Synopsis
Amateur cinematographer Cleo Moss hasn’t tried to make a film since her father’s death three years ago. Her cousin Noah, a director, is convinced that her latest script is the perfect opportunity to try again, but Cleo is less sure. Those reservations grow when a blizzard nearly runs them off the road on their way to the shoot, and again when they discover that the house they’re filming in has a tragic past to rival Cleo’s own horror-filled writing. By the time she starts seeing ghostly shadows out of the corner of her eye, she’s convinced that the production is doomed.
At first, filming moves forward in spite of an unreliable camera battery and Noah’s surprise casting of Isobel, Cleo’s not-so-former crush. But as the worsening snow traps cast and crew in the house overnight, the strange shadows escalate into horrifying, dangerous specters. While the rest of her friends fight to find a way out of this nightmare, Cleo can’t help but be drawn to the ghosts she captures in her viewfinder—just as she can’t help noticing how similar their story is to her own past…
Review
Thanks to the author for reaching out to FanFiAddict and for giving me an eARC. I love the cover!
This novel is a unique blend. A group of friends and amateur filmmakers have found a the perfect house to film in. The problem is that the snowstorm made it difficult to get there, let alone leave after. And while their host has been nothing but welcoming, even telling them they could stay if the snow got too bad, she was definitely weird the whole time too. Cleo, the script writer and main character, is creeped out from their first meeting. Her cousin, Noah, has them on an incredibly strict filming schedule, and the camera, as well as their eyes, start to pick up on things…out of the ordinary. They brought an actor to play the ghost, but maybe they shouldn’t have bothered.
I love a good haunted house story, and the fact that this blended a film crew/set felt like a modern take on one. It felt similar in that aspect to my novella BestGhost, with the technology being a frontrunner. It also gives readers the trapped ‘vacation’ feel of a snowed in location, as well as added layers of spookiness and cabin fever. At first Cleo just seems jumpy, her camera dies at inconvenient and random times, but then the rest finally catch on. It had some typical ghost notes, jump scares, and then isolation too. I think this worked well because at first the filming is top of mind, then the haunting comes to the front and it almost kind of mirrors some of the script. It’s a unique idea.
I will say, and this is probably a me problem, but the use of the term camcorder made me unsure of when this took place. They have cellphones with the flashlight app, which makes me think smartphone obviously, but I guess for me the term is rooted in the early 2000s when I was growing up. There is also a character with a strange dialogue affectation where they end sentences, especially questions, with “eh?” That I really didn’t know what to make of. It stood out as an almost The Sopranos or even Joe Pesci-esque Italian mannerism that confused me. Neither hampered my enjoyment, but they did stick out each time.
There is some well done integration with art and grief, and even anger and guilt. Where the canvas they borrowed from the homeowner is heavily foreshadowing and involved in what’s to come. The paintings—which allowed the author to show off some horror knowledge—where the artist took famous movie scenes but painted the characters to look more like how they were described in the text is really cool. The kind of thing I would even buy.
There is a forced-proximity romance subplot that I didn’t necessarily need, but was not against either. I think that it does give the novel its more grounded moments, and it is earned by the time things develop. It is also bi representation which we love to see. The character of Isobel had me picturing a kind of mesh of Robin and Vickie from Stranger Things and Cleo felt like Elsie Fisher would play her in a movie.
This one does some interesting things, and most importantly I truly didn’t know what was going to happen in the end.
“But much like a grave, this home is colder.”
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