This is my first book by this author. The story offers an intriguing glimpse into a mysterious cult, which initially pulls you in with its eerie premise. While the slow start sets the stage for tension, the plot soon escalates into an odd mix of bizarre and far-fetched twists that feel unnecessary. Despite the excitement building midway through, the narrative becomes increasingly hard to follow, detracting from its overall impact. While it has moments of potential, the story loses its grip, leading to a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. Overall, it earns 3 stars for its unique concept, but the execution falters.

I received a complementary ARC of this book from NetGalley on behalf of the author and the publisher.

This book had a lot going on and my suggestion is grab on you're in for a wild ride. I don't really know where to start. Social Worker Thea has her own past issues that she's trying to deal with when she gets caught up with a patient that she feels strongly drawn to. She follows this patient to try to help her, gets caught up in a cult like center in New Mexico. So many things happen, possibly in an alternate universe. I just went with it, trying not to over think it and enjoyed this story.

After loving Julia Bartz’s debut, The Writing Retreat, I went into The Last Session with high hopes of another edge-of-my-seat thriller, but The Last Session just felt off to me. All the pieces are there, but they just failed to connect. I do feel like TLS has an audience and that there will be those that love it. I’m anxiously awaiting Julia’s next book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Julia Bartz, and Atria Books for the eARC. What a wild ride—this book had me questioning my own reality at times! Set in an isolated and atmospheric retreat, the story follows a main character whose descent into psychological chaos is both chilling and fascinating. I loved the eerie cult vibes, mind-bending twists, and the constant sense of unease. Suspenseful, smart, and impossible to put down, this one will have you flipping pages late into the night.

People in emotional pain can be easy prey

Thea is 32 years old and is relatively new to her second career working as a social worker/therapist at a psychiatric ward in New York City. Her personal life is not what she would like it to be; her most recent relationship collapsed when she confided a long-held secret to her boyfriend and he recoiled from it (and her), and her roommate has just informed Thea that when their lease comes up she will be living with her new girlfriend, leaving Thea without a roommate or a place to live. Now her professional life is disrupted when a new patient arrives, catatonic and mute. She looks a lot like Thea, but beyond that she seems very familiar to her on a personal level as well. She turns out to be Catherine, an actress who starred in a film with which (during a turbulent time in her youth) Thea was once obsessed. The woman's reaction to hearing her identity is explosive, and she soon disappears from Thea's unit. Thea feels compelled to track Catherine down, and ultimately locates her in the New Mexico desert at a wellness center which is run by a charismatic couple, Sol and Moon, and which features a monthly retreat promising to heal peoples' relationship problems. Thea finds herself drawn into the center's program and soon is a participant in the retreat. As she tries to get close to Catherine, might Thea also heal her own emotional wounds and deal with the trauma of the past? Or is she falling prey to a cult?
The Last Session is an atmospheric psychological thriller, set in a remote location that renders it akin to a locked room mystery. Thea in particular is a relatable character who survived bullying and an abusive period when in her teens at the small church-based school she attended which has left her with issues. The last therapist with whom she had worked abruptly moved away, leaving Thea reluctant to trust another with her secrets. She is vulnerable to the couple who run the center because of her unresolved issues, Not all characters are as fully realized as is Thea, however, which affects the overall novel. The author's training as a therapist allows her to infuse the different aspects of Thea's job and therapy sessions with realistic elements. The setting in particular is vividly described and contributes to the tension-filled atmosphere within the pages. I found the pacing to be uneven which slowed the pace of the story, and some of the plot twists were not as surprising to me as perhaps the author intended (I read a lot of books in the genre, which may explain that...others may have a different experience). Overall I found the premise of the book to be intriguing, and certain elements of the story to be compelling, but did not enjoy it quite as much as I did Ms Bartz's first book. I would rate it a solid 3 ⭐️ overall, and think that it would appeal to readers of Catherine Steadman, Ruth Ware and Megan Miranda. My thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books for allowing me access to the novel in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you like:
🌴 trigger warnings ❌
🌴 secluded island setting
🌴 locked-room thrillers
🌴 a little spice 🌶️🌶️ with your thrillers
🌴 single POV
🌴 single timeline

I was lucky enough to get Julia Bartz’s debut novel as an ARC and I was so ecstatic to get selected for this 2nd novel as well 😁😁 Thank you so much to Atria Books and Julia Bartz for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review 💕
The characters were all crazy, and I absolutely loved it 🤪🤪 (ESPECIALLY the retreat leaders). I did not like any of the characters but I don’t think you possibly could?
I know a lot of people like smut 🤪 so you may enjoy this thriller with just a little bit of spice 🌶️🌶️
There were some kind of crazy parts in here that lost me a little bit… but overall a very interesting story.

