Creepy and atmospheric, You Are Invited is the story of a group of social media influencers spending a month in an abandoned monastery in Romania. I really enjoyed this book - it even evoked tears from me in a few moments. In this story, the old world meets the new, and it’s not always pretty.

Creepy, Atmospheric and very well written book, which doesn't shy away from depicting the realism of social media and mental illness!

Five Social Media Influencers have been invited to 'The Event' - A month long retreat to an isolated monastery surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania. These five people are going to be live streamed and will be the focus of millions of people from all over the world. But something is not right here and as Cath digs deeper into this, she and people around her starts losing their mind, and things takes the worse turn from there onwards!

The overall concept was pretty basic, it was nothing unique or groundbreaking, but it was very well executed. I really liked what author did with that simple concept, giving a lot of background and creating the rich history of the place. The folklore stories added more haunting touch in the overall creepiness.

The way we gets to see the realistic dilemma in the life of an Influencer towards their work, the connection with their followers and their insecurities was very convincing and interesting. Cath's struggle with mental illness, her low self esteem and an abusive past was heartbreaking but it was inspiring to see her trying to get past all of that.

Now, on the critical side, it was atmospheric and creepy but not very high in horror. Things were quite slow and not a lot happened in a large section of the book. So, don't expect a full on action horror going into this.

As for me, I, overall, really enjoyed 'You are Invited', it had a lot of creepy moments; I really liked Denzil's creepy and atmospheric writing which keeps you on the edge throughout the story. The ending was also good, not very predictable.The payoff was worth going through all of it.

OVERALL RATING : 4 STARS!

This is my third book by Sarah A. Denzil and she never disappoints me. I really enjoyed this book. A little slow moving...but the prose...the way it’s written was a pleasure to read and so spooky.

I looked forward to continuing reading the story every time I picked the book up. Such a unique ghost story. The atmosphere is like a character in and of itself and I loved how the author made me feel as though I was there.

Deep driven emotions escapes the written words of anger, hate, kindness, forgiveness, mystery, danger and beauty. A real page turner. Poetically crafted and compellingly developed, this is a read I highly recommend. With Halloween not too far off, cozy up to the fireplace with a cuppa and enjoy the ride.

This is "The Haunting of Hill House" if Shirley Jackson had been born in the age of Instagram influencers.

While that statement may seem like hyperbole, many parallel elements are here: Dr. Montague and his guests are replaced by wealthy Irene and her guest list of social media mavens (fitness guru, video game streamer, etc), who are scheduled to take part in "The Event", a live-streamed and monetized stay in a secluded (and reportedly cursed) Romanian monastery. The atmosphere throughout is sufficiently creepy, if a bit stuffed with common horror tropes (nuns, crumbling architecture, wolves, the token character who tries to warn the protagonist away, etc). While each character is identifiable by their claims to fame, I found that the majority of them aren't given too much room to breathe and grow beyond that which turns them into caricatures at times.

Like Hill House however, the book's strength is in its usage of mental illness to create questions about the reliability of the narrative. Certain passages use this to their advantage to depict a dreamlike quality to the proceedings, leaving it to the reader (as all good horror should) as to how much is grounded in "absolute reality."

You Are Invited is a quick read, and therefore a perfect warm up heading into Halloween season.

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op**

You Are Invited was one crazy book. It was creepy and tense and I read it in one night. It was an interesting plot and I got caught up in it immediately. There are characters you will love and other story that you will love to hate.

A group of online bloggers are invited to a portly renovated old monastery in Transylvania for an exclusive online event. They are all different in what they blog about and how they do it. It is a party of o promote themselves and the products. The creepy building they are in makes them question everything that goes bump in the night. It was atmospheric and very well done., except for the way that mental health was portrayed and used in the story. It felt too easy. As somebody who suffers it wasn’t right.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy of this book to read.

