What a great debut novel!

Set on a remote island in the Irish Channel, this psychological thriller follows Kate as she embarks on a 10-day writer’s retreat to confront her trauma and battle her writer’s block.

During her stay, she encounters a cast of characters as wild and unpredictable as the island’s weather, including the enigmatic owner of the retreat.

The retreat’s unconventional methods help unearth her repressed trauma, leading to shocking revelations about her marriage and daughter.

As with all great psychological thrillers, you’ll be glued to the pages as the tension escalates, culminating in plot twists that will leave you breathless.

Recommended for book lovers who appreciate dramatic settings and gripping narratives!

A heartfelt thank you to @brookehardwickwriter, @netgalley, and @simonschusterau for the gifted copy!

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This book reeled me in pretty quickly and almost gave me vibes of “The Haunting”. It was fascinating to watch Kate regain her memories and realise the life she thought she lived was far from her actual reality.

What I didn’t expect was the ulterior motive behind the retreat itself and then that final twist at the very end kind of left me scratching my head a little? I think it would’ve been okay without it honestly.

Either way it was definitely an interesting read that had me questioning every single character in the book.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Kate travels to an isolated island for a 10 day writer’s block retreat. With strange techniques and frightening flashbacks to her recent life, Kate wonders what and who she can trust.
I must admit this started as a strange book for me. I really couldn’t get a handle on what it was really about, which in turn stopped me from becoming more involved with it.
But I persisted and found I became fascinated with Kate’s past. So very frightening as it was revealed.
There are some instances where I had to suspend belief but all come together for a climactic conclusion.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy to read

rarely read ebooks as I much prefer a physical book or an audiobook, but for this one I made an exception. An eerie thriller by an Aussie author with the same first name as me, what better reason to read a book? This was the first time I’ve requested a book on NetGalley and I was so gripped that I read it on my phone in two days.

Kate has no memory of the events leading up to the disappearance of her husband from her life, but she knows that something awful has happened. At the recommendation of her writing group she applies to attend a remote retreat touted to uncover trauma and cure writer’s block. Held on an isolated island in the Irish Channel she arrives for the ten day retreat with a small group of writers. The retreat director’s methods are somewhat unusual and Kate finds herself experiencing horrifying flashes of memory as she struggles to know what’s real and what’s not. Is she in danger and what dark secrets is she about to uncover?

I love a remote setting for a thriller and this island cut off from the mainland by distance and weather conditions was the perfect creepy place for a psychological thriller. Kate’s unreliable recollections and the changing personalities of the other guests added an extra level of tension to this disturbing and creepy story. As the paranoia began to escalate, I felt a real sense of dread and experienced moments of anger where I just wanted to toss the phone across the room. The fact that the story could elicit such an emotional response really shows how engrossed I was.

With the sense of unease mounting and Kate’s emotions spiralling I knew this was going to end with a bang, but I couldn’t have predicted just how explosive that ending would be.

If you love a psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator and plenty of creepiness then The Fog by Brooke Hardwick is a book you need to read.

The slow creep of horror that accompanies gothic thrillers is one of the reasons this particular genre is so widely read.

There is something strangely enticing about reading a story where the protagonist has terrors and darkness visited upon them in ever-increasing, debilitating waves, coupled with a vicarious sense of bearing witness to someone else’s descent into a nightmarish set of circumstances, with it made all the more compelling if you are safe and sound in your own cosy little slice of the world.

And it’s even better for complete cowards like this reviewer if all this hairs-raised-on-theback-of-the-neck reading takes place during the daytime and with only those you love and trust nearby.

Best to avoid, for instance, remote islands off the coast of Northern Ireland, which is something Kate, the protagonist of The Fog by Brooke Hardwick, manifestly does not do when she accepts an invitation to a highly specialised writers’ retreat on Rathlin, a select invite-only getaway which promises to cure her writing block by digging down into, exposing and healing the depths of her trauma-shattered psyche.

On the surface, it’s just what Kate needs – a chance to exhume the troubling secrets of her past and to come to grips with why her dream marriage to the very lovely Hugh broke down in ways that still consume her a year or more later.

