The Fog is an exciting psychological thriller by Australian author, Brooke Hardwick. Kate travels to a remote island off the coast of Ireland, to attend a writer’s retreat which specialises in treating writer’s block. The small group of participants are subject to unconventional methods to encourage their love of writing to return. They stay in an isolated mansion, overlooking the cliffs, to ensure there are limited distractions from the outside world. Kate has experienced trauma in the past, which resurfaces at the retreat. What follows is a creepy and unexpected turn of events. I loved this atmospheric story and couldn’t put it down! Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for my ARC.

I do love a good psychological thriller, and this certainly had all the elements of a good thriller story. My only gripe would be the repetitive thoughts of our MC - though I do understand that was part of her persona.

Without giving spoilers, this story draws on the pain of four broken writers with writers block who attend a retreat to help them get their mojo back, only this retreat uses unorthodox treatments on a remote island. They must undertake all assignments over the ten day period, keeping journals of their thoughts, feelings, and resurfaced memories.

Though this story has several characters at the retreat, it’s told from Kate’s perspective. We jump back and forth as she begins remembering things she’d blocked out.

I found the story to be a quick and easy, for lack of a better word, read, though if you have triggers, this may not be the book for you. It does delve into some pretty tough topics. Other than that, a compelling story that kept me riveted

Excellent book, loved it! Looking forward to more from this author! Apologies for the lateness of my review

In this spine-chilling gothic thriller, a woman on the brink travels to a remote writers’ retreat to uncover the secrets of her past and lands herself in a deadly situation that could destroy her future.

This book was dark, twisty, unsettling and a great read. If you enjoyed The Guest List by Lucy Foley, this has similar vibes.

We are waiting on a couple of readers to finish so we can delve into THAT ending! 🤯 A little nuts? Yes. Did I eat it up? Absolutely!

A great debut from Brooke Hardwick.

The Fog by Brooke Hardwick is a dark, atmospheric thriller that plunges readers into the remote, eerie Rathlin Island in Northern Ireland, where protagonist Kate attends a writers’ retreat designed to heal trauma. The isolated retreat quickly reveals sinister undertones as Kate and other participants experience unusual and intense “therapies” under their enigmatic host, Cormac. Each character, grappling with personal trauma, is forced to confront buried memories and secrets, and the story layers suspense with themes of manipulation and psychological control.

Hardwick masterfully uses the island’s foggy, desolate setting to deepen the novel’s gothic allure, making Rathlin feel as much a character as the people caught within its mist. The plot unfolds like a diary, blending flashbacks with present fears, which heightens tension and keeps readers guessing about both Kate’s past and her current danger   .

Ideal for fans of psychological and gothic thrillers, The Fog is a chilling exploration of memory, trauma, and trust, culminating in a conclusion that is as thought-provoking as it is unsettling.

All the way through, you feel the eeriness of the location of this retreat for writers’ block. Isolated at one end of an island, the retreat offers a program that is supposed to treat the cause (trauma) and thus unblock the writer in just ten days.

Our heroine, Kate, doesn’t understand where her husband has gone and hopes this retreat will give her answers. As the program progresses, we find out through flashbacks just what has happened to Kate. There are several other participants in this program and come to know their ‘blockages’ too. The suspense continues until the final revelations.

I enjoyed this but the plot twists at the end were rather unbelievable and melodramatic which was a shame as the rest of it was intriguing on many levels.

The Fog was a great read. It was full of suspense, drama, mystery, and crazy twists.
I love a good seclusion style thriller, and The Fog definitely didn't disappoint.

Brooke's writing drew me in immediately, I just couldn't put it down. The storyline was compelling and mysterious. The characters were interesting and complex, especially Kate, Cormac, and Ewan.

The ending was full of crazy twists that I didn't see coming at all.
I highly recommend.

This was a strong debut thriller from Brooke Hardwick, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

4 stars from me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, and Brooke Hardwick for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This book is dark and contained some mental health issues. I did enjoy reading the book.

Kate is a member of a writing group. She is suffering from grief and big chunks of her memory are missing. She has not been able to finish a book she has started writing. When her writing group sends information to Kate about a writing retreat Kate decides to apply hoping it will help her get over her grief and start writing again.

Kate’s application is successful, and she travels to Rathlin Island in Northern Ireland to attend a ten-day retreat for writers who are having trouble with writer’s block.