Cath Fenwick has been chosen to be part of very exclusive online blogging event, one of five bloggers/social media influences who will be residing at a renovated Transylvanian Monastery. This event promises to make them a lot of money and she can’t believe her luck but on the way there, the taxi driver tells her a horrific story of the Monastery's history and how the locals believe it’s haunted.
I was thoroughly entertained by this story, I don’t read a lot of horror but enjoy a story with supernatural elements. There was a good build up of suspense and creepiness and it was very atmospheric.
I feel I enjoyed it more as I really didn’t know a lot about the story or characters, so it all just evolved instead of waiting for things to happen or having preconceived perceptions, so for that reason I’m not going to say anymore.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read

WOAH. This book went every which way besides the ways I thought it was going to go. Cath was an unreliable narrator so I had no idea what to believe. I really enjoy books where the narrator is like this because it keeps me guessing the whole time. As soon as she arrived at the monastery I was enthralled. I love old castles and buildings that have a past. The descriptive words used when talking about the place had me feeling like I was there.
This book was twisty. Cath was an author that was chosen for a social media experiment in which influencers were to document their lives 24/7 and it was live streamed for subscribers. Each influencer interacted with the public and would receive donations. In the beginning, it seems like a win/win for everyone. But then, things start to get weird. Things go missing, people are getting scared and there is a general sense of dread filling the whole place. Will the monastery break them before they find out the truth within the walls?
I really enjoyed this book. The end had a bit too much explanation for my liking, but it kept me on my toes and I really liked it. Thank you to Victory Editing, Netgalley and the author for an early copy of this book!

i have massive issues with how schizophrenia was treated at the end of this book. i cannot emphasise enough that you cannot 'fix' a person with a mental illness, like the end of this novel tries to suggest happens with cath. i think it borders on offensive earlier in the narrative with how other characters treat her, but that's challenged in the narrative by cath. i just think sarah denzil really didn't deliver with the ending.

this was genuinely tense and scary, and the imagery sarah denzil used was amazing in some parts. she captured the feeling of isolation so well. i ended up growing to love the characters enough that the ending was sad to read, but the writing felt too quick, too clunky in places, where you could see it was being overwritten for the sake of metaphors that didn't land.

I’m such a sucker for a good ghost story!! This book was supppeeeerr spooky & I loved every minute of it (except for when I got too scared & had to stop reading😂). I wish the ending was a little more happy, but I didn’t mind it.

Thank you to #netgalley and Sarah A Denzil for providing me with an ARC of this September 15 release- that's right, this book comes out just in time for spooky season!

"It's the new world. The internet has created thousands of entrepreneurs making money from their hobbies; from Etsy artists, to lifestyle bloggers; from makeup artists, to writers. This world is about sharing: knowledge, skill, humour. But most of all, it's about monetizing all of those things."

Cath is an introverted writer who has a dedicated fanbase. Her fictional world, Akarthis, is what helps to keep her past and her mental illness in check. When she receives an invitation to an exclusive social media influencer retreat at an abandoned monastery in the Carpathian mountains, organized by Irene Jobert, social media sensation and childhood cancer survivor, Cath can't think of a reason not to go. When her taxi driver tells her about the murdered nuns who may haunt the grounds, and the other social media influencers start to show their off-screen personalities, Cath second guesses agreeing to live-stream her life to millions of viewers for four weeks.

Cath was a really relatable character and though this book is fairly short (and SUPER binge-able), the characters were developed well. I stayed up WAY past my bedtime to read this, and it was a great fall read. It was quick-paced, engaging, and spooky AF. I loved the intermingling of Romanian fairy tales, and the isolation of the characters made for a timely, and tense story. Cath has schizophrenia and while I think mental illness was handled better in this book than other horror/ suspense books with mentally ill characters, I worry that using this illness as a plot-point only increases the stigma around it. However, I can't say whether Denzil did an adequate job as I don't know that much about schizophrenia! I can certainly appreciate that she made an extremely likeable and engaging protagonist with schizophrenia who is much more than just the illness and is in fact the protagonist.

I look forward to reading other books by Sarah A Denzil! And, of course, reading more spooky tales as autumn closes in.

