A review by thexwalrus
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

3.75

once again, i loved tremblay's writing in this, and i also loved that it was told through traditional narrative and also portions of the screenplay itself.

while i had some issues with the way the screenplay was written (as a former film student) i greatly appreciated that it was intentional to not only work as a novel but also in how cleo herself claimed she wrote it. is that cheap? maybe! but i can forgive it because i Know how annoying artists get when you try to remind them that their "artistic vision" doesn't fit within the confines of a given medium.

i think the ambiguity works much better for me in this book than it did in the cabin at the end of the world - while i had questions about how it worked in the present timeline, it still felt reasonable.

the way experiences change a person irrevocably was a theme i felt was present throughout, and having that manifest as some vague supernatural something changing the narrator himself in ways that mirrored the screenplay worked for me. i still had loads of questions, particularly about the symbols and how they tied in, but i didn't feel unsatisfied without answers.

overall, this was enjoyable as a spooky little read for october. not the most horror or the most haunting, but PERFECT on vibes alone.