Night Film

(4.5)HOLY MOLY THIS BOOK WAS FANTASTIC. F A N T A S T I C. The only reason I'm giving it a 4.5 is because it felt unnecessarily long. Even though I flew through this sucker, I feel like it could have been condensed a bit. Other than that this was SO SO SO GOOD. AHHH.

Sovereign. Deadly. Perfect.

good lord, remember marisha pessl?? she of Special Topics in Calamity Physics fame?? remember the immense fawning hordes of fans and the praise surrounding that book?? you might not, it was 7 years ago and all. but it was a Very Big Deal at the timed it was a book that i personally thought was just okay. i am a tough judge of books that claim to be like The Secret History. i might have said this once or twice or a dozen times on the internet. and i thought special topics was fine, just a little [...]

A failure on nearly every level. The characters are paper-flat, they all speak in exactly the same (preposterous) voice, and none of them develop an inch. "But that's okay," you might argue; "Pessl's writing a thriller, and plot is her main concern." Fine, but the plot of this novel is deeply, deeply boring. Night Film reads like a would-be thriller by someone who's never actually read a thriller or a mystery. The protagonist stumps around from obvious clue to obvious clue, talking to a host of [...]

I believe this book will be in my top 3 I have read for the year. It's been awhile since a book completely captivated me and sucked me in so thoroughly that I was sneaking around my house to finish it and avoid my everyday duties. :) No spoilers here as I don't want to ruin the book for anyone.This book is about the death and investigation of Ashley Cordova, daughter to elusive horror filmmaker Stan Cordova. Enter Scott McGrath, a journalist who previously tried to come after Cordova which cause [...]

Update: $1.99 on Kindle in the US today. I'm not sure if they will have all of the pictures like my paperback does but I think you can look inside the kindle book on . 7-18-17I am adding a good bit of pictures from the book to my review. There are too many to show them all but I wanted you to get an idea. They are not the greatest of pictures but I hope you enjoy them because it took quite a bit of time to get this set up. ****SOME MILD SPOILERS****The book centers around Ashley Cordova's death. [...]

Has it happened yet? Have the oh-so-annoying cover notations calling every new release the “new Gone Girl” ceased and “the new Night Film” labels taken over?. If so, the loud bang you will soon hear will be my head exploding. If Kubrick, Polanski, Hitchock, and Tarantino had a twisted little baby, his name would most likely have been Stanislas Cordova. A genius who gained fame immediately after his first horror film release – Cordova has spent his life in exile on his private estate (h [...]

مزيج جهنمي رهيب من التوتر، الرعب، الريبة، الإنتقام وسحر السينمامن الأخلاص،التسامح ومشاعر صارت نادرة بعالمنا المادي التجاريرواية ضخمة، 599 صفحة ستنقلك لحالة غريبة محورها مخرج سينمائي مثير للجدلمخرج كهؤلاء العمالقة الغرباءولكنه أكثر ظلاما وجنوناإنه ستانليس كوردوفاالذي ست� [...]

Today is the day Night Film hits the shelves! I received a copy of this book from first reads giveaway. :) :) :) May I just say WOW!This was a case of love at first sight. I fell in love with NIGHT FILM before I even knew what it was about. I was trolling through the giveaways and spotted the cover and I thought "I must have this book!" Then I read the blurb, and I said to myself " I reeeeeeeeeeally must have this book!" So I watched and I waited for what seemed like a really looooong time, and [...]

well uh, this was a mind f*cker "to the edge of the end" - yup sums it up I would say

”Whatever the truth about Cordova, within fifteen horrifying films, he taught us how our eyes and minds perpetually deceive us--that what we know to be certain never is.”In the shadows stood a girl in a red coat.Stanislas Cordova disappeared from public life thirty years ago. Scott McGrath, an investigative reporter, made an attempt to uncover the truth about Cordova and his films. McGrath paid a heavy price financially when Cordova sued him, and also professionally when some of his allegati [...]

