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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.
Everyone that knows my reading tastes knows how much I adored "Neverworld Wake", and because of that love I have waited to read "Night Film". Marisha Pessl's writing is simply magic to me, and because her backlist is so short, I have been waiting to read her other stories so I can really savor them. "Night Film" was 1000% worth the wait and I already want to read it again!
This novel follows Scott McGrath, a disgraced journalist who ruined his career by sharing disparaging remarks about esteemed film director Stanislaus Cordova on national TV. Cordova has remained a mystery for years, and he has not been seen by the public for decades. This elusiveness has made him a huge topic of interest for those who love his movies. Cordova's daughter, Ashley, is found dead at 24-years-old in an abandoned warehouse. With this shocking news taking the world by storm, Scott finds himself sucked back into Cordova's mysterious world trying to uncover what really happened to Ashley and finally unveil who Cordova is.
I loved everything about this book. There are some mixed media elements throughout the book that made the reading experience all the more memorable, as well as making us, the readers, feel like we are finding clues along with Scott. The mystery keeps twisting and morphing as the story goes, and by the time the ending comes, it is difficult to decipher what ended up being the truth. There is a somewhat ambiguous ending that I felt like highlighted Cordova's mysteries life perfectly. Marisha left the perfect trail of breadcrumbs to lead us to uncovering all of the secrets surrounding Ashley's death, but I still was shocked by most of the reveals.
I cannot recommend this book enough!
Everyone that knows my reading tastes knows how much I adored "Neverworld Wake", and because of that love I have waited to read "Night Film". Marisha Pessl's writing is simply magic to me, and because her backlist is so short, I have been waiting to read her other stories so I can really savor them. "Night Film" was 1000% worth the wait and I already want to read it again!
This novel follows Scott McGrath, a disgraced journalist who ruined his career by sharing disparaging remarks about esteemed film director Stanislaus Cordova on national TV. Cordova has remained a mystery for years, and he has not been seen by the public for decades. This elusiveness has made him a huge topic of interest for those who love his movies. Cordova's daughter, Ashley, is found dead at 24-years-old in an abandoned warehouse. With this shocking news taking the world by storm, Scott finds himself sucked back into Cordova's mysterious world trying to uncover what really happened to Ashley and finally unveil who Cordova is.
I loved everything about this book. There are some mixed media elements throughout the book that made the reading experience all the more memorable, as well as making us, the readers, feel like we are finding clues along with Scott. The mystery keeps twisting and morphing as the story goes, and by the time the ending comes, it is difficult to decipher what ended up being the truth. There is a somewhat ambiguous ending that I felt like highlighted Cordova's mysteries life perfectly. Marisha left the perfect trail of breadcrumbs to lead us to uncovering all of the secrets surrounding Ashley's death, but I still was shocked by most of the reveals.
I cannot recommend this book enough!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Torture, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Kidnapping, Child death, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement
Minor: Cancer and Car accident
ro_lux's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Body horror, Gore, Suicide, and Transphobia
Moderate: Cancer, Fatphobia, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Alcohol, Car accident, Grief, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Confinement, Violence, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Racism
michelles_book_nook's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
⚠️ TW: suicide, death, brief mentions of child murder, mental health, graphic content, sexual assault, rape, spiking, drug use/abuse, animal abuse, satanic/occult rituals ⚠️
Wow this book had me hooked from the very beginning and it blew my mind!! 🤯 This book follows an investigative journalist, Scott McGrath, who goes on a wild journey of trying to get to the bottom of the apparent suicide of a cult horror director's daughter. However, this isn't his first run in with the Cordova family and last time he lost his career and marriage but this time his sanity and life could be at stake. Honestly this book is impeccably written and uses so many elements to draw you in and make you feel like you are investigating this case alongside McGrath in such a perfect way that you will not be able to stop thinking about it! It is so hard to review without giving away spoilers and even though this is a CHONK of a book I highly recommend it. Marisha Pessl is a brand new author to me and I'm dying to get my hands on more of her work. Overall, this book is incredible if you are into horror/thriller and crime mysteries but please read the TW's around this book before going into it because some of the subject matter is very heavy.
