This novel takes some time to get moving, but once it finds its stride, the tension never leaves the page. Written for a new adult audience, the story structure contains snippets of internet chat rooms to heighten the POV of our leading character and enhance the mysterious circumstances of The Event. The characters are a bit cliche, including the lead protagonist Cath Fenwick who has schizophrenia. I was worried about the use of a mental illness to create an unreliable narrator, but there was a good balance between presenting mental health in a respectful light and using it as a plot device.

This is more of an atmospheric read versus creepy or sinister. As the title suggests, it is a ghost story. Kinda. It took me to an unexpected ending, which I appreciated since the beginning of the story felt predictable. I would have liked more dark moments and higher tension in the first half of the book, but I flew through the last act.

The setting was a lot of fun, although I would have liked to have seen it exploited a bit more. The Carpathian Mountains, home of Dracula, makes for a promising horror landscape. Plus, there's a ghost story floating around town involving a group of murdered nuns. These make for an interesting backdrop for the story, but it could have been ramped up, especially in the beginning. Overall, it was a fun read.

A fresh interesting concept. A modern book that fits right into the social media world we are living in. Multiple online influencers are invited to a somewhat haunted mansion with deep and dark history to participate in a reality show when weird things start happening. A decent read. Felt a bit slow for me and took me a little while to finish. But overall a good read. This book would make a great TV show or movie.

I don't know what it is but in October and November, I read a few books with a Transylvania/Romania/Vampire/old and possibly haunted building theme. This is another book to add to that collection. A group of 5 Internet Influencers are invited by a famous Internet star to a remote monastery in Transylvania. It is like an episode of Big Brother except for the remote and creepy location. They will be watched online by thousands of viewers paying different tiers for access. The story has many elements to it: horror, suspense, mystery, folklore. It also has the feel of "And Then There Were None" to it. I enjoyed the suspenseful build and the fact that you could not be sure if the happenings were supernatural or human made. I wasn't too keen on the characters and the ending felt like a bit of a let down but I think I was expecting something different. That is my issue and not the book's issue. All in all, I enjoyed reading this one.

This was an interesting story. A group of social media influencers picked to live in n old monastery for a month. The will be live streamed to anyone who purchases a membership to watch. What will happen? Is there a haunting? Is there mass hysteria? Who knows.
Three quarters of the way through, the book could’ve taken multiple different directions. Needless to say I didn’t see the twist that was coming.
All in all it was a good read and entertaining. Thanks to NetGalley, publisher and author for giving me a copy to review.

A thoroughly modern premise of social media influencers gathering for a streaming ‘Event’ in a gothic, haunted Dracula like setting was brilliantly setup in this new tale by Sara Denzil. A cautionary cultural warning mixed with a horror and murder mystery is a fun, easy read with enough twists to keep you guessing. As with most things in like, the fast half was better then the last half, but hey, at least they were invited while we can only watch.

“..the place had an atmosphere to it ... perhaps it was the way you could walk around one corner and sense a still quiet like no other, and yet around the next, the forest was alive before you ...”

This quote from Sarah A Denzil’s new book pretty much sums up how I feel about this book. The spooky story of a haunted monastery where nuns were brutally murdered pulled me in and didn’t let go until the twist is revealed in the end. Influencers are invited to attend a big brother type of event in the isolated Romanian mountains, but slowly each participant begins to lose the plot as the monastery and surrounding forest begins to reveal its secrets.

This is my first Denzil so I can’t compare You Are Invited to her other work. I liked it. It kept me intrigued right to the end, and although the twist didn’t come as a massive surprise, it was easy to get lost in the pages and the short chapters made it a breeze to read. Denzil can write; she had me easily picturing the dark forest and long, cold corridors in the monastery. Her characters were well developed and believable, and her exploration of mental illness is well handled.

Is it a ghost story? A vampire story? Horror? Murder mystery? I think it tries to be all four, and while that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book, it makes it difficult to define the genre it slots into.

This was a better version of Mexican Gothic, albeit without the fungi and weird family.

Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.

**3.5 stars **

i finished this book in little time, it was definitely a two sitting read! i love the atmosphere that denzil created with this novel, i felt goosebumps all the way through. the twist at the end was incredible, and i can’t wait to read more from her. i can highly recommend you are invited.

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. It was very atmospheric, and I found it hard to put down, although I didn't like the ending. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

3-4 stars, while the first half might even be a 5 star read, I felt the second was just not as good! I thought it was an intriguing plot, with some great character development! It genuinely was creepy in many parts, but slowed way down after the first part! I liked the idea, was linking forward to it and overall think the author did a good job at writing a creepy, scary story! I would recommend to those who don’t mind shifts in pace, and like atmospheric reads, with old eras sort of meeting new!

