Josh Winning: "Burn the Negative"

Title: Burn the Negative [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Josh Winning [Site | Goodreads | Other Goodreads (as Joshua Winning)]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery, Supernatural
Year: 2023
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Compulsive read. Wild spin on the Cursed Movie/Final Girl tropes.
Cons: The often concise writing style tends to create a sort of detachment. None of the characters is what you would call "likeable" (which is more or less the point, though, I guess).
WARNING! Suicide, some gruesome deaths, fire, vomiting. Child abuse, kidnapping, gaslighting, parent with memory loss.
Will appeal to: Fans of slasher movies (with a twist). People who have never seen one, but love an off-the-wall, blood-soaked mystery with a social-commentary angle.

Blurb: Arriving in L.A. to visit the set of a new streaming horror series, journalist Laura Warren witnesses a man jumping from a bridge, landing right behind her car. Here we go, she thinks. It’s started. Because the series she’s reporting on is a remake of a ’90s horror flick. A cursed ’90s horror flick, which she starred in as a child - and has been running from her whole life. In The Guesthouse, Laura played the little girl with the terrifying gift to tell people how the Needle Man would kill them. When eight of the cast and crew died in ways that eerily mirrored the movie’s on-screen deaths, the film became a cult classic - and ruined her life. Leaving it behind, Laura changed her name and her accent, dyed her hair, and moved across the Atlantic. But some scripts don’t want to stay buried. Now, as the body count rises again, Laura finds herself on the run with her aspiring actress sister and a jaded psychic, hoping to end the curse once and for all - and to stay out of the Needle Man’s lethal reach. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: While Josh and I go a long way and I've beta-read for him in the past, for this book he sought help from a friend of his who's an expert on the horror genre - plus I didn't get the chance to read an eARC because the publisher didn't approve my request (this publisher isn't the same one that put out Josh's previous novel, and apparently, they have a different marketing strategy). But of course this isn't Josh's fault, and I continue to support his writing (not to mention, I know that more adventures in beta-reading are in the pipeline 😉). So I purchased a copy of Burn the Negative, and here's my honest review.

SLASHING AND TWISTING

Burn the Negative has been advertised as a homage to classic slasher movies...which I'm not a fan of, simply because I don't do movies. But as with Josh's previous title The Shadow Glass - which is a homage to classic fantasy movies, such as Labyrinth and The Neverending Story - it doesn't matter...or, well, it probably does, but not so much. Maybe you'll enjoy the story more if you're in tune with the genre and can catch all the big and small references to its movie counterparts; but then again, there's a tiny chance that the outrageous twist Winning pulls towards the end will sit better with people who are thinking outside the "slasher movie" box. I know it did with me, to the point that I upped my rating on the strength of that twist - AND of the ending, which cleverly subverts the Final Girl trope. Let's say that the twist will work better for you if you can appreciate wild turns of events that have a campy, yet horrifying quality, but go beyond shock value and sort of double up as social commentary. Admittedly, I was feeling a little underwhelmed during the first half of the story, while it cycled through a series of popular horror movie tropes without adding a lot to them, but then the second half picked up and started to deliver twist after twist, bringing Winning's brilliant vision to fruition. [...]

OUT OF NECESSITY

Fair warning: don't enter Burn the Negative expecting maybe flawed, yet likeable characters. It's difficult to get attached to anyone here, even when their story or situation elicits your sympathy. Of course, this isn't a fault with the author (whoever has read The Shadow Glass can attest to it) or even with the book: it's my understanding that there's a reason - or, well, a number of them - for its protagonists to be less accessible than average, and no, it isn't the old "they're only there for the body count" excuse. That didn't prevent me to enjoy the book a tad less than I could have, exactly because I need to develop a strong connection with the people I'm reading about, no matter how flawed. Just something to consider in case you're anything like me. Also, the prose in this one is quite concise at times (which, again, it's not something you find in Josh's previous novel), and though I realise that, again, the author's choice makes sense (I think he wanted a more reportorial style, what with the main character being a journalist, or maybe one that reminded the reader of a movie script...or a movie, period), short sentences/paragraphs aren't my favourite writing device - which partly explains my rating. All in all though, despite my bias (or lack thereof, as a non-horror-movie-fan), I found Burn the Negative to be an engaging, compulsively readable homage to its source material, yet a story able to put a pull-no-punches spin on horror cliches in order to address children exploitation in the showbiz and the lingering effects of childhood trauma. Not bad for a piece of good old horror entertainment 😉.

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