Wow this book had me hooked from the very beginning and it blew my mind!! 🤯 This book follows an investigative journalist, Scott McGrath, who goes on a wild journey of trying to get to the bottom of the apparent suicide of a cult horror director's daughter. However, this isn't his first run in with the Cordova family and last time he lost his career and marriage but this time his sanity and life could be at stake. Honestly this book is impeccably written and uses so many elements to draw you in and make you feel like you are investigating this case alongside McGrath in such a perfect way that you will not be able to stop thinking about it! It is so hard to review without giving away spoilers and even though this is a CHONK of a book I highly recommend it. Marisha Pessl is a brand new author to me and I'm dying to get my hands on more of her work. Overall, this book is incredible if you are into horror/thriller and crime mysteries but please read the TW's around this book before going into it because some of the subject matter is very heavy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Moderate: Suicide, Death, Mental illness, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Child death
madarauchiha's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️
What a fuck.
Ok the depth and miscellania of the world setting was fucking fantastic. It felt like a very solid ground to such a convoluted mystery. Who is Cordova? No actually you should be asking where is Ashley? No actually you should be asking something else! The questions kept piling up.
ok not to be a huge loser but this mc dude does remind me a whole lot of Alan wake from the titular game 'Alan wake'. An unlikeable on purpose protagonist, mostly decent motive albeit totally self serving. He's very well written so far and it's not entirely grating to read. I still want to beat his ass though. And at some point it felt like it was glancing the fourth wall, becoming bizarrely self aware.
Also the multimedia portion of the book? Stunning. The newspaper clippings, screencaps, websites, really added something amazing to the story. I liked the additional, brief view points these gave, and how they broke up the story so it wasn't an endless asshole investigating this mystery.
I really loved the ending. I think it maintained the ambiguity of the mystery very well. The story was strong enough that I don't mind this type of closure, either. Is it supernatural? Or is it something else? What was that cheesy phrase? The greatest lie the devil ever told was that the devil doesn't exist.
I never reread books, but this one I'll make the exception for.
Transmisogyny in the book. Major spoilers.
hey look there's a godawful scene where the MC goes to a ultra secret dark underground super exclusive rich people club that apparently Cordova frequented from time to time. The author and MC make a huge deal about WHOA there's transwomen here wha t the? This also comes up briefly later in some 'that woman from the club... or WAS she a 'woman'...?!?!?' speculation that the MC does.
It's utterly jarring and took me out of the plot because, to me, it's not a big deal. Oh a woman at a location where women go to, whatever. I get that the author is making the MC a purposefully unlikeable character but I think this goes a lil too far. At that point in the book, it's pretty well established the MC is a piece of shit.
Because we're discussing this I'll mention that I'm transmisogyny exempt trans nonbinary person. Just to be clear this is the pov that I am seeing this content from.
Major ableism, alcohol use, anti japanese racism, anti native racism, antiblack racism, body shaming, bullying, child abuse, classism, fatphobia, death, dogs, drowning, drug abuse, gore, hand trauma, misgendering, misogyny, paranoia, psychiatric institutions, racial fetishization, sibling rivalry, sinophobia, suicide, suicide baiting, transmisogyny, xenophobia
medium ableism towards addiction, divorce, drowning, fatphobia, fungus, gore, insects, kidnapping, marital infidelity, misogyny, paranoia, parasites, pedophilia, grooming, age gap
drug use , unsanitary
minor Charles manson mention, Islamophobia, anti Japanese j slur used once, cults, death threats, genocide, human trafficking, pedophilia, quentin tarantino, self harm, sexual abuse, sexual content, tasteless torture camp reference, teacher student relationship, torture, water boarding joke
What a fuck.
Ok the depth and miscellania of the world setting was fucking fantastic. It felt like a very solid ground to such a convoluted mystery. Who is Cordova? No actually you should be asking where is Ashley? No actually you should be asking something else! The questions kept piling up.
ok not to be a huge loser but this mc dude does remind me a whole lot of Alan wake from the titular game 'Alan wake'. An unlikeable on purpose protagonist, mostly decent motive albeit totally self serving. He's very well written so far and it's not entirely grating to read. I still want to beat his ass though. And at some point it felt like it was glancing the fourth wall, becoming bizarrely self aware.
