Review: You Are Invited

You Are Invited: A Ghost Story

by Sarah A. Denzil

Genre: Psychological Thriller

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

I have certainly been hoping to find a good ghost story this year, and “You Are Invited” did a pretty great job at setting the scene and delivering some nice chills!

About the book:

“There are some who claim the ghosts walking the corridors of Sfântul Mihail are not ghosts at all.”

Deep in the Carpathian mountains, there rests an abandoned monastery rumored to be cursed by the memory of a haunted past.

Abandoned...until now, that is.

Wildly popular social media influencer, Irene Jobert, has renovated the monastery and decided to host a once in a lifetime event for a hand-selected few. Four other influencers have been chosen to come stay with her at the Transylvanian monastery. The catch? Every moment will be filmed and broadcast live to their fans worldwide.

Meet the cast: Cath, the published author, Jules, the blogger, Nathan, the gamer, Dan the fitness guru, and Irene, the most popular of them all—Do they really have any idea what they’ve gotten themselves into? The world is watching...and so are the shadows.

For this monastery has a spine-tingling past, and it seems these long-abandoned walls still have a story to tell.

My thoughts:

I went into this book with hope for building suspense and mysterious goings-on. There were definitely some chilling moments, mainly toward the end, but I do wish that we’d been given a bit more chills and surprises.

When it comes to hauntings, it isn’t just houses or buildings that can be occupied. Sometimes it’s one’s own mind that breeds fear and horror. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this in one way or another; our minds can conjure up anything in the face of stress and unease, and that’s certainly what happens in this book.

Oh, the monastery houses its own fair share of ghostly happenings, don’t get me wrong—but our main character, Cath, is exhibiting symptoms of unmedicated schizophrenia too, which definitely adds an edge to the things going on within the monastery. She has a hard time knowing if the things she’s experiencing are real or imagined, while we’re along for the ride with her thinking, “Get out of there, Cath! Real or not, you’re definitely not safe!”

But, of course, characters never listen to a reader’s advice. Common sense is usually lacking within ghost and horror stories, and this is no exception.

Because Cath is having vivid symptoms of her mental illness along with the ghostly things happening, the more scary incidents didn’t exactly read as intense or horrifying as I was hoping. There were a couple instances of sleep paralysis and ghostly touches that I feel could have translated much better had Cath not been so in her own head. She goes through the incidents without much trauma or fear on her part so, in turn, I didn’t feel much trepidation either.

Now, the ending was pretty intense and I was glad to see the plot pick up. The imagery of running through the wintry, frozen terrain of the Carpathian mountains in terror was exciting and what I’d definitely been hoping for—though I do wish that the climax had been a little more drawn out and milked for all of the wonderful terror that it could have induced.

All in all, I have to concede to the fact that the book isn’t quite 300 pages, so I think most of what I’m left with is simply a desire for things to have been more fleshed out and developed. The setting of the creepy yet beautiful monastery was perfection, and I enjoyed the psychological suspense of the influencers slowly deteriorating and growing mad. But, since this was named “A Ghost Story” in the byline, I think the ghost aspect could have definitely been pushed a little more. Bring on the terror!

This was certainly an enjoyable read and it reminded me at times of AHS Roanoke, so that was neat. I’m definitely planning to check out more of Denzil’s work in the future!

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the chance to read and review this ARC. The book officially releases on September 15th, 2020.