Book Review: Night Film By Marisha Pessl

Night Film 
By Marisha Pessl

(Finished reading: 6/8/18)

5/5 stars

Captivating, disorientating, ominous.

“Mortal fear is as crucial a thing to our lives as love. It cuts to the core of our being and shows us what we are. Will you step back and cover your eyes? Or will you have the strength to walk to the precipice and look out?”

Night Film is a highly intricate psychological thriller that follows investigative journalist Scott McGrath as he becomes tangled within mysterious world of cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova. When Cordova’s daughter, 24 year-old Ashley Cordova, is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in New York City, the police are quick to mark it as suicide. However, Scott’s past research into Cordova tells him the story goes deeper than anyone else seems to think. But last time Scott got involved in researching Cordova he lost both his marriage and his career, and who knows where it could lead this time. But as he digs deeper, Scott suddenly finds the lines between fiction and reality become blurred, making it impossible to determine the truth from the lies.

This book is hands down one of the best books I have ever read. It’s so complex and intricately woven together but also so immersive and real. It is truly unlike everything I’ve ever read, I adored it from start to finish. With so many twists and turns, I never quite knew where it was going, like Scott, I found myself losing my mind as I tried to piece together the story. But after reading page after page I became more and more addicted to this book, making it harder and harder to stop reading. This story has so many layers to it and intertwines so many interesting themes. It is everything you could ever want in a dark and twisted psychological thriller.

Firstly, I have to start with Cordova. I think as an individual living in a world held together by the internet, where we can follow the daily lives of our favourite celebrities, I feel that we, as human beings, are closer than ever. But Pessl puts an interesting spin on this by presenting us with a celebrity who is out of reach from the media and an enigma even to his most loyal fans. I thought this concept was so genius: a mystery inside a world where mystery is becoming so obsolete. And interestingly, Cordova’s absence from the story is (ironically) the most omnipresent aspect of this book. His shadow looms over the entire story, he’s somehow always there even though he’s never there. Equally, we know everything about him whilst simultaneously knowing nothing at all (at least, not for certain). I absolutely loved Pessl’s intricacy involved in building this mysterious world of Cordova. I loved reading about the plotlines of his films and the popular culture surrounding them, by the end of the book it all felt as though I’d been watching Cordova’s films my entire life. I found even Cordova’s community fascinating, this underground movement that watch these banned horror films. I think this also brings an interesting aspect to popular movie culture, switching a publicly hyped community of movie lovers into a dark and sinister crowd of people who secretly and illegally watch his films. For me, the whole concept was sociologically very compelling when we compare it to the world we know. Because who knows, maybe this is where popular culture is heading; instead of regular public rants on Twitter, maybe the future of this culture is secrecy and mystery only accessible to the elite few. Although this is not the primary focus of the novel, I found the world of Cordova was one of the most fascinating and unique backdrops to a novel.

What I also thought was really unique about this novel was the multimedia aspects of the book. Throughout the story we are presented with images, news articles, webpages and reports. Obviously this made the story a lot more visually stimulating and interesting to read, but aside from this, it made me feel a lot more immersed in the story. I think a lot of detective-style thrillers fall into the trap of merely presenting the reader with the ‘detective’s’ conclusions. However, this book gives the reader a very active role in solving the mystery. I thought that reading the articles myself made me feel like I was solving the mystery alongside the characters, allowing me to digest the information in my own way before the characters’ conclusions were made. In addition to this, I liked how the witnesses’ stories were presented in larger chunks of dialogue without the distractions of the main characters’ thoughts as this also allowed me to play detective and digest these accounts in a similar way to the articles included. Not only this, but the book also connects to more online resources that you can access whilst reading which I think is a really exciting step in regards to the future of how books are read. I think these aspects are particular effective in this book because of how complex the plot is. There are lots of details included in this book and I think the multimedia sources helped to break this down into more manageable parts. But I did really enjoy reading these elements of the story and thought they were designed very realistically.

Aside from the complex plotline, this book was also really good because it was also so action-packed. I’ve read a lot of psychological thrillers that tend to be more slow-paced and focus solely on the mystery aspect, but what I liked about this book was how well-balanced the mystery was with the action. At times I found my heart racing and the hairs on the back of my neck raised on end. In places, this book is really terrifying. I admit, I’m not much of a horror-reader so this book is probably fairly tame in comparison to others…but it still scared me! I can honestly say no book has ever affected me like this one has. The action was so rich with suspense it practically had me biting my nails in anticipation. I became so immersed in the action that at times I often forget where I was or what time it is, which, paired with how dizzying and disorientating the plotline is, had my head feeling very heavy indeed! But the suspense was truly delicious.

I also really loved the characters within this novel. Looking back over the course of the story, I realise now what an extensive cast of characters feature throughout this book! And yet, I found each and every person was very genuine and believable. No two characters were the same, and all had their own complexities. Obviously Scott is the main focus of this story, and going into this book, I didn’t think I could connect to a character who was a forty-something-year-old man in the same way I relate and connect to the younger characters I usually read about. But I really did connect to Scott and his story. I felt like I was part of his investigation and everything he felt, I felt too. His sense of humour certainly lightened up the darker aspects of the story and his personal troubles brought the story back down to earth amongst some of the less human parts. I also liked Scott’s relationship with the ‘sidekicks’ he reluctantly acquired within his investigation. I thought the dynamic between the three of them was really interesting, especially considering how different Nora and Hopper were from one another. I really liked watching them all change and develop over the course of the story as they each dealt with their own demons throughout their quest for the truth.

I loved the constant second-guessing over whether things were real or fantasy. I think this, as a theme, was interesting to explore. Especially in regards to Cordova’s world, we are torn with whether to believe everything is what it is or whether it all boils down to something simple, pure and human. Even by the end, I still find myself doubting what I personally believed to be the truth. I think this parallels beautifully with Cordova’s films and the constant mystery of Cordova himself. But I guess that’s up to you to decide. Because is there really only one truth, or do we all have our own truths?

Overall I really, really loved reading this book. I would actually love to see this story become a film just because I want to see the world of Cordova come to life before my eyes. I highly, highly, recommend reading this book so you can witness the mystery and excitement for yourself. It will make you question everything so much that you will become lost in this dark world (but maybe don’t read it before bed!). I have a feeling this book is going to leave me thinking for a very long time. There are so many fascinating aspects that are woven together into this masterpiece of a novel, this really is the kind of book I could probably write an entire dissertation on! I will certainly be rereading this in the future, I can’t wait to get lost in the darkness once again.