e-ALC, 08:28:32
Narrated by: Kacie Rogers
Release Date: September 16, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: September 20-22, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a free ALC from the publisher and their app. I also received a physical ARC from the ALA conference. This did nothing to influence my review)
Content Warning: Death, Drug Use, Panic Attacks/Disorders, Blood, Vomit, Fire/Fire Injury, Animal Cruelty, Gore, Suicide
For Readers Interested In: ARC, Audio, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Thrillers, YAOne can never ask too many questions in this contemporary horror about a teen girl who gets invited to the soft launch of a luxury resort and finds their wellness practices disturbing–and deadly.
Ariana could use a vacation. Her dreams of being a collegiate volleyball player have been crushed by an injury. So, when a new friend invites her and two guests to an all-expenses paid resort off the coast of Barbados, she accepts. Her only thoughts now should be about booking a masseuse, lounging on the beach, and maybe seeing what happens with Jadon, the cute guy in her villa.
But charismatic, self-help guru Juniper-Moon has other plans for the group. She keeps preaching lofty ideas on how to better oneself through unorthodox mindfulness activities, intense wellness treatments, and psychedelic microdosing. Plus, “accidents” seem to befall one guest after another, and yet Ari and Jadon are the only ones ready to run for the shores.
Once Juniper-Moon makes it clear that everyone must give back to this new community, Ariana and Jadon decide to team up to expose her web of lies and deceit before their loved ones become trapped in an iron-clad grip no one can free them from.
*MY THOUGHTS*
My immediate thought when I finished this was “I’m never going on vacation again.” And I actually stand by that because what do you mean there’s nothing there that there’s bee venom facials and tea that’s going to make you start hallucinating?! Yeah this one got crazy.
Ok so Lisa Springer is unhinged lol The things they do in this book had me thinking “WTF”?! So much happens on this trip that they just so happened to win. I swear Idk what’s wrong with these kids because ain’t no way I would have thought this seems like something that we might want to do. There’s no way they thought life was THAT good that they won something like this for free. In this economy?! But they go, and when they do….. Yeah things get weird. There’s deaths, there’s people (and a dog) missing, and so much more. This book gets going right at the beginning, so you don’t have to worry about if you’re going to DNF it or not.
The way this had me gasping left and right lol This is another one where I say don’t trust any of them. Every single one of them has something they don’t want the world to know. It seems like that was the requirement for them to make it to the island. This got really crazy really fast. I did catch who it was, so it annoyed me for a minute, but I don’t think if you read thrillers a lot you’ll catch it. But since I do, I knew from the beginning. There’s other characters besides the ones that also won the sweepstakes, but don’t trust them either. Basically, if you’re on the island or gone, don’t trust anyone lol
This book has the “cult” horror trope. I’m sure you can tell by the woman in charge, Juniper Moon. They’re promoting things like wellness and asking them to put all their faith in her and the rest of their cast. And Lordt, it was a lot. I don’t think I rolled my eyes as hard as I have as I did when I was reading this. And let me just say, Juniper Moon isn’t even the worst one.
I will say this one isn’t my favorite of her two books tho. I liked it well enough, but nothing compares to the clown in her first book lol This was just ok, but was fast paced enough that I never got bored and I wanted to put it down. It was definitely what I needed at the time. So hopefully, this makes you want to pick it up and find out what went on too!
Overall, I give this