Also the multimedia portion of the book? Stunning. The newspaper clippings, screencaps, websites, really added something amazing to the story. I liked the additional, brief view points these gave, and how they broke up the story so it wasn't an endless asshole investigating this mystery.
I really loved the ending. I think it maintained the ambiguity of the mystery very well. The story was strong enough that I don't mind this type of closure, either. Is it supernatural? Or is it something else? What was that cheesy phrase? The greatest lie the devil ever told was that the devil doesn't exist.
I never reread books, but this one I'll make the exception for.
Transmisogyny in the book. Major spoilers.
It's utterly jarring and took me out of the plot because, to me, it's not a big deal. Oh a woman at a location where women go to, whatever. I get that the author is making the MC a purposefully unlikeable character but I think this goes a lil too far. At that point in the book, it's pretty well established the MC is a piece of shit.
Because we're discussing this I'll mention that I'm transmisogyny exempt trans nonbinary person. Just to be clear this is the pov that I am seeing this content from.
Major ableism, alcohol use, anti japanese racism, anti native racism, antiblack racism, body shaming, bullying, child abuse, classism, fatphobia, death, dogs, drowning, drug abuse, gore, hand trauma, misgendering, misogyny, paranoia, psychiatric institutions, racial fetishization, sibling rivalry, sinophobia, suicide, suicide baiting, transmisogyny, xenophobia
medium ableism towards addiction, divorce, drowning, fatphobia, fungus, gore, insects, kidnapping, marital infidelity, misogyny, paranoia, parasites, pedophilia, grooming, age gap
drug use , unsanitary
minor Charles manson mention, Islamophobia, anti Japanese j slur used once, cults, death threats, genocide, human trafficking, pedophilia, quentin tarantino, self harm, sexual abuse, sexual content, tasteless torture camp reference, teacher student relationship, torture, water boarding joke
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Transphobia, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Pedophilia
Minor: Genocide, Islamophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking
limina's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I LOVED this book. It reminded me of many others, but especially Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis. I was totally engrossed. Fun Fact- there's bonus material on the author's website. At the end of the book it mentions an app but it appears to be defunct.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Suicide
Moderate: Death, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cancer, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, Transphobia, and Sexual assault
hannaslibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
4.5.
This was surprisingly good. This would make such a good movie. It felt like a movie as I was reading. Also I’m a sucker for mixed media in books, it really adds to the story/my experience. This definitely felt long at some points, but most of the story flew by and I had such a good time. I could not stop thinking about this book when I wasn’t reading it. I feel like I will remember the characters and this story for a very long time.
This was surprisingly good. This would make such a good movie. It felt like a movie as I was reading. Also I’m a sucker for mixed media in books, it really adds to the story/my experience. This definitely felt long at some points, but most of the story flew by and I had such a good time. I could not stop thinking about this book when I wasn’t reading it. I feel like I will remember the characters and this story for a very long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Confinement, and Death
Moderate: Cancer
nicolinebl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
3.0
This was a confusing but intriguing read. Honestly, just calling it that is underselling it; it was definitely an experience.
I started reading this book two days ago and barely did anything else besides that because I just needed to know how it ended.
It starts of slow, then it gets really intense for a while but then it takes a turn that I honestly didn't appreciate nor understand and then it changes directions near the end again, leaving me quite puzzled.
None of the characters in this book seem like nice people, Nora probably being the nicest one and the main character Scott honestly being one of the most annoying characters. There are a lot of characters to keep track of by the way, I started writing them down lol!
There are also a lot of trigger warnings for this book, the one that made me the most upset being transphobic undertones. Not sure if that's the writers prejudice coming through or her showing that her character is transphobic, but I got really pissed at that part.
There were some parts where the writer tried to make things lighter by jokes or "funny" thoughts but in my opinion, they didn't really work. Also some parts - besides supernatural plotlines or course - were a bit unbelievable. Like how Scott was apparently so rich even though he'd been fired from his job and didn't seem to have a great job at the moment. And since he's investigating for like +-7 months and not actually working or something he's only spending money (and spending it like crazy). Nobody has that many spare change right?
