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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Night Film was truly addicting for me. I put off other things just to keep reading. I couldn't quit. The ending was defeinitely satisfying which is all I could ask for. Marisa has a way to pull you in from the first chapter. Speaking of, I love the short chapters. That's my type of book right there.
I wish we could give half stars, this would be closer to a four- I am torn, you get really sucked in from page one, the writing style was intriguing, very early on.. but this was an odd book. Good, but weird and a bit unsatisfying a the end... I would still recommend, but I didn't end up loving it when all was said and done.
Although I nearly put this book down several times, in the end, it took over my life. I could not stop reading this implausible book despite its flaws.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
creepy. interesting topic. ending was a bit of a let down, but moved quickly.
The concept of this book was very intriguing but the execution fell flat. It was way too long and the pay off at the end was non existent.
I am irritated that I paid the money for this, that I invested the time in reading it, and can't explain why I didn't just abandon this. Why did Pessl feel compelled to use italics so much? They made her 43 year old male narrator, an investigative journalist, sound like the over-earnest aspiring actress/coat check girl he consorted with. Why did her editor indulge her in this compulsion? Because she's a wunderkind?! There were interesting components of the book, but overall, it was too long, too slow, and I wish I enjoyed it half as much as I enjoyed her first book.
I hate to give such a low rating to an author's work I have otherwise enjoyed. But this two-star rating for NIGHT FILM is due to:
1. This 599-page tome is 599 pages because every. single. sentence. uses simile and metaphor as descriptors, which becomes laborious. I don't have a problem with super long novels. SAVAGE DETECTIVES by Roberto Bolano is in the 500-page range and I didn't want it to end. I have a problem with super long novels that shouldn't be super long. At page 300, I was still questioning why I should care and why I should keep reading. I kept reading because I'd purchased the book in hardback.
2. Riffing off of #1, the New Yorker male protagonist's first-person narration is inauthentic largely because a man would not think or speak in such colorful simile- and/or metaphor-laden terms -- not even a male protagonist who is a writer by profession. Here, the author's voice and ideas crowded out the character's (Scott McGrath).
3. Pessl uses italicization throughout the novel to denote inflections of speech. This, I found distracting and insulting. It is distracting because it forces the reader to read sentences over and over again to place the inflection on the word(s) the author tells you should be emphasized. The italicization is insulting because it does not leave room for the reader to use his or her imagination to interpret the characters' speech patterns naturally, as he or she sees the characters in his or her mind. There should be room for this in literature. A reader should not be held hostage by the mandates of the author, even in a society as spoon-fed as ours. A reader who purchases a 600-page book does not want spoon-feeding.
With that said, Pessl knows how to weave an intricate yarn. In the future, I hope she does so without so much simile and metaphor weighing down otherwise smart and complex storytelling.
1. This 599-page tome is 599 pages because every. single. sentence. uses simile and metaphor as descriptors, which becomes laborious. I don't have a problem with super long novels. SAVAGE DETECTIVES by Roberto Bolano is in the 500-page range and I didn't want it to end. I have a problem with super long novels that shouldn't be super long. At page 300, I was still questioning why I should care and why I should keep reading. I kept reading because I'd purchased the book in hardback.
2. Riffing off of #1, the New Yorker male protagonist's first-person narration is inauthentic largely because a man would not think or speak in such colorful simile- and/or metaphor-laden terms -- not even a male protagonist who is a writer by profession. Here, the author's voice and ideas crowded out the character's (Scott McGrath).
3. Pessl uses italicization throughout the novel to denote inflections of speech. This, I found distracting and insulting. It is distracting because it forces the reader to read sentences over and over again to place the inflection on the word(s) the author tells you should be emphasized. The italicization is insulting because it does not leave room for the reader to use his or her imagination to interpret the characters' speech patterns naturally, as he or she sees the characters in his or her mind. There should be room for this in literature. A reader should not be held hostage by the mandates of the author, even in a society as spoon-fed as ours. A reader who purchases a 600-page book does not want spoon-feeding.
With that said, Pessl knows how to weave an intricate yarn. In the future, I hope she does so without so much simile and metaphor weighing down otherwise smart and complex storytelling.