1. The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Date Published: February 21, 2023
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: ★★★☆
SYNOPSIS
"Five attendees are selected for a month-long writing retreat at the remote estate of Roza Vallo, the controversial high priestess of feminist horror. Alex, a struggling writer, is thrilled.
Upon arrival, they discover they must complete an entire novel from scratch, and the best one will receive a seven-figure publishing deal. Alex’s long-extinguished dream now seems within reach.
But then the women begin to die.
Trapped, terrified yet still desperately writing, it is clear there is more than a publishing deal at stake at Blackbriar Estate. Alex must confront her own demons – and finish her novel – to save herself."
MY THOUGHTS
I chose this book as my book of the month pick for March. My thriller picks have been very hit or miss and luckily this was a hit. I really enjoyed this. As an aspiring author myself, I always find people's writing process interesting. The main plot of this was fast paced and the MC, Alex, didn't come off as annoying like many thriller leads feel to me. She was smart and made decisions that made sense. It felt refreshing for her not to fall into the dumb MC trope. Another thing I enjoyed was that the author had diverse characters without that trait being the only aspect of that characters personality. In that respect, they both made a point to mention the diversity, but they still felt like real characters rather than caricatures. While it was rather fantastical in outcome, and wasn't by any means realistic in my opinion, I still found this very entertaining as a whole. Definitely was one of my favorite book of the month picks in a while.
2. Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Date Published: July 18, 2023
Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★☆☆
SYNOPSIS
"Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.
Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.
Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.
As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies."
MY THOUGHTS
I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
I have very mixed opinions about this book. I absolutely loved Mexican Gothic and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau fell a bit short. "Silver Nitrate" lands somewhere in between those two. There were plenty of things I liked about this but it took so long to get to those parts. It was a very slow build and the beginning felt like it could have been trimmed down by quite a bit. Instead of feeling like I really got to know the characters, like I did while reading Mexican Gothic, it felt like I was being told a bunch of information at once. In that regard it did feel rather info-dumpy, especially in the first half when there didn't seem to be a lot of plot.
It also didn't lean very horror to me. Towards the end it took off a bit more and the action did start, but I'm not sure I'd classify this as horror. I did love the setting. As always Moreno-Garcia is really able to build a full world that I could delve into. Overall, I had some issues with the pacing, and I do wish that the horror aspects that were there were leaned into a lot more. It had a lot of potential to be creepy but it felt like the author pulled back to focus more on character work.
3. Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Date Published: March 23, 2017
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
SYNOPSIS
"My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.
Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?"
MY THOUGHTS
I think I have officially given up on Feeney's books. I liked Rock Paper Scissors, disliked Daisy Darker, and really didn't like this one. It was so predictable. The main character, Amber, was one of the more unlikeable characters I've come across in quite some time. Actually, everyone in this book came off annoying and no one was a good person. I thought Feeney tried to throw in every possible thriller trope as well. Instead of picking one or two and sticking with the plot, it's like she googled "what makes a thriller" and decided to mash them all together in one book. I am also tired of the unreliable narrator trope. Overall it was definitely not worth slogging through just for that open ending. I'm not sure I'll read any more by Feeney unless the synopsis really stands out.
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