Night Film

Night Film
author: Marisha Pessl
published: August 20th 2013
pages: 602
my rating: 5 out of 5 stars














Everybody has a Cordova story. Cult horror director Stanislas Cordova hasn't been seen in public since 1977. To his fans he is an enigma. To journalist Scott McGrath he is the enemy. To Ashley he was a father.

On a damp October night the body of young, beautiful Ashley Cordova is found in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Her suicide appears to be the latest tragedy to hit a severely cursed dynasty.

For McGrath, another death connected to the legendary director seems more than a coincidence. Driven by revenge, curiosity and a need for the truth, he finds himself pulled into a hypnotic, disorientating world, where almost everyone seems afraid.

The last time McGrath got close to exposing Cordova, he lost his marriage and his career. This time he could lose his grip on reality.

ONCE WE FACE OUR DEEPEST FEARS, WHAT LIES ON THE OTHER SIDE?


This may be one of my favorite books I've read this year. As a regular YA reader starting this book was a bit haunting since it has 600 pages and I wasn't used to the narrative in the beginning. I did end up reading this for a whole week which is way to long in my opinion but it was worth it for sure.




It's told from the perspective of Scott McGrath, a middle aged, divorced man who lost his carrier and marriage because of a stupid comment from him and a following lawsuit. Surprisingly it wasn't hard to put myself in his position at all and I really loved his narrative.

The story goes from being mysterious and interesting in the beginning to so suspenseful I couldn't put it down and keeping me on the edge of my seat. The only slightly negative thing I have to say is that the leads he followed sometimes seemed almost nonexistent and like clutching at straws. But then again that also made the story more gripping and interesting so I'm not even sure if it counts as negative.

On his journey to find out if and why Ashley Cordova killed herself he encounters Hopper and Nora, a drug dealer/ addict and a runaway/ struggling “actress”. They all continue working together and the two more or less become his friends.
Every character in this book had a lot of depth and a complex backstory. I liked Nora and Hopper a lot, they were both very well developed and just likable characters.
Ashley and of course Cordova himself were a huge mystery to me and the anonymity of them both made nothing impossible. I wasn't even sure what the crime was that Scott was chasing and if there's even a bad guy.

And how could I write about this book without mentioning the awesome photographs, articles and other interesting evidence this book contains. I looked forward to looking and analyzing the next picture, it made the story seem so much more real. There is also a interactive app where you can see more material by scanning a certain image on some pages. Unfotunatly I didn't use it and only found out the details about it in the end but even still it sounds amazing.

Overall I can only highly recommend this book to everyone. Even if you don't usually read thrillers I urge you to still give it a try because I think lots of people would love this book.