A terrific book that was
about 200 pages too long.
Initially, I was turned
off by Night Film because of the
pages of newspaper clippings and websites early in the book; I don't like the
technique. I prefer the newspaper or website text be
offset and just "be there" for reading instead of having to look like
it was torn from a newspaper or screenshot from a website.
However, given that I
was reading this on a Kindle Paperwhite and had to
enlarge each of the pages, I decided the fault was half mine. It probably
wouldn't have been so cumbersome if I'd been reading a hard copy, so I let this
slide in my evaluation.
Night Film is basically a mystery thriller with hinting elements of the
supernatural. It's good guys vs. bad guys; naturally, the good guys
are...well...good. The bad guys run the gamut from just a little bad to
downright despicable.
Characterizations are
great--very full, detailed, with backstories that
enrich the characters and their motives EXCEPT when they're not supposed to.
One character in particular, the #1 bad dude, is described, discussed, and
painted as well as any character in the book, but you never really get a handle
on him which, I think, is exactly what the author was shooting for.
The plot, while intriguing,
tends to meander--so much so that sometimes it's not clear what the precise
motive is for the good guys to find the bad guys; it vacillates between
redemption, simple curiosity, and revenge. Each of these
motives work, but they seem to be interchangeable in the characters and that
was distracting.
I did not like the
anticlimactic ending. I never like anticlimactic endings. And with this ending,
coming as it did some 100 pages after it should have and in a most unrealistic
manner, I found that even though nothing was resolved, I didn't care. I felt
cheated. Could I ponder the cosmos and mystically place myself in the situation
to create my own ending, my own "what comes next?" Sure, I could. But only if I'm getting paid. Marisha
Pessl got paid to do it and didn't. Very disappointing.
The book made up for
these flaws with some excellent dialogue, great characters, and several
gripping scenes that, while usually unresolved, added to the harrowing,
agonizing pace at which the mystery unraveled. That's "agonizing" in
a good way.
In my opinion, Night Film should have been edited to
remove some extraneous chapters and some of the "so what?" background
material. That would have made it a much tighter, more thrilling experience,
but it was still delightful.
Well worth a read, in
any case.
Overall, I liked the
book and am looking forward to more of this author's work. To me, there is no
better recommendation than that.