The Island is very isolated only four participants attend the retreat. They all have issues and none of them are happy with the treatments recommended to help them get over their writer’s block.

A psychological thriller with lots of twists and turns. Kate’s memory starts to return, and she is very afraid.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster (Australia) Publishers for a chance to read this E-Book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Podcast review at www.artdistrictradio.com
https://smartlink.ausha.co/art-district-rss-podcasts/the-fog-by-brooke-hardwick

An atmospheric psychological thriller set on Rathlin Island in Northern Ireland. The narrator, Kate travels to the remote island for a writers retreat run by a local, Cormac Boyd. Kate has memory loss, and her husband has left her after their baby daughter’s death. There are three other writers in attendance for the 10 day program. The events are tense and sometimes chaotic, it’s hard to know what’s important and sometimes what’s real as Kate begins having flashbacks to the events with her husband.
I was drawn into the story and wanted to know what was going on. The conclusion draws it together and was cleverly done. But the writing did annoy me, lots of paragraphs filled with questions - a style that I find so irritating, it’s okay once of twice but over and over… way too much of it here. So I think it could’ve been shorter and written in a tighter fashion, it would’ve added to the tension for me anyway.

Trigger warning: infant death
In The Fog, Kate travels to a remote island in the Irish Channel for a ten-day writers’ retreat. She and a small group of select authors are each desperate for release from their writer’s block. The therapy incorporates mythology of the island and some highly unconventional methods. It triggers repressed memories in Kate and increases her attraction to the retreat director. While the weather grows wilder and wilder, the therapy grows more and more intense. Each writer is pushed to their limits as the end of the ten days approaches. Kate needs to understand exactly what happened before to move forward in the future. But can she handle the truth? And what danger has she put herself in?
The Fog is a dark, atmospheric gothic thriller interweaving events in the present and the past. It is a strong debut by its Australian-born, widely-travelled author. Recommended. 4.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a honest review.

The Fog was not at all what I expected and I was waiting for ‘a fog’ to descend on the island and cause havoc. Not sure why but probably because I went in to it with only a brief skim of the synopsis or maybe because of the title. Although there were a couple of areas that I skimmed over when I found it to be overly detailed I could not stop reading this once I started.
Kate took the opportunity to apply for a 10 day writers retreat that was meant to help her to overcome her writers block.. The retreat was held at an isolated island and there were only 3 other guests, the owner and the handyman/cook.
She knew that she would have to search deep into herself to find the reasons for it but she was not ready for the memories that rose up. Kate was thrown into a number of tasks that led to more and more disturbing flashbacks that had Kate wanting to flee but there was nowhere to go. As all the guests start to fall apart as they also face demons the final twist on the last night that blew me away.

If you're looking for something dark and intensely atmospheric, welcome to The Fog.

If psychological thrillers are your thing, settle in dear reader. This debut novel from Brooke Hardwick will not leave you disappointed.

Kate has writer's block and chooses to go on a 10 day retreat to lift the block and start writing again. It quickly becomes clear that Kate has a little more going on than just writers' block. She has flashbacks from the marriage she escaped. No spoilers, but I feel I have to mention trigger warnings of coercive control, abortion and gaslighting. There are other characters who are there for the retreat - all with their own "stuff" as to why they could be locked in a writer's block. The other characters all fit in well and add to the story without it getting too complex. Mind you, with these other personalities, at times it felt like a crazy circus!

I like how the book marks time with Day One, Day Two, Day Three etc. The counting of days adds to the the suspense and anticipation of the inevitable Day 10. Another element of this novel I enjoyed was the unsettling mythology attached to Rathlin Island.

This book was not for me, it was a too dark and psychological. However I'm here to write a review, and from that perspective, this book will keep you turning the pages. If psychological trillers are your thing I can highly recommend The Fog.

I want to thank NetGalley for a digital ARC copy in exchange for an honest unbiased review.

#TheFog #NetGalley

Gaslighting, abusive relationships, coercive control, suicidal ideation, loss of a child, self harm, death of animals; mental trauma. Lots of mental trauma.

Right. What to say about this one? Perhaps less is best. Look, The Fog by Brooke Hardwick is very clearly a debut, and in a genre where you can sometimes get away with plot holes and unreliable narrators, this one still falls through the cracks.

