Reviews with content warning for Murder - Night Film

brief summary: scott mcgrath is an investigative journalist who begins investigating the apparent suicide of ashley cordova, who is the daughter of a reclusive and controversial director stanislas cordova. prior to the beginning of this book, scott had previously become obsessed with the idea that cordova is hiding a dark secret and committing crimes involving child abductions, which led to him being sued for slander and false reporting and his reputation ruined. scott is convinced ashley’s suicide is actual a murder, and begins investigating along with hopper, a drug dealer who has a childhood connection to ashley, and nora, a coatroom attendant who was one of the last people to see ashley before she died.

first of all, i loved the concept of the director with a cult following and his films’ contents having clues that tie in to the plot’s mystery. the descriptions of each of cordova’s films throughout the book make you wish you could watch those films and get swept up in the easter eggs and hidden clues throughout them too. this was a really detailed plot that took a lot of different turns — is there foul play, or dark magic, or possession, or mental illness, or child abuse happening here? the story keeps you guessing with where it’s heading too. this book also has various pictures and newspaper articles that add to the immersion of the story.

however, the issues i have with this book is mainly two points: characterisation, and convenience of clues. in terms of characterisation, for a book of over 600 pages the main three characters still felt fairly flat, and the relationship between them all never felt very developed. i did really like nora’s character but she didn’t feel fleshed out enough and was limited to her past trauma. there could’ve been so much more depth in their relationship changing from reluctantly working together to becoming friends.

their final scene together where they say goodbye and get emotional seems somewhat out of place since they didn’t seem to have much of a bond to begin with. nora’s confession that she loves scott also comes out of the blue. <\spoiler>
scott’s motive for investigating also seemed unclear, and the gang quickly progresses to breaking laws to gain information. when meeting hopper and nora for the first time scott tells them their info can be off the record, but never tries to get any info on the record for any other sources throughout the book. was he actually planning on writing a piece about ashley? how would he be able to include any facts without sources?

furthermore, clues throughout seemed a bit too convenient - everyone they spoke to gave them a plethora of useful info even when they seemed supposedly reluctant to help, such as the hotel employee or the security guard from the psychiatric unit. there were never really any dead ends or new leads cropping up, the investigation seemingly moved from one helpful witness to another. the mystery and tension in a thriller comes from the unanswered questions - what is this person hiding? are they telling the truth? what else do they know? etc - this book probably had about 10 different key witnesses/people of interest the main characters talk to and all of them give exactly enough detail to advance to the next person.

overall, this definitely was a fun thriller and worth the read as long as you are prepared for the slow burn of it.

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mxpringle's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

My opinions on this book are very complicated. At the beginning, I loved the format of the story and the plot had me on the edge of my seat. I think the way that Pessl crafted this story was truly masterful in that the reader is never quite sure what the reality is. However, as the book went on, I began to become frustrated with how it felt like nothing had really been uncovered in the investigation that was occurring in the book. I felt like I was being led on. In addition, so much of the book was filled with racism, sexism, and transphobia all perpetrated by the protagonist, whose authority on these matters was never questioned. As a trans person, the demonization of trans women in horror for a simple "creep factor" is getting very archaic, and Pessl's use of that trope disgusted me. In addition, the bizarre and unnecessary romance between the middle aged protagonist and his teenage assistant left me feeling slimy and uncomfortable.

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.
Everyone that knows my reading tastes knows how much I adored "Neverworld Wake", and because of that love I have waited to read "Night Film". Marisha Pessl's writing is simply magic to me, and because her backlist is so short, I have been waiting to read her other stories so I can really savor them. "Night Film" was 1000% worth the wait and I already want to read it again!
This novel follows Scott McGrath, a disgraced journalist who ruined his career by sharing disparaging remarks about esteemed film director Stanislaus Cordova on national TV. Cordova has remained a mystery for years, and he has not been seen by the public for decades. This elusiveness has made him a huge topic of interest for those who love his movies. Cordova's daughter, Ashley, is found dead at 24-years-old in an abandoned warehouse. With this shocking news taking the world by storm, Scott finds himself sucked back into Cordova's mysterious world trying to uncover what really happened to Ashley and finally unveil who Cordova is.
I loved everything about this book. There are some mixed media elements throughout the book that made the reading experience all the more memorable, as well as making us, the readers, feel like we are finding clues along with Scott. The mystery keeps twisting and morphing as the story goes, and by the time the ending comes, it is difficult to decipher what ended up being the truth. There is a somewhat ambiguous ending that I felt like highlighted Cordova's mysteries life perfectly. Marisha left the perfect trail of breadcrumbs to lead us to uncovering all of the secrets surrounding Ashley's death, but I still was shocked by most of the reveals.
I cannot recommend this book enough!

