You guys need to read Night Film so we can talk about it.

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Night Film by Marisha Pessl

I'm not recommending it, exactly, because I haven't finished yet and it could still end up being a disaster. But I'm far enough in to know that either way I'm really going to need someone to talk to when I finish. It's kind of long so I need you guys to start now before I finish.

I also suspect that it is just up the alley of several Match-Cutters.

What I know so far: it's a psychological thriller. A young woman in New York is found dead of an apparent suicide. It causes waves because she is the the daughter of a reclusive cult filmmaker who makes work so disturbing that his more recent films are only shown literally underground-- in tunnels, catacombs, etc-- because they are refused any sort of conventional distribution. He's a subject of fascination, adoration and grim rumors. A disgraced journalist begins looking into her death and that's pretty much all I know so far.

Please read it so we can talk.

I would pick it up, but I can guarantee I'd be a good 2 weeks behind you the entire time.

As penance, I'm watching Seven Brides For Seven Brothers for the first time right now. For you.

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Originally Posted by amberlita

As penance, I'm watching Seven Brides For Seven Brothers for the first time right now. For you.

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This is so beautiful I want to cry.

I'd read reviews that seemed fairly indifferent about the novel from the NYTimes critics, though I'd been interested in it prior to. I'll try to free up time in the summer but am otherwise pretty booked.

Let us know if it lands the ending. I think I remember that being described as underwhelming...

This sounds up my alley, and I really dug Marisha Pessl's first book, but I have a lot of reading for school this semester.

I'll try to make it the next fiction book I read.

I was really interested in reading this, but then I kept noticing a lot of tepid to downright negative appraisals of the book. I still might give it a chance sometime. I think her debut novel had a better reception.

Night Film still sounds fun, though. I don't really like the fact that it has an official app with additional content, but the execution might be great. Fortunately, Pessl made sure that the text stands on its own.

So far it's very ambitious, and ambitious novels often don't succeed terribly well. But just as often they still deserve to be read.

I had forgotten about this app. I don't know how I feel about that.

What the hell with this book. I don't even know how to.

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Originally Posted by Mara

What the hell with this book. I don't even know how to.

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Is this good or bad?

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Originally Posted by ledfloyd

Is this good or bad?

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I'M NOT SURE.

I need to have a good long think. And possibly sleep. And maybe carry the book around with me for a few days, in my hands but away from my body, like a snarling cat.

Okay. After some time, I think I will put this down with Gone Girl in terms of books where every element doesn't work every time, but the ambition and innovation really make up for the flaws. I was sometimes frustrated, I was sometimes baffled, but I was turning the pages like crazy. I had plans with friends last night which I literally cancelled because I needed to finish the book.

I've read criticism that it doesn't behave like a normal mystery, and it doesn't. The clues and discoveries are made in a very linear manner. There's also no mystery: Ashley Cordova killed herself. We know that. We just want to know why. The prose is more literary than you'd generally get in a mystery, while the vivid descriptions and leisurely pace are unusual for a thriller, which also doesn't fit as a genre.

The book is 600 pages long. Around page 400, I was looking distressed, and my roommate asked why. I said, "I don't know if the supernatural exists in this book or not." She said, "You're almost done." I said, "I KNOW."

Is it flawed? Sure. But I totally still want you guys to read it.

I will get to it. I'm on spring break week after next, so perhaps I'll be able to find the time.

You should read Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

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Originally Posted by Mara

,.... But I totally still want you guys to read it.

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Chapter 44.

I picked this up at the library today. Pynchon's Bleeding Edge was taunting me, but this thread made me go with Night Film. I'll start it soon, and I'm on break next week, so it shouldn't take long.

Cool. I'm interested to see what you guys think.

I got through about 50 pages last night. Super intrigued.

I can't put this book down.

About 2/3 of the way through this now. It's really engrossing, but it does always feel like it's on the verge of going off the rails. Particularly in regards to the occult stuff. I think I'm at the "I don't know if the supernatural exists in this book or not," point. Which I'm not sure is a good thing, because I can't tell if the book is cheating or not if I don't know the rules.

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Originally Posted by ledfloyd

It's really engrossing, but it does always feel like it's on the verge of going off the rails.

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This is an excellent summation of how I felt about the book as a whole, actually.

Done. I'm not sure she completely stuck the landing, and I have a few quibbles with the big set piece. Overall I enjoyed it though, and I had forgotten what it feels like to read 400+ pages of a book in two days. Haven't done that in awhile.

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Originally Posted by ledfloyd

I have a few quibbles with the big set piece.

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I assume you mean the

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Show Spoiler

Hallucination, or dream, or bizarre sequence at Cordova's house? I actually loved that whole piece. I'm not sure it integrated very well into the rest of the book, though. I'm not a reader who insists that every single thing be explained by the end of the novel, I think the book might have been improved if that sequence had been given a little more context.

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Originally Posted by Mara

I assume you mean the

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Show Spoiler

Hallucination, or dream, or bizarre sequence at Cordova's house? I actually loved that whole piece. I'm not sure it integrated very well into the rest of the book, though. I'm not a reader who insists that every single thing be explained by the end of the novel, I think the book might have been improved if that sequence had been given a little more context.

]

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Yeah, I don't need everything explained either. The part that mostly lost me was when he's trapped in the hexagonal box. It just seems too far-fetched and absurd for it to work as anything BUT a hallucination. It doesn't possess the ambiguity/dualism that makes the rest of the book so fascinating.

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Was good till chapter 109.

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Originally Posted by kuehnepips

Was good till chapter 109.

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Refresh my memory?