Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Writing Retreat

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

This was a wild ride, but ultimately it made me laugh and I had a good time with these shamelessly messy, unhinged, overly competitive, toxic women 😂

This felt to me like if June and Athena from Yellowface went to a writing retreat before they both published novels. The angst, jealousy, and obsession with success and notoriety in the publishing industry was so entertaining, and I enjoyed the (extremely toxic but) sapphic denial between Wren and Alex, former friends who are now writing rivals.

Roza, the successful horror novelist that hosts this writing retreat, was every bit conniving, pretentious, and mischievous that you would imagine a renowned literary genius would be. She ate up the groveling of the five women who aspired to achieve even an ounce of the success she found, and she knew what she was doing in every single moment. The way that she revealed it would be a competition among the five attendees had me howling; I was like THIS IS ABOUT TO BE MAYHEM 🫣

I thought this was a fun novel because it provided a sinister but goofy enough commentary on the life of a writer, and how far someone would go to ensure a global bestseller! It brings you into the darkest, greediest, most menacing thoughts of someone who eats, lives, and breathes writing and wants so desperately to be recognized for their work. This book made me happy to be a reader and not a writer 😂

Content Warnings

jamiee_f's review

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dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

Main character Alex is a struggling writer, stuck at a soul sucking publishing job. She just had a major falling out with her ex BFF Wren, a literary darling. They both idolize eccentric author Roza Vallo, and now they are both headed to an exclusive writing retreat at her secluded home. However...Roza is more eccentric than anyone seems to have realized, and seems to be putting the women at the retreat in increasingly dangerous situations 'for the sake of their writing'

While the first part of this book is more quiet lit thriller, delving into the Alex/Wren relationship (that fell apart because Wren couldn't stay out of roommate Alex's bed!), while the women throw themselves into the newly revealed writing contest. Roza demands they all write a new novel from scratch, and turn in 3000 words per day to her for feedback. The cutthroat atmosphere has Alex having aggressive sex dreams about Wren, and she ends up telling Roza about their fight. Things accelerate rapidly after Roza drugs them all with LSD, and they wake up to find one of the writers missing. It quickly becomes apparent that Roza is lying about contacting the police, and the remaining women hatch a plan to find out what's going on.

Surprise--the missing girl isn't lost in the snow, she's IMPRISONED BY ROZA. It turns out that Roza has stolen every successful novel she's written, and this retreat was an excuse to get 5 more stories from the participants. The women all end up imprisoned, and Roza continues to escalate, trying to force the participants to kill each other. Eventually everyone dies/is murdered by Roza and her lackies, and it comes down to Wren vs. Alex. Alex refuses to kill Wren, and it seems like Roza is going to take drastic measures when--BAM, one of the women we thought was dead returns and conks Roza in the head. Flash forward to the epilogue, all the writers that survived are now published.

This was reminiscent of Lianne Moriarty's book about the wellness retreat in the desert, I think it was The Nine? But this was a bit darker and much gayer.

Content Warnings