This had so much potential to be a great ghost story, and the premise sounded very intriguing, but in the end I felt quite underwhelmed. All the characters felt very one-dimensional and cliched, and I couldn't care much about their story lines or what they were experiencing. They weren't particularly likeable, but that didn't bother me because I thought the point of that was to show that influencers are not what they seem, and are very different to the bubbly/positive/charismatic people they portray through social media.

I also got very unnerved about the bad representation of a mental illness, and I do not like mental health being used as plot devices/twists. It seemed like it was not researched, and for such a misunderstood mental illness, it was handled badly and wasn't necessary. I did really enjoy the writing though, and I can't fault the atmosphere as it really felt like a haunted house. If you're someone you love books with unreliable narrators, then you'll probably enjoy this more.

I still give it 3 stars because I did enjoy my time reading it, and really liked the atmosphere created and the author really does have potential to write a good ghost story, but please be aware of the use of schizophrenia. I'd like to thank Netgalley and the published for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the chance to read the ARC of You are invited by Sarah A. Denzil. Five social media influencers are invited to a spooky monastery in Transylvania that is rumored to be haunted after a unsolved massacre of Nuns years ago. The event? A live-streaming monetised retreat, where everything you do is on screen, and patrons pay for constant access, and action to their favorite social media stars: Irene, the most famous influencer in the world and the host of this event; Nathan, the gamer, Jules, the blogger; Daniel, the fitness guru, and Cath, the writer. But is there someone else with them? Streamers start noticing a dark figure in the shadows...
I will admit I found this one hard to get in to. Once I started, it wasn't bad, but I felt that the plot seemed to be a bit all over the place and some of the plot threads didnt really make sense to me. In the end, it was an ok read. 21/2 stars rounded up to 3.

Being invited to the Carpathian Mountains to stay in a haunted nunnery could be interesting. It could also be deadly. Doing a reality show that promises you lots of money is incredible. Especially if you are one of the few that can claim an invitation.
The background of the murder of the nuns who lived there is scary. No one is really even sure it's not anything but a legend.
The atmosphere and strange happenings soon give the story credibility.
An excellent story. Very interesting.

To be honest, this wasn’t a very memorable book for me. I scarcely remember most of the details because it all ran together.

The concept was great, so I’m not quite sure why it didn’t work for me. This book wasn’t terrible, just mediocre. The writing was not concise enough and the ending was far too predictable. None of the characters were like able for me either. I ended up skimming the end because this just couldn’t catch my attention. This book isn’t nearly as creepy as it promotes itself to be.

2/5 stars

Wow, this blew me away!
I started reading this at about 11 in the evening, it gripped me right from the start, and I couldn’t put it down. This was bad though, as reading a ghost story with the light off at 1am doesn’t make for a sound and peaceful night sleep afterwards! I read the rest of it the day after with the lights burning, and my husband sat next to me protecting me!
This book really does send chills up your spine. I don’t read a lot of thrillers or ghost stories so I’m never sure what direction they are going in and I think because I’m not desensitised to them they really give me the creeps.
I loved the story of Sister Marie that Cath was writing. After I finished the book, I wanted to read the book she wrote!! That part of the story had me as hooked as the rest of it. I even looked up the monastery to see if it was real, but I think it was all made up. I would have loved an author note at the end to say what her inspiration for this story was based on.
The only little niggle I had was the premise behind the live streaming of the five influential social media stars. I think it would have made sense to have more ‘players’ as five was just too sparse. It certainly wouldn’t be something I’d be logging online to watch and interact with. Just think of Big Brother and the number of people that started off in that to make the show interesting, the more people you have, the more they can interact with different people and the more drama you get. The was only a small gripe and didn’t ruin the book for me in any way.
This book really gripped me, and I cancelled all my plans to get this read as I just couldn’t put it down! It was very well written. The ending was brilliant; I so didn’t see any of it coming and just kept shocking me over and over again.
I really enjoyed delving into something different and glad I came across this ARC on NetGalley. A perfect five-stay read!

