Welcome back to Books With Cause. Let’s dive straight into my latest review.
It feels like I’m on a bit of a roll with my Horror Afficionados reading. While I also acknowledge it’s something that I’ll never complete. Exactly like reading and writing. There’s always something to read. There are always writing lessons to be learnt.
This time comes the turn of Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin. Felker-Martin is still a relatively new author. The inside flap of the copy I read states that this is her third novel. I remember hearing about her debut, Manhunt, but haven’t gotten around to reading it as of yet.
Set in Staten Island, Black Flame takes us back to 1985 (without the assistance of a DeLorean), where we meet Ellen Kramer. Ellen works as an archivist in a film lab. She is excellent at restoring damaged celluloid. It’s a skill that will come in handy when she is tasked with the job of restoring an old exploitation film called The Baroness. The Baroness was thought to be destroyed in a Nazi fire, and there are many a film scholar lining up to see this film. Ellen has quite the job on her hands. And the more she works with the celluloid, the more she comes to realise that the film is haunted and the Baroness character has vengeance on their mind.
Despite the horrifying and graphic nature of the film, for Ellen it is a welcome distraction from her private life. Ellen is a lesbian, but in denial, and firmly in the closet. She has a strained relationship with her mother, and is only in a relationship with a man because she believes it will keep her parents sweet. The problem is that the man in her life, Jesse, is very much into her and wants to marry her. Ellen doesn’t know how to get rid of him. But the Baroness might be able to help.
At just over 220 pages, I suppose this book counts as a novella. It only took me about three days to read. And it was quite an easy read on that front. I especially loved the time period of this book. I was born at the tail end of the 80s and never got to experience that decade myself. Short of time travelling, reading about the era and watching things set in that period are the closest I’ll ever get to experiencing it. As a movie fan as well, I loved the references to movies being shot on film and run through a projector. Living in a digital era, I quite enjoy the nostalgia. In conclusion, this was a book I enjoyed but not one I loved. That said, I would still take a chance on a Felker-Martin book again in the future.
My Goodreads rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 stars)