Will buzz around and use lower Amazon reviewer number.

When Cath receives her invitation to The Event, she packs her bags and doesn’t look back. Cath’s mother died recently, leaving her with only the voices in her head for company. In comparison to her lonely home, the partially restored Romanian monastery sounds almost cheery.
Cath arrives with four other influencers for The Event: a month-long live-stream in a beautiful, remote location. Paying viewers will be able to access their favorite social media celebrities and offer to pay them to do things like karaoke, or yoga…or killing one of the group.
Things start taking a dark turn right away, and the group— a model, a fitness buff, a gamer, a life-advice guru, and Cath, a writer— don’t exactly mesh. Cath is the one to tell them the story of what happened in the monastery years ago, how the slaughter of a group of nuns left Sfantul Mihail cursed. Drunk on wine, everyone is creeped out, but no one believes it. Until one of their body cams turns up something they—and all their viewers— are able to see.

In “You Are Invited” by @sarahadenzil the protagonist, Cath, is over the moon when she receives the invitation to “The Event”,a monetised retreat for social media influencers,in a renovated Transylvanian monastery surrounded only by forests and wolves.

Once Cath and the other four influencers enter the monastery, their every move will be live- streamed to millions of people around the world.

But,if there are only five influencers in the monastery, why do the followers live -streaming the event see a six person hiding in the background?
Who or what are the shadows hunting the halls of the ancient building?

It is for these un-answered questions that the influencers will slowly start to lose their mind in an escalation of events that will drive you to the edge of insanity too!

A brilliant and breathtaking book that will take you on a journey of the darkest corners of the Carpathian Mountains and human mind!

A huge thank you to @sarahadenzil and @netgalley for the ARC- I feel very lucky to have had the chance to read this amazing story!

In a word: Yikes.

I was excited about this one. A group of people trapped in a supposedly cursed building high in the Carpathians with the shadow of Dracula looming sounded like just my sort of thing.

And it was indeed a good premise. In theory. In practice? What an unholy (literally and figuratively) mess.

I’ll give the author credit for pacing and sense of menace (which were excellent), as well as for actually coming up with a decent plot for a mystery/horror novel involving influencers, which is rare.

The idea was good, but the whole thing started to unravel toward the end, and the final product was...not good.

There’s no true Big Reveal, and the one that did (sort of) come to pass was pretty predictable. But that wasn’t really the problem. The solve itself wasn’t awful. But the circumstances surrounding it were.

First, the forgiveness angle at the end was enough to tank the whole book on its own. I cannot stand the whole Girl World “Be Nice!” approach. Forgive! Be the bigger person! Huh. I dunno, but if someone lured me to a cursed location on the other side of the world under false pretenses, humiliated me, didn’t pay me the agreed upon fee, and then caused the murder of most of the other people there, I wouldn’t be feeling particularly forgiving. That doesn’t make you the bigger person. It makes you an idiotic simp. Which I suppose is pretty consistent with Cath’s character, so points for committing to the bit, or something.

The writing (of both the book and the book-within-a-book) was awful. The explanation (if you can call it that) for the ghosts didn’t make any sense. And can we please, please stop perpetuating the myth that wolves randomly murder humans for like, a wolfy good time? These were not werewolves, nor did they attack because they were afraid or cornered or starving. Additionally, one of the wolves seemed to have mysteriously gone from a helpless baby to a human-murdering machine in the span of two weeks. Must be something in the water there.

It’s a shame, because the premise for this was good, and the author had the bones of a great story. But the end product was hugely disappointing.

4 social media influencers are specially selected from thousands and invited to The Event. The Event being a one month stay in a partially renovated former monastery in the isolated Carpathian mountains in Transylvania. A former monastery that has a murderous and terrifying past. Their stay will be live streamed to paying subscribers - think Big Brother style reality TV! What could possibly go wrong?

Soon after their arrival, unsettling things begin to happen and, as the weeks go on, the psychological effect on the participants becomes evident as one by one they realise that they can't even trust each other.

Cath is telling the story and is an unreliable narrator. On the first night, her medication for schizophrenia goes missing. I often wondered if what she was telling us, the reader, was the whole story. This book is atmospheric and spooky but becomes more of a psychological thriller in the second half. There were scenes that reminded me of The Shining with the snowfall and the isolation. However the ending, for me, wasn't as strong as the first half but still a very enjoyable read. 🌟🌟🌟💫

Triggers for mental illness and extreme familial dysfunction

The first half of this book was creepy and compelling.