Thanks to Atria Books for gifted access via NetGalley. All opinions below my own.

WTF?

But not in a good way.

I have no idea what I just read.

Not sure if I even enjoyed it.

This book started out strong but about 1/2 way through it started to drag. I lost interest. I was really hoping this was going to be a 5 star but unfortunately it was not. Thank you #netgally and #atriabooks for the opportunity to read it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the sophomore book by Julia Bartz, sister of the also-talented Andrea Bartz! All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 3 stars!

Thea works as a social worker at a psychiatric unit in NYC. When a catatonic woman shows up, Thea knows she is familiar to her and comes to realize that there is a link between this woman and Thea's own traumatic past. When the woman regains lucidity, she says she has no clue how she got there or what happened. Then just as suddenly, she's gone. Thea is determined to find her and ends up in a remote center in New Mexico, where a couple holds retreats to uncover attendees' issues. Forced to participate, Thea finds herself not knowing who she can trust and what is real.

I was a fan of Bartz' debut, The Writing Retreat, and this one seemed to be made for me - cults, secrets, remote locked room mystery. But I found it slow going and the second half seemed to veer off into way too much of everything. I liked the tension in parts and was anxious to find out the truth, but it seemed to get bogged down with just a lot. Give it a try if you like locked room mysteries - lots of people are loving this one! I'll be anxious to read her next as well.

I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately it required me suspending beliefs so greatly that it fell flat. It had moments where it really picked up and I was excited to see where it was going. But then, it would just fall flat. It seemed like maybe the author had one idea of a plot and then pivoted and through something else out of left field. Overall, a bit disappointing!

The Last Session by Julia Bartz is a deeply twisted tale of a social worker who falls into the clutches of a murderous cult.
Thea is your typical social worker. Her clients are regular patients suffering from your run of the mill mental illnesses, until a new woman shows up. She is so deeply traumatized, she hasn’t spoken since arriving at the mental hospital. When Thea sees her she can’t help but feel some kind of connection to her. Thea figures out where she’s seen her! She’s a famous actress who stared in Thea’s favorite film as a teenager. Her name is Catherine and she feels a strange connection to Thea as well. While getting to know Catherine, Thea can help but wonder what happened to her that would bring her to a mental health center.
After Catherine leaves abruptly, Thea’s protective nature for her goes on high alert. As it turns out Catherine has hidden clues for Thea to find, leading her to a “Relational Heath Center” deep in the scenic and secluded desert of New Mexico. Thea is purely there to look for Catherine, but as the sessions start, Thea is finds herself confronted with her own trauma from her past. Not to mention the unconventional hosts have some abnormal ways about how they are leading their clients.
It turns out this “Retreat” isn’t just to heal and confront the problems that keep their clients from creating healthy relationships, they have an agenda that requires more than just a few sessions.

What I liked:
There are a few intertwining plot lines making for a more dynamic reading experience, as well as a deeper character development.
I enjoyed the premise of a deeper dive into the story of a cult following.
The setting is a character in its self. The rich writing describing the arid and mysterious New Mexico makes a delightfully dreadful sense of place.