Cath, a self-published fantasy author, receives an invitation to join 4 other social media influencers in a live streaming event held in a remote monastery in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. A place where a great tragedy took place years ago, a place that is believed to be cursed.
Cath doesn't believe in ghosts. But not long after her arrival, she might be forced to change her mind.

I'm a great fan of Sarah A.Denzil books, so when I saw this ARC, I requested it without even reading the blurb.
Therefore when I realised it was a ghost story, and because I'm not a fan of this genre, I was a bit sceptical when I started reading.
However, I can now safely say that this was an excellent and chilling read that sucks you right in.
The creepiness wasn't overdone, it was just enough to create an atmospheric feel. The story mixes past with present in a captivating, eerie way.
It was a book that kept me madly turning the pages, and I'm looking forward to more books of that genre from this author. I highly recommend it.

I wanted to love this book. I thought the premise was brilliant - a bunch of social media influencers let loose on a haunted, isolated building? Yes please. It's like Hill House for Millennials.

But, and this is a huge but, I find it disingenuous, bordering on dangerous, to use a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, in the way it was used in this book. It was lazily used and handled terribly and I really didn't appreciate that last paragraph.

This is such a shame because the book had so much potential to be really spooky but with a host of unlikeable cliche characters, a muddled haunting - was the wolf thing ever really explained properly? - and an absolute ramble of a final fifth, I'd just had enough.

Two stars because the writing wasn't atrocious and I did make it all the way to the end at least.

I loved this premise. A group of online personalities are invited by a Kylie Jenner-esque Instagram influencer to spend a month living together in a secluded old Romanian monastery. The building has been updated with all the modern fixing including webcams to broadcast their every waking minute to their subscribers. They are all promised riches and fame by the end of the month with all of the exposure and increased audience....if they all remain alive that long. Only part of the monastery has been renovated...and rumors abound concerning the mysterious deaths of the nuns who used to live there and dark shapes seen out of the corner of your eye....and this strange word "Strigoi."


The set up immediately pulled me in. The balancing of the technology involved with the updated part of the monastery and internet influencer culture with a remote Romanian monastery secluded in the mountains was great. The characters were interesting and developed well over the course of the story. The supernatural element was present enough to really work the edges of belief and cause you to double guess what is real or not without being obnoxious with it like some authors can get. A very enjoyable read.

Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Stars 2. 5 out of 5

I like a good ghost story from time to time and nothing is more prone to haunting than an old monastery hidden in the mountains, especially when the snow cuts it off from the rest of the world…

This had all the ingredients to be an excellent ghost story that would keep me up at night first rushing to finish it, then being scared by imaginary sounds I hear in my own home. But unfortunately, it wasn’t so.

There are three ingredients for a good ghost story: 1) the characters, 2) the atmosphere, 3) the actual ghost (or the idea of one). It’s essential that all of them mix together perfectly, because that’s when the building becomes alive in our imagination and we root for the hapless characters and are afraid (or pity) of the apparition.

So let’s talk about the ingredient the author did well – the atmosphere. There are numerous beautifully haunting descriptions of the monastery and the mountains surrounding it. I felt the chilly drafts in the old building and the creaking doors. I could hear the howling of the wind and the answering calls of the wolves. I could see the surreal shapes of the trees peaking out of the dense fog. It was beautiful, it was sad, and it deserved a much better story that was told.



The biggest problem with this book is the characters. You HAVE to like at least some of them to care about what happens to them. Here, the characters are so one-dimensional that I couldn’t even picture them in my head. Yes, Irene is beautiful and self-absorbed. Dan is a yoga instructor… and that’s about all he contributes to the story. Nick is a cliche gamer with possible mental issues? Jules is a hapless blogger that happens to befriend our protagonist… And the protagonist… I think the protagonist is the reason why characters don’t work.

I understand the idea behind having the story told by an unreliable narrator, but Cat is too fixated on herself and her progressing schizophrenia to really care about anyone else. She only “sees” the other characters in this monastery to the extent of their reaction to her (and that reaction is often imagined and wrongly interpreted by her as well).

