You Are Invited - Sarah A. Denzil

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

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, 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.
They thought they were alone. Perhaps they were wrong.

My Thoughts:

Wow, this blew me away!
I started reading this at about 11 in the evening, it gripped me right from the start, and I couldn’t put it down. This was bad though, as reading a ghost story with the light off at 1am doesn’t make for a sound and peaceful night sleep afterwards! I read the rest of it the day after with the lights burning, and my husband sat next to me protecting me!
This book really does send chills up your spine. I don’t read a lot of thrillers or ghost stories so I’m never sure what direction they are going in and I think because I’m not desensitised to them they really give me the creeps.
I loved the story of Sister Marie that Cath was writing. After I finished the book, I wanted to read the book she wrote!! That part of the story had me as hooked as the rest of it. I even looked up the monastery to see if it was real, but I think it was all made up. I would have loved an author note at the end to say what her inspiration for this story was based on.
The only little niggle I had was the premise behind the live streaming of the five influential social media stars. I think it would have made sense to have more ‘players’ as five was just too sparse. It certainly wouldn’t be something I’d be logging online to watch and interact with. Just think of Big Brother and the number of people that started off in that to make the show interesting, the more people you have, the more they can interact with different people and the more drama you get. The was only a small gripe and didn’t ruin the book for me in any way.
This book really gripped me, and I cancelled all my plans to get this read as I just couldn’t put it down! It was very well written. The ending was brilliant; I so didn’t see any of it coming and just kept shocking me over and over again.
I really enjoyed delving into something different and glad I came across this ARC on NetGalley. A perfect five-stay read!

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