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kelseyysaurus's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.0
gentlemanjeff's review against another edition
1.0
The tagline for this book reads "Movie-making can be murder," but there's very little of either one involved in this story of an actress with a spotty career getting an opportunity that proves too good to be true.
The immaturity of Run Time's big reveal is representative of the carelessness with which the author throws around tropes and contrives plot devices. Clearly, she knows the thriller genre and has powerful tools of the craft at her disposal, but interspersing the narrative with a confusingly parallel movie script (broken up by a confused, possibly unreliable narrator) makes this novel too gimmicky to be immersive or convincing. Despite the very adult trappings of the plot, the actual stakes are more fodder for a teen thriller than an adult horror novel, dealing in bruised feelings and fake affection rather than life and death.
The conniving jealousy of a struggling Hollywood hopeful is too familiar to be interesting without some genuine creativity or insight. At one point, a character says that mysteries only exist because we don't have all the facts yet, and that's exactly what this story amounts to, in the end.
Not much of a moviegoing experience in this decidedly uncinematic novel, the cool cover art is as far as it goes. Save your popcorn for a dumb shark movie this summer and walk away from Run Time.
Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.
The immaturity of Run Time's big reveal is representative of the carelessness with which the author throws around tropes and contrives plot devices. Clearly, she knows the thriller genre and has powerful tools of the craft at her disposal, but interspersing the narrative with a confusingly parallel movie script (broken up by a confused, possibly unreliable narrator) makes this novel too gimmicky to be immersive or convincing. Despite the very adult trappings of the plot, the actual stakes are more fodder for a teen thriller than an adult horror novel, dealing in bruised feelings and fake affection rather than life and death.
The conniving jealousy of a struggling Hollywood hopeful is too familiar to be interesting without some genuine creativity or insight. At one point, a character says that mysteries only exist because we don't have all the facts yet, and that's exactly what this story amounts to, in the end.
Not much of a moviegoing experience in this decidedly uncinematic novel, the cool cover art is as far as it goes. Save your popcorn for a dumb shark movie this summer and walk away from Run Time.
Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.
rachreadreview's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-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
3.75
3.75/5
A very solid thriller! I love anything that involves Hollywood and movie making, and I’m also super into thriller novels, so this book was right up my alley.
Premise: Struggling former soap star Adele takes a role in the very secretive horror movie ‘Final Draft’ in the extremely isolated Cork countryside. However, things soon start to go very wrong and the things written in the script start to happen to Adele.
This novel had a bit of a slow start, but was very fun once it got going. I have watched many a cheesy horror film and this definitely had those vibes. You know the ones - where the star makes every single wrong decision and you’re just sitting there going “why would you DO that?” Plus, it was very fun to have the chapters broken up with excerpts of the the ‘Final Draft’ script.
A very solid thriller! I love anything that involves Hollywood and movie making, and I’m also super into thriller novels, so this book was right up my alley.
Premise: Struggling former soap star Adele takes a role in the very secretive horror movie ‘Final Draft’ in the extremely isolated Cork countryside. However, things soon start to go very wrong and the things written in the script start to happen to Adele.
This novel had a bit of a slow start, but was very fun once it got going. I have watched many a cheesy horror film and this definitely had those vibes. You know the ones - where the star makes every single wrong decision and you’re just sitting there going “why would you DO that?” Plus, it was very fun to have the chapters broken up with excerpts of the the ‘Final Draft’ script.
wknapp78's review against another edition
dark
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? No
3.75
amanda214's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
booksandbargains's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Thankyou to Netgalley for providing me and ARC of this one
Having loved everything I had read by this author previously I was a little nervous to start this one. On paper it didn't sound like something I would be racing through, but new that I liked the authors style so wanted to give it a go and I was blown away! If your a slasher movie fan I think you will like this (there's mild body horror in it at certain points) but mostly I just loved the tension. Its more atmosphere driven than actual plot which again is something I generally avoid but couldn't give this one any less than a 5 star!
Having loved everything I had read by this author previously I was a little nervous to start this one. On paper it didn't sound like something I would be racing through, but new that I liked the authors style so wanted to give it a go and I was blown away! If your a slasher movie fan I think you will like this (there's mild body horror in it at certain points) but mostly I just loved the tension. Its more atmosphere driven than actual plot which again is something I generally avoid but couldn't give this one any less than a 5 star!
evelynisch's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
mystery_jb's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5