[REVIEW] Night Film

title: Night Film
author: Marisha Pessl
genre: adult fiction, mystery, thriller
published: January 30th 2014 by Random House Inc. (first published July 16th 2013)
my copy: paperback, 599 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4.5 / 5 stars
goodreads

On a damp October night, 24-year-old Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley's life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror film director Stanislaus Cordova--a man who hasn't been seen in public for more than thirty years.

For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova's dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova's eerie, hypnotic world. The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.

haunting novel I never wanted to stop reading

I got this book because I saw that it has news clippings, online forum screenshots, and such. I was extremely intrigued by the plot and when I further looked up the book, it involves a director that seemed all too real. I bought the book but never picked it up until now.

Night Film follows Scott McGarth, a journalist, who got a lousy reputation because of a story he wrote about the mysterious "cult-horror" film director, Stanislas Cordova. When Scott learned of the death of Cordova's daughter, Ashley, he found himself looking up Cordova all over again and either driven by revenge or pure curiosity regarding the reality of what it was that Cordova "does to the children." 😏

This is such a intriguing read from start to finish. Yes, until the end. And even then, I still want more. MORE! The book begins with a few things about Stanislas Cordova from a news article including Scott's encounter with him. And from there, Scott learns the death of Ashley and he decides to investigate this and later meeting Hopper and Nora who were somewhat interested to know what happened to Ashley. And throughout the novel, the three of them just find ways to uncover things about where and what happened to Ashley before her death.

What really captured me in here is the mysterious character of Cordova because the deeper they dig about Ashley, the more intriguing Cordova is. The news articles and the forum posts, especially, made him so realistic. The "Cordovites" who post about their theories regarding Cordova's movies just give him more life to me. And it's both fascinating and scary at the same time. I don't know if this is a spoiler but I like Pessl's take on witchcraft. It makes me want to believe it.

The journey to everything is intriguing but the remaining 25%-ish (probably or was it?) was my favorite part. I'm not sure if these are a spoilers but I don't think it is but in case you don't want anything taken away from your experience, trust the words I'll leave out 😅 Two things about this: (1) when they all saw the w i l d things kept in Cordova's estate, I was horrified. It was at this point that I wanted to read it nonstop. I stayed up really late at night and even though I'm not the type to imagine much things when reading (thus not being the biggest fan of fantasy) I can just clearly see everything. It is horrifying. It's scary.; (2) When things were "revealed" to them by the secretary, I was very skeptical but I also wanted to believe it. But what this really tells me is that don't trust everything they encounter. This book really got me thinking so hard and it also made me curious about everything surrounding Cordova. And I think that it's a good thing give that it's a mystery novel.

Aside from the mystery surrounding Ashley and her father Stanislas Cordova, you also see Scott's life. His wife left him and he gets custody of his daughter regularly. There's bits and pieces of his life and it's interesting how his obsession with Cordova kind of makes an impact in his actual life.

The only thing that I didn't like about this (the reason for that lesser 0.5 in my rating) is the convenience. I'm not the biggest fan of plot conveniences in books and especially this is a mystery novel, the convenience kind of hurt even more for me but not that much which is also weird. The thing is, it seems that everything just goes smoothly for them. Everyone they interviewed that is connected to Ashley seems to conveniently just tell them everything they needed to know. And while most of the people they interviewed seems to be inline in doing such a thing, one of them kind of felt off. But that could just be me complaining. But really, it's not that big of a deal. This is still a really, REALLY, intriguing book to read despite that.

OVERALL, Night Film is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED mystery thriller. It's haunting and I absolutely LOVE the "cult-horror" director aspect of the story that feels all too real. The film theories and the way they talk about all of his films just feels so real (that I actually googled them several times and even though I know that it's not real, I still wanted to see something about them. Is that weird? lol). 

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