The Sanatorium

4/5

I can't believe this was this author's first book! I was fantastic! It would have been a 5 start read if not for Elin. I just didn't like her. She came across SO incompetent and reserved. And kind of “know it all” at times. However, that epilogue has me excited to see what will happen in what I “assume” will be a follow-up book?

I consumed this book in one day. 5 Stars.

I loved it. It was descriptive perfectly for me, not too much and not too little.! Our main character, Elin, has growth and overcomes a childhood trauma. Shes weak in the beginning but gets stronger. A little family drama incorporated.

The Asylum/ Sanatorium was very intriguing. Some mild horror descriptions. I liked it. The Epilogue was interesting and has me wanting more... Stalker Alert maybe?

Creepy sanatorium, creepy masks, avalanches and a family death mystery. What else could you ask for in a mystery??

With an isolated converted sanatorium locale and a blizzard cutting off access to the cast of characters, I expected this book to be my exact cup of tea. Alas, I found it laborious in places. I did love the creepy converted sanatorium. That was cool - as was the rugged punishing mountainside with non stop snow. Our damaged heroine, however, got annoying. Quickly. Her trauma backstory was hard to believe. And that made her hard to care about. Then on top of all that, the plot of this one was interesting up until the ending. So that's it. My last snow covered mountain thriller for this winter.

This was okay, but could have been cleaned up a bit. The main character is not very likable, and you wonder how she became a police detective. The sanatorium location wasn't used enough - it could have just as easily been a hotel built on the ruins rather than the actual building. A missed opportunity. I think it's obvious a lot of thought went into this, but it could have been smoothed out more.

A bunch of unlikeable characters moping about a posh hotel that used to be an asylum back in the day, there's a blizzard, an avalanche and some deaths which add some tension but not much. Starts off quite well but took me 79 years to finish the last 50 pages. Tells you everything you need to know.

3.5* very interested to see where this series goes

What a waste of my time. Seriously that ending came from nowhere. I like books that have plot twists and turns and you think back as to how you missed the clues that were right in front of you. This was more like a magician that asks you to pick a card and then tells you your number was 62.
Yep that random. I do not recommend anyone read this book who likes mystery novels. Oh there is no horror either don't know why they compared to The Shinning except there was a hotel and snow. Perhaps that person looked at the cover.
When they say don't judge a book by the cover they meant this book

I love a good detective novel. I thought the main character was off at first but as her back story unfolded, her motivations and actions made more sense. The setting was well constructed and the resolution satisfying. Fun read.

Just barely hitting 3 for me... Cuz damn finishing this book was a chore.

2.5 rounded up.

Listen, this DEFINITELY was atmospheric, good prose, good creepy vibes.

However, I found it kind of long winded and the story dragged on. Our main character frustrated me with not realizing obvious things for a long time. The worst part for me was the end which included like all of my least favorite thriller tropes in one. So definitely a personal preference issue for me or it would've probably been a 3 closer to a 3.5.

I don't actually know if I liked this, but it did make me want to keep reading... There's just so much going on here. The solution was a bit convoluted and too elaborate, almost. There's hardly any way you could figure it out, which I don't like. The idea of the sanatorium was interesting but it just didn't play out as well as I'd hoped. Everything wraps up a bit too easily.... It reads fast though, so at least it has that going for it. (Also didn't appreciate the epilogue that is there just to get you to read the next book, which, eh, I probably won't.)

Interesting, it keeps you guessing along with Elin (the main character) It's funny how it felt like I was following her around the whole time.

Really enjoyable listen/read. 4.5 rounded up to 5 stars. Suspenseful, twisty, turny, and unpredictable. I really enjoyed the dark realities of the story and the way the author presented the characters with so many deep revelations, ones that were life altering. However, it was a bit of a challenge to suspend my disbelief enough to buy into the idea that a person could go through so many revelations in such a short time without therapeutic intervention...although we don't really know the “ending” of the character's journeys as this is the first in a series, so maybe some if that will pan out over time. Even with that minor “challenge” I was able to buy in enough to really enjoy the detailed character development and how well the author set the scene. Really looking forward to the next one!! I will have to thank my friend Jessa for posting about this in FB and inspiring a new read!!

