I love horror movies, so I was intrigued by the concept of this book. The main character, Laura, is a former child star who left Hollywood after the cast of the horror movie that was her big break started to drop dead, victims of a supposed curse. Years later, she's a journalist and back in LA on assignment to cover a new TV show. Of course, it ends up being a remake of that movie. Because Hollywood. And of course, of course, the cast start dying again, and Laura has to figure out what's going on before she either becomes another casualty of the curse or is blamed for all of the murders. 

I enjoy media about media, especially when it pokes fun at the typical tropes and plot devices. This was full of fun things between each chapter that did a great job of bringing the fictional fandom and its lore to life: pages of scripts, online fan forum screenshots, interview transcripts, diary entries, etc. 

There were several moments reading this that I said "Oh my God" out loud. The idea of the deaths following the order/method of the ones in the movie and being predicted by a child with a paper fortune teller was eerie, but I'd say this book was more creepy than scary overall. I enjoyed the author's writing, it was crisp and a good pace for this type of story--I'll definitely read more from him. 

That being said, I am more of a slasher fan than a supernatural horror one, so there were some turns that this story took that weren't my favorite. Though without giving anything away, I can appreciate the symbolism and thought put into the representation of childhood trauma, and I was satisfied with the epilogue. 

P.S. This would make a REALLY fun horror movie.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

“Burn the Negative”

by Josh Winning

Releasing July 11, 2023