Horror Movie

Some of the scenes in this one had my stomach curling a lot. Like I get it they are making a horror movie but whoa buddy gorey and gross x.x. Loved the narration of this audiobook, really seemed like it was a mix media book which i loved too. Definitely recommend reading at least once but don't eat anything while you read/listen to it lol.

Want to write more later for sure. If you've read any of his other books, mind f*ckery is par for the course and I expected that and loved it.
I'll also say you need to love mixed media experimental storytelling to like this as we bounce back and forth. The audiobook I think helps this along better than reading on the page. I love books that do this and honestly a lot of this book felt like what I desperately wanted from house of leaves but done better.
Overall it's great and pretentious in the right way as you only have the old screenplay fully taking the art angle seriously.
And it leaves you with a similar feeling I had in head full of ghosts. That in the end, people are the ones that make monsters and suffer the consequences of that making. Perhaps, a theme rather on the mark for our times.

Overall, I'm a little confused. I still have so many questions. I'm not really sure what this is.

This was unsettling and I loved it. I'm not sure I understand what happened but I had a good time anyway

Started promising but went downhill swiftly about half way through, and the ending was, frankly, stupid. Also, the titular Horror Movie within sounds awful.

I legitimately don't know if I liked this book or not.

The idea of the book was particularly good, but the execution was a letdown. It started well with a good sense of mystery and creepy vibes. From there the constant altering of writing style was irritating. The screenplay setup is slow to get through and makes it hard to get into the story. Even without this, there is no character depth, and the story has been stretched out too far.

The plot description sounded like this could be a bit of a psychological thriller. I can see that that was what the author was going for, but that is far from what we got. The “movie” part is a pretentious art-house horror project done by kids. This often makes the characters unlikeable. Because of this, the drive of mystery is lost the farther you go into the story as you simply seem to care less about what happens.

The ending was anti-climatic after such a long setup. It mentions that each of the kids who worked on the horror movie all died. I thought it would be related to making the film, but they died quite ordinarily years after the filming. For such a promising idea I was disappointed after finishing this.

This was my first Paul Tremblay book and I found it very interesting. I definitely plan on reading more from this author.

Scary in places, but a little too arty for me. The ending though was fabulous.

3.5 stars.I felt this book was disjointed. I didn't like the main character. He was written as if he were detached from his own story, but we were supposed to be interested. I was, however, interested in what it was about the “Horror Movie” that made it have a cult following. I did want the mystery of what happened on set to be solved. It's kind of a weird book but not bad.

I liked the premise and general vibe of this - the time skips and the bits of screenplay that were added added to the pacing and sense of dread - but I felt like the unreliable narrator and meta commentary on horror was done more successfully in A Head Full of Ghosts. Tremblay is still a must-read author for me, but this one didn't land quite as well as I'd hoped. 3 cursed masks out of 5.

 Hmm... I really like the way this was written. Presented as an autobiographical audiobook of a man who was in a movie in the early 90s that was never released due to something tragic happening on set, but clips of the movie and the script have since been released online and drummed up a lot of interest, and so the movie is being made in the modern day. We get chapters from the distant past, recent past, present, and the script itself, and it flips between these things to create a comprehensive story. It's fascinating and I loved reading it. 

I just didn't personally feel like this one is “horror”. Not to say that it isn't! Just didn't work for me. And it got... pretty dang weird and it's taken me a few days to work out if that's good weird or bad weird and I.. think, it's not good weird but not quite bad weird, if that makes any sense. 

So 2 stars because the journey is great, but the ending really let it down for me. 

I do recommend this one to people who find the concept of movie making, particularly indie movie making, interesting. I think you'd probably get some joy out of this one. 

Layers on layers here, but at the bottom is Tremblay's darkest book (and if you've read the others you'll know that's quite the achievement). There's an all pervading atmosphere of dread, and it's a bleak warning about the darkness in ourselves. One of the best horror writers currently operating.

Okay talk about eerie! I was so unsettled and intrigued by Horror Movie. That ending too! Jaw dropped! I was not prepared for it. This was my first book by this author though I own others. I am excited to go back and read those now! I could easily see this as a cult classic.

I did find myself skimming towards the end at certain parts as they didn't seem to do anything to the story for me. Otherwise, solid read!

Thank you NetGalley, Paul Tremblay, and William Morrow Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay releases June 11, 2024!

I've been craving a book that's a bit dark and twisted for a few weeks now, and after diving into ‘Horror Movie' by Paul Tremblay, all I can say is, be careful what you wish for. The novel spins a tale around a disturbing, supposedly cursed horror film from the '90s. Fast forward to the present day, and we follow the only surviving cast member as he grapples with the demons of the past and the remake of this eerie film.

Tremblay has clearly mastered the art of the unreliable narrator, keeping the reader constantly questioning the veracity of what's presented. We're perpetually at a disadvantage, navigating through twisted versions of the truth, with flashbacks intertwining the chaotic original shoot and the contemporary reboot. It's a narrative dance that keeps you on your toes, unsure of where reality ends and fiction begins.

While The Pallbearers Club was divisive because it didn't fit neatly into any one genre, ‘Horror Movie' has no such problem. However, to that end, it is lacking a touch of the depth of some of Tremblay's other works, among them, a real sense of character development. That said, this one will stick with me for a while (That ending...), even if it doesn't inspire as much of an emotional connection as something like The Pallbearers Club.