Being invited to the Carpathian Mountains to stay in a haunted nunnery could be interesting. It could also be deadly. Doing a reality show that promises you lots of money is incredible. Especially if you are one of the few that can claim an invitation.
The background of the murder of the nuns who lived there is scary. No one is really even sure it's not anything but a legend.
The atmosphere and strange happenings soon give the story credibility.
An excellent story. Very interesting.

To be honest, this wasn’t a very memorable book for me. I scarcely remember most of the details because it all ran together.

The concept was great, so I’m not quite sure why it didn’t work for me. This book wasn’t terrible, just mediocre. The writing was not concise enough and the ending was far too predictable. None of the characters were like able for me either. I ended up skimming the end because this just couldn’t catch my attention. This book isn’t nearly as creepy as it promotes itself to be.

2/5 stars

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!

Cath, a self-published fantasy author, receives an invitation to join 4 other social media influencers in a live streaming event held in a remote monastery in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. A place where a great tragedy took place years ago, a place that is believed to be cursed.
Cath doesn't believe in ghosts. But not long after her arrival, she might be forced to change her mind.

I'm a great fan of Sarah A.Denzil books, so when I saw this ARC, I requested it without even reading the blurb.
Therefore when I realised it was a ghost story, and because I'm not a fan of this genre, I was a bit sceptical when I started reading.
However, I can now safely say that this was an excellent and chilling read that sucks you right in.
The creepiness wasn't overdone, it was just enough to create an atmospheric feel. The story mixes past with present in a captivating, eerie way.
It was a book that kept me madly turning the pages, and I'm looking forward to more books of that genre from this author. I highly recommend it.

I wanted to love this book. I thought the premise was brilliant - a bunch of social media influencers let loose on a haunted, isolated building? Yes please. It's like Hill House for Millennials.

But, and this is a huge but, I find it disingenuous, bordering on dangerous, to use a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, in the way it was used in this book. It was lazily used and handled terribly and I really didn't appreciate that last paragraph.

This is such a shame because the book had so much potential to be really spooky but with a host of unlikeable cliche characters, a muddled haunting - was the wolf thing ever really explained properly? - and an absolute ramble of a final fifth, I'd just had enough.

Two stars because the writing wasn't atrocious and I did make it all the way to the end at least.

I loved this premise. A group of online personalities are invited by a Kylie Jenner-esque Instagram influencer to spend a month living together in a secluded old Romanian monastery. The building has been updated with all the modern fixing including webcams to broadcast their every waking minute to their subscribers. They are all promised riches and fame by the end of the month with all of the exposure and increased audience....if they all remain alive that long. Only part of the monastery has been renovated...and rumors abound concerning the mysterious deaths of the nuns who used to live there and dark shapes seen out of the corner of your eye....and this strange word "Strigoi."


The set up immediately pulled me in. The balancing of the technology involved with the updated part of the monastery and internet influencer culture with a remote Romanian monastery secluded in the mountains was great. The characters were interesting and developed well over the course of the story. The supernatural element was present enough to really work the edges of belief and cause you to double guess what is real or not without being obnoxious with it like some authors can get. A very enjoyable read.

Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Stars 2. 5 out of 5

I like a good ghost story from time to time and nothing is more prone to haunting than an old monastery hidden in the mountains, especially when the snow cuts it off from the rest of the world…

This had all the ingredients to be an excellent ghost story that would keep me up at night first rushing to finish it, then being scared by imaginary sounds I hear in my own home. But unfortunately, it wasn’t so.

There are three ingredients for a good ghost story: 1) the characters, 2) the atmosphere, 3) the actual ghost (or the idea of one). It’s essential that all of them mix together perfectly, because that’s when the building becomes alive in our imagination and we root for the hapless characters and are afraid (or pity) of the apparition.

So let’s talk about the ingredient the author did well – the atmosphere. There are numerous beautifully haunting descriptions of the monastery and the mountains surrounding it. I felt the chilly drafts in the old building and the creaking doors. I could hear the howling of the wind and the answering calls of the wolves. I could see the surreal shapes of the trees peaking out of the dense fog. It was beautiful, it was sad, and it deserved a much better story that was told.



The biggest problem with this book is the characters. You HAVE to like at least some of them to care about what happens to them. Here, the characters are so one-dimensional that I couldn’t even picture them in my head. Yes, Irene is beautiful and self-absorbed. Dan is a yoga instructor… and that’s about all he contributes to the story. Nick is a cliche gamer with possible mental issues? Jules is a hapless blogger that happens to befriend our protagonist… And the protagonist… I think the protagonist is the reason why characters don’t work.

I understand the idea behind having the story told by an unreliable narrator, but Cat is too fixated on herself and her progressing schizophrenia to really care about anyone else. She only “sees” the other characters in this monastery to the extent of their reaction to her (and that reaction is often imagined and wrongly interpreted by her as well).

So how can the reader care about them when Cat doesn’t really care about them? Apart from Jules, but even then it’s a stretch.