Sure, the island is bleak and dark, and the manor where the retreat will be based is as foreboding as it is richly expansive, but Kate is so desperate for answers that she’s willing to put up with the pagan ritual-laced therapies which verge on the cruel at times, fellow retreat goers who seem to be falling further into madness as the ten days wear on rather than finding any form of healing, and a setting which seems straight out of horror movie central.

Kate hears odd sounds in the middle of the night, finds herself lost in boggy wastelands and weirdly intrigued by the retreat leader Cormac who offers the sort of unconditional love and support that Kate is craving, and while it all unnerves her to varying degrees, she sticks with the program because she doesn’t any remaining options left to her.

It’s either find the truth and walk into a brighter, more healed future, or … well, Kate, doesn’t want to think about that, and so as things get weirder and stranger and more inexplicable, she hangs in there, hoping that out of the most unorthodox of therapeutic settings, she’ll find some sense of peace and closure.

As the retreat goes on, and The Fog weaves it weirdly disconcerting but utterly compelling spell on you, you hear witness to what one desperate person will do to fix the past, and set herself up for a future that they suspect won’t happen if they walk away.

Kate is fresh out of choices, and so, this increasingly bizarre retreat is the only way out for her from the lingering pain and trauma of her past; if it fails, then that, most likely, is that.

What makes The Fog so brilliantly absorbing is the way that Hardwick ramps up the scares and the tension without once losing sight of the raw, bloodied & broken humanity at its heart.

No one in this story is psychologically or emotionally well, and the story ends up resting on various degrees of brokenness, and as these are exposed, with Kate experiencing more and more illuminating flashbacks, The Fog slowly but surely begins to expose just dark and twisted life can be for those lost in the trauma of secrets without a name and with seemingly no end.

The way that the layers are peeled off Kate are thoughtfully and sensitively done (by the writer, not so kuch the therapist), and while there is a sense of gothic melodrama to proceedings, the novel manages to somehow stay quite affectingly grounded, especially as the final act beckons and the temptation to go big and overwrought no doubt beckons.

The Fog, however, while it delivers the most incredible of endings, and answers a ton of questions that have been building up through its unnerving slow burn of a narrative, doesn’t lose its focus nor its sense of groundedness and so, even when all the dark truths are being laid bare, and characters exposed for who they really are – sometimes good, other times oh dear go NO bad – you still feel like here are real people grappling with all too real things in a setting that for all its gothic horror, still harbours the most basic and honest of human realities.

Key to this focus is, of course, Kate.

While she undergoes some very bleak and emotionally harrowing moments which leave her feeling like she’s going very mad indeed, and her dream of finding healing recedes well into an unreachable distance, she sticks with it somehow, the very picture of someone who has undergone severe trauma, wants to find some release from it and who will do anything to make it happen.

As she comes to understand what is true and what is not, and how vastly different what happened to her is versus what she remembers it to be, you are always left feeling, thanks to Hardwick’s beautifully empathetic and well-judged writing, as if you are sharing the journey with a very normal broken person in markedly abnormal circumstances.

It’s this anchor to very relatable, grounded humanity that keeps The Fog on an arrestingly even keel, and even as things beginning to spiral into some very nightmarish places in the brilliantly executed final act, Hardwick never lets us forget that there are real people walking amidst gothic terrors.

Atmospheric as hell (quite literally, it feels, at times) and possessed of both narrative grandeur and harrowing emotional intimacy, The Fog is a first-rate gothic thriller that delivers all the scares and the thrills and a slow-building sense of psychological horror made manifest, leaving you feeling haunted and yet released, as Kate’s finds her hopes for the future broken and shattered at the one place she thought she’d find healing, and she has to fight, and fight hard, to grasp hold of a redeemed future that matters so much to her.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
This story was an absolute roller-coaster of emotions. While I did enjoy this story i found Kate to be a bit frustrating which would pull me out of the story. Definitely I book I would still recommend though.

