NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Cosmopolitan • Kirkus Reviews • BookPageA page-turning thriller for readers of Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, and Stieg Larsson, Night Film tells the haunting story of a journalist who becomes obsessed with the mysterious death of a troubled prodigy—the daughter of an iconic, reclusive filmmaker. On a damp October night, … an iconic, reclusive filmmaker.
On a damp October night, beautiful young 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 Stanislas 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.
Night Film, the gorgeously written, spellbinding new novel by the dazzlingly inventive Marisha Pessl, will hold you in suspense until you turn the final page.
Praise for Night Film
“Night Film has been precision-engineered to be read at high velocity, and its energy would be the envy of any summer blockbuster. Your average writer of thrillers should lust for Pessl’s deft touch with character.”—Joe Hill, The New York Times Book Review
“Mysterious and even a little head-spinning, an amazing act of imagination.”—Dean Baquet, The New York Times Book Review
“Maniacally clever . . . Cordova is a monomaniacal genius who creeps into the darkest crevices of the human psyche. . . . As a study of a great mythmaker, Night Film is an absorbing act of myth-making itself. . . . Dastardly fun . . . The plot feels like an M. C. Escher nightmare about Edgar Allan Poe. . . . You’ll miss your subway stop, let dinner burn and start sleeping with the lights on.”—The Washington Post
“Haunting . . . a suspenseful, sprawling page-turner.”—USA Today
“Entrancing and delightful . . . [a] whipsmart humdinger of a thriller . . . It feels, above all things, new.”—The Boston Globe
“Gripping . . . a masterful puzzle . . . Pessl builds up real suspense.”—Entertainment Weekly
“A very deeply imagined book . . . sprints to an ending that’s equal parts nagging and haunting: What lingers, beyond all the page-turning, is a density of possible clues that leaves you leafing backward, scanning fictional blog comments and newspaper clippings, positive there’s some secret detail that will snap everything into focus.”—New York
“Hypnotic . . . The real and the imaginary, life and art, are dizzyingly distorted not only in a Cordova night film . . . but in Pessl’s own Night Film as well.”—Vanity Fair
more
Marisha Pessl is the author you wait for. Pray for. She does things that no one else can or will do and while Night Film is only her second novel, it is one of the best works of fiction I have ever read.
I have a very specific set of niche interest and, remarkably, Night Film covers almost every single one of them. It has murder, intrigue, a …
When they describe a book as a reading experience, this is the book I think of. It’s a unique mixture of noir, mystery, thriller, and suspense with these pictures and screen shots that make you take part in the story. They also give the book that mystery and creepy feel. It’s a wonderfully written story involving a interesting group of …
This book is astounding and will keep you on the edge of your seat! The author is able to craft an intensely complicated mystery that requires a lot of “prior knowledge” set in this world, but she delivers it in a way that makes sense and isn’t condescending. If you want a mystery where you don’t know what is real or who to trust, including the …
I’d heard for a long time that Night Film was the ultimate thriller. However, despite having it on my shelf for years, I’d mostly ignored it, the 600 pages intimidating me. After many lackluster books, I picked this one up on a whim and FLEW through it, despite the length.
Night Film is about a reclusive film maker and the people who are …
A bizarre tale that effectively utilizes photos and screenshots to augment the story.
DNF
Night Film is unlike any other book I’ve read before and, having finished it, I’m wondering how I didn’t hear about it sooner. This book in itself is an experience. Ms. Pessl does an amazing job of pulling you into this world she’s created and making it almost impossible to leave until you know the ending. I started this on Sunday, finished it by …
Night Film is engaging and intelligent.
This might be one of the most unpredictable books I have read in my life but I love it.
Way out there…but good if you like a twisty thing.
This is one of my favorite books, is masterfully written and is an amazing story, leaves you haunted and wanting more.
As a writer, I look up to her skill.
A strange book that took a while to figure out. Once I’d gone thru a third or so, I still wasn’t sure I really liked it, but I was invested in it by then, so was curious as to how it would finish up. It was highly rated – wanted ti see if it finished with a bow on top to tie it all together. It was intriguing, morbidly fascinating, and unique, …
Very creative storytelling by a young North Carolina author. The pictures and atmospheres painted with words are often either fascinating or stunning.
Interesting but kind of drags along.
Really enjoyed this book.
I really enjoyed this. Horror isn’t my genre, but it was exciting!
Great writing by and author who was new to me!
Unique format. Kept you guessing. Not forgetable.
It was okay.
Hard to read the way it was presented. I got about 1/3 of the way and got tired of all the fine print pages and gave up!