Thea, two years into social work (second career), 33 years old, is working in a New York City public psychiatric center that takes in Jane Does and other troubled patients, often until they are transferred elsewhere. One day a mute and possibly catatonic Jane Doe, who eerily seems familiar and looks a lot like Thea, is admitted after having been found wandering on an expressway. It suddenly clicks that Jane is actually Catherine O’Brien, who was the thirteen year old star of Thea’s favorite, albeit a tad controversial, film when Thea was the same age. Teenage Thea had been absolutely obsessed with the movie. Catherine’s early fame faded, but Thea is still astounded when her celebrity twin crush recovers enough to be chatting with her. But that ends suddenly when an imposter couple claiming to be the actress’s parents suddenly whisk her away.

Thea has her own baggage: a religious upbringing that included sexual grooming, encounters with bullies who physically assaulted her, an unsuccessful art career, a sad current love life, a need for her own therapy, and a roommate eager to have her move out soon. Yet, she feels drawn to Catherine’s disappearance and believes that Catherine has gone to an expensive cult-like wellness/relationship retreat in New Mexico.

From this point, we get drawn into Thea’s obsession once she decides to go to the Land of Enchantment to a Center claiming to get rid of your “Ghost lovers,” explore past-life reincarnations, and take your money while doing so.

As in the “Writing Retreat,” the main character seems too introspective and conflicted about everything. Again, I just couldn’t totally empathize with Thea (what are you doing, girl, trying to find this faded celebrity?), but the plot kept me going until the end. This is less the cat fight that author Bartz’s previous novel was, so 4 stars.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Catherine and Thea have green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO A big change in scenery occurs once Thea leaves NYC for remote New Mexico.

Thank you to Atria Books/ Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Thank you Atria Books for the copy of The Last Session by Julia Bartz. I don’t know why I love cult books so much. This one was creepy. When the culty stuff really kicked in, it was kind of weird and not very plausible. I was curious what was going to happen so I stuck with the story and I’m glad I did. The reveals were great, and I loved how everything came together at the end. This book will keep you guessing about where reality stops and make you think about how past scars can have an effect long into adulthood. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

The Last Session by Julia Bartz is a chilling and locked room thriller that will keep you on the edge until the final page. Social worker Thea is thrust into a dark and twisting journey after encountering a mysterious patient linked to her past. When the patient vanishes, Thea’s search leads her to a remote wellness retreat in the New Mexico desert. The atmosphere is an eerie, cult like setting where secrets and danger lurk. The psychological tension and creeping sense dread adds to the haunting isolation of the desert. I loved the characters, the tightly wound and suspenseful plot, and the shocking twists!

I read Julia Bartz’s first novel, “the Writing Retreat” when it came out and liked it, but didn’t love it. I went into this one not sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The plot is mildly complicated, but revolves around a social worker at a psychiatric hospital who meets a patient who’s recovering from what appears to be a catatonic state. Thea, our main character feels connected to this woman and this connection leads her to explore a cult-like group in New Mexico. I liked the first chapter in this, which sets up a terrifying scenario & you’re not sure who is experiencing this or if it’s even real. The pace of this was quick - not much filler here. Julia Bartz is also clearly an experienced therapist as well as writer because she uses extremely traumatic subject matter (sexual abuse, religious abuse) not in an exploitative or distasteful way, but rather as a way to get to know characters living with trauma and mental illness. The mystery of this was great as well. Once I started, I had trouble putting it down.

Have you ever read a book that feels right place/right time? The Last Session is that book for me.
Bartz explores themes of religious abuse as well as sexual harassment and bullying and how those things shape sexuality.
She digs deep into how trauma can, and often is, a defining factor in sexual identity.
I personally felt validation while reading this, and it made me take a closer look at how religious abuse has defined me into adulthood.

All that being said, this is also a fantastic mystery. Lots of intrigue that will leave you wondering if there is a deeper connection between Thea and Catherine or if Thea's obsession is clouding her judgment.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A woman with a traumatic past gets roped into a weekend retreat in order to solve a mystery.

What she uncovers is more than what she was expecting.

This was really fun: you have this wild “cult” like retreat, Thea’s not so great amateur sleuthing, and plenty of plot twists.

I’ll definitely continue to pick up books by this author.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC

I was so excited to be approved for this ARC after reading The Writing Retreat and loving it so very much. This book was very enthralling and I was captured by the plight of the main characters. Definitely will be easily recommending this to others.

Okay Julia Bartz is a force of nature in the mystery thriller genre. While I loved the Writing Retreat, I didn’t love The Last Session AS much which surprised me because I love cults. I think it was the sci fi elements that were throwing me, but I do think they were relevant to the plot. Overall, an excellent second novel! Well done