Night Film

3.5 stars

I ended up not writing this review last night when I actually finished the book because I felt I had to give my brain a second to decide what it thought of this. I guess the first thing I need to say is that this book took me an uncalled for 3.5 months (even though I probably only read it for a week or two effectively) and that may be part of the reason I couldn't really get into the flow of this book.

Let's just start with this: this book has a great prologue. Very very intriguing, very makes-me-want-to-read-right-on, which, kinda what a prologue is supposed to do but okay, kudos for that one. I really liked the focus on the cult-aspect of Cordova's films, because, I won't lie, if he existed in real life I'd be fascinated with the guy and his stories as well. So then the mystery starts, young woman dies, reporter goes on a hunt with his two side-kicks, yada yada yada.

Thing is, right: I picked this book up again a couple of days ago after literally 3 months of not reading it, I didn't remember very clearly what specific ~mystery things~ had been happening because let's face it, I don't have the memory for that, and I didn't feel like I missed anything. Spent the next week wrestling through the middle section of the book until things picked up again nearing the 70% mark and I finished the last 30% in a day. So I guess I feel mostly like the whole middle section of the book could've been condensed drastically because you have build up and you have tedious telling the reader about what's happening and the latter just doesn't interest me.

Also, the characters? One dimensional. Mr Scott Protagonist is a dick for most of this book, very judgemental, supposedly a good reporter but that's debatable, bad father to his five year old child (literally takes her on trips that he knows are gonna be dangerous multiple times, uses her to get close to sources). And because most of the book is written from Scott's perspective, characters like Nora and Hopper, which seem to have potential, stay flat, one-dimensional people, their choices rushed (I don't even want to talk about the love story plotline that popped its head in for two pages 60% in, never to be seen again).

But alright, to be entirely fair: this is a mystery/thriller and while that obviously doesn't mean you shouldn't put an effort into character building it also means there's usually just more of a focus on plot, which, fine. And I will say that when I did get to that 70% mark, I actually got excited and curious again. For about a 100 pages, after which we suddenly take a dive into an ocean of exposition - and that wasn't even that bad. I think I would've given this four stars if it had ended after SpoilerInez Gallo tells Scott about Ashley's illness, if then he'd gone home, sought contact with Hopper and Nora again and maybe showed some fucking humility for ONCE about the way he felt he had the right to deconstruct someone's life the way he had. And then the final ending... I really wasn't a fan of the open endedness of it. I just wasn't interested for a second in the sudden personal development that's trying to be forced onto Scott in those last couple of pages and then we also don't actually get to hear from Cordova (a conversation I was lowkey expecting because I thought there were more pages left in the book)? I would've liked for Scott to see Cordova, realise he's a mere mortal after all, maybe see some humanity from him and hopefully be put in his place a bit by him. But nope, none of that. I think this book left me wanting for answers, but not in the good way, just in the confusing, annoying, trying-too-hard-to-be-mysterious kind of way.

Like some other reviewers said: the book mostly left me with an urge to watch one (or all) of Cordova's films. So I guess in the end, I ended up feeling kind of unsatisfied with a number of things.