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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Good twists but I think too long with an underwhelming end
The book is a contemporary noir tale starting with an investigative journalist whose obsession over a mysterious reclusive horror film director has led him to self sabotage. When the daughter of the director dies under mysterious circumstances, he can’t help but fall further down the rabbit hole to find out the truth about her death. Along the way he picks up two endearing weirdo sidekicks and the shaggy dog story begins.
The mystery gets wilder and wilder the deeper our characters delve into it. The director has a Salinger-like removal from society and had created an isolated creative campus to make his films. There is a cult-like obsession with the director’s darkness, as a result the book has an anything-can-happen kind of feel. Especially once perceptions of the occult start popping up everywhere.
The MC is not a hero and I don’t think the author wants you to think he’s a hero. He’s an irresponsible father, and he reeks of cis white privilege. You should be warned going into this that the character operates with a passive low level racism, sexism, fat shaming, and transphobia that felt very real for that kind of character. The kind of dude that would never recognize that he has any of those traits despite regularly exhibiting them. There is a turning point of self reflection and character growth that I appreciated in the book. There wasn’t an overt change. But it was there.
The big sell for me was the fun mixed media regularly scattered throughout the book. It was a an easy way to data dump without bogging the story down, and all the articles and websites were a useful reference as new clues emerged.
The book is long, but I was really engaged the whole time. I will say that the mystery gets solved, but the author loves the characters so much that she continues to work to give everything emotional resolution. So, if you can’t abide by falling action and a protracted denouement this might be a rough landing. I quite enjoyed how it played out.
The book is touted as horror, but If you are going into this thinking that’s what you are going to get, I think you might be disappointed. I found it to be a banger of a trippy mystery thriller.
The mystery gets wilder and wilder the deeper our characters delve into it. The director has a Salinger-like removal from society and had created an isolated creative campus to make his films. There is a cult-like obsession with the director’s darkness, as a result the book has an anything-can-happen kind of feel. Especially once perceptions of the occult start popping up everywhere.
The MC is not a hero and I don’t think the author wants you to think he’s a hero. He’s an irresponsible father, and he reeks of cis white privilege. You should be warned going into this that the character operates with a passive low level racism, sexism, fat shaming, and transphobia that felt very real for that kind of character. The kind of dude that would never recognize that he has any of those traits despite regularly exhibiting them. There is a turning point of self reflection and character growth that I appreciated in the book. There wasn’t an overt change. But it was there.
The big sell for me was the fun mixed media regularly scattered throughout the book. It was a an easy way to data dump without bogging the story down, and all the articles and websites were a useful reference as new clues emerged.
The book is long, but I was really engaged the whole time. I will say that the mystery gets solved, but the author loves the characters so much that she continues to work to give everything emotional resolution. So, if you can’t abide by falling action and a protracted denouement this might be a rough landing. I quite enjoyed how it played out.
The book is touted as horror, but If you are going into this thinking that’s what you are going to get, I think you might be disappointed. I found it to be a banger of a trippy mystery thriller.
Unnerving and super creepy, I loved the slide into distorted reality and satanic witchcraft. I did feel like the ending could have had a second wind vs. some anticlimactic revelations and it took me a minute to get into it, but overall loved this.
“Some stories you should run from while you still have legs.”
Holy. Shit.
Reading this was all inhalation: Pessl’s story, the smoke and mirrors, shattered and stuck in my capillaries like sleek, black thorns. “Night Film”, a grimoire noir, shapeshifted through atmospheric and gloomy New York City, reclusive upstate woods, and the mind of madness itself. Enigmatic and provocative characters, bursts of multi-media flair, and a riveting narrative culminate into one, massive blockbuster. 600~ pages was a breeze.
Like the masterpiece of songwriting penned by Jewel, this book was meant for me, and I was meant to read it.
5/5 I’ll be thinking about this book for the rest of my life.
Holy. Shit.
Reading this was all inhalation: Pessl’s story, the smoke and mirrors, shattered and stuck in my capillaries like sleek, black thorns. “Night Film”, a grimoire noir, shapeshifted through atmospheric and gloomy New York City, reclusive upstate woods, and the mind of madness itself. Enigmatic and provocative characters, bursts of multi-media flair, and a riveting narrative culminate into one, massive blockbuster. 600~ pages was a breeze.
Like the masterpiece of songwriting penned by Jewel, this book was meant for me, and I was meant to read it.
5/5 I’ll be thinking about this book for the rest of my life.
