliable narrator, but she wasn't even that. She was as bad and as clueless throughout as she appeared from the beginning. Another disappointment was all the other characters in the book (and I mean all of them). They were not realistic, and seemed to be caricatures rather than believable characters. They were all so depraved and perverted, that there wasn't a one that I could even begin to like. The other big disappointment was the fact that this is very definitely an LBGTQ book, and nowhere did I find mention of that in any of the reviews I read. I thought the plot was jerky, and disjointed, and a mixture of real and imaginary all the way through with no real demarcation between the two. I am giving the book two stars as I did finish it, if only to try to make some sense of it, and to try to understand what it was I was reading. I did not get the point at all after I finished the book. In all honesty, I cannot recommend this book. Potential readers should also be prepared for some very graphic sexuality. I saw nothing mentioned about that either in any of the reviews that I read before I began the book..

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