Ardent. Sharp. Covetous. 
🇺🇸 Set in Hollywood, California, USA 
POV: We follow a sixtysomething actor whose career was defined by the cult classic horror franchise they played the Big Bad in. We also follow a twentysomething actor trying to overcome their past as a child star in a comedic family sitcom. Both are reluctantly drawn in to the latest instalment of the Reaper movies. 
Narrative: Third person mostly limited. Snippets of the Reaper screenplays from the 80s and 90s. 
 
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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕 
✏️ Writing: Easy, immersive. Sets the scene, the vibes, the character motivations and thoughts. I didn’t feel like I was fighting the writing and I easily imagined the settings with few details given. 
 
💀🫶 Characters: Both Trevor and Howard are hard to like, but likeable. Unsympathetic, yet I felt for them. As different as can be, yet both fighting the same demon. I felt like they were given equal space on the page and equal depth, so I was guiltily cheering one on then switching sides a few pages later because of something one thought or did. 
The Reaper from the movie franchise is a character of sorts…hard to define but a key part of the story. 
 
🗺️ Worldbuilding: A Hollywood that felt real. The settings weren’t described in appearance so much as they were in energy and vibes, so it was atmospheric and sensory in a less conventional but equally effective way. Easy to imagine AND feel. 
 
🔥 Fuel: Unreliable, unhinged narrator suspense and the mystery of who or what the Reaper is. If you care about what happens to the characters, that’s also a key part of the suspense and horrors. 
 
👍 Pacing: It started off feeling slow in that “where is this going?…” way, but once we learn more about Howard and the Reaper history it picks up. Once Trevor was added to the mix I was hooked and had a hard time putting this down. 
 
🎬 Scenes: I need this to be a movie. I can see Brad Garrett playing Howard, I already cast him in my mind. Action fight scenes flowed even though sometimes there was a lot going on. I easily imagined it all (I often struggle with that in books). It didn’t feel corny or awkwardly paced. 
 
🥺 Problematics: The dementia and addiction experience felt real and is very on page, so consider that. It was part of the horrors…the experience of losing yourself to yourself is terrifying. I think it was was covered in a respectful, empathetic way, so it could be very cathartic, but on the flip-side maybe triggering for some, especially with addiction. 
If you're here for the gore and slashing, there's less of that than I thought and more of a psychological horror. 
There is a skippable but slightly unexpected pet death and we as the reader do kind of bond with the pet and get to know it. 

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Mood Reading Match Up: 
-Hollywood 80s/90s horror franchises, modern remakes, lore 
-Psychological mind or monster possession horrors 
-Behind the scenes character studies of method actors and auditions 
-Grown-up Goosebumps slasher with symbolic themes of repression, judgement, addiction, fulfillment, legacy, fandom, ego, the shadow self, and how monsters are made 
 
Content Heads-Up: Dementia. Ageing and ageism. Addiction (descriptive, on page; cravings, recovery, rehab, drug use, withdrawal). Mental illness (psychosis, hallucinations, intrusive thoughts). Loss of a pet (on page;

murder of cat

). Kidnapping, confinement. 
 
Format: Everand Digital, Kindle (yay Daily Deal)