Review: Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Released: 20th August 2013
Published by: Random House
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Source: Library
Pages: 602
My Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
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Everybody has a Cordova story. Cult horror director Stanislas Cordova hasn't been seen in public since 1977. To his fans he is an engima. 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?

The space around Cordova distorts...the speed of light slackens, information gets scrambled, rational minds grow illogical, hysterical. 

Night Film is a novel which inexplicably draws you in to a thrilling mystery riddled with the unknown, following a path that is as uncertain as the activities of the enigmatic Cordova himself. The story follows Scott McGrath, a reporter once again enthralled by this urban legend in his quest to find out what really happened to Ashley, and his two new younger comrades Nora and Hopper who each have their own secrets to hide. What makes this book a memorable one, is not just its hefty size - it's the unputdownable quality that draws you further and further towards the dark epicentre of Cordova's mysterious paradox. I ended up questioning what was real and what wasn't just as much as the characters did, and that is one sign of some masterful storytelling indeed.

The suspected but unseen threat, fueled by the imagination, was punishing and all-powerful. It'd devastate before you even left your room, your bed, before you even opened your eyes and took a breath. 

This book is so wonderfully crafted - especially with all the different textual forms interwoven throughout. It makes the whole situation seem so much more eerie when it appears to be so plausible. News articles, creepy websites and even reports from a mental institution all bring an aura of logic to this otherwise irrational epoch. Although yes, there are some parts which flow a little slower than others when it comes to Scott's personal life and the backgrounds of Hopper and Nora, there is an undeniable sense of urgency and palpable tension as the darker side of Ashley's life was revealed. Amidst the puzzle of her death is a glimpse at the supernatural. The whole book is like a storm brewing, where at first the clouds roll in before a fog falls over the whole investigation, until the climax where the wind, rain and lightning bring some epiphany, though only to leave more destruction in its wake.

The mysterious threshold between reality and make-believe...Because every one of us has out box, a dark chamber stowing the thing that lanced out heart. It contains what you do everything for, strive for, wound everything around you. And if it were opened, would anything be set free? No. For the impenetrable prison with the impossible lock is your own head. 

This is a book where you really don't know what is going to happen next, or what you'll read yourself into. Even the most mundane of events end up holding some significance, and comes a point where the line between reality and the surreal is blurred. Each page brings its own set of questions, perhaps even a red herring here and there. Each person that Scott interviews who was involved with Cordova and Ashley's death gives information, but what can one really believe? Where is the truth? My one tiny flaw with this book was the ending. Yes, it is only fitting that its nature would coincide with the very style of the book, but you can't help but feel frustrated that after coming so far and the end is so near, it appears just out of reach. However, make of it what you will - I think there may be a few theories brewing there if you ask other people who have read this book.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Night Film is definitely one of the best and most unique thrillers I've read this year. I am so glad that I picked it up and got to experience a novel that is so engrossing, so murky and yet with some striking moments of clarity.