Breathe in, Bleed Out

Grieving the death of her fiancé Ben (in some type of snowy ourdoorsy incident) a year ago and addicted to Xanax to a career-endangering point, Hannah agrees to go on a “wellness” retreat with her friends to a mysterious, exclusive spa in Joshua Tree. Hannah is seeing Ben not only in her nightmares but is hallucinating him in her waking hours and hopes a relaxing weekend will help her reset her mental health.

The retreat is in a remote location with no cell service, no electricity, no plumbing. They won’t even let them keep their phones . No way anything will go wrong, right?

I don’t want to give anything away, but this is the point where the novel turns into classic horror movie type slasher, and the idyllic getaway becomes a fight for survival.

Is the killer the weirdly psychic guru Pax, the indigenous assistant Kimi, the ghost of gold miner Waylon Barlow, or could it be one of her friends?

Breathe In, Bleed Out has all the elements of a perfect slasher: imperfect, relatable characters, humor, and thrilling kills. Maybe don’t take it as your quiet holiday read, though, unless you want to be constantly looking over your shoulder and wondering if everyone you see is plotting to murder you.

My suggested taglines:

• The sound bath will be a blood bath!

• Instead of meditation, decapitation!

• They came for inner peace, they’ll leave in pieces!

Favorite dialogue: “Their love language is Lies of Omission.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. Pub. date: 9/2/25

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