The Clinic by Cate Quinn is yet another thriller that I seriously questioned DNF-ing, and now wish I would have.

I really wanted to read this one because of its gorgeous cover; how could I not want to pick up this book with its spooky fog and menacing cliff-side clinic? Side note: I love atmospheric thrillers! I expected the setting to really act as its own character but there were none of the chilling vibes I wanted, and instead the remoteness of the clinic was only mentioned a handful of times.

I realized at the 25% mark that I just didn't care about the mystery or the characters to be intrigued enough to continue and this is where I should have DNF'd! Mix this with characters that were all too interchangeable and exhibiting questionable behaviours, juvenile writing, odd plot holes, redundancy and an exorbitant length - and I really struggled to finish this book. Honestly, this felt like the longest book in existence and it would. not. end. However, the closer it got to that coveted ending, the more ludicrous the plot became (I may have even rolled my eyes a time or two).

The tagline on the Kindle edition states "Six troubled celebrities. One dead singer. No way out." and I wish the locked room, atmospheric thriller that this hints at played out for me within the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the complimentary copy to read and review.

Not the best or worst book I've ever read. It really didn't have any substance you could sink yourself into. Repetitive parts, and the writing could have been shorter with the same impact. It did give a good look at the inner workings of a rehab facility and addicts in them. I'm sure much of this was due to the author's own addiction and rehab experience. Not a lot of action, suspense or any aspects of a story you can't put down. It starts off with a great opening prologue, but then seems to take a left turn. Overall story just went beyond believable. Characters were ok, although none really likable. This won't be a book that stays in my memory for long.

Absolutely captivating! Unreliable narrator kept me on my toes and guessing, Very enjoyable. Thank you netgalley and publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book started out strong, but overall fizzled out at the end. I loved the clinic setting and I enjoyed the overall writing style and alternating POV chapters, but the plot itself was lacking. Some editing to shorten the book would help.

The Clinic is about a girl named Meg who goes undercover at an addiction recovery center (called The Clinic, hence the title) to solve the murder of her estranged sister. The only problem with this is that Meg is also an addict, and solving a murder while going through withdrawal is going to be tough.

If this was not an ARC, I would have DNF’d this thing after 10%.
I don’t want to completely rip this book apart (who has the time?) so let me focus on what I felt were the most major shortfalls for this title.

The Writing
I started having concerns about the writing around the Chapter 3. By Chapter 10, I was tired. This book takes the idea of “show, don’t tell” and drop-kicks it into the sun. As our two main characters, Meg and Cara, gather evidence, we are given a summary of that evidence and what conclusions we should draw from it. This has the effect of making the audience feel like the author assumes that they are very, very stupid. Assuming this is not your first thriller ever, you’ll be able to draw conclusions on your own with the information you’re given.

Additionally, the dialogue in this book ranges from stiff to completely unrealistic. Nearly every sentence has one character addressing another by name (ex: -What do you think, Meg? -I don’t know, Henry.). Conversations between characters feel like they were ripped from an extremely bad TV drama and stuffed in for the sake of writing them. When I saw the line “released the breath I didn’t know I was holding”, my eyes briefly rolled back to check out my brain stem.

The Characters
All this choppy, stiff, confusing dialogue means that the audience never really gets to connect with the characters. Meg and Cara are unlikable and one-dimensional – Meg is an asshole, Cara is an idiot. There is some movement towards Meg getting character growth, but it never feels real or accurate. I’m not going to put a spoiler in here, but the diagnosis that Meg receives did not ring true to me in the slightest by the end of the book.

The side characters also feel one-dimensional and lame, so there is no emotional connection to drive the story forward. When characters are in danger, it’s genuinely hard to care. Strangely, we only ever get to meet three of the staff of the Clinic – every other employee remains nameless and faceless, and every treatment that Meg undertakes is either administered by Max, a doctor you meet early in the story, or the owner, Dr. Lutz. The overall effect is that the world feels very bare – “Yeah, there were other people, don’t worry about them”.

