I was really intrigued by the premise of a retreat for social media influencers and the setting in a monastery in Transylvania sounded eerily perfect but at 16% in I'm just not scared, and am starting to lose interest. It's just not for me. DNF at 16%

I was given this copy free at Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'll start off with this is getting one of my very rare five stars. It's not very often you come along a book like this one. Readers of the classic Shining would like this one.
Cath is an influencer (those people that get paid way too much money to be a youtube personality) and part time writer with a group of followers when she is invited to "The Event". It is set up to be five influencers from all different backgrounds spending some time in a haunted monastery in Romania. It is quite the twist on the usual trashy reality television show. But while the book is working with original and current trends, that is not exactly the focus. The monastery has its dark energy and is slowly creeping up on the people who dared stay there.
I appreciated this book because it was not easily predictable, had some scares with appropriate building tension, and didn't drag. It was a quick read for me and I would recommend.

Many Thanks to Net Galley, Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

#YouAreInvited #NetGalley

Transylvania in Romania, the name of the place itself conjures an image of dark nights, Dracula’s and vampires or strigoi as they are called locally, blood dripping from their mouths, the image so macabre that it chills the bones. You are Invited by Sarah A Denzil begins on such a disturbing gloomy night, at the Sfantul Mihail or Saint Michael monastery, a 200-yr old building seeped in history of murder and mayhem.

Cath Fenwick is invited for a retreat of successful social media influencers and as a writer of fantasy fiction, Cath believes herself lucky to be in the presence of the star, cancer survivor, entrepreneur, Instagram influencer, Irene Jobart. The others attending THE EVENT of the century is Dan Mendoza, Jules Chen and Nathan MacDonald, all of them young successful stars in their own respective field. Anything too good to be true, of course, there’s a catch.

THERE’S NO PRIVACY!

The social media, the twitterati’s, the youtubers, the bloggers, the followers, the instagrammers, every other Tom Dick and Harry can log in and subscribe and pay money to view your every thought and action. Reminded of BIG BOSS / BIG BROTHER anyone? Well, that is such a mild show compared to this chill fest!

The madness escalates as the Cath realizes the loss of her meds for schizophrenia that keeps THE VOICE at bay, Jules struggles with antipathy towards Irene, Nathan suffering a breakdown and so much keeps happening as secrets and truths of their face in reality comes thru and the close living quarters that seem to exacerbate their woes.

Sarah A Denzil captures the imagination of the reader with the setting and the atmospheric menace throughout the story. The wolves, the ghosts, the brutal history of the nuns’ death, the absolute desolation of the place adds to this intense drama that raises goosebumps on your skin. After about three-quarters of the book, the story takes on such a rapid pace that as a reader you can feel the intensity of the menace and dread just lurking around the corner. By the time the end credits roll in, I had already run a marathon with a galloping heart.

So obviously, I loved everything about this book and really do not want to classify it as a ghost story, as there is so much more than that and like Cath at the end, it is better to be illogically logical.

The plot was very intriguing and original. I like the idea of the influencers interacting with their fans (made me think of the movie Nerve) and 'entertaining' them. At the beginning, you get to know the characters but never deep enough to really care much for them. We see how they react to some mysteries happening in that 'haunted mansion'. I enjoyed how things unfold at the end. However, I didn't care much or understood Cath's obsession with Maria (the potential ghost). Overall, it was a good read.

Thanks Sarah Denzil and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op for the ARC.

Book - You Are Invited
Author - Sarah Denzil

📍NOT PUBLISHED YET

📌Cath Fenwivk receives an offer to join "The event" - a monetised retreat for social media influencers in Transylvania,Romania by Irene Jobert, the famous bellwether in the world!
Cath is ecstatic to be one of the chosen participant as there were going to be handful of them!

📌Alexandrou,the driver in their journey gives her an idea of the place nestled halfway up in the Carpathian mountains is haunted monastery rather nunnery to specify! The place- Sfântul Mihail is 200 years old and on one fateful night in 1946 all nuns were found dead mysteriously! There are folklores &several tales about it.

📌So five of them,Irene -the model and influencer, Nathan -the handsome gamer, Jules -the blogger, Daniel -the fitness guru and Cath- the writer are going to be paid by patrons getting livestreamed in front of millions of people. The part of place is specially renovated for the jamboree. Things go well smoothly until they start exploring other parts like other foreboding wings,cloister garth, church even passing through long&dark corridors. The spooky feelings crop up when they notice the sixth member's presence conspicuously on their self cameras after return. The wolves are seen and dark lurking figure is often observed in background,forest monastery everywhere. Was the shadow of one of the nun in black tunic or the strigoi(vampire in Romanian language)? Cath looses her medicines of psychological treatment mysteriously! Viewers find such and other contents good for watching,but few followers get concerned and propose them to leave and few encourage to kill someone or each other for fun offering cash and ultimately this cursed locus start taking toll on everybody physically and mentally, making circumstances deteriorate. Cath is dubious sometimes whether she is perceiving the reality or hallucinating inadvertently. And there comes a horrendous night!

