The Last Session by Julia Bartz
The Last Session
by Julia Bartz
Mystery | Thriller
240 Pages
Released April 2025
Rating: ★★★ 1/2
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Content Warnings
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a copy of this ARC. I knew it would be a crazy one and I was not disappointed!
After reading The Writing Retreat last year, I knew I had to read Julia Bartz’s next book. So when I unexpectedly was granted approval for the ARC of The Last Session, I was over the moon.
This story follows Thea, a social worker for a psychiatric unit in New York. One day, a catatonic woman is put in her care and Thea has a strange notion that she knows her from somewhere. But just as she realizes how she knows the woman, she disappears again. Concerned for her safety, Thea follows the clues all the way to a remote “healing” retreat, designed to get to the root of intimacy-related issues. But the couple running the retreat are strange, and the session even stranger and Thea quickly finds herself in the heart of something much more sinister.
If there is one thing I’ve come to appreciate about Bartz’s writing, it’s this: the sheer unpredictability of her stories. Without fail (thus far), her books will inevitably go completely off the rails and, in that sense, The Last Session did not disappoint one bit. This story touches on a number of sensitive topics, such as mental health, past trauma and cult susceptibility.
This book was simultaneously frustrating and shocking - the kind where you really just want to grab the main character by the shoulders and give them a good shake. Despite my frustrations, this book had me at the edge of my seat from start to finish. It’s definitely a fast paced novel, becoming more and more outlandish as the story goes on. There’s plot holes and nonsensical decisions, which definitely requires some suspension of disbelief behalf of the reader but if you’re good with sitting back and enjoying the ride, then this is a pretty fun one.
This one of those books that I feel like the less you know the better. If you like cult-y books or an unpredictable mystery (and don’t mind a little insanity), then definitely give this one a try.
This book releases on April 1st, 2025.