Unbelievability
The Clinic is advertised as “the best therapy money can buy”, hosing celebrities and providing state-of-the-art, expensive treatments for the patients in attendance. Despite us never getting the names of other medical staff, we are assured that others are there. So how in the hell did Meg sneak in several packets of Oxy and an entire cell phone? I was waiting the entire book for someone to come out and say, “We knew you had it the entire time, we were playing with you.” OR/b> for the whole thing to have been a hallucination.. Alas, neither of these predictions were true and the end of the book genuinely made me want to throw the thing across the room (Except, remember, this is an ARC that I’m reading on my desktop).

Another prime example of this is the scene where Cara, Max, and the nursing staff (who definitely exist, guys) are running around looking for a patient that might be in danger. This is a dire situation, but you would never, ever know it because one of the characters stops to have a whole sidebar conversation in the middle of his run!


Really, the thing this book was in desperate need of was an editor. This feels like the unpolished first draft that you send off to be made pretty by a second set of eyes. I would not recommend this to anybody, but especially not to thriller fans who have learned to expect better.

I'd give this 3.5 stars...if only I could!! It's definitely heavy on the mystery and intrigue with a plethora of suspects to boot. The who and why are really quite diabolical if I bit tough to swallow. I don't mind suspending belief in my reading, especially with thrillers, as long as it doesn't go too far off the rails. I am amazed how quickly I raced through this one, since it says its 448 pages and I read it in less than 24 hours. So that's high praise!! I think anyone who appreciates a nail-biter thriller would enjoy this.

We read this for my book club and it was great! It was definitely a different thriller and it was nice to get to know the characters. The only reason it wasn’t 5 star is because I could guess where the story was going. However I definitely recommend it

Thank you NetGalley for this advance reader copy. This one was just ok for me. The beginning was pretty engaging and suspenseful until about halfway through. I did love the multiple POV's and short chapters which got me through to the end. The twist at the end was pretty good but also predictable. While not one of my favorite page-turning, thriller, this was still a good read.

I enjoyed this novel soo much!! This was my second Cate Quinn novel. I wasn’t a huge fan of Black Widows, so this was a nice welcome from that. This is set in a rehab hospital, a great setting in a secluded area in Northwest America. There are two points of view, Cara (manager) and Meg (patient). I enjoyed both points of views and perspectives, they tied together very well!

I didn’t see that twist at the very end, I was a bit 🤯. The only downside I found was it felt a bit too long. There was a lot of middle, I think you didn’t need and could have been left out. Overall though, I would highly recommend this novel if you want a big unexpected twist at the end!

It is a bit hard to describe this book. It is well worth the read, but I just about quit reading part way into the book. It twists, and changes, and makes a VERY good story and well worth the reading. You will not be disappointed! Cate Quinn is a very detailed and thoroughly researched author!

this was such a good read and then the twist at 80% just lost it for me and the final twist forget it. I understand a thriller can’t be entirely realistic but twist completely out of left field with 0 logic I can’t do. Not to say this book didn’t have a lot of strong points. It did keep me compulsively reading and engaged.

So, I just finished reading "The Clinic" by Kate Quinn, and I gotta say, it was a rollercoaster of emotions! Quinn really knows how to weave together historical fiction and suspense. The characters felt so real, and the setting—post-World War II in a mysterious clinic—added this extra layer of intrigue.

The plot twists were like a one-two punch, keeping me hooked until the very end. And can we talk about the pacing? It was just right—enough to keep me turning pages without feeling rushed. I loved how Quinn delved into the complexities of human relationships and the aftermath of war.

Plus, the writing was top-notch. Quinn's descriptive style painted vivid pictures in my mind, and I could practically feel the tension in the air. Overall, "The Clinic" is a must-read for historical fiction lovers who enjoy a good dose of suspense. Highly recommend it for a weekend escape into a gripping world of secrets and surprises!

At the beginning of this book, I was totally engrossed in the story, but by about 70% I had mostly lost interest. I feel like the book could have been about a hundred less pages. I also didn’t really feel connected to any of the characters. I feel with a story like this, that the reader needs to feel a connection to the characters to really appreciate the story. The story is told in two different POVs. Both brought something to the story, but Meg’s definitely felt more important.

I was first drawn to the book because of the stunning atmospheric cover. I was hoping the book would be a bit creepier, but the author still did a good job setting the atmosphere. I loved the references to the PNW.

It’s hard to go into much of the plot without giving anything away, but I was hoping for a more exciting ending. After 444 pages, I was really hoping for a satisfying ending.

