The Sanatorium follows our protagonist Elin as she discovers the hidden histories of the hotel-turned-sanatorium she’s staying at with her boyfriend and estranged brother. While I thought I’d enjoy the background of a former sanatorium, I thought that the setting was under utilized. It felt as if the author only brought it up when it was vital to the plot and didn’t feel like an actual setting. I also wasn’t a fan of the antagonist revealing their entire plan and backstory in a verbal vomit at the very end while the protagonist just stands there. It felt lazy to just have the villain list all the things they did and all the things that happened to them. I was very disappointed.

I've tried to get into this book a couple times now but the beginning seemed to drag. The buzz was so strong for this title I wanted to love it but I just couldn't get interested in it. I may try again but it just wasn't for me.

After hearing the buzz about this book, I was eager to read this isolated, high tension mystery. It started out very spooky with the disappearance of the architect for a former sanatorium being renovated into a minimalist hotel high in the Swiss Alps. The main character is a British detective currently on sabbatical after a case gone horribly wrong. Suffering from an almost crippling case of PTSD, Elin Warner comes to the hotel to celebrate her estranged brother's engagement. When a body is discovered at the bottom of the pool, Elin is tasked with investigating because the Swiss officials are unable to reach the remote hotel. Although I did finish this book, I was disappointed because I felt it did not live up to the hype. The characters were not well developed or likable, the whole situation was very implausible and the remote location and history of the hotel/sanatorium wasn't used to it's full potential. Overall it was an okay read.

I was really ready for a nice, creepy gothic romp but this was just wasn't it. I found the writing very choppy and didn't follow the story line at all.

This was a DNF for me. There are certain books that just have this depressive, oppressively smothering way about them and this was one of them. Maybe it's the genre or type? I just couldn't finish it. It isn't poorly written, but it just didn't hook me like I was hoping.

I love the isolation trope, and this book definitely hits that note in terms of atmosphere. Our characters are isolated at a ski chalet that used to be a creepy tuberculosis sanatorium, and bad weather and avalanches have left them trapped with a killer. Literally my favorite thriller trope, and to the book's credit, I think it was well done - the atmosphere is perfect. I actually liked the main character, Elin, though I found her boyfriend to be a gaslighting jerk and I could not stand how Elin constantly felt guilty about not being a good girlfriend.

Otherwise, I guess this was...okay? It was an entertaining enough thriller, but I found the final reveal of who the killer was and why they were killing to be a little far-fetched. Also, a lot of the dialogue throughout is heavy-handed.

Would make a great movie, though.

But finally, wtf was with that bizarre epilogue? I read an ARC of this, so maybe it's not included in the final copy, because it was completely weird and almost seems to want to set this up as a series?

I had been seeing this book all over and the description seemed right in my wheelhouse. To be clear, the description on the jacket made it seem to be a supernatural thriller. Everything about the cover even screams, "Scary Asylum Ghosts!"
While I do like a good mystery, that was pretty much all this was. There wasn't even the psych-out "everything seems supernatural but there turned out to be a rational explanation" thing happening, just a police-type thriller set in a snowed-in mountain resort that used to be a sanatorium.
It's not terrible, it's just a little ho-hum, at least for what I was expecting. And yes, there is a reveal at the end that you will not see coming, but not because it's a brilliant twist, but because it's so convoluted, you'd never have guessed it.

I loved the atmosphere in this book. It really made the book. I enjoyed the protagonist and am excited for the next in the series. I interviewed her for my podcast and really enjoyed speaking with her: https://www.thoughtsfromapage.com/sarah-pearse-the-sanatorium/.

A detective on leave for health reasons, her loyal boyfriend, and a small group of tourists and hotel staff are stranded atop a mountain during aa relentless snow storm and begin to die one by one. The setting is captivating and claustrophobic and there are some scary moments but a reader would be hard pressed to figure out who the killer is and what the motive is.

A very riveting and suspenseful read that kept me guessing until the end. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this novel more than anything, I'm a big fan of brooding sanatorium/asylum settings, so this was right in my wheelhouse.

I have so far trust Reese Witherspoon's picks, and having just recently rediscovered locked room thrillers, thanks to Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, Megan Goldin, etc., I fully expected to love this. Sadly, I could not. The cover description sounded right up my alley with a hotel built from an old sanitorium and the guests stranded in a snowstorm. I just never felt connected with the main character, Elin. She seemed too wishy-washy and indecisive for a cop. I did enjoy the descriptions of the storm and the events from when the hotel was a working sanitorium, however the present-day story never felt exciting to me or seemed to pan out. The ending was just okay. I hate giving less than stellar reviews and hopefully it was just me, but I definitely struggled to finish this one.