📌So.. What's the fate of night and participant's lives?
Do they all die like those nuns? Well,I am a bit assertive to prevail the truth partially!
But who kills them? How they die?? Any survivor???

📍You really need to wait since the book is not published yet!

📌I could build my own connection with characters since they were specified efficiently. The uncanny write up by Sara has sinister effects with eerie elements and I could follow effortlessly
till epilogue experiencing the fear myself with goosebumps while visualising it.

📍You are invited
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finally, I got to read something I could get my teeth into! Five social media influencers are invited to The Event - a social experiment where they spend one month in a remote former monastery in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania while everything is live streamed and viewers can issue challenges to the participants. A bit like Big Brother only more creepy. The participants are lured with the promise of making money as their followers need to pay a subscription to watch the action.

So we have Cath, our narrator, who writes fantasy books and interacts heavily with her followers. Cath also apparently has schizophrenia and is on antipsychotic medication. Then we have Irene Jobert, a social media darling with millions of followers, she is apparently a cancer survivor and now has a make-up empire. There is also Jules, a lifestyle blogger; Dan, the fitness nut who does yoga at sunrise and Nathan the gamer boy who apparently also has an undisclosed mental heath condition. Irene and her mother have organised The Event.

The monastery (which was actually a home to nuns) is reputed to be haunted, I guess that’s why they picked it. In 1946 the nuns were all murdered, their throats slashed, the Abbess was the only one who survived. What better place to bring together 5 strangers for a social experiment? Sure enough soon there are things going ‘bump’ in the night and strange shapes are seen on some of the footage. Cath’s medication disappears on the first day so the voice in her head is given free rein again. She keeps seeing a white wolf and a dark shrouded shape. She becomes obsessed with one of the nuns and her story. If that isn’t enough throw in a snowstorm and the revelation that one of the group has been deceiving the others, stir the pot and - BOOM!

I didn’t find this creepy, but then I never do. It was, however, very atmospheric. The monastery was almost a character in its own right. The tension got so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was obvious something untoward was going to happen but I had no idea what as the book could have gone in any number of directions. I am pleased to say I didn’t see that twist coming. I found the book very entertaining and it was enjoyable to read. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Sarah A. Dentil for my review copy. 3.5 stars rounded up.

This was fun! I loved the setting: a big house in the wilds of Romania, set up with camera for live-streaming. The comments on YouTuber and reality TV culture was good too. The character were paper-thin and I often lost track of who was who, and it all gets a bit silly towards the end as thrillers usually do. But it was good fun.

Irene Jobert is one of the most world's famous influencers, with over ten million followers across her social media accounts. It is most people's dream to live her lavish lifestyle and share in her online success. Five, lucky, smaller influencers have been given the chance to do just that, and spend the next few weeks residing alongside her in a renovated Transylvanian monastery with 24/7 streaming for those willing to pay.

You are invited to The Event.

Our eyes into all that occurred belonged to Cath, a writer with an online legion made up of thousands of eager readers and supporters. Despite this, her quiet and lonely existence could not differ more from those she now shared her every breath and movement with: The Mr Nice Guy of the fitness world, the over-enthusiastic teen gamer, the stern-faced fearless feminist, and, of course, their fearless leader, Irene. However, they were never allowed to forget that the mysterious company providing the financial backing for this project were the real figures in charge.

This compelling premise sucked me in and the eerie events which soon took over ensured I remained glued to the pages. I also found it a very clever tactic to intersperse Cath's perspective with those from the paid live-streams, as they often noticed shifting shadows and faceless figures that the others could not. It made every scene one of tension, when both reader and central characters were unaware if any other elements were present and when truth seemed so determined to be held at bay.

“We invited the monster in. Mother Mary help us, save our souls, we are cursed here on the mountains. Our Father has cursed us. We are in your hands now Mother. Help us! Help us!”

You are invited has completely reignited my love of horror.

A fast-paced ghost story full of thrilling little twists and turns with a cast of interestingly flawed characters.

This book kept me up with some fairly disturbing dreams for a few nights but I am very glad to have read it. Would highly recommend!

The whole novel was inherently thrilling. Everything was on point, I liked the plot, the characters were nuanced and complex, the writing felt enticing. I was drawn to it and wanted to keep reading.

I had a lot of fun with You Are Invited!

Spooky, dark, claustrophobic (in a good way), and ends with a bang. My favorite "trope" will always be a locked room mystery. And this felt similar to And Then There Were None in tone without ever having a similar plot set up. We have people stuck in this creepy building, constantly live feeding all of their actions, and it's a not very happy family. Lots of drama and toxic relationships lead to the ending we all knew would come at some point....

