Book Synopsis:
THE PERFECT ESCAPE. THE PERFECT NIGHTMARE.
Martha and Finn’s marriage is hanging by a thread. Martha, crippled by paralyzing climate anxiety, finds herself at odds with Finn, who steadfastly refuses to confront the demons of his past.
In a desperate attempt to repair their relationship, they join a group of privileged tourists on a pilgrimage to The Salt Centre, a mysterious retreat nestled deep within the Bolivian salt flats.
United by a shared quest for spiritual enlightenment, the group embark on a journey guided by an elusive shaman. As a series of salt ceremonies unfold, hallucinogenic episodes force each of them to confront their own versions of reality.
When the final ceremony descends into a nightmare, Martha and Finn are met with an ultimatum. Forced to grapple with the moral implications of their trip they must ask themselves: are some wounds too deep to heal?
My Review:
The Salt Flats is a dark, intense and atmospheric read that I’ll be thinking about for a long time. It’s going to be a difficult book to review as I don’t want to give anything away.
The story follows Finn and Martha who are experiencing a few marriage problems so decide to attend a well-being retreat for some guidance. The author does a great job at describing the salt flats and the beautifully desolate landscape that they find themselves in. The 3 couples in attendance at the retreat are very isolated and right from the start I felt a little bit uneasy about what this might mean for the characters. The retreat itself was very intriguing from the enigmatic but secretive leader to the salt ceremonies which seem to have hallucinogenic effects. The parts of the book describing these were fascinating as the author’s descriptions were really vivid, so I felt that I was going through it all with the characters. It was also the part that made them the freest and it was very interesting to see what was revealed.
I though the book started off a bit slowly as the author sets the scene but soon become very gripping indeed as we learn more about the retreat and are introduced to the characters. The fear and uncertainty about what was going on slowly increases as the book goes on until I felt very afraid for what was going to happen to the characters. The ending was brilliant, though a bit sudden, and I loved that the author left it open ended for the reader to draw their own conclusions, though my horror slowly increased as I realised what the character’s actions could potentially mean for them.
Huge thanks to Alainna for Hodder and Stoughton for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book. If you are looking for a tense, dark thriller then I highly recommend this one.
About The Author:
Rachelle Atalla is a Scottish-Egyptian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter based in Glasgow. Her debut novel The Pharmacist was published by Hodder & Stoughton in May 2022.
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