I really enjoyed this book, I couldn't put it down. The ending was definitely not what I expected and when I read the Epilogue, wow, total surprise, which is what I like in a book! You were thinking it was about one thing, but the mystery ended up being two mysteries intertwined. The author had me going thinking it was about that mystery, but ended being another one. I really liked that about the book. It wasn't who I thought it was and that makes for a great mystery! The historical aspect had me intrigued and I couldn't wait to read it. This was a great book and highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this novel.

I really, really, REALLY wanted to like this book more than I did. The premise was completely up my alley: a remote luxury hotel up in the snowy mountains of Switzerland that used to be an old TB sanatorium? Murders happen? Everyone is isolated? My favorite!

However. I didn’t really care for the main character, Elin, but that’s usually not an issue for me; sometimes I even prefer my protagonists to be a bit rough around the edges and unreliable. But Elin was borderline incompetent and also a complete snooze. She’s on leave with PTSD from her detective job back home in the UK, but very little is learned about the case that caused her so much anguish that she’d been off work for a year (I think it was a year and i can’t be arsed to go back and confirm).

Instead, Elin dives headlong into investigating the murders occurring at the hotel, and to make it even better, THE SWISS POLICE LET HER. Because isolated, and thanks to the snow storm and avalanches, they can’t get anyone up the mountain for a few days. So even though she has zero jurisdiction in Switzerland, sure, why not, take some pictures of the murder victims and run around ON YOUR OWN trying to piece together clues. Her own husband didn’t even seem to care much about her or what was going on-after one particularly frightening incident, he leaves Elin alone so he can go catch up on some work emails. .....Sure.

I will say, however, that the setting was atmospheric and chilling (literally and figuratively), and the bits about the old sanatorium and what went on there were intriguing. I would have enjoyed a better fleshing out of that concept and a better tie-in to the present-day events happening. I was really hoping that it would dovetail better into the ending, but while it did tie in it was sort of...meh. The eventual conclusion as a whole was rather complicated, yet it didn’t pack quite the punch I was hoping for.

The book was well-written and I’d be willing to try this author again, but hopefully her next effort will have a little better plausibility in its plot.

Everything about this was great right up until the end. The ending almost ruined it for me TBH. It just wasn't believable and felt like she was trying way to hard to tap in to the #metoo aspect. I would have rather it be actual ghosts murdering people than this super weird 180 that it ended on. Otherwise, the atmosphere and lead up were excellent.

The description of the story intrigued me at once! A closed door mystery at a sanatorium turned fancy hotel in the middle of a snow storm is my favorite kind of book! Along with the fact that there were elements of the buildings past tied into the current mystery, I couldn't wait to start reading.
I really enjoyed some of the books surprises and the relationship that develops between the main character and her brother. But, these characters never quite felt believable to me. The premise of the plot was great, but I thought the story went on for two long and could have been wrapped up more neatly.

This book has received a lot of good reviews and hype because of it being a Reese Witherspoon hype, which I usually fall prey to, but this time I just could not get into the story. I am not a huge fan of murder mystery, I do like it it its in small doses but I am not good at predicting what could be happening. Sometimes that is good and sometimes that is frustrating when you are trying to read a mystery, because you have trouble staying interested or following the book at all. So for me, this one didn't hold up to par. I was uninterested from the get-g0, but that falls on me, not the author. I am sure it was well-written but I just could get into it. Thank you for the early access review.

This was a really great book full of twists and turns. I wasn't expecting a mystery, but that's exactly what I got and thank you for it. Every time I thought I had things figured out, I'd realize I was wrong. The writing is excellent and really set the scene for a claustrophobic story.

A truly terrifying psychological thriller! This is a great book and will be recommending it to the library patrons that love thrillers.

A former Sanatorium is converted to a fancy hotel in the mountains in Switzerland.

When Elin, a detective from the UK, arrives at the hotel with her boyfriend to celebrate her brother's engagement, people start to disappear and are discovered to be murdered.

I enjoyed the chilling wintry setting and the different twists throughout the way. I found the story to be slightly predictable but overall I appreciated Pearse's descriptive writing and pacing.

Things i loved- atmosphere and setting was built to be another character in the story. The author built a slow creepy vibe in the first half of the story. I liked the epilogue addition to twist the story.
Thing i didn’t love- the conclusion came too quickly, too neatly and inconsistent to the first half.