Smile for the Cameras by Miranda SmithMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
And at least one death happened here that wasn’t caught on camera.
Twenty years ago, Ella starred in the horror movie Grad Night. A small budget film that became an instant hit and has developed a cult following with the progressive sequels. While the film jump started her career, it emotionally destroyed Ella and after a few years on a popular sitcom, she left Hollywood to take care of her sick mother. Now that her mother has died, Ella's ready to try and revive her career. A middle aged woman has a harder time landing roles, so Ella's agent pressures her to do a Grad Night reunion documentary that fans have been clamoring for, in hopes it will open doors for her. Ella lost touch with her cast mates and has tried to steer clear of anything Grad Night, as one murder happened on set that wasn't filmed. Back at the cabin in the woods that started it all, it seems that the secret Ella and her cast mates worked so hard to keep quiet is known by someone and they're willing to murder over it.
A tall figure stands at the railing, also dressed in a graduation gown and with a blood-spattered lion mask covering the person’s face, an axe with a bloody blade in their hands.
As a big movie slasher fan, I was excited when I read the synopsis of this. It's told in alternating timelines, Then – 20yrs ago with the movie being filmed and Now – present time with Ella back to the film's location and everyone filming the reunion doc. The alternating timelines are to keep moving the story along in the present time but with the mystery kept quiet until the end of what really happened twenty years ago. There's also add-ins of the movie script, which I really enjoyed as a movie fan. I liked how the story was structured and set-up but I'm not a big fan of unreliable narrator and that tactic was deployed to keep the killer a secret; it feels too cop-out manipulating for me. I enjoyed the first half but then the middle and beginning ending started to sag as Ella and her cast mates kind of just moped around. There were some interesting aspects to the secondary characters but as this was told from Ella's point-of-view, everything is from her perspective, so readers never really get to know the cast until the very end. The story started to ramp up around 60% when the present time murders began to happen and we finally got some slashing.
You don’t think about what you’re doing, you just do it.
The vibe of the story felt like a vehicle to go over the #METOO movement and sexism and predators in Hollywood, which, ok, but a lot of the time this was focused on, it felt like the story stopped and we got some awkward fitting pulpit preaching. There were some surprise reveals and just a little head scratching at the who and motives, but still entertaining. Structured interestingly, dragged out in middle because I'm not sure Ella was a strong enough character to carry the story, unreliable narrator, kind of awkwardly fit in preaching, surprising reveals, and some chills and thrills. There were a few call-outs for lovers of the horror movie genre to appreciate but I thought the nine month's into the future epilogue could have used someone popping out of a lake to liven things up.
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