And the final ingredient is lacking as well. The whole story behind the haunting is horrible, yes, but also too vague and inconsistent. Who is actually haunting this place? Nobody knows, Cat even less so than the others. And with her illness turning into an obsession, all her findings and suppositions are even more unreliable.

As a result, I felt disconnected from the story almost from the beginning. I read about the events that happened, but it felt like I was just looking in through a dirty window. There was no involvement and no connection whatsoever. So there was no fear or even apprehension. I could care less what happened to the animated characters on the other side of the glass. That, my friends, is a ghost story fail in my books.

PS: I received a free advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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.

I'm mad at this book for a bunch of reasons:

* It takes a great premise: social media influencers converge at a Transylvanian monastery and horror happens, but fails to deliver on it.
* It's not remotely spooky. I scare pretty easily, and I could read this before going to bed with nary a fear of a nightmare.
* It does the lazy, harmful thing of conflating supernatural happenings with mental health issues. If I'd had a physical book, I would have thrown it across the room upon reading the last paragraph.
* Most of my other gripes are spoilery, so I will keep them to myself.

The characters in this book were hopelessly flat to me. Every "twist" was visible from a mile away, and I am someone who is usually so buoyed along by stories and am not looking to be all "gotcha" about twists.

I was so excited to read this. My grandmother's family is from the Carpathian Mountains and I love dunking on influencers so I was like THIS BOOK IS FOR ME. And it really, really wasn't. Two stars for having a good idea and completing a book I guess.

***Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for providing and ARC in exchange for an honest review.***

"You Are Invited" is what I immediately thought of as a horror story for millennials. The story follows a young writer named Cath who, along with four other social media influencers, embarks on a month long stay in an old monastery in Romania. The monastery has a bloody history intensified by a foreboding ghost story told by Cath and an ominous black figure that repeatedly appears before our main character.

Each of the influencers reminded me of the type of social media personalities I've seen in real life. They were people you could love or hate, or love to hate. Each character also had a distinct reaction to the events taking place in the monastery which gave the story a multi-faceted feeling.

At the heart of this story is the concept of mental illness and the way that it can affect the way we see and handle events. As a reader I was unsure if Cath was an unreliable narrator or if the spooky things were really happening and she was reacting to them. Each character falls apart a little in their own way reminding us that there is not just one singular descent into madness. Great book, perfect for fall, read it with the lights on!

Social media influencers go to a retreat in Transylvania which is live-streamed to their millions of fans. This part of the premise alone had me request this book to review. There are wolves and something dark lurking in the forest of the monastery they are residing at. Tensions rise amongst the participants as the reading also learns about the history of the residence.
There are supernatural elements, themes of mental health and LGBTQI+. The characters are captivating and layered, and I really felt for the protagonist Cath, even though she was an unreliable narrator. I absolutely loved this page-turner and highly recommend to anyone that loves an eerie atmosphere and psychological thrillers. Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to review this book

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this disturbing book

you are invited....

a small group of people are invited to the event...it will make them rich and famous, all they have to do is stay connected...be seen and interact with their audience

and being in a castle that use to be a monastery half way up a mountain isnt scary at all but add in romania the home of dracula and the nerves get a bit frayed..then add to that the history of the place...how all the nuns one night were murdered and how it had never been solved

you would be twitched right...and so it began, first it was medication going missing then it was chocolates and as the days went on the atmosphere got darker and darker

well was well and truly hooked with this one...had to see it through to the end to see what was going to happen..not a bit disappointed at all...

cant wait for the next book from this author

A ghost story with a social media twist set in romania and dracula country? Yes please. This was a treat. Not overly scary but there are some brrr moments and the idea of a remote monastery in the middle of dracula country really spooked me.

Interesting twists and a good look at mental health, social media and more.

That cover really sets it off!

When I read the blurb my first thoughts were another take on Agatha Christie. I was so wrong. A group of social media personalities have all been invited to take part in the Event. Set in an old monastery in the Carpathian Mountains. A Big Brother scenario where viewers pay for the privilege and can spend 24/7 watching their favourite. The monastery has a bloody history and according to the locals it is cursed. Right now I have set the scene, but someone in the group has their own adgenda. How the author dealt with Emma's mental illness and how she spirals down. Reading this book you have a sense of doom but it still shocked me and as for the ending OMG. Almost five stars. So much more than your average ghost story. LOVED IT !!!!!
Thanks to Victory Editing and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

“You Are Invited” is the story of Cath, a fantasy writer who has found herself at a retreat for social media “influencers” and doesn’t really fit in. The retreat is held in Transylvania, in a creepy old building where a group of nuns was once massacres in a case that has never been solved.

Although setting a ghost story in Transylvania could veer too far into cliché territory, ‘You Are Invited’ avoids this by placing both ghosts and Cath’s mental health issues to the forefront of the story.