Update to my review: if one is reading the book and not just listening, it sounds like the switching of the character POV can be confusing, so maybe it is a better listen than read...also, in reading another person's review, I was reminded of just HOW much and OFTEN readers will need to suspend their disbelief to really get into this one. ESPECIALLY if you know anything about PTSD, trauma and/or law enforcement or true crime. I did find myself saying “ha! That would NEVER happen IRL” and chuckling, but I agreed to let it go and keep letting the characters and setting draw me in.

3.5 Rounded to 3

This is an interesting first start to a new series. I absolutely loved the setting for this one. I mean a hotel where an old sanatorium used to be? Sign me up!

However, that being said, this wasn't what I thought it would be

2.5 stars

There were quite a few problematic things in this book. To start, the first 150 pgs or so were incredibly dull. I appreciated the backstory later in the book however trying to read through it was like nails on a chalkboard for me. Throughout the book, the main character had many flashback to what happened with her brother, Sam. This was quickly dismissed after Elin found out what actually happened. To me, this was a little odd as the author spend so much time building this up in the beginning of the book.

Elin also made horrible decisions and did not seem to be great at her detective work. They seem to elude to the fact that she had been on leave, but this isn't something that should just be completely foreign to you when you need to do it again after a short(ish) leave. She just seemed to have everything so wrong after being absolutely sure she had it right fairly often.

I felt like reasoning behind these killings were sort of anticlimactic and didn't make much sense. Only one of the murders did I feel like really had a reason before it almost turned into more of a political statement. I was also incredibly surprised when the killer was revealed. Elin repeatedly referred to the killer as being big and strong which was a very good red herring as I would have never guessed who it ended up being partially because of this.

The last thing that really seemed to bother me was the epilogue. I understand who the author is making it seem like is stalking her, but what I don't understand is why. Maybe thats something I'll understand better if/when the sequel is written, however, seems odd that after getting away he would seek her out. Just my opinion on that, but I guess I'm also not in his situation.

I feel like this book could have gone in so many different ways and would have been a lot better. However, I do think the author did a really good job at creating the spooky atmosphere for this book in the beginning, but it just quickly fizzled once everything was revealed.

*2.5 stars

Uhhhhh.......this book. I was so excited when a good friend of mine off Bookstagram gifted it to me because I have been seeing it around and wanted to read it myself. Well, let's just say that I have not had a harder time before getting through a book than I did with this one. After a few chapters in, I understood that the only way that I would be able to finish this book was to buy the audiobook and follow along and that's exactly what I did. Even though the audiobook was pretty well done and it made it more tolerable to get through it, it still didn't get me invested in the story and took everything I had in me not to dnf it.

First of all, The Sanatorium is about a detective who is on leave, Elin, as she takes a trip to see her long estranged brother who has recently gotten engaged to his girlfriend at a sanatorium that has recently been converted into a hotel and at which his new fiancé works. Things start happening and Elin is thrown back into detective mode as lives are taken and secrets come out. The plot sounded so good when I read the synopsis, especially because I enjoy these closed setting “who-dun-its” but it really lacked in the execution for me. All the aspects together really made for an extremely “slow-burn” novel that didn't really excite me, even when things were happening. That's never really happened to me in a novel before, especially with one that I was so excited to read in the first place.

Secondly, the characterization was mediocre. It wasn't anything special. For some reason I could not relate to the main heroine whatsoever, even though I have things in common with her, like suffering from panic attacks and having a lot of anxiety to deal with day to day. She just came across as too weak and I really wanted her to grow and come out of her shell but she didn't really do that, even at the end. All the characters had their own backgrounds and such and usually that would help in getting me to care about them and what happened to them but in this instance it did not penetrate beneath my skin and get any kind of emotion or feeling out of me. This is definitely a first for me.