I’m sure a lot of readers will enjoy this rehab thriller, but sadly it just wasn’t for me. I still hope to read more from this author in the future.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this e-ARC. I am anticipating reading this soon and reviewing on my socials.

After giving this book a try, it just wasn't for me. I didn't feel connected to the story or characters at all, so I DNFed it at 30%.

*Thank you @bookmarked for the #gifted egalley. Review not posted to Goodreads/Amazon because DNF or 4 stars or less.*

3.5 ⭐️

The Clinic by Cate Quinn is a fairly fast-paced thriller told in two perspectives with bite-size chapters to keep you coming back for just one more. With 115 chapters and 444 pages, that's less that 1% of the book per chapter, averaging 3-4 pages each!

Meg works as an undercover agent catching bad guys at a casino—and she has a pill problem. Her sister, Haley, is a famous Hollywood party girl who ends up at a luxury rehab clinic shortly before her untimely demise. Meg, suspicious about the circumstances around her sister's death and genuinely struggling with her own addiction, decides to go undercover and get admitted to the clinic. Cara works at said clinic, providing the reader with a behind-the-scenes perspective that Meg is not privy to.

While definitely a thriller, this story never really felt suspenseful to me. I was propelled through the narrative more by Quinn's writing style than by the plot or characters. I know we're not supposed to judge books by their covers, but this one gave me eerie atmosphere vibes that just did not materialize in the book. I'll also say that the twist at the end felt both anti-climactic and unrealistic.

Full review posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5816284126

This was not what I expected just from that cover (I know I know, don't judge the book by its cover). But tell me - wouldn't you expect a gothic tale about some mental disease? In any case, this was a book club pick, and we did enjoy taking this book apart.

Well, this is a bout rehab. And if you read the author's note, this one is personal. And you can feel it. This book is very hollywoodish - lots of drama and a bit of an unbelievable plot. The book seemed very disjointed and didn't go deep into the feelings of those in rehab. Even the thoughts of the main MC kept jumping around, and I wanted a bit more of an ARC for characters.

Now the twists were for sure not what I expected. There's a big red herring, and I do like that all the way till it is revealed, I fell for that red herring. There's a theme of nature vs nurture that was fun too see and explore in our discussion. Easy writing style, short chapters - all made this an easy book to devour. But in the end it was just an OK mystery/thriller, not something that will stick with me or I would recommend. This one though definitely made me want to look more into rehabs and addicts.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy.

THE GOOD:
Spooky setting, fun locked-room style mystery-suspense, interesting peak into a gambling crime-solving niche.

THE BAD:
A few inaccuracies as to PNW topography as well as U.S. medical systems by this U.K. author.

CONCLUSION:
A nice twist on a whodunnit, with some suspense and gothic elements. Recommended.

"The Clinic" by Cate Quinn is a gripping thriller that keeps readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish. Set in a remote fertility clinic in rural Maine, the story follows the lives of three women connected by their desire for motherhood and the secrets that lurk within the clinic's walls. Quinn masterfully weaves together multiple perspectives, creating a narrative that is both suspenseful and thought-provoking. With its twisty plot and well-developed characters, "The Clinic" is sure to keep readers guessing until the very end. Fans of psychological thrillers will not want to miss this riveting read.

Set in a remote rehab clinic in the Pacific Northwest, Cate Quinn creates a chilling atmosphere of psychological fear in The Clinic. Meg is working her job with casino security when she hears the news. Her sister Hayley is has been found dead by apparent suicide in rehab. After reading texts Hayley sent right before her death, Meg knows something suspicious is going on and vows to go find out the truth. Will she be able to figure out what happened to Hayley while dealing with the own alcohol and pill addiction and facing the trauma from her childhood?

The gothic hospital, the celebrity patients and the questionable clinic owner are just a few parts that succeeded in their execution. The plotting could have been a bit tighter and the character of Cara was a bit too naive, but I had a great time with the story. I appreciated that the POVs were kept to just the 2 women, Meg and Cara, as it would have been easily overwhelmed with any more. Overall, if you're looking for a quick and twisty tale that also deals with the ethics surrounding mental health treatment, I highly recommend The Clinic.