Burn the Negative
*Long-listed for the Bram Stoker Award*
In this incendiary mash-up of horror and suspense, a notorious slasher film is remade…and the curse that haunted it is reawakened.
Fresh off the plane in L.A., here to visit the set of a new streaming horror series, journalist Laura Warren sees a man jumping from a bridge, landing right behind her car. It’s started, she thinks. Because the series she’s reporting on is a remake of a ’90s horror flick. A cursed ’90s horror flick, which she starred in as a child—and has been running from her whole life.
When Laura was eight years old, eight members of the cast and crew died in ways that eerily mirrored the movie’s on-screen deaths, making the film a cult classic—and ruining her life. She changed her name and her accent, dyed her hair, and moved across the Atlantic. But some scripts don’t want to stay buried.
Now, as the body count rises again, Laura finds herself on the run with her aspiring actress sister and a jaded psychic, hoping to end the curse once and for all.
In this incendiary mash-up of horror and suspense, a notorious slasher film is remade…and the curse that haunted it is reawakened.
Fresh off the plane in L.A., here to visit the set of a new streaming horror series, journalist Laura Warren sees a man jumping from a bridge, landing right behind her car. It’s started, she thinks. Because the series she’s reporting on is a remake of a ’90s horror flick. A cursed ’90s horror flick, which she starred in as a child—and has been running from her whole life.
When Laura was eight years old, eight members of the cast and crew died in ways that eerily mirrored the movie’s on-screen deaths, making the film a cult classic—and ruining her life. She changed her name and her accent, dyed her hair, and moved across the Atlantic. But some scripts don’t want to stay buried.
Now, as the body count rises again, Laura finds herself on the run with her aspiring actress sister and a jaded psychic, hoping to end the curse once and for all.
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Community Reviews
Burn the Negative is a horror thriller that starts off strong but slowly fizzles out. I was hooked when I started this horror/thriller. I loved the premise, I loved the homage to classic 80s horror like poltergeist, and I liked the fast pace writing that made the characters initially interesting.
Unfortunately once I reached the halfway point this story began to feel dragged out with the same conflicts appearing with no growth. The mystery part of this was messy and there’s a lot of false culprits which gets a bit exhausting. Where I was at first struggling to put this down, I was now struggling to pick it up.
Along with the lack of momentum, I also was very underwhelmed by the ending. It didn’t make much sense in my opinion and erased all the character growth that occurred making the novel somewhat pointless. This book reminded me of a horror film that starts off with such potential but ends up as a mid b flick.
While I didn’t enjoy this novel all the way through, I did love the first half of this book and recommend to readers looking for fast paced analogue horror and not a great story.
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