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illuminatedspace's review against another edition

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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

1.0

I think when I read this book, I'm to believe that the main character is kind of a sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist pos as a character flaw. However these views of the character are expressed so casually, explicitly, and often over this 600 page book I couldn't help but feel I was being indoctrinated with these garbage views. The lack of challenge the main character faces for these views is distracting over the length of the book. Nearly every non-white, non-cis male supporting character is described with harmful, uncharitable, and frankly boring stereotypes. This harmful depiction is reinforced by the fact that the characters do not say or do anything to challenge the initial description, not does anyone around the main character. This happened so consistently I couldn't help but wonder if the author also held these views or if they had just failed to create an unlikable/unreliable main character. The result was instead an unlikable world. Not challenging, or thought provoking but flat, informed by stereotypes and lacking nuance. I suppose the depth of the world is supposed to come from the lengths of depravity and pain people are willing to inflict on each other, but the cynicism of this worldview doesn't seem deserved?
The mystery was also kind of boring to me.

the mystery is kind of laid out early in the book and all the evidence gathering just confirms what was already told. Until the last 100 pages of the book when the biggest confirmation of evidence could possibly be a hallucination and the motivation could have been something else but maybe it's all real and maybe it isn't

. But the question of what really happened didn't feel like a fun puzzle to solve for me.
The mixed media elements are novel but not integral to telling the story.
If the book was shorter it may have been higher rated for me. It's not unreadable, but I hardly enjoyed any of the time I spent reading the book and nearly quit several times. I stayed for the resolution which in my opinion didn't really pay off and the denumont was so incredibly drawn out it felt like the book was ending 5 times before the actual last page. The climax was a bit of a page turner but the main character seemed to turn into a different person and some of their actions that provided the most dramatic situations seemed unmotivated. That paired with the fact that

the most interesting parts may have been a poisonous plant hallucination

wasn't enough to save the book for me.

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nicolinebl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.0

This was a confusing but intriguing read. Honestly, just calling it that is underselling it; it was definitely an experience.

I started reading this book two days ago and barely did anything else besides that because I just needed to know how it ended.

It starts of slow, then it gets really intense for a while but then it takes a turn that I honestly didn't appreciate nor understand and then it changes directions near the end again, leaving me quite puzzled.

None of the characters in this book seem like nice people, Nora probably being the nicest one and the main character Scott honestly being one of the most annoying characters. There are a lot of characters to keep track of by the way, I started writing them down lol!

There are also a lot of trigger warnings for this book, the one that made me the most upset being transphobic undertones. Not sure if that's the writers prejudice coming through or her showing that her character is transphobic, but I got really pissed at that part.

There were some parts where the writer tried to make things lighter by jokes or "funny" thoughts but in my opinion, they didn't really work. Also some parts - besides supernatural plotlines or course - were a bit unbelievable. Like how Scott was apparently so rich even though he'd been fired from his job and didn't seem to have a great job at the moment. And since he's investigating for like +-7 months and not actually working or something he's only spending money (and spending it like crazy). Nobody has that many spare change right?

Also, an in my opinion unnecessary loveplot near the ending - if you've read the book you know the part.

Besides that I am still fascinated by this book. I love the mix of mediums: articles, websitepages, documents, photo's etc. and even bonus content on the writers website (definitely check it out, especially the last one!)

I chose to read this book in October because of Halloween and must admit I was kind of let down, it wasn't that scary and

I hated that they had a whole supernatural plot, then decided to explain it all away and then afterwards sort of went back to the supernatural route.

I will end my review by saying that I do think this story could have been told in less than 600 pages and dragged a little at some parts but I most certainly do no regret reading this story; because at its main core, it did have some intriguing themes and phenomenal aesthetics. And gosh darn, I'm kind of sad that I'm not able to see the movies Cordova has made, him being fictional and all.

PS: Think this would be awesome in film format so that I could show my brother and friend who will never read a 600-pages book!

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