Review by Booklist Review
Sometimes watching a movie is a bit like being raped," states the very apt epigraph at the start of Felker-Martin's (Cuckoo, 2024) latest. 1985, NYC. Ellen is a young Jewish woman from a wealthy family working as a film preservationist. Her struggling company takes on a recently unearthed, Nazi-banned German cult film, Black Flame, full of queer characters, sex, and murder. Ellen, forced to deny her own homosexuality or be disowned, is extremely unsettled even before she begins restoring the film, and its subject matter both entrances and deeply unmoors her. The film begins stalking Ellen, invading her dreams, even physically injuring her. Horror readers know none of this will end well, but they will relish every precious moment spent with this intense tale. Deliciously nasty, vicious, and erotic, this novel succeeds equally on two distinct tiers of terror: a perfect portrayal of the disorientation of being deeply closeted, and a cursed-media story in which the film's sinister agenda reaches out from the screen and grabs hold of all who encounter it. An easy sell to those who enjoy disquieting cursed-movie novels like Marisha Pessl's Night Film (2013) and Paul Tremblay's Horror Movie (2024), but also suggest to fans of the psychological-horror classic The Drowning Girl (2012), by Caitlín R. Kiernan.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This brutal, unsparing horror novel from Felker-Martin (Manhunt) brings film, queer history, and unspeakable terror together in mid-1980s New York City. Ellen Kramer, a closeted archivist working at the Path Foundation, an embattled film restoration company, has been tasked with restoring Black Flame, a legendary lost film from Weimar-era Germany. As she grapples with her repressed sexuality, her work results in her consciousness becoming warped by horrific visions. Her daily life and relationships begin to disintegrate as she uncovers the truth behind Black Flame--and her own history. After the Path Foundation receives blowback for their restoration of a racist movie, Ellen is given the opportunity to share Black Flame with the world to help divert the PR storm, resulting in a terrible reckoning as she comes to terms with the consequences of things kept hidden from polite society--and from herself. Felker-Martin's stunning prose is equal parts grotesque and lyrical as she turns an unflinching gaze on the extremes of compulsion and desire on the way to a truly devastating climax. The story threads the difficult needle of presenting unsympathetic characters and complicated relationships without compromising its vision, and the results are spectacular. Readers will be unable to shake this one soon. (Aug.)
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