Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC of Horror Movie in exchange for an honest review. This isn't the first book I've read by Paul Tremblay so I was excited to receive this ARC. Horror Movie makes the reader ask: are monsters born that way or can they be made to be monsters? Four teens attempt to make an indie horror movie, using an abandoned school as the location. One of the teens is labeled "Thin Kid." We never see his face (hidden under a mask) and never hear his voice but he is the person telling the story, looking back as an adult. A director contacts him in order to propose a remake of the original Horror Movie, which ended so badly that it was never shown to the public but clips and speculation about it abound. Horror Movie is slowly-paced but builds up to a satisfying ending - a type of dread seeps into the reader but the reader must find out what happens.

A weird and creepy slow burn of a book takes you from past to present with the filming and refilming of an indie horror film. This is a book that will leave you thinking about it afterward- who really created the monster? Without this film, would they have been fine, or did their personalities doom them to their fates? As far as classifying this book as a horror, I would say it is more disturbing than it is actually scary.

Cosmic horror is a big seller right now, and with it, this idea of unexplainable monstrosity. I think the literary horror of the past few years has been claiming cosmic horror while presenting unexplained monstrosity. I love Paul Tremblay, don't get me wrong. I did not love this book, though. It's well-written, but to me personally, it feels under-developed. The story is really fascinating, but we only get a glimpse of the most interesting bits before we're back to basically a description of horror rather than actual horror.

The concept for this book was really fun. I found the story intriguing during some parts. The author did a fantastic job building up the atmosphere. He didn’t shy away from the gore and violence. There were a couple of moments that had me physically cringing while reading.
One of the issues I had while reading was that I found it a bit hard to follow. The timeline jumped around a lot. It was hard to know at times if we were in the present, past, and dialogue from the original movie script. I had to read a couple lines to get the context clues to figure out the timeline. Some of the formatting inside of the book with the lines of dialogue from the film was a little bit weird but I chalked that up to having an ARC copy.
There was some level of predictability with the book, but I think that’s just kind of the nature of the story. There were some aspects that still managed to surprise me in the end. I didn’t really feel a connection with any of the characters. The author just managed to keep me hooked enough to want to find out what happened with each of them.
This one had aspects I liked, and others that I didn’t. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this one. It ended up very Mid for me. I do want to check out this authors other works because I did enjoy his writing style. This just wasn’t the one for me!

Horror Movie might be my favorite read so far for 2024. I loved the style of the book; found media in the form of a screenplay, multiple time frames and an extremely intriguing narrator, The Thin Kid.

The building dread this book made me feel was visceral. I had no clue where the story was going to take me. But I couldn’t stop reading even though I knew it couldn’t be good news for any of the characters.

Best to go in cold on this one.

I loved the suspenseful, slow burn of this novel, but the ending felt a little rushed even if it was inevitable.

This was such a good book!!

30+ years ago, a group of mid-20s got together to make a movie. Something terrible happened and the movie was never released, despite being fully shot. In 2008, the director released 3 scenes onto YouTube along with the full script which created a cult following. In the present, they're rebooting the movie. All the main people involved with the original movie are dead except for our main character.

The story alternates with the 30 years ago past, the more recent past, and the present. Interspersed is the movie script itself. I was a bit nervous about the script piece since I prefer paragraphs to dialogue, but most of the movie script was not dialogue. The writer, Cleo, would put paragraphs of what people are thinking or what the audience is thinking with minimal dialogue (which would've made the movie interesting to watch).

What we're reading is the audiobook release by the narrator. As part of the reboot he was contracted to narrate an audiobook describing his experiences, so you also get an unreliable narrator aspect to this story. There's one point where he contradicts himself, which he acknowledges, so it leads to questions about what's true throughout.

The book was a bit of a slow burn. You know something terrible happens during the original movie but you don't know what or who is effected - did everyone die? Just someone? Was it not a death at all? It made me want to keep reading and was really well done.

