Book Review of You Are Invited by Sarah A. Denzil
This book had a little of everything. Justice, vengeance, and redemption, especially for the main character, Catherine Fenwick, who goes by Cath. You have to get past the first forty pages of this story. I almost gave up on it. I put it aside and restarted reading several times. But, once I got past the first forty pages, the story came together and held my attention.
Cath is a fascinating character. She’s a writer who has been diagnosed as a schizophrenic. The story is told in first person from her point of view, thus a potential unreliable narrator. Those kinds of stories, I feel, are interesting. The reader is never sure if what is being told them is really what is happening. This story is no exception. The subtitle of the book is “A Ghost Story.” Are there ghosts in the story or are they just figments of Cath’s psychological condition?
The last forty or so pages also drag on a bit. After the climax, there’s tying up loose ends that really don’t add much other than they may satisfy some reader’s curiosities as to what happens to Cath after the events.
The premise of the story is a retreat in a nunnery in Romania of five social media influencers. It’s an online reality show. Everything they do, say, etc. is streamed live. The watchers can contribute money to the influencers. They are scheduled to stay through the month of October. The nunnery has a history of violence. In 1946 all the nuns but one was murdered. Therefore, the place could be haunted. A mysterious organization called Loup has renovated the nunnery for the influencers. The main influencer is an online sensation who was a child cancer survivor and now makeup queen. She invited the other four social media influencers. Interestingly, Cath isn’t really an influencer. Why she’s actually invited is revealed during the story.
Anyway, things go bad with the group. Very bad. I struggled to get into the story because I didn’t like any of the five characters and I’m not a fan of social media influencers. Eventually, Cath grew on me due to her psychological struggles. The story builds to a violent climax. Is justice served? The reader will have to judge for him or herself.
As for content, there is a fair amount of profanity, including quite a few f words and the rest of them. No on page sex. There are a couple violent scenes. Nothing gratuitous. Another aspect that is interesting in Cath’s journey is her spiritual journey. She finds an old Bible written in Romanian and this becomes an important prop throughout the rest of the story. Where is her spiritual journey leading her? Again, up to the reader to interpret.
Where to rank this is a bit of a toss-up, but I’m going with third at this point.
Book Rankings for 2022
- Win by Harlen Coben
- Murder Board by Brian Shea
- You Are Invited by Sarah A Denzil
- Girl, Alone by Blake Pierce
- One Night in Sedona by Carrie Latimer.
- Coffin Cove by Jackie Elliott
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