“There are those who claim the ghosts walking the corridors of Sfântul Mihail are not ghosts at all.”
During a midnight journey snaking through the Carpathian Mountains, these are the words whispered to Cath Fenwick. It is the warning she will later wish she’d taken more seriously.
When Cath receives her invitation to The Event–a monetised retreat for social media influencers–she can’t believe her luck. Irene Jobert is the most famous influencer in the world, and now Cath will be one of the five participants chosen to stay with Irene in a renovated Transylvanian monastery.
The catch? Their every move will be live-streamed to millions of people around the world. Patrons pay for constant access to their favourite social media stars: Irene, the model, Nathan, the gamer, Jules, the blogger, Daniel, the fitness guru and Cath, the writer. Nestled halfway up a mountain, surrounded by forests teeming with nature, the five are isolated, with nothing but the internet to connect them to the world. That is, until eagle-eyed live-stream followers all around the globe notice a sixth participant. A dark figure lurking in the background. Who–or what–is in the monastery with them?
Wolves roam the nearby forests. Shadows haunt the long corridors of Sfântul Mihail. Slowly, five lonely people begin to lose their minds. You are invited to The Event.
Title: You Are Invited: A Ghost Story | Author: Sarah A. Denzil| Publisher: Amazon.com Services LLC | Pub Date: 15, September 2020 | Pages: 220 | ASIN: B088VGV1ZN | Genre: Horror/ Thriller | Language: English | Source: Received a free copy from NetGalley | Unstarred Review
You Are Invited: A Ghost Story Review
If you start this novel and think you know how it will end, you’ll be pleasantly mistaken.
This novel takes some time to get moving, but once it finds its stride, the tension never leaves the page. Written for a new adult audience, the story structure contains snippets of internet chat rooms to heighten the POV of our leading character and enhance the mysterious circumstances of The Event. The characters are a bit cliche, including the lead protagonist Cath Fenwick who has schizophrenia. I was worried about the use of a mental illness to create an unreliable narrator, but there was a good balance between presenting mental health in a respectful light and using it as a plot device.
This is more of an atmospheric read versus creepy or sinister. As the title suggests, it is a ghost story. Kinda. It took me to an unexpected ending, which I appreciated since the beginning of the story felt predictable. I would have liked more dark moments and higher tension in the first half of the book, but I flew through the last act.
The setting was a lot of fun, although I would have liked to have seen it exploited a bit more. The Carpathian Mountains, home of Dracula, makes for a promising horror landscape. Plus, there’s a ghost story floating around town involving a group of murdered nuns. These make for an interesting backdrop for the story, but it could have been ramped up, especially in the beginning. Overall, it was a fun read.
You can find this book at many retailers via clicking on the appropriate link on Goodreads (Buying direct from retailers is a good way to support indie authors); however, in the spirit of supporting literacy programs, we would like to point out that you may be able to purchase this book through BetterWorldBooks.
Nico Bell is a horror and science fiction writer. Her work has appeared in The Second Corona Book of Horror Stories, Drabbledark Anthology and Horror Tree’s Trembling with Fear. She joined the Coolthulhu Crew in May 2018.
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