This was my first book by Paul Tremblay and I'm excited to read his other books.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this advance review copy.

a great horror novel about the making of a horror movie called horror movie. really enjoy everything by Paul Tremblay and this one's right up there with the best of his stuff. spooky, weird, mysterious

Wow! I found myself gasping at this one. Can it be an actual horror movie? It did have some uncomfortable and even gross parts but I still liked it a lot.

Kindle Copy for Review from NetGalley, William Morrow and Killer Crime Club.

I received a free, advance copy of this book and this is my unbiased and voluntary review.
It is a horror story in the middle of a horror movie. I found it less than thrilling as it just a seemed scripted play. It just did not strike a chord with me as it felt pretentious. Main character was not enticing character,

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book ahead of release. I enjoyed the story and will recommend it.

I really wanted to love this book, but it dragged for me. It's definitely a slow burn horror novel, but it was just a little too slow for me. The time jumping was also a little confusing for me, so I found myself struggling to get through the book at some points. However, it also pulled me in at other parts. Once the intrigue starts, it's difficult to put down! The ending was what really turned it around for me.

PERFECTION. I am a huge Paul Tremblay fan, and this book exceeded all of my expectations. My heart raced while reading about the treatment one of the characters received. To get so worked up while knowingly reading a work of fiction, that's talent.

In true Paul Tremblay fashion, this book will blow your everloving mind at the end, and will continue to live rent free in your head for a LONG time.

WTF did I just read? Tremblay did it again, made me question everything, what happened, what didn't. I need someone else to read this so we can talk about the end.

This had got to be made into a movie! I loved this. Had to stop reading one Night because I was home alone, and this scared the crap out of me. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I don’t even know how to review this. But I liked it very much. I feel like I need to read it again to understand it more.

It’s a little slow moving at times but also I felt like I couldn’t stop reading. It’s weird. It’s unsettling, particularly the screenplay sections which I loved. I’ll probably update this after I reread it.

This story did not pull me in. I didn't care for the characters, didn't like the different parts (past, screenplay, etc). And I love the horror genre and the author. Thank you #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A group of young filmmakers have a month to make a super unhinged horror movie. Even though they finished filming the movie only three scenes were ever released to the public. Which apparently was enough to grow a giant fanbase. Three decades later, it’s become notorious as a cursed film and Hollywood is pushing for a reboot. The one and only surviving cast member was the main character in Horror Movie called “the thin kid.” We are following his perspective throughout the story and how he’s determined on being a part of this reboot.

Cons: I’m not sure if it was because I had an arc copy but the format was very clunky. One minute it was like we were reading a screen play and then it would jump into our mc talking directly to us like in a memoir. So it took a bit for me to get into it.

Pros: I loved the story and how we were “there” for the beginning until the end of both movies. This story definitely has a creepy feel to it and some tense, terrifying scenes. It makes you wonder who the real monster is.

In his classic, fatalistic tone, Bram Stoker Award-winner Paul Tremblay cleverly assembles a haunting level of empathy between readers, the narrator, and characters in Horror Movie. At times the story felt all-too real, which will appease fans of Tremblay's previous work like A Head Full of Ghosts (2015) and The Pallbearers Club (2022). Down the road, maybe even a few weeks from now, the characters' names of Horror Movie may evade you but you'll never escape the reality-bending and unsettling "horror void."

Full Review Coming to Cemetery Dance soon! https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/tag/haley-newlin/

Tremblay is the king of something so subtle happening under the surface that you really might miss it. And for me, with horror, i dont always jive with that. I think that affected me with this book. However, its also, somewhat, billed as a cursed object book and I really don't get that feel from it at all. Perhaps towards the very end I could make an argument for it, but.. other than that I really don't quite understand what Tremblay was trying to do with this story.

Its certainly an interesting premise. It definitely has boatloads of tension. How its written is unique, bouncing back and forth between what I assume is... the main character's audiobook of sorts and the screenplay that the book is based on. The story does touch upon a twisted nature versus nurture idea, as well as the question(s) who is a monster? what is a monster? are they made? are they already here? Like I said its an interesting read, but not the best.