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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As a horror movie fan, I was drawn to the plot and had high hopes for it. Well, I was skeptical with the whole “curse” thing. Paranormal and supernatural horror isn’t a big interest of mine. But Winning exceeded my expectations and I can tell he knows his stuff when it comes to horror trivia. The extra tidbits of newspaper articles added to the story and helped put me into a world where The Guesthouse was a movie.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
📚368 pages
🎧📲 Audio Book: 10 hours 6 minutes
"Burn the negative, release the positive"
"Yellow means death"
"Nothing is natural in LA"
"Fire is always hungry and doesn't care what eats."
Vibes Of The Book
🎬 Cursed Film
⭐️ Set In Hollywood
🇬🇧 British Accent Audible Book
😱 Suspense & horror
⏪️ Horror Movie References
My Thoughts (no spoilers) ⬇️
5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Haunted film, a monster who may or may not have killed the whole cast. The needle man, the ficitional character who haunts the cast covered in shadow.
The child actor who was in the 90's fictional haunted film goes back to LA after having a new indentity only to find the film that has haunted her for decades is being remade and she's right on set... is the needle man real? And will Laura survive this remake?
I loved this audiobook!
Throughout the book multi media parts pop up like ficition social media posts about the book (911 calls from the actors on the film set) or articles about how haunted the film was. My heart dropped when I realized Laura had sleep walking issues. Similar vibes from the Omen, the Excerist, and of course Scream (the 90s vibes of the ficitional movie heavily haunting this book the Guest House movie.)
The fictional film being remade bringing the main character back to the scene where later all her fellow actors died was such a unique plot. I've been thinking of this book for months and I am so happy I got it on audible to start the year. This book truly highlights how cruel Hollywood and society can be about death on set, what child actors go through while in the public eye (and in private), and how murder impacts society online. The entertainment industry is as scary as the needle man in this book. THE ENDING WAS INTENSE AND LEFT ME SHOOK.
🎧📲 Audio Book: 10 hours 6 minutes
"Burn the negative, release the positive"
"Yellow means death"
"Nothing is natural in LA"
"Fire is always hungry and doesn't care what eats."
Vibes Of The Book
🎬 Cursed Film
⭐️ Set In Hollywood
🇬🇧 British Accent Audible Book
😱 Suspense & horror
⏪️ Horror Movie References
My Thoughts (no spoilers) ⬇️
5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Haunted film, a monster who may or may not have killed the whole cast. The needle man, the ficitional character who haunts the cast covered in shadow.
The child actor who was in the 90's fictional haunted film goes back to LA after having a new indentity only to find the film that has haunted her for decades is being remade and she's right on set... is the needle man real? And will Laura survive this remake?
I loved this audiobook!
Throughout the book multi media parts pop up like ficition social media posts about the book (911 calls from the actors on the film set) or articles about how haunted the film was. My heart dropped when I realized Laura had sleep walking issues. Similar vibes from the Omen, the Excerist, and of course Scream (the 90s vibes of the ficitional movie heavily haunting this book the Guest House movie.)
The fictional film being remade bringing the main character back to the scene where later all her fellow actors died was such a unique plot. I've been thinking of this book for months and I am so happy I got it on audible to start the year. This book truly highlights how cruel Hollywood and society can be about death on set, what child actors go through while in the public eye (and in private), and how murder impacts society online. The entertainment industry is as scary as the needle man in this book. THE ENDING WAS INTENSE AND LEFT ME SHOOK.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Murder
This book was a perfect spooky season read. It follows journalist Laura Warren—formerly known as Polly Tremaine— as she travels to L.A. to write about the new television show called It Feeds. The show is remaking the cult favorite film The Guesthouse. Laura is reluctant to make the trip.
Hollywood is somewhere she never wanted to visit again.
When she was a kid, she starred in the movie The Guesthouse. Everyone believed the original movie to be cursed due to most of the actors dying in similar ways to their onscreen deaths.
Once Laura arrives in LA, it seems as if the curse was waiting for her to return. Actors on the set of the new show start dying.
Burn The Negative was a quick and haunting read. It tackles some hard topics such as childhood trauma and unhealthy parenting. It also features how awful Hollywood can be to child actors. Parts of this book reminded me of the haunting memoir Jennette McCurdy released last year.
The plot held me captive the entire time and I love the writing style. This has definitely become a stand out in one of my favorite horror sub genres.
Read Burn the Negative if you're looking for:
Hollywood is somewhere she never wanted to visit again.
When she was a kid, she starred in the movie The Guesthouse. Everyone believed the original movie to be cursed due to most of the actors dying in similar ways to their onscreen deaths.
Once Laura arrives in LA, it seems as if the curse was waiting for her to return. Actors on the set of the new show start dying.
Burn The Negative was a quick and haunting read. It tackles some hard topics such as childhood trauma and unhealthy parenting. It also features how awful Hollywood can be to child actors. Parts of this book reminded me of the haunting memoir Jennette McCurdy released last year.
The plot held me captive the entire time and I love the writing style. This has definitely become a stand out in one of my favorite horror sub genres.
