This Might Hurt

Starred review from December 13, 2021
This outstanding psychological thriller from Wrobel (Darling Rose Gold) centers on two estranged sisters. Natalie Collins, an executive at a Boston branding agency, and Kit Collins, a receptionist at a Brooklyn accounting firm, are both wrestling with guilt, anger, fear, and the horrible “barnacle” of loneliness after their mother’s death. Each is keeping secrets from the other. Six months after Natalie last had any word from Kit, she suddenly receives an anonymous threatening email from the Wisewood Wellness & Therapy Center in Rockland, Maine. Kit has retreated there to “inward focus” through a self-improvement program to realize a “maximized self.” When Natalie races to the isolated island compound, she discovers a life-sucking cult guided by a guy his acolytes call the Teacher. Atmospheric details include the January wind that “shrieks like a woman being stabbed,” an abandoned schoolhouse in a forest, and a haunting initiation sequence. Some of Houdini’s mentalist feats play a significant role as the action builds to final bombshell revelations. Fans of Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers will want to check this out. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary (U.K.).

February 1, 2022
With her second novel, the author of Darling Rose Gold (2020) brings more multi-point-of-view fun to thriller fans. When a mysterious emailer threatens to reveal her darkest secret, Natalie Collins journeys from Boston to an isolated island off the Maine coast to confess the truth to her flighty younger sister, Kit. Kit has spent the last six months at Wisewood, a self-improvement retreat that requires attendees to give up all connections, including contact with friends and family and all forms of physical affection. When Nat shows up, the other residents of Wisewood refuse to give Nat any information about Kit, citing rules which prevent friends or family members from attending together. While her sister turns out to be an elusive presence on the island, Nat can't shake the feeling that someone is tailing her. With a blizzard coming in to prevent all travel back to the mainland and Wisewood staff growing increasingly hostile toward her, Nat's racing against a ticking clock to accomplish her mission and get back to her normal life. Although the genre-savvy will see the twists coming from miles away, Wrobel manages to keep the lines of her narrative pulled taut here. The narrator's torch passes among Natalie, Kit, and a third woman who goes unidentified until the novel's midpoint. Through flashbacks to a childhood and adolescence spent trapped in her abusive father's unhinged training regimen--one designed to purge fear and self-doubt from the girl and her sister--this third narrator's story quickly proves to be the novel's most captivating thread. Unfortunately, because neither Nat nor Kit shares her story with the same immediacy or intimacy as this counterpart, readers will inevitably feel a deeper connection to the long-unnamed woman. Once her identity is revealed, however, they'll be left to wonder if that wasn't the point all along. A taut thriller that examines the twin legacies of trauma and grief.

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Starred review from December 1, 2021

Natalie Collins's troubled sister, Kit, has retreated to Wisewood, an institution on a private island off the Maine coast where she hopes to achieve the true fearlessness of her Maximized Self. Guests must stay for six months without outside contact, but Natalie receives a message from someone there threatening to reveal a secret she's been keeping from Kit and hurries to Wisewood to set things right. Once there, she finds leaving with Kit is not so easy. Wrobel debuted with Darling Rose Gold, which indeed struck best seller gold.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2021
Kit struggled to find herself following the tragic death of her mother, until she discovered a self-help utopia off the coast of Maine, called Wisewood. Now, nearly six months after Kit left for Wisewood, her older sister, Natalie, hasn't heard a word from her, and is determined to find Kit and bring her home. Wisewood and its teacher, Rebecca, are not willing to easily give up their latest star pupil, and Natalie discovers that not everything is quite what it seems on the weather-beaten island. The story is told through each woman's varying perspective and at different points in time, giving readers only glimpses of the truth, but at a pace that keeps them wondering what will happen next. Wrobel has honed her writing style even more sharply since her strong debut novel Darling Rose Gold (2020), and is again delivering her readers a ""ripped from the headlines"" story. This Might Hurt contains moments and characters recognizable to those familiar with the NXVIM cult and its downfall, although the twists and turns are all Wrobel's own, and will leave readers guessing until the very end.

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