Ooh! This is one grippy, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller! Packed with unexpected twists, The Fog had me hooked from the first chapter to the last and I honestly had no idea that the story would end as it did. Setting the book on remote Rathlin Island is a master stroke by author Brooke Hardwick, as the weather, the sea and the remotness all contributed to ramping up the suspense. The characters were fascinating too. It was clear from the start that Kate, the central character in this story, is facing a range of emotional issues, all of which come out along the way. Surrounding her are a cast of characters who are mostly not particularly nice. Add to this the various strange goings on around the isolated manor house where the retreat is held and you know nothing is as it seems and nobody is necessarily going to be trustworthy. I absolutely adored this story both for its characters and for its plot and I will certainly look for more books from this author.

The Fog – Brooke Hardwick
With thanks to Net Galley, Simon + Schuster Australia and the author, Brooke Hardwick, for the opportunity to read this eARC.
This debut novel from Australian author, Brooke Hardwick, is a real doozy.

Described as a ‘spine chilling, gothic thriller, we instantly meet our main character Kate who is suffering. Is it just writers block? What is happening in her marriage? She plans to attend a 10-day retreat on a remote island in Ireland to help find the answers.

A Twisted tale filled with revelations from our MC as her trauma unfolds and her memories unlock, she starts to remember what she has truly suffered at the hands of her now vanished husband Hugh. We quickly build the visuals of this small island community, the omnipresent wind, the roar of the ocean, the isolation, the menacing cliffs, and as the therapy builds, so do her memories. But what are these strange happenings that keep occurring? Kate runs into trouble and injuries, black outs and manic moments where she struggles with reality, memories and her mind. Is she seeing things?

With a cast full of intrigue and stories that are woven cleverly, there is a constant state of spinning in the readers mind, trying to grasp on to the different threads and figure out where we are headed. As much as Kate manically tries to piece back her memories and understand what it is that she has been through in the last few years, we the reader, go through the story in a similar fashion, never knowing who to trust, who to put faith in, what to believe – including our main character, Kate. The style in which this has been written, the erratic way that her memories have returned to her make for a quick devouring. Kate’s constant state of flux keeps the readers on their toes, and distracted from some of the clues on offer as to how this retreat might end.

This novel is manic, thrilling and atmospheric, a tale of trauma, memory and psychosis, and a tale of rediscovering oneself that has been interlaced with dread, menace, intrigue, and a whole lot of uncertainty. Whilst it is a slow build up to the eventual climax, the tension forged through bite sized (tantalising) character discoveries and developments makes for an obsessive page turner and subsequently, a very quick read!

Brooke Hardwick deploys every gothic trope she can in her debut The Fog. Right from the opening there is the mansion on the remote Irish Island, the taciturn, possible violent Scottish factotum, the christmatic guru, an addled heroine who can't trust her memory and has visions of blood, wild weather, cliff tops and trauma. Unfortunately, what all of this adds up to is more gothic style over literary substance with a bizarre premise and contrivances galore.
Kate has signed up for a ten day writers block therapy session on a remote Island. It turns out that Kate has been writing a book that somewhat reflects her life, her marriage and pregnancy but has found herself blocked. The small group therapy is run by Cormac who does not appear to have any real qualifications but is quite happy to put his charges in dangerous or traumatic situations to help them 'express their feelings'. Kate not only finds herself expressing her feelings but also reliving and re-evaluating her marriage to Hugh which, now that she thinks about it/remembers it properly was pretty ghastly. It is unclear why it is only now she is remembering his uber-controlling actions in a new light except maybe for... trauma? Meanwhile the other guests are wierd and spooky, dangerous things keep happening on the Island - brakes fail, blood is spilt, strange objects appear in Kate's room - all building a sense of unease and danger.
Hardwick knows all the cliches but she makes heavy going of the story, which is laboured, hard to engage with and more than a little contrived. Readers into stories set on windswept (there is alot of wind), desolate islands where creepy things happen to people who should not have been there in the forst place may enjoy this one. Others will be looking for their gothic fix elsewhere.

The Fog follows protagonist Kate as she struggles through writers block, propelling her to sign up for a 10 day retreat targeted at authors.

