Review: The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

Julia Bartz's debut is a twisty thriller following a lucky few chosen to attend a writing retreat with a well-known feminist horror author - a dream come true or a nightmare?

Alex is a struggling writer and is surrounded by her successful friend and her former best friend, Wren, who shares her idolization for a famous writer, Roza Vallo. Aware that there is an approaching retreat at Roza's estate, Alex never believes she will have the opportunity to attend and write alongside her idol. So when the news that she will be attending the retreat comes alongside the news that Wren will be in attendance as well, she is hesitant but decides to go for it.

On the first day, the group is informed they are expected to write a full novel in exchange for a prize publishing deal for the best one. A combination of odd happenings makes the experience less than dreamy and it takes one of the writers to go missing before anyone takes them seriously...

The Writing Retreat was published on February 21, 2023, and has been highly discussed in the book community. I saw a handful of high reviews so I had to check it out. To get this review rolling - I did listen to this book on audio and it was a struggle.

I felt like the book started out strong! I was interested in what was going on with Alex and her ex-best friend Wren, and extremely pumped to learn that they were going to be thrown into close proximity because they're both attending the same writing retreat for their idol Roza Vallo.

This is where things took a sharp turn and I just was not excited to continue, however, with much of the book left, it was worth it to keep going.

The writing is good and many of the characters are well-developed and unique. However the relationships between Alex and the other participants at the retreat felt very high school and cliquey, and I found some of them annoying. No biggie, I was here for the twists and the horror vibes.

About halfway through - there was just too much going on - without giving too much away the plot was just all over the place. I don't know if the intent was to keep the reader guessing or build up the tension and get everyone wound up. A lot of good ideas separately but everything together didn't work for me.

The twist was slightly underwhelming and left me confused at times, especially with the layout of the rooms and where things were taking place. This could be an entirely different experience if you're reading the physical book, I did rewind a few times to try to relisten to see if I missed anything.

I also struggled with some of the dialogue and it just wasn't my fav. How the characters reacted also just didn't feel believable or fitting for the circumstances. The ending was just as overloaded as the rest of the story and left me just feeling kind of eh.

I rated this 2.5 stars, I think the author had a lot of great ideas and the setting at Black Briar had so much potential. There were good moments and there's no doubt that the writing is strong, but the many plot points just didn't mesh well for me.

At the time I listened to this, my notes say I was reminded of Writers & Lovers by Lily King and In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware - I enjoyed both of these books for different reasons, and might be worth checking out if you haven't already!