So how can the reader care about them when Cat doesn’t really care about them? Apart from Jules, but even then it’s a stretch.

And the final ingredient is lacking as well. The whole story behind the haunting is horrible, yes, but also too vague and inconsistent. Who is actually haunting this place? Nobody knows, Cat even less so than the others. And with her illness turning into an obsession, all her findings and suppositions are even more unreliable.

As a result, I felt disconnected from the story almost from the beginning. I read about the events that happened, but it felt like I was just looking in through a dirty window. There was no involvement and no connection whatsoever. So there was no fear or even apprehension. I could care less what happened to the animated characters on the other side of the glass. That, my friends, is a ghost story fail in my books.

PS: I received a free advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have certainly been hoping to find a good ghost story this year, and “You Are Invited” did a pretty great job at setting the scene and delivering some nice chills!

About the book:

“There are some who claim the ghosts walking the corridors of Sfântul Mihail are not ghosts at all.”

Deep in the Carpathian mountains, there rests an abandoned monastery rumored to be cursed by the memory of a haunted past.

Abandoned...until now, that is.

Wildly popular social media influencer, Irene Jobert, has renovated the monastery and decided to host a once in a lifetime event for a hand-selected few. Four other influencers have been chosen to come stay with her at the Transylvanian monastery. The catch? Every moment will be filmed and broadcast live to their fans worldwide.

Meet the cast: Cath, the published author, Jules, the blogger, Nathan, the gamer, Dan the fitness guru, and Irene, the most popular of them all—Do they really have any idea what they’ve gotten themselves into? The world is watching...and so are the shadows.

For this monastery has a spine-tingling past, and it seems these long-abandoned walls still have a story to tell.

My thoughts:

I went into this book with hope for building suspense and mysterious goings-on. There were definitely some chilling moments, mainly toward the end, but I do wish that we’d been given a bit more chills and surprises.

When it comes to hauntings, it isn’t just houses or buildings that can be occupied. Sometimes it’s one’s own mind that breeds fear and horror. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this in one way or another; our minds can conjure up anything in the face of stress and unease, and that’s certainly what happens in this book.

Oh, the monastery houses its own fair share of ghostly happenings, don’t get me wrong—but our main character, Cath, is exhibiting symptoms of unmedicated schizophrenia too, which definitely adds an edge to the things going on within the monastery. She has a hard time knowing if the things she’s experiencing are real or imagined, while we’re along for the ride with her thinking, “Get out of there, Cath! Real or not, you’re definitely not safe!”

But, of course, characters never listen to a reader’s advice. Common sense is usually lacking within ghost and horror stories, and this is no exception.

Because Cath is having vivid symptoms of her mental illness along with the ghostly things happening, the more scary incidents didn’t exactly read as intense or horrifying as I was hoping. There were a couple instances of sleep paralysis and ghostly touches that I feel could have translated much better had Cath not been so in her own head. She goes through the incidents without much trauma or fear on her part so, in turn, I didn’t feel much trepidation either.

Now, the ending was pretty intense and I was glad to see the plot pick up. The imagery of running through the wintry, frozen terrain of the Carpathian mountains in terror was exciting and what I’d definitely been hoping for—though I do wish that the climax had been a little more drawn out and milked for all of the wonderful terror that it could have induced.

All in all, I have to concede to the fact that the book isn’t quite 300 pages, so I think most of what I’m left with is simply a desire for things to have been more fleshed out and developed. The setting of the creepy yet beautiful monastery was perfection, and I enjoyed the psychological suspense of the influencers slowly deteriorating and growing mad. But, since this was named “A Ghost Story” in the byline, I think the ghost aspect could have definitely been pushed a little more. Bring on the terror!

This was certainly an enjoyable read and it reminded me at times of AHS Roanoke, so that was neat. I’m definitely planning to check out more of Denzil’s work in the future!

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the chance to read and review this ARC. The book officially releases on September 15th, 2020.