Cordova – Christina de Vries

I read a papberback edition of Night Film.

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller.

Publisher: Cornerstone – Windmill Books

Originally published: July 16th, 2013

Pages: 624 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 23 hrs and 9 mins

Synopsis by the publisher:

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 30 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.

My thoughts:

I’ve had Night Film on my shelf for a few years, and although I’ve always found the premise very interesting, I’ve been slightly intimidated by the size of the book. But from time to time I ask my son to pick out my next read for me and he finds great pleasure in picking out the chunkiest books on my shelves, so this time it was Night Film’s turn. It’s a good way for me to get a randomly selected book to read, as well as it is a way for me to finally get to the books that I keep putting off because of their size.

As I said, I’ve found the premise of Night Film interesting ever since it came out. It sounded very dark and mysterious, so definitely something up my alley. I’ve heard mixed reviews of Night Film over the years, but most of the reviews were on the more positive note, at least from reviewers who tend to like the same books as I do. So I wouldn’t say that I had super high expectations for this book, but I had a feeling that would like it before I even picked it up.

Night Film hooked me from the beginning. It has a very dark and mysterious atmosphere to it that I really liked, and I also really enjoyed the way the layout of the novel, specifically the added websites and files. It made it feel like I was a part of the investigation to find out what happened to Ashley.
The story has a really good pace, so even though it is a long book, I never got bored. I was constantly at the edge of my seat wanting to know what would happen next. The story also took quite a few twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting and that is always a big plus with a mystery novel like this one.

I really enjoyed the characters in this story as well, and the ones that I found to be most interesting was probably the most mysterious characters; Ashley and Stanislaus Cordova.
Reading this book made me wish that Mr. Cordova was a real person so that I could’ve watched his movies afterward. There was just so much history and mystery around these two characters, and even though I quite enjoyed getting to know Scott McGrath and his “team”, I was more interested in getting to know the Cordova’s and their story.
It also felt like McGrath and his “team” lacked a little bit of character development, and they ended up coming out a little bit flat for my taste.

Let’s talk about the ending (without spoiling you). Even though I didn’t predict the exact way that this story would progress and end, I had a gut feeling as to what kind of ending Night Film would have (if that makes sense), and on some levels I was right. When I turned the last page of the story I had conflicted feelings about it, and I still do. In one way I feel like the ending was perfect to the whole Cordova mystery of it all, but in another way I feel like it left me slightly unsatisfied.
Even so, I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to the horror lovers out there. It’s dark, eerie, and very atmospheric. When it comes to the ending I think it comes down to personal preference if you’ll like it or not. I’m somewhere in between.
The book felt a bit unnecessary long as well, even though I got through it pretty quickly. I still feel like it could’ve been condensed just a little bit.
But overall it was a very interesting and enjoyable read!

Would love to know your opinion on the book if you’ve read it💛