Read Burn the Negative if you're looking for:
i loved the first half of the book. it kept me hooked. it did fall apart once we got to wrapping the story up. i fell off a bit when the sister got introduced. lost me even more when the prime suspect in 3 murders was able to walk into a prison with a Hollywood disguise and a fake ID to get more info. really lost me when we drove 2 hours from Victorville down "Needles Freeway" to the middle of the desert. I'm from SoCal and driving a Volvo all over town and only stopping for gas once rubbed me the wrong way. and they stole beverly's car! hate them for that! shes driving you all around for hours without asking for gas money and you've choked this lady twice. and yall just abandoned her at a motel in the desert? boooo!
i know cops suck but it took them 5 days to find this lady. this book exists in a timeline where we have Instagram and tiktok there is no way the main character didn't get spotted before they went to the desert. why didn't the cops run her info when they found her at the first crime scene? how did they not discover that she was Polly? changing your name can do a lot but it doesnt completely erase your old identity from the face of the earth, especially with law enforcement?
at the climax of the plot when they confront the monster, the abandoned building they're standing in is doused in gas by Laura but they have the time to run all around the house and up two floors to find an exit and chat about the monster? I've never been in a house fire but i don't think we would have time for all that. its a really old building in the desert i would have expected it to burn a lot faster!
laura/polly hates Hollywood so much and when her sister asks for her blessing to play her in the sequel, it felt unbelievable. we went through all that death and suffering and she doesn't see anything wrong about playing a role that literally scared her sister for life? Amy literally saw the trauma manifest in her sister and she was still ok with participating in anything relating to this series? I'm an only child and i know that's a bad sister move.
I liked the other forms of media at the chapter breaks because it gave us a little world-building. fun thriller in the beginning but i think we might have fumbled before the goal line.
i know cops suck but it took them 5 days to find this lady. this book exists in a timeline where we have Instagram and tiktok there is no way the main character didn't get spotted before they went to the desert. why didn't the cops run her info when they found her at the first crime scene? how did they not discover that she was Polly? changing your name can do a lot but it doesnt completely erase your old identity from the face of the earth, especially with law enforcement?
at the climax of the plot when they confront the monster, the abandoned building they're standing in is doused in gas by Laura but they have the time to run all around the house and up two floors to find an exit and chat about the monster? I've never been in a house fire but i don't think we would have time for all that. its a really old building in the desert i would have expected it to burn a lot faster!
laura/polly hates Hollywood so much and when her sister asks for her blessing to play her in the sequel, it felt unbelievable. we went through all that death and suffering and she doesn't see anything wrong about playing a role that literally scared her sister for life? Amy literally saw the trauma manifest in her sister and she was still ok with participating in anything relating to this series? I'm an only child and i know that's a bad sister move.
I liked the other forms of media at the chapter breaks because it gave us a little world-building. fun thriller in the beginning but i think we might have fumbled before the goal line.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love a book about a cursed movie! Burn the Negative is a great story.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.*
This new horror/mystery book from Josh Winning is essentially Poltergeist meets Nightmare on Elm Street and I'm here for it. Journalist Laura Warren is heading to LA from the UK to write a piece about a reboot of a classic horror movie called "The Guesthouse" with a mysterious villain called "The Needle Man"- the kicker is that Laura was the 7-year-old star of the original, and she was lucky to survive. During filming several people mysteriously died so her family fled LA and moved to the UK where she's lived in anonymity ever since. She's terrified to be back, and rightfully so. Soon after she arrives tragedy strikes the set of the reboot and Laura, sets out to conquer the notorious Guesthouse Curse before more people die.
So I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had so many twists & turns, and every time I started to think I knew where things were heading the author threw another curveball at me. I suspected nearly every character of being the Needle Man at some point. I thought that maybe it was a movie within a movie, I thought that Laura was in a psych ward and this was all in her head. I thought the Needle Man was a serial killer, no wait, a paranormal entity, no definitely a serial killer. My brain never stopped trying to figure this one out!
The story, combined with all of the mixed-media elements this was perfectly executed. My only "complaint" was that there were multiple points where two female characters would be conversing and the dialog would go back and forth with just "she said", so I had to backtrack a few times to make sure I was reading the conversation with the right speaker in each role, but hey, it just shows that this book passes the Bechdel test with flying colors! There are also great commentaries about Hollywood, fame, and the morality of child acting. I had never heard of this author before, but after reading this one I will absolutely pick up other works by him.
This new horror/mystery book from Josh Winning is essentially Poltergeist meets Nightmare on Elm Street and I'm here for it. Journalist Laura Warren is heading to LA from the UK to write a piece about a reboot of a classic horror movie called "The Guesthouse" with a mysterious villain called "The Needle Man"- the kicker is that Laura was the 7-year-old star of the original, and she was lucky to survive. During filming several people mysteriously died so her family fled LA and moved to the UK where she's lived in anonymity ever since. She's terrified to be back, and rightfully so. Soon after she arrives tragedy strikes the set of the reboot and Laura, sets out to conquer the notorious Guesthouse Curse before more people die.
So I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had so many twists & turns, and every time I started to think I knew where things were heading the author threw another curveball at me. I suspected nearly every character of being the Needle Man at some point. I thought that maybe it was a movie within a movie, I thought that Laura was in a psych ward and this was all in her head. I thought the Needle Man was a serial killer, no wait, a paranormal entity, no definitely a serial killer. My brain never stopped trying to figure this one out!
The story, combined with all of the mixed-media elements this was perfectly executed. My only "complaint" was that there were multiple points where two female characters would be conversing and the dialog would go back and forth with just "she said", so I had to backtrack a few times to make sure I was reading the conversation with the right speaker in each role, but hey, it just shows that this book passes the Bechdel test with flying colors! There are also great commentaries about Hollywood, fame, and the morality of child acting. I had never heard of this author before, but after reading this one I will absolutely pick up other works by him.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes