The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
Review of The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
“As Roza prepares to welcome four unnamed young female writers into her estate for a monthlong writing retreat this winter, one could wonder whether her focus has shifted. Is she going to become a mentor, outwardly facing and fostering talent, instead of disappearing back into her reclusive writer’s life?”
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz (2022). Published by Atria Books.
I have been in the writing world for about eight years now, and began actively publishing my work when I was sixteen. There’s a certain sense of doom and gloom when you realize that once you become an adult, while also being a writer, is that under a system of capitalism you simply are not allowed to create without having to worry about money.
Unless you come from rich parents, money and writing will most likely be a concern of yours. Anyways, writing retreats and applying to fellowships and conferences have become a staple in the process of quote on quote becoming a writer, despite them costing a lot of money.
And that’s what drew me into this book. I’ve been on a massive kick lately about reading novels which feature protagonists who are writers, artists, and creatives trying to work in the industry.
I’ve seen a lot of similar tropes appearing in these kinds of works, making these characters into archetypes of sorts, but I was curious about The Writing Retreat because it looked like it had a thriller mystery underneath its surface. Plus it’s a debut author! We love supporting authors just starting out, so I requested an ARC and got one.
Here’s my review.
A writing retreat full of drama and productivity suddenly goes horribly wrong.
The Writing Retreat is written in the first person perspective of Alex, a writer who has given up on writing after a fallout with her best friend, Wren. Alex and Wren were tight as anyone could imagine, living together as roommates in New York City and sharing the same friend group.
Alex, who works as a publishing assistant at a New York City publishing house, finds herself secretly envious of Wren, who quit her job, joined a startup, and became a popular influencer after the startup landed her a gig as their beauty editor while blowing up online. Wren is someone who seems to have it all, wearing designer clothes, verified on Instagram, and traveling around the world. Alex still stalks her on Instagram with a burner account, which is why we know that.
We later learn the true extent of what caused their friendship to implode on itself, but that has to wait until Part II and III of the novel. Ursula, a mutual friend of the two, ends up landing both Wren and Alex at an elite writing retreat read by Roza, a popular author who they both admire.
Roza became famous as a writer when she was old nineteen years old, as she wrote a novel as her best friend, supposedly dying of stomach cancer, was withering away. Roza’s retreat is an exclusive one, as she only selected four, now five, people to come to her mansion in upstate New York for a month-long retreat that might end in a publishing contract.
But as the five girls arrive at the mansion, they’re tasked with writing an entire novel within the month. The winner of the best novel is promised a million dollar advance and a book deal, so the girls find themselves wandering the halls and library in search of inspiration.
Alex, who has been suffering from Writer’s Block for over a year since the death of her friendship with Wren, has to struggle with maintaining the peace between the two and navigating how to end her block. She becomes closer to Roza, spilling all of her secrets with Wren to a woman she just met, but everything seems to go terribly wrong when Rosa drugs them one night with LSD and one of the writers ends up missing.
The girl, presumed dead, sparks another chain of events that leads this novel down an extremely thrilling and wild ride. I felt like all of the characters were fleshed out in a way that I felt like I got to know their personalities, but as the novel jerks and twists through completely new plot points, the rug is pulled completely beneath the reader.
I won’t go into details about the potential spoilers that come with a novel like this, because there are some moments that will make your draw drop in shock. Some things you don’t see coming at all, while others I found to be completely predictable. There’s little hints scattered throughout the story that I didn’t realize meant something larger until I got to what exactly they hinted at.
At the same time, we get this exploration of friendship and fame. There’s an underlying predatory nature that comes out in full force towards the second and third arcs of the novel, which I can take as a metaphor for the industry as a whole. What would you do in order to become a famous author? Who do you really idolize when you look up to celebrities? And, some unethical decisions aside, what will you do in the name of creativity?
There’s also some commentary about the publishing industry and who’s in it, too, as Keira, the only Black girl invited on the retreat, has some questionable things said to her.
Alex is a mess going into the retreat, and is quite emotional after her interactions with Wren. At the same time, I found their outcome to the friendship to be rushed at the end of the novel, very predictable, but also kind of out of place. I get what they want through is a lot, but I didn’t particularly think they liked each other despite Alex’s brave action towards the end.
Overall Thoughts
It’s a fun novel! I read it in one sitting and ended up staying awake late into the night to finish it.
I will say, the first part of the novel comes across as rather slow if you’re not into reading about what it means to be a writer or hearing about Alex’s drama with Wren, but once the second part of the novel hits, it takes off absolutely running. I found myself amazed at how quickly the rug is pulled from the reader’s feet and once you think you’re stable and understanding something is happening, the situation shifts again.
Everything starts to make sense upon reflecting, though, including some of the smaller details I combed back through to realize they had a larger meaning. Pick this one up even if it sounds remotely interesting.
Many thanks to the author, Atria Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel is due to be released on February 21, 2023.
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