Finally, the writing style is what I had the hardest time with whilst reading this novel. I just didn't vibe with it, at all. It felt somewhat choppy and the descriptions were a bit drawn out and repeated over and over again in somewhat various forms. As I wanted the story to progress and evolve, I would get a bunch more descriptions and what Elin was feeling over and over again. This novel was pretty long in my opinion but it could have been shortened considerable and that would have made for a much more thriller-y and heart pounding vibe.

In conclusion, I will not be recommending this novel to anyone because it didn't move me at all. I felt very distanced from the story and the characters the whole time and it didn't evoke any feelings within me. If you have the novel already, you can read it but if you're thinking about buying this, I would say pass. I wish I would have known how difficult it would be for me to finish this book beforehand.

There were several things that I figured out hundreds of pages before Elin, but there still were several surprises. So that left me conflicted.
Also all of the men in this book were awful. A couple of them seemed to get better by the end, but just barely. They questioned and doubted everything Elin was doing and saying. It was incredibly frustrating! But maybe they were written that way in purpose.

I love winter isolation stories. When I expect horror or gothic thrills. This took a fantastic location and potentially creepy premise and just...scrapped all over it. Farfetched, dull, uninspired. The characters were boring or absurd. The prose itself was wholly unoriginal. Don't lie to me and tell me this is gothic. It's just another mediocre thriller.

To quote Cogsworth: “Dusty, dull, very boring.”

Very very intricate, full of twists and distrust and suspicion. Maybe too full. It's engrossing, but almost tiresome. Also, the main character is going through a difficult period that apparently was triggered by a case, but we don't know enough about the case to validate or sympathize with her in this frame of time - I mean, one can understand her struggle, but every now and then you tell yourself but it's been twenty years woman!
all in all, okay read.

A British police detective on holiday is dogged by her past, strained family relations, and the pain of being a stranger abroad with a crime scene to deal with.
I enjoyed this, there's a sense of impending doom running through the story, and the author ramps up the tension from the start amid lush descriptions of the snowy and isolated setting.
As a ‘whodunnit', we do find out who and why eventually, but it feels a bit lost beneath the main character's thoughts and emotions.
Read it via Pigeonhole, but blasted through it in a few days rather than reading along every other day.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very tense and creepy. More so, I think, because of the fact that the place where the story took place was in what had previously been a Sanatorium. It definitely added to the creepy vibes. I'm not sure why anyone would've thought it was a good idea choosing that as a holiday destination.

The writing was good, I thought. It helped create a tense, suspenseful atmosphere.

I did, however, find myself frustrated with the main character, Elin, who despite being a police officer, repeatedly made some poor choices, making me want to give her a good shake.

The ending left some questions unanswered, which does make me wonder if it was done with the possibility of a sequel. If not, I do wonder what the point of it was.

Thank you to Pigeonhole and Sarah Pearse for the opportunity to read this book.

Wow. I loved this book. It was creepy and atmospheric and nuanced and utterly compelling. I couldn't stop turning the pages. I loved the backdrop of the cold and creepy Swiss Alps during an avalanche. I also loved the dark, spooky and unnerving choice of an old Sanatorium turned luxury hotel as the setting for this thriller.

The main protagonist Elin, a British police officer on a period of leave due to personal circumstances relating to a case she was involved in the previous year, is invited to the luxury hotel for the weekend with her partner Will to celebrate her brother Isaac's engagement to Laure. When Laure who works at the hotel goes missing days after Elin arrives and the body of a member of staff is discovered, Elin is forced to investigate the murder mystery in the hotel and the mysteries that plague her own personal life too.

I loved the isolated close circle mystery element of this novel. All the characters trapped in the hotel during a terrible winter storm and avalanche and the police can't get to them. I also enjoyed how the Sanatorium because like an additional character in the plot, enhancing the bone chilling components of the novel. This book is full of secrets from the past being brought to the surface. Full of twists and turns. It's impressively plotted and paced. I was completely on board with the story from the first page.

The characters were intriguing and I found the ending left me on tender hooks. This is a new author that people should watch out for.

This was one of the best thrillers I have read in a long time. And perfect for this time of year. A cold creepy story to curl up with during the cold winter nights. I can't wait to see what this author writes next!

Thanks to Penguin Books UK, the author and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.