With Cath suffering from increasingly poor mental health, the reader is left wondering what to believe and who to trust in a narrative as twisty and turny as the halls of the monastery. The author manages to keep the reader guessing from the start, as we wonder if the ghosts are real or in Cath’s head.

Overall although this book is listed as a ghost story, it’s much more than that. It’s also an interesting psychological thriller that perfectly captures the hopelessness of a mental health break set inside the terrifying bleak landscape of Eastern Europe.

In You Are Invited we follow Cath and several other social media influencers as they partake in "The Event". No one knows much about what "The Event" is intended to be, but they do know they are supposed to make a ton of cash. At-home viewers are able to pay for live streams of the Influencer's month-long stay at Sfântul Mihail, located in the very mountains the original Strigoi were known to roam- The Carpathians. But soon shadowy apparitions and seemingly imaginary white wolves cause Cath to question whether or not the money is worth her staying.

I thought that You Are Invited was an okay book. It was a quick read and offered a spooky setting, but I found it lacked the character to make it memorable. In general, much of the dialogue was a bit stilted and could have been whittled down to more perfectly express the character's thoughts and intents. I also felt some of the writing could be condensed, as some of it was repetitive or seemed a little unnecessary to the plot. Specifically, I noticed that the author used an EXTREME amount of lists. She used lists to describe literally (I'm not using this word lightly-go back and look) everything from character's appearances, to the setting, to what was happening in a scene. It took me out of the story. I enjoyed the atmosphere that Denzil created from the very beginning, however, I don't think the worldbuilding extended to the actual monastery they were staying in. I can describe to you a vibe but not really how anything looks specifically. For a story that takes place in one location like this I like to have a firm grasp of where our characters are stranded.

Another important piece of this story to mention is that a large part of Cath's character is based around her mental illness. I would be interested in seeing what Own Voices reviewers think about the rep in this book. I don't know anyone with Schizophrenia, and I do not have it, so I'm unsure how accurate this portrayal was. Personally, I don't think it was very accurate or helpful, but I would amend the statement if I found out otherwise.

Finally, on a small personal note, I have been seeing a lot of discourse about the hesitancy to use the word 'lesbian' when we are, in fact, talking about lesbians and this book made that mistake. Instead of asking if they were queer or a lesbian or even bisexual, a character chooses to ask our female-identifying main character is she is 'gay'. To be honest it just kind of bothered me because of the discourse I've been seeing and been a part of in the book community.

If you are looking for a quick, atmospheric thriller that includes some more modern technical elements this might be for you!

I absolutely love a good ghost story and this ticked all of the boxes for me. It is set in a creepy two hundred year old monastery in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. This is so much more than just a ghost story with themes including mental illness and paranoia. It’s full of tension, extremely atmospheric and there’s and underlying feeling of dread throughout. You just know something horrendous is about to happen. While it didn’t exactly frighten me as such, I was totally gripped by this book and read it in two sittings. It is definitely a novel to curl up on the sofa with a hot chocolate and just lose yourself in the story. Would highly recommend.

Overall, this is a fast and engaging read . Five social media personalities (each representing a specific "personality" type - the jock, the gamer, the popular girl, etc), isolated in an abandoned convent in the Carpathian mountains to participate in The Event.It's an intriguing set-up and Denzil creates a moody/spooky atmosphere as a perfect set up for a ghost story. There were some interesting twits and turns, although it tended towards the predictable. Still, though, a fun read, and would be a good lighgly spooky read during the Halloween season.

One note, the portrayal of mental illness was...okay(ish). The author attempts to present mental illness in a realistic(ish) manner, but I always struggle when there is an implication that if a person "deals with their issues" that they can suddenly just stop taking medication. One, that's usually a terrible idea for a person's body if you just suddenly stop taking certain types of medication (withdrawal), two, taking medication is not a weakness or a crutch, its a tool for many to be able to function. My rating for the book was definitely negatively impacted by this decision, and I dropped a star.

A group of social media influencers are invited to an old, restored monastery in the Carpathian Mountains. As they get to know each other while being filmed on a live feed, they start to learn the tragic and haunted history of the monastery. ⁣
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This was a pretty steady, interesting read, with a bang of excitement at the end. I was not expecting the nail-biting climax, as this was more of a slow-burn spooky read throughout. You Are Invited is a modern day The Shining, with social media influencers in a place known as evil. I really enjoyed the variety of characters in this “closed room” mystery/horror/thriller. Yes, they were all influencers, but we’ve got a fantasy author, yoga guru, gamer, and others. A very good variety of characters that were fun to get to know. I especially liked the main character, Cath, who had her own issues to resolve. ⁣
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You Are Invited comes out 9/15. ⁣
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“𝘞𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯.”⁣

Thank you netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was skeptical about another Agatha christie sounding book. "A group of teenagers getting invited to an event at a location thought to be haunted". What I didn't know is this book is that and so very many layers more deep. It was less of a "who done it" and more of a "who are you? ". Every chapter made me more curious as to what could possibly happen next. I wasn't ready for it... I doubt you will be either.
4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