The premise was interesting, writer's retreat in a remote location, but honestly, from the get go this one was all over the place. The constant flash backs, the extreme unreliability of the narrator, Kate, the unlikeable characters, the melodrama, the over descriptive descriptions of the wind, the rain, the wind, the cold, the wind... you get the picture.

This was not well written. It was a mess to listen to, only marginally better to read. The twist was absurd, but wait, there's more. Another twist. And then pages of retelling the story to explain the twists. Don't be drawn in by the atmospheric cover and intriguing premise. They're the only good parts about this book.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

Wow, I have just finished reading “The Fog” and i’m still shaking in response to the chilling tension and anticipation of more twists to come. This book is, how do I even find the right words? intense, dramatic, dastardly, horrific, and so so creepingly disturbing and brilliant.

I feel like i’ve just been lost out in the fog myself, knocked about by extreme weather and caught up in a world of flashbacks, torture, gaslighting and trauma upon trauma. What is meant to be a ten day writers psychology retreat to help those, including our main character Kate, with writers block set on a remote island is so much more than how it is pitched.

This is intensely moving and gripping; a masterful and extremely evil plot. I am numb from the icy rain on my cheeks, I am drawn to the cliffs, the screaming noises are loud in the wind, I’m questioning everything I hear and read. This is so vivid, so completely unhinged … I need more.

Thank you so much Brooke Hardwick for this insane work of genius, it is hard believing this is your debut work and if you haven’t guessed already it has impacted me greatly! Thanks also to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for providing me with an ARC read in exchange for my review. This book is now available for purchase, I advise day reading and not risking reading it late at night!

I found The Fog by Brooke Hardwick to be a very creepy thriller that wound the reader in and then ensured they were as confused and almost as traumatised as the characters of this story.

Located on a cold, windy and rainy island in the freezing Irish channel with a very small population that it is extremely isolated, an exclusive 10 day retreat for writers with ‘writer’s block’ is being run by a wealthy but eccentric Director.

The main character, Kate, is suffering from trauma and hopes this retreat will be her saviour. Others also have similar hopes. All the characters are well developed and very multi-dimensional, giving the plot added depth.

There is a lot that is totally unexpected and the twist and turns are more like revolutions! The ending could probably called brutal and one that, was again, totally unexpected.

A highly recommended read.


This review is based on a complimentary copy from Simon & Schuster (Australia) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TheFog #NetGalley

The Fog
Brooke Hardwick

“Hence the lighthouses. Any island with three lighthouses should give a sailor a fair warning. But that’s all a lighthouse can do. We can only warn sailors that disaster lies ahead. We can’t save them.”

A solid psychological thriller that definitely has you questioning who is your unreliable narrative. Who can you trust, what deceptions and misdirections are at play? What is genuine?

‘Why had i omitted those things from my memory? I hadn’t even chosen to ignore it - I completely erased it.’

A woman on the brink travels to a remote writer’s retreat to uncover the secrets of her past and lands herself in a deadly situation that could destroy her future.
The retreat director uses unorthodox techniques and harnesses the unique and eerie mythology of the island, and Kate finds herself more fascinated by him. As the retreat goes on, the therapies intensify with startling results and disturbing flashbacks occurring. Kate realises her past hides a frightening truth, but can she trust her own mind?

“Hen, one should never save a drowning man.”

“A drowning man has to save himself.”

Massive thanks to @simonandschuster and @bookehardwickwriter - The Fog is out now.

“I’m sure there were small slights and daily deceptions. Of course, there’s usually always the final betrayal; is that how it was between you?”

I will say that the ending was particularly neat and tidy, like possibly too much so. In the lands of far fetched, maybe this was testing.

“Family is like soil, pet… it may feel as though you’re buried by burden, but it’s the place from which everything grows.”

Please let me know if you have read this or keen to, always interested to know how you find it.

‘Best to pretend I don’t mind. Pretending isn’t lying - it merely softens the brutality of truth.’

“That’s the thing with bad weather. Good weather always comes before it.”


(REVIEW POSTED 12th September 2024)

Interesting premise but I felt this story was a bit muddled- particularly the end of the book and the ending.
The atmospheric location fits perfectly for a psychological thriller, where Kate is struggling with recovering memories that make her question her reality.