If you don’t read the jacket copy or see the cover art of Julia Bartz’s sophomore novel, THE LAST SESSION, you might believe it’s a very different kind of book than what it eventually becomes. With the exception of a disorienting and horrific prologue that seems to take place in a dreamscape, the story starts out in a clinical setting.

Thea is a social worker who is enrolled in her first job doing art therapy with patients at a psychiatric hospital in New York City. She recently has gotten out of a long relationship, which ended when her partner --- on the verge of proposing marriage --- balked at her confession of a particularly disturbing sexual fantasy. But her routine at work and at home is about to be disrupted.

Thea’s roommate asks Thea to move out to make room for her new girlfriend. Then, just after Thea confesses to a coworker that she was obsessed with the science fiction film Stargirl as a young teen, she learns that the Jane Doe who recently has been admitted to the ward is actually Catherine O’Brien, the actress who starred in the movie some 20 years earlier.

"Fans of Bartz’s bestselling debut, THE WRITING RETREAT, won’t want to miss this worthy follow-up that matches its predecessor in terms of mounting dread and unease."

Thea is taken aback to realize that, just as she always suspected when she was younger, she and Catherine share a number of physical similarities, specifically their naturally red hair. Even more unnerving, they have the same birthdate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Thea feels a real connection with Catherine, despite the woman’s initial catatonia. So when Catherine abruptly disappears from the hospital after appearing to have come back to lucidity, Thea grows fixated on finding out what happened to her.

A series of clues lead her to the Center for Relational Healing, a sexual and relationship wellness center tucked away in the remote New Mexico desert. Convinced that Catherine has a connection with the center and its charismatic leaders, Sol and Moon (co-hosts of a popular podcast), Thea enrolls in a three-day intensive workshop. There, she discovers a private investigator whose path already had crossed hers back in New York. Like Thea, he’s trying to track down Catherine and bring her home.

The two team up to find answers, but Thea also starts getting sucked into Sol and Moon’s incredibly intense but seemingly liberating therapeutic methods. A trained professional, she knows she should be skeptical of these untrained facilitators, but the positive effect they’re having on the other workshop participants seems remarkable. Despite herself, Thea begins spending more and more of her time reliving traumatic events that happened when she was a young teen, around the time she loved Stargirl. Could there be some kind of significance to all these connections: Catherine’s history at the center, the mystical symbols that Catherine and Moon wear, the allusions to past lives? Almost before she realizes it, Thea is fully immersed --- and in more danger than she ever thought.

There’s a bumper crop of novels set in cult-like organizations this year. I’m not going to analyze that trend here, but suffice it to say that THE LAST SESSION is a worthy addition to the group. Much like what I imagine immersion in a cult to be like, the book gradually morphs from straightforward realistic fiction to some truly bizarre and speculative territory. Along the way, Bartz utilizes elements of science fiction, thrillers and even horror novels to put readers off-kilter. Even in the final pages, readers will be asking themselves whether the novel’s seemingly supernatural elements are out of this world or simply part of the human imagination.

Fans of Bartz’s bestselling debut, THE WRITING RETREAT, won’t want to miss this worthy follow-up that matches its predecessor in terms of mounting dread and unease.