REVIEW: The Vicious Circle

By Denise @ Life With No Plot on October 28, 2024 • ( 1 )

About the Book

Title: The Vicious Circle

Author: Katherine St. John

Series: none

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Pages: 320

Edition Read: Paperback

Dates Read: October 21-24, 2024

Blurb: A perfect paradise? Or a perfect nightmare?

On a river deep in the Mexican jungle stands the colossal villa Xanadu, a wellness center that’s home to The Mandala, an ardent spiritual group devoted to self-help guru Paul Bentzen and his enigmatic wife Kali. But when, mysteriously, Paul suddenly dies, his entire estate–including Xanadu–is left to his estranged niece Sveta, a former model living in New York City.

Shocked and confused, Sveta travels to Mexico to pay her respects. At first, Xanadu seems like a secluded paradise with its tumbling gardens, beautiful people, transcendent vibe, and mesmerizing de-facto leader Kali. But soon the mystical façade wears thin, revealing a group of brainwashed members drunk on false promises of an impossible utopia and a disturbing, dangerous belief system–and leader–guiding them.

As the sinister forces surrounding Sveta become apparent, she realizes, too late, she can’t escape. Frantic and terrified, she discovers her only hope for survival is to put her confidence in the very person she trusts the least.

Review

Yay for finishing my book club book on time! And yay for discovering a new book and a new author!

This book was great. There is such a good tension build up, you keep wanting to read but dread what’s coming next at the same time. The pacing is just about perfect. There are also plot twists around nearly every corner, and just when you think you know what’s going on, something else happens.

Sveta is a really well written character. She has a lot of stuff going on, both in her relationship with her fiancé (man, that feeling of never being good enough for your in-laws gave me flashbacks to my first marriage – minus the money, of course) and with her family, particularly her now late uncle, Paul. A lot of the conflict in the story is her inner conflict as she starts uncovering a lot of truths about it all. With the other characters, you spend a good amount of time trying to figure out if any of them are what they seem. Spoiler alert: most of them aren’t.

I will say that the villa itself, Xanadu, is almost a character itself. When Sveta first arrives, it seems so perfect and peaceful. She even enjoys it at first. Heck, St. John does such a good job describing how nice it is, I wanted to go, even after we started seeing that it wasn’t as perfect as it seemed. It is painted as a paradise, but there is a darkness underneath that was so exciting to find out about. It really felt like there was something new to uncover at every turn.

If you enjoy a good mystery/thriller, definitely give this one a try.

GoodReads rating: 5 stars