Breathe in, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley

TL;DR: Very fun with some unique deaths.
Source: NetGalley – Thank you to the publisher!!

Plot: Hannah is trying to recover after the death of her fiancé and agrees to go on a ‘wellness retreat’. All is not well.
Characters: A cast of somewhat tropey characters but not the worst. I enjoyed hating some of these guys.
Setting: This felt unique as they were out in the desert all alone, a first for me.
Thriller/Horror: There wasn’t much as far as thrills here but the horror and kills were fun!

Summary:

Hannah has been running from her demons ever since she emerged from a harrowing wilderness trip without her fiancé. No one knows exactly what happened the day Ben died, and Hannah would like to keep it that way… even if his ghost still haunts her with vivid waking nightmares that are ruining her life. So when her friend group gets an exclusive invitation to a restorative spiritual retreat in Joshua Tree, Hannah reluctantly agrees in search of a fresh start.

Despite her skepticism of the strange Guru Pax and his belief in the supernatural world, Hannah soon finds healing through all the yoga, sound baths, and hot springs offered at the tech-free haven. But this peaceful journey of self-discovery quickly descends into a violent fight for self-preservation when a mysterious killer starts picking off retreat attendees in increasingly gruesome ways. As the body count rises and Hannah’s sanity frays, she’ll have to confront her dark past and uncover the true nature of a ruthless monster hellbent on killing her vibe for good.

Thoughts:

Okay, so listen. This isn’t my usual genre. Slashers like this aren’t my go too but occasionally I like to mix it up! This was available and I thought, why not? And it was fun! It really was! Hannah is deep in the throes of grief over the deeply traumatic loss of her fiancé when she agrees to go on a wellness retreat with her friends. Things start great! But no one gets any… wellness there.

The characters are your usual cast. We have a real annoying blonde, her fratboy style boyfriend, the boy who always loved Hannah, her best friend, and Hannah herself. In addition to that we have the suspicious Guru Pax and his assistant Kimi. The small cast works great and each death we saw was fun and honestly pretty fitting. I liked seeing them coming and I enjoyed the consistency of the kills.

I do think there were a few plot threads that were left hanging and some things we could have had explained out more but if you’re looking for a short fun time, this is it. There are red herrings, fun chase scenes, the whole thing! I had fun, and if you go in looking just for that, you will too.