This book was wild, and I actually really enjoyed it! I love books that go down deep into the id, and I love books that talk about writing and the creative process, and this did both of those things very well. I really only have a couple reasons for lowering this book to 3.5 stars, but that’s for later.
First, the title is pretty accurate here, it’s a book about a writing retreat. Four (now five for some mysterious reason) young women writers have been invited to a prestigious writing retreat at the home of famous, influential, reclusive novelist Roza Vallo. They are challenged to write an entire novel in a month (less, really, because it’s February not on a leap year). The winner will have her book published and Roza will write the introduction. The other writers won’t come away empty handed, either. Most likely, they will have a lot of interest in their manuscripts post-writing retreat.
Once they’re at the retreat, things start out all right, and then gradually . . . get weird. I had a bit of a hard time getting into it at the beginning. I really don’t like stories about toxic friendships, and I never understand the pull towards people who are on the wilder, more judgmental and mean side of life, as the MC Alex’s friend Wren is. Both Alex and Wren are dealing with a lot of past trauma, and do not usually deal with it well. They haven’t spoken in a year after being “best friends” for eight. What happened to their friendship gradually unfolds over the course of the first half of the book. But once things really got going with the writing retreat, and Roza’s absolutely wackadoo mentoring methods started up, I was hooked. I was also very happy with the way that the Alex/Wren conflict ended. These things don’t usually evolve in mature ways in books because people want the drama, which I do not like as a general rule. But I liked what happened here.
My only concrete criticism of this book is that the book-within-a-book that Alex is writing is just not good. It is so dull and uninspired and uninteresting. And it’s supposed to be amazing. The plot hinges on it being a great book, if only in rough draft form. And I love a book within a book when done right! So this was very disappointing. Not to mention, it’s really central to the conflict at the heart of the main plot of the book. So it kind of sucks that you have to pretend these excerpts are great in order to really feel the rest of the book’s effects appropriately.
I will definitely read more books from this author. Love a thriller author who can write about queer characters and give me a non-domestic thriller to chomp down (I can’t do domestic thrillers anymore, they are so dull to me).
Reviews for this one have been all over the place, but I think if it sounds up your alley you should give it a shot. If nothing else, it takes some swings, and you can appreciate the fallout.
[3.5 stars, rounded up]
CBR BINGO: Sex (lots of sex, and weird sex at that, in this one; I’ve seen a lot of people be turned off by it, but I think honestly most of the people I’ve seen reacting negatively to it are showing their homophobia, consciously or not, because it’s f/f sex, and the way they’re written makes it hard to eroticize).
