Such a good thriller! I had to finish it in one night; I couldn't put it down. What a wild story! The main character was a little strange at times but overall very good.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thea is a single adult, who works in art therapy at a nearby institution. She lives with a female friend, Dom, and has had many on and off again relationships. Thea struggles to develop relationships with men due to traumatic experiences with a boy in Middle School (Adam) as well as extreme misbehavior from her family’s pastor, Pastor John.

Thea arrives to work one day to see that she has a new inpatient, Catherine. Catherine is catatonic and not responding to anyone. Thea thinks that she looks familiar, but doesn’t put it together until later in the day that Catherine is the childhood actress from her favorite movie as a child, Stargirl. This realization helps the facility track down Catherine’s family. However, while Catherine’s family is on the way to the hospital, Catherine is checked out by people portraying her parents.

Thea is astounded and feels a true connection with Catherine. She searches for clues as to where she may have been taken and makes a connection to a podcast that Catherine was listening to on Thea’s phone. Over the course of the weekend, Thea has found the “healing center” in the desert (that sponsors the podcast) and registered for their upcoming 3-day retreat in an attempt to “save” Catherine.

Will Thea find herself during the retreat or will she regress and find that she isn’t able to release herself from the happenings in her earlier life?

This book is truly gripping, and I think the plot progressed perfectly. Some of the variables got a bit out there, and I found myself trying to figure out what reality we are supposed to be in. I haven't read The Writing Retreat, but I'm putting it on my TBR now.

Thank you Simon & Shuster for the E-Arc via Netgalley.

The Last Session by Julia Bartz was an intriguing yet uneven reading experience. Thea, a psychiatric ward employee, is thrust into a chilling mystery involving a celebrity, a cult, and long-buried secrets. It starts strong, setting up an engaging psychological thriller with cult-like elements. but its lack of cohesion caused it to faltered under the weight of an overly complex narrative. I enjoyed the fast pace and twists, but it became unconvincing and too far-fetched for me. Found myself dealing with dwindling engagement.

Rating: ✰✰/5

Thank you for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. ・❥・

I loved The Writing Retreat, so requesting Julia Bartz's new book was a no-brainer. It felt so different in tone and subject matter than her previous book — which isn't a bad thing — but this lacked the escapism that I loved in the first plot. The Last Session was much darker from the start, which will probably appeal to a lot of readers. Right now, I'm looking for something a little different than this offered.

Thea, a 33-year-old social worker in her second career, is two years into her job at a New York City psychiatric center that often takes in Jane Does and troubled patients. One day, a mute and seemingly catatonic Jane Doe is admitted, someone who looks eerily familiar—almost like Thea herself. Thea soon realizes that the woman is Catherine O’Brien, the former child star of Thea’s favorite, if slightly controversial, film from her teenage years. Obsessed with the movie as a teen, Thea is stunned when Catherine starts recovering enough to chat with her. But before Thea can process the surreal encounter, a dubious couple claiming to be Catherine’s parents abruptly takes her away.

Thea, grappling with her own baggage—ranging from a religious upbringing that involved sexual grooming to bullies, a failed art career, and a stagnant love life—becomes fixated on Catherine’s disappearance. Her search leads her to a bizarre, cult-like retreat in New Mexico, a place promising to rid attendees of “Ghost lovers” and explore past lives—all while draining their wallets.

As with Bartz’s The Writing Retreat, the protagonist is introspective and deeply conflicted, which sometimes makes it hard to empathize with her. Still, the compelling plot kept me hooked through Thea’s unraveling journey of obsession and self-discovery. While this story lacks the catfight energy of Bartz’s previous novel, it’s a captivating and atmospheric read.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:

Green Eyes: Yes, both Catherine and Thea have green eyes, continuing the literary trend of overusing this rare trait.
Horticultural Faux Pas: None here! The book’s settings—shifting from NYC to remote New Mexico—feel authentic and well-researched.
Rating: 4 Stars
Thank you to Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

I did read the Writing Retreat and enjoyed it, so I was very happy to get an E-ARC of The Last Session. This is a thriller, though it incorporates, childhood trauma, psychological issues and cult vibes. It started off good, but I felt like it was trying to cover too many tropes and did get a bit far- fetched and unhinged in the last two parts. It did keep me reading but felt it was a bit too long for what it is. Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the E-ARC all opinions are my own.
3.5 star

this was… interesting.
it had me in a chokehold, genuinely. the first part left me needing to know the connection between Thea and Catherine and because of that i couldn’t put it down. i had absolutely no idea where it was going, and it was SO unsettling. which, i actually really enjoyed.
but then… it just sort of started to feel like it was dragging.
the leading factor for 3 stars is just how implausible it is at some points. parts that were so far fetched that it made it lose seriousness in a way?

This book started great. It felt like a good mystery, but about part two I had my doubts and debated on DNFing the book. Then in part three it went off the rails and I realized I should’ve stuck to my gut and quit when I realized I didn’t like the trajectory. It went downhill fast after part one. It wasn’t for me. It went almost into a fantastical trope which was a surprise, but I didn’t like where it went. It felt cheesy and felt like I was watching a B-rated movie from the early 1990s because too much was happening but nothing was moving forward..

