Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Night Film

Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

34 reviews

axdixon's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

2.0

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philomathean's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kermit_the_wrong's review against another edition

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Disappointingly didn't finish due to the blatant transphobia and racist stereotypes. The story was interesting, but was not as dark or gripping as I had hoped.

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dbuchheister's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Did I like this book? Not by the end.
Was it racist and transphobic? Yes.
Was it actually creepy or horrifying? Not particularly.
Did I finish it hoping that the end would be good? Yes.
Was it? No. It was a disappointment.
Was there a scene where

a teenager throws herself at a 40-something, mediocre man for no reason

? Yes.
Was it actually a compelling and well put together mystery? I really don't feel that way.
Was it too long? Yes.
Would I recommend this to anyone? Absolutely not.
Do I regret reading this? Kind of. I spent way too much time on something so disappointing.
Were there things that were mildly interesting? Sure.
Did that make up for the rest? Nope.

Do with this information what you will.

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mxpringle's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

My opinions on this book are very complicated. At the beginning, I loved the format of the story and the plot had me on the edge of my seat. I think the way that Pessl crafted this story was truly masterful in that the reader is never quite sure what the reality is. However, as the book went on, I began to become frustrated with how it felt like nothing had really been uncovered in the investigation that was occurring in the book. I felt like I was being led on. In addition, so much of the book was filled with racism, sexism, and transphobia all perpetrated by the protagonist, whose authority on these matters was never questioned. As a trans person, the demonization of trans women in horror for a simple "creep factor" is getting very archaic, and Pessl's use of that trope disgusted me. In addition, the bizarre and unnecessary romance between the middle aged protagonist and his teenage assistant left me feeling slimy and uncomfortable.

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katy_alice's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

**Update for 2024 Reread**

I still think this book is a lot of fun, the mystery is twisty and dark and the movie stuff and multimedia elements remain the stars. That said, the book has not aged well. A 2024 reader will walk away with concerns about casual use of stereotypes, misogyny and body-shaming descriptions. And while I won’t apologize for my first review (I especially had no idea about the behaviors of the directors I mentioned), I read this book with more knowledge in my brain and a eye for the ways language, especially in genre books, can be casually offensive in ways that don’t enhance the development of characters or narratives.

****************

I want to keep this short, because every second you're reading this, you're not reading 'Night Film'.

This is a rare book that makes you wish it was nonfiction. Pessl creates such a fantastic and enigmatic figure in Cordova and his rabid fictional following that you wish his films were real and his world was ours. The mystery is compelling with great payoff. It's Hitchcock. It's Polanski. It's Kubrick. It's multimedia madness.
Read it.

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rwmurphy's review against another edition

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I did not vibe with any of the characters, and I did not find the mystery intriguing. Looking at other reviews from people who did not enjoy this book, it looks like a lot of the things that I have a problem with, such as the underlining tones of judgement from the main character in every scene for any character that doesn't fall under what he believes is normal or ideal, continues and doesn't improve.

Because of this, I don't want to put myself through what will likely be a 2 star (at most) book, even though I find the mixed media to be fun, I find it really doesn't contribute much, we could get any of the information through a different way very easily, and a lot of the information given through the mixed media segments don't even seem to be relevant, though I didn't even get half way, so maybe it's more useful later.

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fluoresensitive's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Sovereign. Deadly. Perfect.

These are the three words that describe the terrifying masterworks of the fictional horror film maker Stanislas Cordova. The story hinges on his movies, his hungry cult of fans and critics, the people repulsed and changed by him. We see his strange impact through the eyes of disgraced, semi-retired investigative journalist, Scott McGrath, a somewhat embittered man who digs into Cordova and his daughter, Ashley Cordova. There are heists. There are fantastic, fabulous sentences on the necessity of horror, there are gorgeous passages that reminded me why I love to write horror.

I did not like Night Film. This is majorly disappointing to me, because everything in me wanted to like it. The plot was fascinating, the prose was interesting. I could’ve forgiven the excessive italics and all-white cast in many other circumstances, but this book was appalling racist and transmisogynistic. There’s no greater shock than thinking you can enjoy a book as a trans person of color only to see your trans sisters be mocked, or to flip through a story only to discover that the author (white, of course) thinks all Asian people are weird and savage.

The moments of the book I liked (meeting Marlow Hughes, Cordova’s ex-wife; unwinding the “true” story behind Cordova through different people’s perspectives of him) were tainted for me. All in all, an upsetting read. Night Film could’ve been a tour de force with a bit more sensitivity reading, an editor to cut out half the italics, and maybe a little better pacing. This story definitely could’ve lost a hundred or so pages, and kept its substance. Maybe the scenes where Pessl relentlessly bags on trans women can be chopped?

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armonim97's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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ro_lux's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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