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A review by gillianalice
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
2.0
I have some mixed feelings about this book. I listened to it rather than reading it, so did I not like it because I didn't get any of the interactive elements? I feel like I missed something.
I would have sworn this book was written by a man. McGrath was way too convincing as a mediocre male protagonist who somehow manages to convince people to talk to him without actually doing any convincing, or break the law with literally no consequences. Seriously, how did he get away with doing any of the stuff he did? Also, the bit where the nineteen-year-old decides she's in love with him and throws herself at him? Classic male author nonsense. Same with the general disdain McGrath seems to have towards women in general. There were far too many "lol ex-wife bad" jokes. I could write that off as something that is very in character for McGrath, but I just hate those jokes, and I'm tired of books where the protagonist is a man who hates women.
None of these characters were likeable, or particularly fleshed out. Scot McGrath is a dick, but somehow consistently gets away with being awful to everyone around him. How did he bring his kid into those dangerous situations and then not lose custody of her? The ex-wife and daughter felt like they were only introduced as a Tragic Backstory and to make McGrath seem more...likeable, I guess? It didn't work. Nora and Hopper were fine, I guess, but they were so one-dimensional that I didn't really care about them. And the "big reveal" with Hopper's relationship to Ashley was so...meh.
The plot was confusing and moved way too slowly. I never really knew what McGrath was trying to do. What was the purpose? There was no real mystery to be solved, just McGrath's weird obsession with Cordova. All of the clues that they found didn't seem to actually lead to anything. And again, none of the clues seemed particularly hard to find since people would just magically lose their bad attitude and talk to him when he asked questions.
The suspense at the end was good, but by then I was so tired of McGrath that I couldn't really appreciate it. The only reason this is 2 stars is that I couldn't quite bring myself to DNF it.
I would have sworn this book was written by a man. McGrath was way too convincing as a mediocre male protagonist who somehow manages to convince people to talk to him without actually doing any convincing, or break the law with literally no consequences. Seriously, how did he get away with doing any of the stuff he did? Also, the bit where the nineteen-year-old decides she's in love with him and throws herself at him? Classic male author nonsense. Same with the general disdain McGrath seems to have towards women in general. There were far too many "lol ex-wife bad" jokes. I could write that off as something that is very in character for McGrath, but I just hate those jokes, and I'm tired of books where the protagonist is a man who hates women.
None of these characters were likeable, or particularly fleshed out. Scot McGrath is a dick, but somehow consistently gets away with being awful to everyone around him. How did he bring his kid into those dangerous situations and then not lose custody of her? The ex-wife and daughter felt like they were only introduced as a Tragic Backstory and to make McGrath seem more...likeable, I guess? It didn't work. Nora and Hopper were fine, I guess, but they were so one-dimensional that I didn't really care about them. And the "big reveal" with Hopper's relationship to Ashley was so...meh.
The plot was confusing and moved way too slowly. I never really knew what McGrath was trying to do. What was the purpose? There was no real mystery to be solved, just McGrath's weird obsession with Cordova. All of the clues that they found didn't seem to actually lead to anything. And again, none of the clues seemed particularly hard to find since people would just magically lose their bad attitude and talk to him when he asked questions.
The suspense at the end was good, but by then I was so tired of McGrath that I couldn't really appreciate it. The only reason this is 2 stars is that I couldn't quite bring myself to DNF it.