NO SPOILERS. I PROMISE!After spending a whole day peeling back the Night Film tentacles from around my head, I can gratefully report that I’m almost back to my normal self after reading this one.Let me correct the last part of that sentence. One does not simply read Night Film. Before you open this book, take a moment to prepare yourself.You are about to enter into a multi-media, multi-sensory whole body experience. GURRRL, GET READY FOR A black magic spell to be cast upon your coconut. You wi [...]

4.5 Stars. I listened to the audio version. I'm late to the party but boy am I glad I went! This book has been reviewed to death so I will just give my thoughts on it.This is a fantastic audiobook if you have the time! It's over 23 hours! 5 Stars for the story, especially since it kept me guessing until the end.4 Stars for how this book translated into audio. There were a couple parts that were difficult but if you have a copy of the book on hand it will help.5 Huge Stars for the narration by ac [...]

Either I’m a lot dumber than I thought, or this book isn’t as smart as it thinks it is. Or maybe both. Ambiguity! It’s a bitch. Scott McGrath used to be a hotshot investigative journalist until he started looking into mysterious and reclusive film director Stanilas Cordova who has been holed up in his remote estate making underground masterpieces of suspense that seem to ruin the lives of almost everyone involved with them. (Think M. Night Shyamalan before we all realized that he actually [...]

MY GOD THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING!!I absolutely ADORED Night Film! I had been putting off this book for quite a while 1. because it's GIANT and 2. it's adult, and I am primarily a young adult reader. The synopsis of the book really intrigued me because I am such a junkie for anything psychological, thrilling, investigative, and mysterious, so I felt that Night Film would be the perfect fit for me . . . AND IT WAS!Night Film was honestly SO gripping! The visualization of this story was off the charts; [...]

It is often the roll your eye moments of books or movies that weaken the reading/viewing experience for me, but I have to be honest in saying that I cannot always define what exactly triggers those eye rolls. I think sometimes it is the predictability of the plot, other times the outrageousness of coincidence or lack of plausibility. If I get the impression I am being manipulated to feel a certain way, I bristle and balk. But what happens when a book commits one or more of these grave errors and [...]

This review is probably going to be on the controversial side, but I found Night Film very racist, transphobic, and sexist. Some of the dialogue was so problematic for me that I had to take constant breaks. I even had to use a reward system to just finish this book. I know many of my friends, who I respect and love, gave this five stars. Some even claimed it was their favorite read of 2015. I'm happy for them, and I'm happy a book brought them so much joy. That's the beauty of reading: everyone [...]

Back in high school English class, when the topic turned to themes or leitmotifs or metaphors that was my cue to zone out and explore my theoretical sex life; consequently, a book that wears this kind of stuff on its sleeve has a tendency to leave me cold – it all swirls around a creepy, reclusive film director whose work challenges his fans to rethink what the meaning of life is all about. (Whatever happened to Joel Schumacher?) Toss in the death of his daughter (Did she jump or was she pushe [...]

When the daughter of a legendary reclusive film director commits suicide, disgraced investigative reporter Scott McGrath sees his chance for redemption, for he crossed paths with the director, Stanislas Cordova, years before, costing him his family and his career. What will McGrath find when he begins tugging at the strands of Cordova's web?When I interviewed Edward Lorn for my book blog, he mentioned this among his favorite books. At the time, I saw that it had some post-modern aspects and dism [...]

3.5Night Film opens with one hell of a prologue - easily the best I have ever come across. Those opening pages exude such authentic creepiness that it becomes impossible to not keep turning the pages, to not want to know more about the enigma of the reclusive legendary Hollywood director, Stanislas Cordova. This, I believe, is Pessl's greatest achievement here. With multimedia inclusions and some tight writing, she manages to do in a handful of pages what so many authors spend entire books tryin [...]

Oh la, I have the greatest friends: Karen Queen of and Greg King of B&N conspired to help me get my hot little hands on an ARC of this a bunch of months before it's published. But of course, I now find myself in a very precarious position. I mean, I want to jump and shout and tell you all about this crazy amazing book and how brilliant and sprawling and incredible it is! But that would be irresponsible and cruel, because this book is just loaded with spoiler-traps, and it would be awful of [...]