So I expected that I would like this book a lot but I was wrong. It started out interesting, sure, but it was unnecessarily long, and sure felt like the author didn't know how to end it. It was also very annoying how convenient it was for them to find a clue after clue that it came to a point that it was just very unbelievable. Another thing why it didn't work for me is because the main character was not likeable at all. I think he was intended to be that way though, but it's important for me that the character is interesting enough for me to follow their story, but in his case, he wasn't interesting nor did I care whatever befalls him in the end. The "supporting" characters as well were quite flat and felt like they were just put there for the purpose of helping the main guy which really sucks.
I think this book would have been more interesting if it focused solely on the director's life story because he was the most intriguing character in the book. I would have loved to see the story to be connected more to his films, and really delve into it, but oh well. I felt no connections to any of the characters at all, nor care about any of them, even Ashley. I think it's also misleading that this is called a horror novel because it really isn't scary. But really, the most annoying thing is that I didn't enjoy the experience reading it that every time I would read it I just wanted it to end.
2 stars because it's not entirely awful.
I think this book would have been more interesting if it focused solely on the director's life story because he was the most intriguing character in the book. I would have loved to see the story to be connected more to his films, and really delve into it, but oh well. I felt no connections to any of the characters at all, nor care about any of them, even Ashley. I think it's also misleading that this is called a horror novel because it really isn't scary. But really, the most annoying thing is that I didn't enjoy the experience reading it that every time I would read it I just wanted it to end.
2 stars because it's not entirely awful.
I was tempted to give this book three stars, but decided to punish it with two. For disappointing me. It started good, spooky, mysterious. I saw the book was over 600 pages and smiled. It was going to be a good, long ride. It was, for quite a while, and then, well, then it wasn't. Coincidences were falling too smoothly together. Partial solutions, to propel the plot, were too easy to find. The dramatic culmination towards the end was a thrill to read, but when I emerged at the other side I realised that it was, to use Stephen King's great quote from one of his books about writing, 'all the sizzle but no sausage', wonderful ways with words, but no substance. After that the story slides into an ending, but wait, there's more, another ending beyond that, and then yet another, but not quite, and then the book ends. Not the story. The book. I flipped my ebook back and forth thinking it was an electronic glitch, but no. The book ends very abruptly.
I don't mind books that are open-ended, a mystery left for the reader to ponder. They hint at something unknown from the beginning, the author as co-conspirator rather than a storyteller. You know there will be a moment where you will be left to walk the story alone, propelled by your own imagination. That's fine, that's great. But this book dropped me unprepared. It said THE END. I said WTF?
I don't mind books that are open-ended, a mystery left for the reader to ponder. They hint at something unknown from the beginning, the author as co-conspirator rather than a storyteller. You know there will be a moment where you will be left to walk the story alone, propelled by your own imagination. That's fine, that's great. But this book dropped me unprepared. It said THE END. I said WTF?
What a colossal disappointment this book was. And that isn't to say I didn't like it. I liked it just fine, but it had so much potential for me to love it, and it just didn't quite do it for me. A mystery novel such as this should have me flying through the pages and desperate to pick it up again once I've set it down, dying to know what happened. But this book dragged on and on and on and some of the cooler aspects of it never panned out. I read it along with the iPhone all for the Easter eggs, and a couple of those were better than the story itself (the girl's diary entry was like something out of Poe. I wish that had been fleshed out more thoroughly).
I know that the ending of this book was supposed to mirror the ambiguous endings of Cordova's films, but when I got to the end of this one I found I just didn't care.
Scott McGrath is one of the most annoying narrators ever. He overuses italics and similies. He has an overactive imagination (at one point thinking a boat pilot was ferrying him over the river Styx) but then he also believes every word every witness tells him. This makes for a lot of confusion as the stories often contradict one another. He's also a terrible journalist and the worst parent ever.
I quite liked Nora and hopper, though.
I know that the ending of this book was supposed to mirror the ambiguous endings of Cordova's films, but when I got to the end of this one I found I just didn't care.
Scott McGrath is one of the most annoying narrators ever. He overuses italics and similies. He has an overactive imagination (at one point thinking a boat pilot was ferrying him over the river Styx) but then he also believes every word every witness tells him. This makes for a lot of confusion as the stories often contradict one another. He's also a terrible journalist and the worst parent ever.
I quite liked Nora and hopper, though.
This book was insane. Scared the poop out of me for a good 85% of it. *shudders*