Night Film (Pessl) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
There is a haunting suspicion running all through Night Film: that this book was more exciting to write than to read, and that Ms. Pessl reveled too contentedly in the universe she created. On the rare occasions when she calls attention to double meanings or bits of wordplay, they fall terribly flat.... But Night Film is content to deliver small, self-satisfied rewards. Ms. Pessl seems to take it as a given that this book, like its absent genius, warrants fascination. Where’s the evidence? Not on the page.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


No one can accuse Marisha Pessl of unfamiliarity with the tools of the modern thriller. With pages of faked-up old photos, invented Web sites and satellite maps, Night Film...asserts itself as a multimedia presentation more than an old-fashioned book. There are over a hundred chapters, most of the James Patterson two-page variety, a technique that adds a giddy accelerant to Pessl’s already zippy pacing.... Pessl is capable of fine prose, so her willingness to serve up “Hardy Boys” nuggets like these suggests she’s willfully dumbing herself down. Still and all, 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 - New York Times Book Review


[T[wisted and intelligent.... The “night films” of Stanislas Cordova have a cult following: ...to see his work is to “leave your old self behind, walk through hell, and be reborn.” Ashley Cordova is his enigmatic daughter...[who] apparently commits suicide at 24. Scott McGrath is a reporter...can’t resist his need to uncover the real story of Ashley’s death.... Pessl does wonderful work giving the hard-headed Scott reason to question the cause of Ashley’s death, and readers will be torn between logic and magic.
Publishers Weekly


Expands from a seemingly straightforward mystery into a multifaceted, densely byzantine exploration of much larger issues.... Into this mazelike world of dead ends and false leads, [reporter Scott] McGrath ventures with his two, much younger helpers, Nora and Hopper, brilliantly portrayed Holmesian "irregulars" who may finally understand more about Ashley than their mentor, whose linear approach to fact finding might miss the point entirely.
Booklist


An inventive—if brooding, strange and creepy—adventure in literary terror.... Pessl hits the scary ground running....when [filmmaker Stanislas Cordova's] daughter is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in Chinatown. Scott McGrath, reporter on the way to being washed-up, finds cause for salvation of a kind in the poor young woman’s demise.... A touch too coyly postmodern at times, but a worthwhile entertainment all the same
Kirkus Reviews