If in Vegas there were futures bets available on authors I would have imagine that Marisha Pessl would have been a pretty sure thing on hitting the sophomore slump. I could picture the odds being something like -1400, or somewhere around +1200 for surpassing her first book. She was the 'it' writer for a season. Some people loved her book (I would be in that camp). Some thought it was overly derivative (I'm in that camp, too!) and some turned their noses up at it, but it got a lot of attention. I [...]

I started this book Friday and my whole weekend involved it. I'm a nosy bit so I kept leaving it to Google things that come up in the story. The author did an amazing job of her research. She was spot on everything that I had questions about. This book is so very dark though. I had several times that I had to leave it alone because I honestly felt so creeped out that I felt like I was being watched.I'm not going to go into the story line because really you should read this book. Dark magic, witc [...]

Disappointing. The woo-woo spookiness was captivating for about 200 pages, but then it just went on and on and my eyes began to roll with boredom. Wasn’t intrigued by Cordova; never fully believed McGrath would team up with two amateurs; thought it was oh-so-convenient how one clue always seemed to lead directly to another; scoffed when I learned who now runs The Peak (and McGrath never discovered that when he apparently could discover what someone ate for breakfast?); and double scoffed when [...]

Night Film received a lot of hype even before its publication, being the sophomore effort of Marisha Pessl, who came to fame with her 2006 debut Special Topics in Calamity Physics. I haven't read it but remember it being well-received by the critics and gaining some popularity with the readers, which wasn't bad for a first try. Ms. Pessl's second book was surrounded by quite a lot of hype even before its publication, with readers impatiently awaiting the day of its release. Well, now the book is [...]

I'm not one to look a gift ARC in the mouth (particularly one that I was REALLY looking forward to reading) but, sadly, I just can't embrace the lumbering, sprawling, epic-in-length (though hardly -in-content) "thriller", Marisha Pessl's Night Film. I'd heard so many good things about Ms. Pessl's first novel, Special Topics In Calamity Physics, and the premise for this novel sounded can't-miss, but ultimately I was pretty disappointed, wondering why the hell the book was 600 pages long (and felt [...]

Πολύ κακό για το τίποτα.Με αυτή τη φρασούλα κλειδί θα αρχίσω το σχολιασμό του βιβλιου!Αρχίζει με αναμονή και προσδοκία για πολύ μυστήριο-ζοφερό κοσμο-μαύρη μαγεία-αποκρυφισμό και κολασμένες υπάρξεις που σέρνονται καπου αναμεσα στο πάθος και το λάθος!Ο 'βασιλιάς του ζοφερο� [...]

I have absolutely no idea why this has so many FIVE-STAR reviews. Y'all are tripping. And all that ranting about OMG SPOILERS SUCH AN INTRICATE STRUCTURE SPOILERS? Bullshit. I will lay this book out for you:(view spoiler)[Remember on the X-Files how the show really went off the rails when Chris Carter wanted to make it an absolutely balanced choice that everything was ALIENS (magic) or the GOV'T CONSPIRACY (science)? That everything could be explained by either one of those two interpretations a [...]

Night Film is Marisha Pessl's second novel and, in a nutshell, it is stunning. I hope I still have plenty of excellent reads to come in 2013, but they're going to have a hell of a hard time living up to this.The protagonist of this epic, ambitious tale is Scott McGrath, formerly an extremely successful investigative journalist, whose professional reputation was destroyed when he was found to have made false allegations against Stanislas Cordova, an infamously reclusive film director. He lost his [...]

Who would have thought my first 5 star review of 2018 would be this throwback by Ms. Marisha Pessl?! Night Film is original, captivating, and so intelligently produced. It is one of the most astounding reads I've ever read in my life. The story starts off with the death and apparent suicide of young twenty-something Ashley Cordova, the daughter of infamous producer and director Stanislas Cordova. Stanislas Cordova is infamous in his own rite; creating a cult fanbase with a series of dark, twiste [...]