Saturday, March 1, 2025

Review: THE WRITING RETREAT by Julia Bartz

 


The exclusive month-long writing retreat with the great Roza Vallo at her secluded Victorian mansion was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for any aspiring writer and Alex was not going to pass it up even if she had to be there with her nemesis. Not only would this be a chance to get a book deal, but these writers would be staying at a historical mansion that people claimed was haunted and cursed. Oooh!

The retreat becomes intense when it is revealed that the women have a daily word count to meet and have to write a whole novel in a month. The best book in the end will get a $1 million dollar publishing deal. Whoa, talk about a lot of pressure! For Alex, who’s had writer’s block and hasn’t come up with a book idea for the last year, this was going to be very tough. Those that didn’t meet the required deadlines would be dismissed and disqualified.

 

The scenes were so dark and descriptive, making them enticing. It was totally relatable how all the writers were under pressure with their stories and feared the cruel criticism of Roza the Great.

 

This was generally captivating, but I kind of wish it would’ve moved a little faster. All I kept hearing were the telling of the writers’ stories, the writing activities, and the critiques. When were people going to drop dead or disappear?

 

It seemed that Alex was more freaked by her own psychedelic thoughts and fantasies. Very dark. Very morbid. Very twisted. These were all good elements, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

 

A pretty good read, but NOT what I expected.

 

Rating: 3 stars

No comments:

Post a Comment