From the Publisher
Tremblay is often (and rightfully) recognized as one of the great contemporary horror writers. . . . As I read Horror Movie, I found myself marveling at its high-wire act: The novel hopscotches deftly among three timelines, interspersed with scenes from the screenplay…It takes bravado and skill to layer overlapping narrative frames like this without sacrificing tension, but Horror Movie never once loses its momentum or its way. It’s a smart book, smartly told, and should establish Tremblay as not just one of our great horror writers but one of our great fiction writers, full stop.”
— New York Times
“An enticing premise deftly spun by stellar horror author Paul Tremblay. Sardonic and genuinely startling, Horror Movie is a page-turner for any genre buff.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Horror Movie is strange and unsettling in the best way possible. . . . Tremblay's unique voice and chameleonic style have made him one of the leading voices in speculative fiction, and this is one of his best novels so far.” — NPR
“Paul Tremblay is one of the most terrifying horror writers of his generation and his new chiller, Horror Movie, is a reason for excitement.” — Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“In Horror Movie, horror master Paul Tremblay plays with perception and reality, fiction and real life opens and swallows us whole. This nesting doll of a novel, a book that Judy Blume and Philip K. Dick might have jointly conceived, tests the limits of what a horror thriller can be, and it succeeds thrillingly.” — Boston Globe
“Tremblay returns with a terrifying novel about the creation of art and its effect on all it touches. . . A suspenseful story that is marked by its relentless unease and disturbing revelations about the characters, yes, but also about the readers themselves. An immersive reading experience that will forever alter the way those who encounter it watch horror movies.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Tremblay raises the bar for the cursed film trope with a novel that cleverly breaks the fourth wall between imaginary horrors and their real-world repercussions. . . . Readers won’t want to miss out.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Paul Tremblay's Horror Movie is a brilliant piece about the masks we know about and the masks we don't, the ones we're forced to wear for a lifetime because of our depression and the things we create to make sense of terrible things. He captures the fugue of being young, of finding a bridge to immortality when you're invulnerable, of making mistakes you can't take back. It is intimately heartbreaking and beautifully written, and it's scary in a way that attaches itself to your shame and self-loathing and just starts eating away. It's extraordinary." — Walter Chaw, author of A Walter Hill Film
“In the hands of Paul Tremblay the story of a lost movie becomes a reflection on fear, the monsters we all are, and an investigation of what is a ‘horror novel.’ It’s bold, fearless, a bit sad, and very, very scary.”
— Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night and Things We Lost in the Fire
“A fever dream about despair and regret that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Horror Movie is not only a haunting, unsettling, and utterly absorbing novel—it is also a twisted manifesto for art and the parts of ourselves we shed in order to create it. It messed with my head and I loved every minute of it.”
— Clémence Michallon, internationally bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant
“Spooky, heavily atmospheric, and loaded with dread, Horror Movie digs deep into the feeling horror gives us to examine how art imitates life and the disturbing result when life imitates art. Tremblay’s best work yet.”
— Craig DiLouie, author of How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive
“Macabrely funny and incredibly smart, Horror Movie cements Tremblay's place as a master of horror. It encapsulates the unease of right now — a runaway culture of self-reference with bloody hands. It's everything a horror novel ought to be: lean, mean, and genuinely scary.” — Sarah Langan, author of Good Neighbors and A Better World
“A profound, heart-wrenching, terrifyingly honest novel that’s also a cinematic page-turner. Horror Movie zooms in on creation and consumption, integrity and ego, admiration and obsession, and how the desperate search for connection through art can be beautiful, or disastrous. This book is a gift and a curse.” — Rachel Harrison, nationally bestselling author of Black Sheep
“Balancing a terrifying cursed film with examinations of artistic creation, fandom, and truth, Tremblay’s latest is smart and well-paced and will have broad appeal.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“Uncertainty is Tremblay’s stock-in-trade. Over the last decade, he has grown from hot new thing to horror icon without compromising on his uniquely inexplicable nightmares.” — Esquire
"More than a dozen horror stories—weird, self-referential, expertly told. [The] quirkily magisterial title entry delivers a grim vision of hubris and collective apathy . . . It is all, frankly, riveting. . . . What seems to matter, in all these stories, aren’t the specifics of a grisly end but the emotions they conjure, the way they tinge our own reality after we turn the page.” — New York Times on The Beast You Are
“A tremendous book―thought-provoking and terrifying, with tension that winds up like a chain. The Cabin at the End of the World is Tremblay’s personal best. It’s that good.” — Stephen King
“The Cabin at the End of the World… will shape your nightmares for months—that’s pretty much guaranteed. That’s what it’s built for. And there’s a very, very good chance you’ll never get it out of your head again.” — NPR
Kirkus Reviews
2024-06-15
When an unreleased cult movie is rebooted, the surviving member of the original film’s crew grapples with psychic whiplash.
Even though it’s not steeped in horror lore like the bangers being cranked out by Stephen Graham Jones or Grady Hendrix, this captivating take is tailor-made for fans of Stephen King and Jordan Peele alike. A cautionary tale with elements of indie movie darlingsThe Blair Witch Project,Blue Velvet, andRiver’s Edge, this chronicle of hometown kids trying to make a cheap slasher flick is shockingly memorable and deeply disturbing. Our unnamed narrator is the last survivor of the eponymous movie, filmed in the summer of 1993. TheirHorror Movie concerns teens who torture one of their own—the narrator’s role is that of the Thin Kid, akin to the Slender Man of urban legend—and suffer the consequences. In the mix are the film’s obsessive director, Valentina; a handful of cast and crew; and the film’s ethereal screenwriter, Cleo, whose presence is most fully felt within the pages of her unusually personal screenplay. After a bewildering tragedy, the film was never released. Decades later, Valentina uploads a few scenes, some stills, and the screenplay to the internet, inspiring the modern-day reinvention. With his crewmates long dead by mostly natural causes, the narrator reluctantly agrees to capitalize on his infamy, eventually agreeing to participate in a hot horror reboot. Revolving between the original production and the big-budget reimagining, Tremblay deftly sidesteps genre tropes and easy laughs for a truly disturbing experience inside some very troubled heads. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be a great movie,” cautions our Thin Kid. “You’re all going to see it. Most of you are really going to like it.…Will the movie be something you take with you, that stays with you, burrows into and lives in a corner inside you? That, I don’t know.”
A fever dream about despair and regret that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.