The eerie dynamic of the retreat coupled with mysterious and untrustworthy characters creates a compelling psychological thriller. When Kate regains her memory in flashes, the credibility of the retreat as well as her fellow participants comes into question.

This story takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions. Because Kate herself is so unstable and uncertain of who she is, it becomes difficult to know who to trust. This is ultimately what makes this story work so well.

Whilst the beginning of the book was quite slow and difficult to advance through, the story slowly built up suspense and drama, ultimately leading to a successful and well written piece.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advanced copy of this novel.

Kate had lost everything and when a ten-day retreat for writers was offered on a remote Irish island, Rathlin, and she was accepted into the group, she hoped it would work to ease her mind; to recover the memories from a mind which was blank from trauma. The journey from London was a long one, the final few miles across the channel to the island by ferry, rough and exhilarating. Kate had no idea what to expect, all she had was hope.

Cormac ran the retreat, with help from Ewan. The old manor they were all housed in had been renovated; it was enthralling as they all sat around in a circle, listening to their host list the itinerary for the following ten days. He warned them some days would be hard but they weren't really prepared for what lay ahead. The wild weather accentuated the tasks; the howling wind and brutal storms caused fragmented memories to return to Kate and she wrote it all in her journal so she wouldn't forget again. It was all so intense...

Creepy, atmospheric and chilling best describes The Fog by debut Aussie author Brooke Hardwick. With well written characters who played their parts particularly aptly, the horror of some actions had me cringing. While there were a couple of places that didn't gel (view spoiler), it was a good psychological thriller, especially as the author's debut. Recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster AU for my digital ARC to read.

Oh my goodness! The emotional ride I have just been on is almost indescribable - I am struggling to find the words - which is why I’m not an author! The Fog is one of the best psychological thriller I’ve read for a while, and is certainly going to be a top read of mine for this year.

The main character, Kate, is in a state - as the book opens she is on edge, scared, close to tears, a migraine building. In short she is an emotional wreck. She has travelled alone from London and is waiting to catch a ferry out to Rathmine island just off the Irish coast near the Giants Causeway. She has been accepted into a ten day retreat run by a man called Cormac to help overcome writers block. Kate is scared the retreat won’t work. She tells herself she’s broken and it is clear something has happened to her husband, but she doesn’t know what. She has lost so many memories - nothing is clear to her. The Fog appears to be a description of Kate’s mind. She is hoping the retreat will clear the fog, at the same time she is scared it won’t.

The whole book has an edge of menace, creepy house, creepy director and assorted mentally disturbed characters who all seem to have an ulterior motive - and not for good. Along with Kate, there is another single woman and a married couple. All four characters have issues. Nothing is clear, and as the reader I didn’t know who to trust. Even Kate is unreliable as she has no idea which way is up and what her slowly emerging memories mean. All that is certain is that something traumatic resulted in the end of her marriage and she has no idea where her husband is. As well as the retreat Director Cormac, did I mention he is creepy, there is his brother who has just rocked up and a general handyman, cook and helper.

The island is rugged with tall cliffs and crashing sea, it is actually based on a real island that the author visited. The weather is bitterly cold with strong winds and storms sweeping off the North Atlantic and across the island. There are Celtic ruins which are used for some of the sessions, as Cormac’s therapies are linked to the mythology of the island - which adds to the overarching creepiness. Tension rises as members of the retreat start to fall apart as the daily sessions progress. Are they being helped, or are they being mentally tortured? Kate’s sessions trigger flashbacks with just enough information for me to gradually figure out what might of happened. I did correctly figured a lot of it out - only to discover that our tricky author, Brooke Hardwick, was not content with her readers working out what was going on - but added a twist at the end which I, for one, could not even guess was going to happen. Bravo Brooke - I am now waiting with baited breath for your next book.