The second half fell flat for me, which is a shame because I can see what the author was trying to do, and all the pieces should have been there. The ending felt abrupt, the timing felt off, somehow, and I think it's borderline dangerous to imply that someone who has schizophrenia can just... stop taking their meds when they exorcise their ghosts - literal or figurative.

(Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of this book!)

I must first mention that I requested this book merely out of curiosity, seeing as it referenced Romania and, being a Romanian myself, I was very keen on seeing how we as a country, or rather our mythology, would play a part in this story. On this front, it lacked a whole lot for me and I found that the author only "used" the Romanian setting as a plot device, as sort of a way to easily create a plot twist.
There is no actual piece of Romanian mythology in this book. None. Only the lingering feeling that it has to do with some Romanian myth that we all know and love (and some of us even know that it didn't come directly from Romania...)
This simple fact made the book a 3-star for me, along with other inconsistencies that were also tied to the supernatural/mythology part, the characters etc,
All in all, the story was enjoyable and quite easy to read. Not that scary and, for me personally, not that atmospheric. It didn't keep me on the edge of my seat and I still don't understand the reasoning behind some of the stuff that happened in it.
Would I recommend it? If you feel like giving it a go and if you don't usually like really creepy, scary, true horror stories, sure. It reads very fast and it's not full of fillers. It may even be able to create that spooky autumn atmosphere for some of you!

You Are Invited

The premise of this book was promising and I was excited, but despite the creepy moments, this book was weighted down with so much emotional baggage that it became exhausting and annoying.

Another in my long string of whiny female protagonists, I’ve about had it with the undercutting reflections and inner monologue. Despite the “mental illness” presented in this story, I feel it was a real disservice to those who may suffer from many of the maladies mentioned.

The backstory of the monastery and the entire Event was compelling, and the story would have been much better if Denzil had done more to flesh that out, but the psychological versus paranormal ghosts debate made it less thriller and more soap opera.

Characters were well developed in this story and you mourn losses and are horrified by violence described, it is no secret that this author is talented, but the “haunted” character trope needs to be handled with care and Cath just came off as sullen and fretful. She isn’t someone I would want to be around, let alone read an entire story from her point of view.

At times, this book was a page-turner and then there were other times I wanted to shut this book and never go back, especially in the end when the book lagged way past the conclusion.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

I somewhat enjoyed "You Are Invited" by Sarah A. Denzil. The "type" of book was confusing -- is it a ghost story, vampire lore, etc.? I did enjoy the mystery, but after a while my brain got too muddled for my own good. Denzil's writing is effortlessly smooth and incredible to read. 3/5 stars.

I love a good Gothic ghost story and this hit all the marks. Cath and 4 other social media influencers sign up for a month long retreat in an abandoned monastery in the Carpathian mountains. There they'll Livestream everything that happens week other the hopes of making loads of money in the process from viewer donations. They'll chat with the viewers, do challenges the viewers request, etc. 5 strangers, secluded in a centuries old building, whose last occupants were found with their throats slashed open and blood drained. What could go wrong ammirite?

I saw through a few tricks (the mysterious disappearance of things, etc) but I didn't even care because this book was SO MUCH FUN! I LOVE the ol' "what's that behind you?" vibes (think any horror scene involving Skype). This is the first book by Sarah Denzil I've read but I'm immediately finding her others to read asap. She manages to be super spooky without being cheesy. Mental illness is heavily covered but in a respectful, tasteful way. The loose ends were tied up nicely. She even managed to surprise me at the very end with something I hadn't been able to guess. Great story, great book, and if the rest of her work is half as good I'll be happier than a koala in a eucalyptus tree.

Thanks to Netgalley and Victoria Editing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Side note: maybe don't read this around animals. My dog's tail brushed ever so slightly against my neck right when Cath felt a handful on her shoulder, and I almost levitated off the couch.

This was excellent! It had all my favorite things. I liked the dark atmosphere and the spooky claustrophobia. I liked the premise of online bloggers/influencers being invited to the creepy monastery.

I am torn on my rating & review for You Are Invited. I had so much fun reading it, and I absolutely loved the setting for the story. There were some great creepy scenes, and I was invested the entire time I was reading it.

However, I was not thrilled with the mental health representation. It felt like a little bit of a cop-out, and most of the rest of the story was so good. I loved both the dramatic and spooky aspects of this story, but I couldn't get behind the mental health aspect, especially with the ending.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I would love to read more horror / thrillers by Sarah A. Denzil. This one will be out on 9/15.