Review: "Breathe In, Bleed Out" by Brian McAuley

Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley
Published September 2025 via Poisoned Pen Press
★★★

It's supposed to be a reset—Hannah is still wading through the trauma of losing her boyfriend-come-fiancé in a terrible Event in the woods, and she's floundering. Enter a New-Age-y retreat in the California desert, where she (and, maybe more to the point, the friend who invited her) hopes she can get past her nightmares and flashbacks and into the swing of things.

One minor problem: People keep disappearing. And—although Hannah doesn't know this (the reader does)—they keep dying. Violently. And the why is less clear...

I do enjoy the occasional bloody thriller or, in this case, slasher book. (A girl has to have layers!) There are some interesting things with what the reader knows vs. what Hannah knows—I don't think it's giving too much away to say that it's welllll into the book before Hannah really understands that something is amiss.

Hannah and co. don't get to the camp until about a quarter of the way into the book, which is too bad; the setup before that puts some stakes to the event (though not all of those stakes are really followed up on), but they weren't stakes that I...had all too much a stake in...so I was happy when the "wellness retreat" part of things got going. My personal preference is for a little more psychological thrill (I like to be unable to sleep because I'm afraid that whatever likable characters are in the mix will die) and a little less douche-bro, but McAuley makes a point to keep just enough characters sympathetic for the reader to care whether they live or die.

Possibly my favorite part of the book is the author's note at the end, which provides some context for the inspiration and the way the book came to be. Still isn't my favorite type of mystery/thriller, but it makes a lot of sense in that context. And hey, summer murder camp vibes! Always fun.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.