The Writing Retreat

Content Warning: This section explores violent, abusive, sexual, and occult subject matter.

Alex is the novel’s protagonist and first-person narrator. A 30-year-old aspiring writer, Alex hungers for recognition and connection: She has always felt like an outsider and she has been especially lonely since the breakdown of her friendship with Wren. Alex is not, however, always a reliable narrator. For example, her feelings for Wren alternate between anger—the first line of the novel is an expression of dismissal beginning with an expletive—sadness, nostalgia, and confusion. It also becomes clear that Alex’s description of their friendship’s demise does not conform exactly to the objective truth. Alex’s experiences at the writing retreat are likewise colored by strong emotion: She fears that Wren might expose her, continues to idealize Roza despite Roza’s destructive behavior, and exaggerates Blackbriar’s Gothic elements. These elements of instability help Bartz create a complex coming-of-age story with an unreliable narrator. By its end, Alex achieves emotional stability, a concrete sense of self, and hard-won professional success.

At first, though, Alex agonizes over her inability to fit in. She is dogged by feelings of isolation from youth. Raised by a single mother, Alex moves often during her school years and takes refuge in books—Roza’s books in particular.