If there was anything I particularly enjoyed about You Are Invited, it was definitely the scary stories Catherine told. They were creepy, and while it didn't move the plot forward, they always felt right. And when I say that they "felt right", the stories completely nailed the ominous tone. Everything is supposed to be ominous and a mystery of what is REALLY happening, especially all the messages in the chat that insist that one of the five is going to die by the end of the trip....

My only complaint with You Are Invited are the sometimes less-creepy chapters. These usually involve the five guests casually talking, and while their behaviour is realistic, the only thing this book didn't nail was having realistic conversations from influencers and also managing those to be just as creepy as the more sinister parts of the book.

I think you should be looking out for You Are Invited, especially if you're a fan of locked room plots as much as I am!

This was a great novel - a fast paced ghost story/thriller that left me guessing about certain parts right up until the ending. For me, I thought the use of mental health as a potential cause of the 'manifestations' earlier on in the book, along with the good use (not exploitative) of schizophrenia. I recommend this for, what I would call, a quick little ghost story that engaged and thrilled.

Oh my god, I absolutely loved You Are Invited. The writing style and descriptions are amazing and they just sucks you into the book/story, which makes it even more haunting. The characters are complex and well written, which makes it even more fun to read. To make things even more interesting, there's the trope of unreliable narrator, as Cath suffers from schizofrenia, although it bugged me a little bit that a mental illness was just in that trope in such a way. In terms of horror and ghost stories, You Are Invited also use the trope of being isolated in a spooky place, in this case a renovated monastery with a dark past.

This book was fantastic. I was hooked from the very beginning. The author's use of imagery and setting the scene at the old nunnery really added to the creepiness of the setting. The characters were well developed and the storyline kept me interested throughout. Great book for horror lovers!

I volunteered to read this book through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book. It was well written. The characters were described well. I enjoyed how there is mental health and lgbtq+ representation. Everyone needs to read this book. It will keep you on the edge of seat trying to figure out what happens next.

I really enjoyed this! A gothic ghost story with an original modern twist. Focused on 5 influencer types - the lifestyle blogger, the beauty guru, the gamer, the fitness god and the one we all relate to... the bookish nerd, all thrown together to stay in an abandoned haunted monastery in Transylvania to have their lives filmed and streamed around the workd for a month, what could possibly go wrong!?! The concept is so fun! The cast are all caricatures of the YouTubers we all know and love (to hate...let's be real) the mix if personalities is the perfect recepie for disaster, add in a few dead Nuns and you have the makings of a fantastic entertaining story. Im a big fan of the horror genre and i think im desensitised to a lot of scare tactics now, but something about this book genuinely chilled me! There were some insanely creepy moments and I got goosebumps several times. A couple more things I loved about this I will add at the end as they could be considered spoilers, but overall I throughly enjoyed this book. Many thanks to netgalley for providing me with the ARC and congratulations to the author.

*MAY CONTAIN SPOLIERS BELOW*
I really appreciated the that Caths character was asexual, I have never read a book with this representation before and feel like its overlooked. And this is VERY niche, but the discovery that Irene was running an MLM scan was inspired!! I am a huge anti MLM er, and again, never read this in any book before, also an important topic that needs to be talked about as these companies historically pray on vulnerable women. Loved it!

You Are Invited is about five internet influencers who are taking part in an online experiment in a secluded, uninhabited convent in Romania. It’s a slow moving story with details that add very little to the plot. The characters are shallow, the writing is choppy, and the plot is unconvincing.

There is weak drama happening among the five, most of it very petty. Cath, the narrator, is allegedly a schizophrenic yet was able, when she put her mind to it late in the book, to set aside her mental illness. This is not likely to be possible in real life.

There seem to be many five-star reviews, but, alas, I’m afraid I did not feel the ‘horror’ at all.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review You Are Invited. I wish my review were more complimentary.

This was an ok read about a mix of social media, horror and mental health. It is always good to read about mental health issues that move away from the usual ‘this person has schizophrenia so they are going to murder all their housemates.’

The story is about a group of social influencers who are isolated in a place which has a dark past, watched 24 hours a day and their decent into distrust and paranoia along with a shot of ghost story. I only gave it 3 stars as I didn’t really feel much about the ghostly side of the story and although I read it without getting bored I definitely wasn’t feeling like I couldn’t put it down.

This ghost story, which seems to stray from Sarah A. Denzil's typical genre, didn't do it for me. The premise was intriguing with several social influencers together on a retreat in perhaps what may be a haunted house but I never felt like I really got to know enough about the characters to care what happened with them. I never got fully vested in the tale and was hungry for more depth. Although I didn't care much for this story, it won't deter me from reading more of Sarah Denzil's books in the future. Thank you Sarah Denzil and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I really didn’t like the last line or two because life doesn’t work like that. Otherwise, though, this was an enjoyable - if oddly gothic - take on a ghost story. And what a place to center a ghost story around!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.