The Book:
The Clinic by Cate Quinn
Published January 23, 2024 by Sourcebooks Landmark
Date read: March 16, 2024
More January 2024 releases here.
The Clinic spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.
The Characters:
Meg, her sister Haley
Cate, an employee of the clinic
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
This page contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Meg works for a casino in LA, catching cheaters and popping a few too many pain pills to cope, following a far different path than her sister Haley, a famous actress. But suddenly reports surface of Haley dying at the remote rehab facility where she had been forced to go to get her addictions under control.
There are whispers of suicide, but Meg can’t believe it. She decides that the best way to find out what happened to her sister is to check in herself – to investigate what really happened from the inside.
Battling her own addictions and figuring out the truth will be much more difficult than she imagined, far away from friends, family – and anyone who could help her.
The Clinic Spoilers
The Reveal:
Haley was still alive. She was working with the doctor to develop the next phase of the clinic–helping people disappear from their past lives for good. The doctor had faked her death with blowfish venom and reconstructed her face to make her look completely different, and Haley had come back as Jade.
The Ending:
My memory of the ending is a bit fuzzy, but basically the doctor planned to kill all the residents (and some of the staff) by freezing them in the cryotherapy chamber to hide the evidence of the blowfish venom after the police came sniffing around. Cara, one of the staff members, was able to rescue the residents. [The power shut off for just long enough to get them out of the cryotherapy chamber, although many were near death]. Meg and Haley faced off, but Haley chose to save Meg and kill the doctor rather than side with him.
Haley ran away again and kept living her life as Jade. I think Cara kept dating the other not-so-evil doctor dude.
I hope these The Clinic spoilers were helpful! If you remember more, feel free to add to my recollection in the comments.
The Review:
The cover of The Clinic sets the tone for this isolated, atmospheric read. I loved the premise–Meg has gone undercover at the rehab clinic where her sister has just died, trying to figure out what happened to Haley. To her shock, she starts finding notes written to her in Haley’s handwriting, left in her pockets.
I was certainly hooked. This book is on the longer side, but the suspense keeps the reader hooked and the audiobook flew by. I couldn’t wait to put together what was going on! The reveal is a little outlandish, but I encourage readers to suspend belief and enjoy the ride.
If addition is triggering to you, proceed with caution. These scenes are well-handled, though, and the representation is well-done.
I’m looking forward to reading more by this author!
Follow me on Bloglovin’!
