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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 3/5
Pages: 640
Summary:
When investigative journalist Scott McGrath prematurely released an unverified tip about reclusive and mysterious horror movie director Stanislas Cordova, he lost his job, his credibility, and his marriage. Finally, estranged from his child and quickly losing hope, Scott knows it's time to find a new story. Then Cordova's teenage daughter Ashley is found dead at the bottom of an abandoned elevator shaft, and Scott's motivation returns tenfold. Murder or suicide, jumped or pushed? And why? Scott is determined to discover who Cordova is, why his daughter died--and what he's really hiding.
Thoughts:
This was an absurdly cool idea for a book. Books that refer to, but never fully show, some mysterious art work, tend to be really clever, and the intense mystery surrounding Cordova and his movies was marvelously done. The mystery of Ashley's death as the catalyst for and key to Scott's hunt for information was clever, and I really liked the motley collection of teenagers that he accumulated, too; the extra level of mystery they provided was super fun. The parallel between Scott and Cordova as sketchy fathers with daughters they loved despite complicated relationships was also fascinating, and was compounded by the role of Nora (I was so very glad Scott refused to sleep with her).
However, aside from Scott not sleeping with homeless teenage wannabe actress Nora, he was a really horrible character to read. I had to look up whether Marisha Pessl was a woman or not after the first few hundred pages because Scott was such a raging, unrepentant, and unaware asshole. As much as the character of the driven journalist willing to sacrifice morality for the story is a compelling one, guiltlessly using his five year old daughter as bait for a scheme, and then feeling no guilt when she almost got very hurt because of it, was far too immoral for the fact that his immorality was never an issue in the book. Pessl didn't frame it as a negative trait, didn't use it as part of Scott's character arc, and never made him suffer for it--which was so hard to read.
This book was super interesting. Even though it was over 600 pages and perhaps could have been shortened somewhat (I did keep thinking it was over, and then another set of scenes started) it remained solidly intriguing throughout. The ending wasn't satisfying, but the choice to keep it ambiguous was intentional enough that I'm not mad about it. Same with the strange middle of the book that started to feel magical because Scott was accidentally so hopped up on psychedelics; I didn't love it, but it felt intentional enough that I didn't mind. Scott was just a horrible character to read. If his awful treatment of his daughter had been an interesting and creative piece of a character arc, I would have been a huge fan, but as it is I can only recommend this book if someone is prepared to read a 600 page novel about a raging asshole.