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for giving me an eARC of this book. The opinion in this review is my own.

The beginning of this book started beautifully - I generally love psychotherapy thrillers. I enjoyed the premise and couldn’t wait to figure out what was happening with Thea’s patient. However, the book unfortunately started to drag on and became completely bizarre/implausible for me. Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: April 01, 2025
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

I enjoyed The Writing Retreat and so I just KNEW I was going to love The Last Session! The pacing as fast and smooth and flowed well, the writing style was just how I remember and enjoyed and it was a seat hanging good time that’s for sure.

This takes you on a wild roller coaster of a time with so many twists and turns. We follow Thea through the book and she works at a psychiatric ward and one day everything for her changes when a favorite celebrity comes in and then is signed out by people who aren’t who they are telling people they are…Theas launches herself into this mystery and that’s when the book starts to twist for you! I loved Theas character all the way through! The amount of time you will ask yourself out loud what in the world is happening and gasping is A LOT, trust me. This book will certainly be on a lot of people’s favorites for 2025!

Large thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as Atria Books, Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was a slog after about the halfway point. I am very interested in reincarnation and culty vibes separately, but for some reason they just didn’t work together for me in this novel. Good writing, just not for me.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Writing Retreat but liked it well enough to try her second novel in hopes that it was better. Spoilers: it wasn’t.

I decided to DNF at 60% of the way through. Part 1 was actually pretty interesting and set up a compelling plot, but it all went downhill from there. Part 1 and Part 2 honestly felt like reading two completely different novels. All of the long, drawn out scenes of Thea participating in the cult and interacting with leaders Moon and Sol seemed like a ton of filler that offered very little. I feel like Moon and Sol could’ve been characterized in a few intense scenes with the focus still on the missing Catherine and the protagonist’s reason for flying all the way to LA to find her. However, the plot was lost immediately upon entering Part 3. The main plot seemed to me to be: find Catherine and save her from the cult leaders who kidnapped her from the rehab facility. Thea finds and Catherine and… she says she’s fine? Ok, problem solved! There was probably more to the story that I would’ve uncovered if I’d kept reading, but at this point, I had no motivation to continue forward other than the sheer hope that something thrilling might finally happen at the end.

The cult seemed like a very average cult with nothing dangerous about them, which was pretty disappointing. If I pick up a thriller with a cult in it, I want the cult to be at least sort of scary - not just over-the-top ridiculous and corny.

Overall, the plot seemed to have been lost and the direction of the novel was not clear. Because the plot was so jumbled and loose, there were also no motivating factors for readers to keep reading; there was no pay off in sight. Finally, this novel was way too long and could’ve done with at least 100 pages chopped.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the arc.

Like The Writing Retreat, The Last Session feels like two or more books. Is it about cults? The supernatural? Reincarnation? It’s too much to fit into one book that it’s disorienting; not entertaining. The first third of the book was an appropriately paced and teased build up while the last third of the book was rushed and unrealistic. The main character is insufferable so there is nobody to root for. Unfortunately, I think I’m done reading Julia Bartz books.

I very much enjoyed The Writing Retreat and was excited to read Julia Bartz’s new novel. I’m not normally a thriller fan but I really enjoy her work and this was no exception. I loved the details of the “wellness” center and the skewering of that culture, and I was hooked as the mystery at the center unraveled.

Really enjoyed The Last Session.This was a book full of twists and turns that drew me in from beginning to end.Looking forward to to reading more by this author. #netgalley #atria

I have so many mixed feelings! All of the ingredients are there. It has great tropes, interesting settings, a religious cult, and the cover is so pretty. I’m all about it. Started off strong in a psych ward, and then by the end I felt like maybe I was in the psych ward hallucinating. 😂 It was all there, but it was a bit too out there for me. I know people will love this one because of all the components, but it didn’t hit all the right notes for me personally! My Goodreads and StoryGraph both said it’s 240 pages too, but I’m pretty sure it’s way more than that! Closer to 400 pages. It’s definitely intriguing and kept me turning pages to see what we would experience next!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC!

This book felt very similar to Julia Barth last book, but I wasn’t a huge fan of this book. I just couldn’t connect with why Thea was so obsessed with Catherine and desperate to “save” her. I felt like sh was an unreliable narrator too. I thought some of the stuff in New Mexico was good but then it just went too far and I didn’t like it.

The first 40% of this book was good. I was invested in finding out what happened to Catherine. The mystery was engaging. Then, it got weird. Really weird. It also went on much longer than it needed to. I don't think I was the right audience for this book. I do appreciate the message the author was trying to give. I loved this author's previous novel, The Writing Retreat.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"The Last Session" is full of suspense, twists and turns. If you are looking for an easy-read mystery/thriller and enjoy cult stories, this could be the book for you. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Pub Date: April 1, 2025.

#TheLastSession