We follow Sarah as she joins a remote artists’ retreat after leaving an abusive relationship. She discovers that the old mansion everyone is forbidden from entering has secrets of its own. 

This book is A Lot. Each character has an extreme personality, verging into caricature territory. There’s a misogynistic man who expects Sarah to clean up after him, a goth girl who wears only black and takes morbid pictures, a costume designer who doesn’t wear modern clothing-and more. The descriptions  of these characters provides levity as Sarah discovers the extremely dark past of the resort, and unpacks her own abusive relationship. These details are much darker and upsetting than the rest of the book, which made me appreciate the light-hearted sections.

The contrast was sometimes quite jarring, and the first detailed description of sexual assault caught me off guard.

 

Overall I enjoyed it, but it felt long and sometimes repetitive. I’ve attached trigger warnings so please check them before picking this up! 

Thanks to the publisher, I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.