After the mysterious death of her fiancé, Hannah goes on a healing retreat with her friends. The retreat is located in a remote spot, so there’s no cell service, but this is a feature since less time with phones helps mental health. All five friends are suffering from trauma of their own, although this isn’t apparent at first. Even the former frat boy Jared ends up having hidden depths.

It’s a cabin-in-the-woods style slasher with victims getting picked off one-by-one, but it’s a cut above the usual. For one thing, it’s a mystery who’s doing the killing until we get the surprise reveal at the end. The fact the narrator has hallucinations makes us question what’s really happening and what isn’t. I like that the characters are young adults who’ve started their careers rather than the teenagers we usually get in this type of story. It makes for a nice change of pace. The harbinger character gives us a creepy rhyme that foreshadows what’s to come later. Nicely done.

Based on the title, I expected gruesome deaths from the start, but there’s a nice long setup introducing us to multiple suspects. The characters all seem like real people and we send enough time getting to know them that it’s actually sad when they die. The author has a keen grasp on Los Angeles healing culture including knowing yoga poses, etc. He knows what he’s writing about, which is always a plus. I think the cultural appropriation versus religious syncretism argument is interesting. I like that the author didn’t play it safe by avoiding politics, but rather points out the failings of both conservatives and liberals.

There’s some laugh-out-loud moments. Hannah and friends are suitably snarky. When one of her friends says he isn’t saving lives in his job, Hannah, who works in a hospital, says she doesn’t either, she’s just delaying the inevitable. I also liked the line that it’s possible to be so progressive you become oppressive. Real friends don’t cheer you on all the time, but call you out when you need it because they care.

It was a bit jarring to me when the narration switched from first person to third person, but there ended up being a good reason for that.

The death scenes are suitably gruesome. I like that a couple of the characters gain a sort of enlightenment before dying. They finish their journey by the end, making their deaths a bit less tragic.