Also, an in my opinion unnecessary loveplot near the ending - if you've read the book you know the part.
Besides that I am still fascinated by this book. I love the mix of mediums: articles, websitepages, documents, photo's etc. and even bonus content on the writers website (definitely check it out, especially the last one!)
I chose to read this book in October because of Halloween and must admit I was kind of let down, it wasn't that scary andI hated that they had a whole supernatural plot, then decided to explain it all away and then afterwards sort of went back to the supernatural route.
I will end my review by saying that I do think this story could have been told in less than 600 pages and dragged a little at some parts but I most certainly do no regret reading this story; because at its main core, it did have some intriguing themes and phenomenal aesthetics. And gosh darn, I'm kind of sad that I'm not able to see the movies Cordova has made, him being fictional and all.
PS: Think this would be awesome in film format so that I could show my brother and friend who will never read a 600-pages book!
I started reading this book two days ago and barely did anything else besides that because I just needed to know how it ended.
It starts of slow, then it gets really intense for a while but then it takes a turn that I honestly didn't appreciate nor understand and then it changes directions near the end again, leaving me quite puzzled.
None of the characters in this book seem like nice people, Nora probably being the nicest one and the main character Scott honestly being one of the most annoying characters. There are a lot of characters to keep track of by the way, I started writing them down lol!
There are also a lot of trigger warnings for this book, the one that made me the most upset being transphobic undertones. Not sure if that's the writers prejudice coming through or her showing that her character is transphobic, but I got really pissed at that part.
There were some parts where the writer tried to make things lighter by jokes or "funny" thoughts but in my opinion, they didn't really work. Also some parts - besides supernatural plotlines or course - were a bit unbelievable. Like how Scott was apparently so rich even though he'd been fired from his job and didn't seem to have a great job at the moment. And since he's investigating for like +-7 months and not actually working or something he's only spending money (and spending it like crazy). Nobody has that many spare change right?
Also, an in my opinion unnecessary loveplot near the ending - if you've read the book you know the part.
Besides that I am still fascinated by this book. I love the mix of mediums: articles, websitepages, documents, photo's etc. and even bonus content on the writers website (definitely check it out, especially the last one!)
I chose to read this book in October because of Halloween and must admit I was kind of let down, it wasn't that scary and
I will end my review by saying that I do think this story could have been told in less than 600 pages and dragged a little at some parts but I most certainly do no regret reading this story; because at its main core, it did have some intriguing themes and phenomenal aesthetics. And gosh darn, I'm kind of sad that I'm not able to see the movies Cordova has made, him being fictional and all.
PS: Think this would be awesome in film format so that I could show my brother and friend who will never read a 600-pages book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, and Torture
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Trafficking, and Transphobia
Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Slavery, and Vomit
tiemzahra's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Oh, wow this book. My head hurts thinking of this. An investigative journalist suspects the death of a young woman had something to do with her father, a cult-horror film director, Cordova, who hasn’t been seen in public for more than 30 years. As he probed further into the case, more threats he encountered to stop his investigation.
This one gave me House of Leaves vibe. A fictional documentary that seems true, Cordova’s films feel realistic. There were screenshots of the cult website, pictures of his mansion (heavily edited but acceptable), lives of so many people involved; the actors and actresses and people they met along the way. It was a creepy book and both revelations (fake and true) were believable that I didn’t mind which one’s which.
This one gave me House of Leaves vibe. A fictional documentary that seems true, Cordova’s films feel realistic. There were screenshots of the cult website, pictures of his mansion (heavily edited but acceptable), lives of so many people involved; the actors and actresses and people they met along the way. It was a creepy book and both revelations (fake and true) were believable that I didn’t mind which one’s which.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, and Suicide
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Stalking
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Car accident, and Sexual harassment
gloriazthompson's review against another edition
Too creepy and dark. I know I will not be enjoying this reading experience, so decided to stop early on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Medical content
tessieferro's review against another edition
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
1.0
Idiotic plot twist and insufferable narrator/main character (and frankly, a big bigot)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Suicide
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Torture
Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Car accident, and Transphobia