For me successful suspense has to feature a certainty of danger, feelings of anxiety and uncertainty which all increase as a story progresses. This book fulfilled all my expectations in bucket loads. Was a slow but unrelenting build up of tension to the eventual climax. An absolute page turner because I had to know how it was going to turn out

This was an absolutely thrilling read! I was hooked by the story from the beginning and really enjoyed the way that snippets of memory were revealed as the story progressed. Lots of twists and turns throughout, and never really a dull moment - I read this book over the course of a weekend! Highly reccomended.
(Check trigger warnings!)
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

In this dark and gritty psychological thriller, Kate attends a ten day retreat for authors with writer’s block on windswept, remote Rathlin Island off the northern coat of Ireland. Ever since the traumatic end to her marriage to her husband Hugh, she has been unable to move on with her novel and hopes the retreat will release whatever is blocking her.

The setting for the retreat is very atmospheric. The island is rugged and it’s bitterly cold with regular storms rushing in. The retreat is unlike no other. A small group of four people carefully selected by Cormac, the director, stay in the mansion that has been in his family for generations and are exposed to a range of challenging and often unpleasant experiences designed to make them face their trauma. Kate starts to experience flashbacks that make her see her marriage in a new light. Many of Cormac’s therapies are tied to the mythology of the island which adds to the eeriness of the location.

Kate comes across as a very needy woman who is unsure of herself allowing others to trample her and allowing herself to be put in dangerous situations so it’s difficult to understand her behaviour at times. As the group all start to crumple and fall apart from the unusual therapies, the tension rises inexorably, keeping the reader on edge as the novel heads to its dramatic climax. I wasn’t totally convinced by the final twist which wrapped up everything a bit too neatly but I enjoyed the journey and the author’s skill in maintaining the unsettling sense of mystery and danger throughout the novel.

4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

I changed my mind so many times while I was reading this book about whether I was enjoying it, did I want to keep going but I have to say I am glad I did because by the end I thought it was a great read.

I seem to pick books lately, though not on purpose, whose themes are around mental health and I wasn't expecting that theme to run through to The Fog also.

This is a very different mystery book and the setting itself added to the mystery surrounding the whole retreat for writers with writer's block.

There is a lot of back and forth in time as Kate starts to remember things she has forgotten due to trauma and we learn about her husband, her marriage and her child. This is a dark theme of abuse that plays through the story and is used by the man who runs the retreat for his own purposes carefully crafted and designed for the retreat goers to believe he is helping them, his methods are very unconventional, but he is constantly telling them they have a purpose, all will become clear.

The other retreat participants have their own issues and trauma that has led them to be there and this adds to the intrigue and drama that plays out on the island.

I thought that the author weaved an intriguing tale that took me to many places I wasn't expecting to go. Do be aware there are some triggering themes and events in this novel.

Thanks to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster Australia for providing me with a free ebook in return for an honest review.

The Fog by Brooke Hardwick had all the elements of a great mystery—a writer with amnesia and writer’s block, a retreat on a remote Irish island, and a dark local history. Initially, the story hooked me, but as it progressed, it began to lose its grip.

The plot follows Kate, a writer who arrives at Rathlin, a desolate Irish island, for a 10-day retreat designed to help authors overcome creative blocks. Kate hopes to fill the gaps in her memory and break through her writer's block, which began after her marriage fell apart. The retreat’s director incorporates the island’s eerie mythology and harsh weather into the therapy, pushing participants to their limits. As Kate starts to recover her memories, she realises she may not be able to trust herself or those around her.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book with it’s the slow-burn setup and getting to know the island and its inhabitants. The island's gloomy, cold atmosphere perfectly matched the unfolding events, and I loved the rich history woven into the narrative.

Unfortunately, the story’s direction in the second half didn’t work for me. The ending felt too contrived and convenient, with twists that seemed hastily added to tie up loose ends felt unsatisfying. It's worth noting that the book explores some dark themes; while I typically avoid including trigger warnings to prevent spoilers, it may be wise to check them out if you're unsure.

While The Fog didn’t completely connect with me, I’m still eager to read more from this author. There was enough potential in the story to keep me intrigued about what she writes next.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me ARC copy of this title for honest review.

