I read The Festival by Sarah J Naughton as part of my monthly online book club’s readalong with approximately 60 other members over a 3 week period.

The Festival is the story of four women now approaching their 40th birthdays who have been friends since school but their lives have all gone in very different directions.

Orly is a recent widow, grieving the death of her husband from Cancer and the loss of their hopes and dreams, Lenny is a successful business women raising her twins as a single mum and trying to balance her work and life, Mel is a struggling single mother of a teenage son who is about to leave for university and having severe “empty nest” concerns and Thea is the beautiful trophy partner of a rich older man who appears to be losing interest in her.

With Lenny’s 40th birthday fast approaching the ladies decide to get together for a weekend away and go to a Festival, held in their home town and escape their current situations by dancing and getting drunk and reliving their youth. However as this is a thriller you will expect things to go wrong and they certainly do in this book. Long kept secrets are uncovered, guilty consciences force the women to reveal the truth about their past and what should have been a weekend of fun and frolics turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

I really enjoyed the pace of the writing and getting to know each of the characters throughout the storyline. When the women find their lives in danger, there were several red herrings scattered throughout the book to ensure the reader is constantly kept on their toes and never quite knows who to trust.

I look forward to reading more from this author.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This genre is saturated with similar plots and unfortunately this wasn’t one of the better ones. The characters were interesting but the storyline was weak and predictable.

In many ways this is a book of two halves - the first delving deep into the live of a group of friends as they navigate their way towards midlife, the second a dark and tangled web set at a midsummer festival.

Much like Sarah J Naughton's last offering The Festival has strong themes of trust, lies and the power of female friendships.

A gripping psych thriller.

This thriller was an excellent tale on a “class reunion” kind of plots, only it takes place at a festival. Old secrets and grudges literally took my breath away. Highly recommended!

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. The plot is way overdone. Too many books on the market right now about friends getting together and someone wanting revenge. Honestly sounded like a bunch of whiny teenagers that can't leave their high school days behind. Couple good twists, but hard to hold my interest when every book seems to be the same.

Oh I love this delightful book. Three friends go to a festival were murder turns out it’s on the song list. This book is basically set up like any huge festival Coachella. There’s even a map at the beginning of the book that kind of explains the layout. I was really into this it’s basically a psychological thriller and a mystery wrapped into one.


I highly recommend this