You Are Invited - Book Review

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"Does a building become malevolent because of the terrible crimes committed there? Or was the malevolence there to begin with? Does the energy remain? Or do we project our fears onto that building through rumours and curses?"

Cath is excited to receive an invitation to The Event- an exclusive retreat held in an old, supposedly haunted, convent in the Carpathian mountains. Five social media influencers will be present for The Event, with their every move streamed live to patrons all over the world. They are a Daniel, fitness vlogger, Irene, beauty blogger, Nathan, the gamer, and Cath, a fiction writer. The five participants hope to rake in cash from donations and gain a boost to their careers. But then strange things start to happen. Things go missing, weird comments start to appear on The Event's site urging the participants to murder each other, and viewers notice a mysterious sixth figure present in some of the videos. As things keep getting weirder, Cath starts to wonder if she should just break her contract and make a run for it.

You Are Invited is a supernatural horror story for the modern age. It has a wonderfully creepy setting, with the interesting twist of having the participants constantly streaming and sharing everything they do with their fans. This book really sucked me in, and I stayed up stupidly late at night to finish it, and sitting alone in an otherwise dark house probably helped a little with the atmosphere. The second half of the book didn't quite live up to the promise of the first, but it was still worth reading to the end.

One quibble I have with the book which will be a minor spoiler: It bothered me that there is no good explanation offered for the strange behaviour of one of the wolves. Wolves are endangered and get such a bad rap despite rarely attacking humans. Using them as a plot device like this is such a cliché.

Content warning: This book contains some violence, supernatural horror and discussion of mental health issues.

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You are Invited%% is a tense, creepy novel that would make a great read for Halloween.
Disclaimer: I was given a complimentary copy of this book by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op in exchange for an honest review.
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Published:** September 2020.

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