The Fog by Brooke Hardwick ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Fog by Brooke Hardwick is a gripping psychological thriller that plunges you into the chilling atmosphere of a remote island retreat, where secrets lurk in the shadows and memories twist into something far more dangerous. The story follows Kate, a woman on the brink, who travels to the desolate island of Rathlin in the freezing Irish Channel for a ten-day writers’ retreat. Haunted by fragmented memories and the unresolved trauma of her broken marriage, Kate is determined to leave the retreat with answers.

As the retreat’s enigmatic director employs techniques that tap into the eerie mythology of the island, Kate becomes increasingly drawn to him and the strange surroundings. But as the temperature drops and the therapeutic methods grow more intense, Kate's memories begin to unravel, revealing a terrifying truth. Faced with dark secrets and growing duplicity, Kate must navigate her past and survive the deadly situation she has unwittingly entered.

I love an isolated location vibe, and this one delivered plenty of atmosphere. The wild, remote island setting was perfectly executed, and the Celtic mythology woven into the story added a sense of otherworldliness and delusion that mirrored Kate’s mental state.

The way the story gradually revealed aspects of Kate’s memory was masterful, keeping me on edge and desperate to uncover the truth. The depiction of coercive domestic abuse was chillingly accurate, showcasing how victims can be manipulated to the point of questioning their own sanity. Hardwick’s writing is excellently executed, maintaining a constant state of intrigue and engagement throughout the novel.

However, as much as we can sympathize with what Kate is going through emotionally and psychologically, her character is inconsistent due to her repeated questioning and doubting herself. She often comes across as timid, feeble, and insecure—traits that made her difficult to root for. Her constant self-undermining behavior, along with her inability to recognize alarming situations, was frustrating and made her a rather unlikeable protagonist. Kate’s weakness and neediness left me more annoyed than empathetic, and I found it hard to truly connect with her.

I also felt that the character of Hugh was a bit overdone, coming off as a caricature of a manic villain. A more nuanced portrayal could have deepened the discussion on coercive control and abusive relationships. Additionally, the ending was a bit over the top and far-fetched, which took away from the otherwise compelling narrative.

Ruby, on the other hand, was a standout character, and I would have loved to see more of her. She was easily the strongest among the guests at the retreat. Also, a surprising twist towards the end had me rethinking my perception of Ewan, which was a nice touch, although it left me slightly confused.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the setting—there’s nothing quite like a remote location to heighten the tension in a thriller. The Fog is a strong entry in the genre, and while it had its flaws, it kept me engaged and entertained from start to finish.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for the ARC. The Fog will be published on September 4th.

While I like psychological thrillers I found this book to be a bit boring and drawn out. I found myself skim reading a few times just to hurry the story along. After a very slow build up it was all over in a few pages.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I enjiyed this book it was easy to read and it had drama and thriller with th characters and drama and suspence that kept me wondering about the fog

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of The Fog from NetGalley. The novel follows the main protagonist, Kate, to a remote island off the coast of Northern Ireland to participate in an exclusive Writer’s Retreat focused on freeing the creative mind of writers block. The plot follows Kate’s journey as her memory is unlocked and pieces of her lost past come flooding back, all while encountering the strange and eerie goings on of the island and the people visiting it.

I’m a thriller girl (and a writer) and there were so many elements of The Fog that were the perfect ingredients of a chilling story. Unfortunately, the copy read a bit more like a first draft. The characters, especially the main protagonist and antagonists, felt underdeveloped. The villains, Hugh and Cormac, were a little stereotypical and I didn’t know enough about them to understand their motivations. These, combined with some plot holes, left me feeling as though it was all a bit far fetched.

The most frustrating part was that the climactic scene was done and dusted in about half a page after my interest ebbed and flowed for 95 percent of the book.

I’d like to be clear that the author is a talented writer and the plot itself had the makings of a page turner. But the issues flagged previously as well as the repetition of phrases (the “howling wind” and the frequent references to a secondary character touching the shaved part of her head) were frustrating. I think it just needed a stronger edit - tightening in some areas while characters were fleshed out. I would absolutely pick up future books written by Brooke Hardwick.