What I disliked:
A lot happens in this book, to the point that the direction of the story starts to get blurry. It takes some bizarre turns that seem to derail where this story ends up.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a thriller fascinated by cults and other extreme beliefs.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really interesting story, it focuses in on some new age culty topics that are really fascinating and it is told at a great pace. There were some parts that left me questioning but overall a really great thriller

Wow this was a wild ride from start to finish. I truly spent a lot of this book having no clue where it was going and I really enjoyed that. I think this book does a great job of exploring some very heavy themes and how people can be so strongly impacted by trauma in so many different ways. This book takes so many twists and turns but does a good job of not losing you in the process. The ending did start to get a bit repetitive and I did feel like there were a few spots where we could have moved on to the final scenes but didn’t. However I still really enjoyed my time reading this book and will continue to pick up everything this author writes because her writing style is for me.
Thanks to Atria and NetGalley for the ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 rounded up

I struggled to stay engaged and ultimately found it to be a mixed experience. The psychological tension was there, but the handling of sexual trauma felt off, and the story took some bizarre turns that didn’t fully land for me. Overall, it was an okay read, but not as compelling as I had hoped.

Well…that was certainly a trippy, trippy ride!

This was a 3.5 star read for me that I’m rounding up to 4.

The reason it wasn’t a solid four star read, for me, was due to how Thea and Catherine met. I felt there could have been a better scenario such as Catherine leaving a purse or credit card behind at a club or restaurant that Thea was determined to return. I just felt it portrayed social workers in a slightly negative light due to Thea’s decision to find Catherine. Additionally, I went into this thinking it would be realistic fiction in nature, and it’s definitely not!

But if you enjoy books about cults and books that feel like a fever dream from time to time, I’d check this one out!

Thank you NetGalley, Julia Bartz, and Atria Books for this wild, trippy, fever dream of a ride!

Thea, a psychiatric social worker, swears she knows the catatonic patient that was just brought in. The patient unable to remember what event triggered such a traumatic response is soon ripped out of the facility and away from Thea. Thea soon follows clues left from the patient all the way to a retreat in New Mexico run by a charismatic couple. As Thea participates in the retreat, she soon finds connections to her past and to her former patient. As the retreat carries on though the last session may be take her last breath.

This book hooked me from the first pages! I loved her last book, The Writing Retreat, and was so glad I got to read this one early. This book includes a cult theme which is something I enjoy reading in my books. Parts had me scratching my head and really thinking through things. It is one of those books you will be thinking about long after you read it.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an early copy of this title.

This put me into a horrible reading slump and I'm still struggling to get out of it. I skimmed everything after the last 70% because I really just didn't care--which sucks, because I really enjoyed this author's last book! I just don't think anything about this one worked for me because no part of me wanted to read it. Its saving grace (and the reason I got as far as I did) was that it was easy enough to read when I did manage to get in there. I just didn't really find the characters or the mystery compelling enough to want to figure out what was going on. It just felt silly more than anything else.

I'm bummed about this one, but I hope others like it more than I did!

The premise for THE FINAL SESSION definitely caught my attention. A social worker obsessed with a patient being forced to confront her own dark past seemed ripe with possibilities. I expected a taut thriller that would lead me down a twisted path to an unexpected resolution. Instead of twists, I found myself confronting scenarios that required the complete suspension of all disbelief and I just could not do it.

The cult angle was intriguing and could have been explored without leaning too far toward the absurd. Unfortunately, there was simply too many “what the heck” moments for me to fully engage with the plot or characters.

While this was a miss for me, I can see how some would enjoy the out there aspects of this book. It was simply too far outside my comfort zone.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

The idea behind this was there. Thea was in a cult like community growing up and has been traumatized as a result. Fast forward to her investigation, as an adult, she finds herself in a similar situation at the New Mexico retreat. For the first 50% I wanted to know how it all tied together and it seems to be moving at a pace that was enjoyable. Then it just completely went off the rails.

Thea is a therapist at a clinic in NY when a mysterious new patient arrives. The woman is catatonic, but Thea soon discovered her real identity. The woman is Catherine, an actress in one of Thea‘s favorite movies growing up. Catherine soon mysteriously leaves the clinic and there is compelled to look for her, setting their shared connection. Thea ends up in New Mexico, at a retreat for relationships. Catherine had lived at the retreat center in the past and Thea was positive She was there. Thea is soon as drawn into a complex web of past trauma, deception, and murder.

Part of this book I really enjoyed, the beginning is pretty good. Toward the end, there are some confusing parts where they jumps into consciousness of other characters in the book. There is a lot about past lives and repeating trauma. Overall, I liked this book, I just wish the ending was a little bit less rushed, and Some motivations were a little more fleshed out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books for a copy of this book.