Author: Marisha Pessl
Title: Night Film
Place Published: New York
Publisher: Random House
Year Published: 2013
No. of Pages: 587
Price: Php799
Place Bought: Fully Booked Rockwell
Buy From Amazon: Night Film: A Novel
IT’S been a seven-year-long wait for Marisha Pessl’s second novel, but was Night Film worth it?
Her debut novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics won the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize (known then as the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize). The New York Times Book Review also named it one of the 10 Best Books of 2006.
Expectations were building for Pessl, and she would ultimately deliver, proving she was more than just a one-hit wonder.
Night Film follows the narrative of disgraced investigate reporter Scott McGrath, whose career and marriage were ruined after a failed investigation on occult filmmaker Stanislas Cordova.
“There is something he does to the children,” an anonymous witness had said over the phone, the insider who mysteriously disappeared when Scott was on trial.
Cordova has stayed hidden from the public for over 30 years. In fact, nobody really knows what he looks like. He shoots his films from within The Peak, a 300-acre estate protected by a 20 foot military fence.
His oeuvre of films, terrifying and traumatizing, reveal the darkest aspects of humanity. Nobody who views them remains the same. And those who work on them know to keep their mouths shut.
One night, Cordova’s 24-year old daughter Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. This is the second mysterious death in the family, following that of Cordova’s first wife. The mother’s death was ruled an accidental drowning, and Ashley’s, an act of suicide.
Having his doubts about their deaths and wanting to learn more about the reclusive Cordova, Scott re-investigates.
Night Film moves at lightning speed as Scott delves deeper into life and death of Ashley, and the enigma that is Cordova.
In addition to the main narrative, Pessl uses fictional documents: websites, underground websites, news clippings, phone transcripts, missing persons reports, photographs, and more, to engage readers more in Scott’s search for the truth.
Pessl gives her characters plenty of depth in this story. She knows so much them and and their worlds, which makes them so believable and relate-able. Cordova, so popular yet shrouded in mystery, was the most interesting character of all.
As more clues are discovered and mysteries are revealed, like flashes of thunder in the night even more questions on Cordova abound. By the time I read three-fourths of the novel I had to stop and catch my breath from over excitement.
Then just when I thought I had everything figured out, there was twist after twist after twist—a Marisha Pessl staple, it would seem. And then came the end, and it was awesome. Every detail was in its rightful place.
I love reading intelligent, edge-of-my-seat detective fiction that keeps me guessing till the very end, without losing its credibility. Marisha Pessl’s Night Film is definitely one of these.
But if that wasn’t enough, Pessl introduces the Night Film Decoder after the novel. This smartphone app can be used to scan red bird symbols hidden within various images in the novel, to gain access to “secret” information on Cordova. The red bird was a symbol used by Cordovites (diehard Cordova fans) when communicating coded messages like underground film showings of Cordova films, deemed to disturbing for mainstream cinema.
While further enriching the readers’ experience, this could also serve as a distraction: introducing new content while readers wait another seven years for Pessl’s third novel. Hopefully, it won’t take that long.
Title: Night Film
Place Published: New York
Publisher: Random House
Year Published: 2013
No. of Pages: 587
Price: Php799
Place Bought: Fully Booked Rockwell
Buy From Amazon: Night Film: A Novel
Opening Credits
IT’S been a seven-year-long wait for Marisha Pessl’s second novel, but was Night Film worth it?
Her debut novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics won the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize (known then as the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize). The New York Times Book Review also named it one of the 10 Best Books of 2006.
Expectations were building for Pessl, and she would ultimately deliver, proving she was more than just a one-hit wonder.
Introduction
Night Film follows the narrative of disgraced investigate reporter Scott McGrath, whose career and marriage were ruined after a failed investigation on occult filmmaker Stanislas Cordova.
“There is something he does to the children,” an anonymous witness had said over the phone, the insider who mysteriously disappeared when Scott was on trial.
Cordova has stayed hidden from the public for over 30 years. In fact, nobody really knows what he looks like. He shoots his films from within The Peak, a 300-acre estate protected by a 20 foot military fence.
His oeuvre of films, terrifying and traumatizing, reveal the darkest aspects of humanity. Nobody who views them remains the same. And those who work on them know to keep their mouths shut.
One night, Cordova’s 24-year old daughter Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. This is the second mysterious death in the family, following that of Cordova’s first wife. The mother’s death was ruled an accidental drowning, and Ashley’s, an act of suicide.
Having his doubts about their deaths and wanting to learn more about the reclusive Cordova, Scott re-investigates.
It’s a Thriller!
Night Film moves at lightning speed as Scott delves deeper into life and death of Ashley, and the enigma that is Cordova.
In addition to the main narrative, Pessl uses fictional documents: websites, underground websites, news clippings, phone transcripts, missing persons reports, photographs, and more, to engage readers more in Scott’s search for the truth.
Pessl gives her characters plenty of depth in this story. She knows so much them and and their worlds, which makes them so believable and relate-able. Cordova, so popular yet shrouded in mystery, was the most interesting character of all.
As more clues are discovered and mysteries are revealed, like flashes of thunder in the night even more questions on Cordova abound. By the time I read three-fourths of the novel I had to stop and catch my breath from over excitement.
Then just when I thought I had everything figured out, there was twist after twist after twist—a Marisha Pessl staple, it would seem. And then came the end, and it was awesome. Every detail was in its rightful place.
I love reading intelligent, edge-of-my-seat detective fiction that keeps me guessing till the very end, without losing its credibility. Marisha Pessl’s Night Film is definitely one of these.
Night Film Goes Digital
The red bird.
But if that wasn’t enough, Pessl introduces the Night Film Decoder after the novel. This smartphone app can be used to scan red bird symbols hidden within various images in the novel, to gain access to “secret” information on Cordova. The red bird was a symbol used by Cordovites (diehard Cordova fans) when communicating coded messages like underground film showings of Cordova films, deemed to disturbing for mainstream cinema.
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