Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**2.5-stars rounded up**
Black Flame is a Horror novella from Gretchen Felker-Martin. I’ve read two full length novels from GFM, Manhunt and Cuckoo, both of which I really enjoyed.
Unfortunately, this is my least favorite work from her and I can’t even really express why. It just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I never felt like I connected with the story enough to know what the hell was going on.
In fact, in the synopsis it’s described as being a historical horror novel, and I don’t even remember it being so. The story does follow a woman named Ellen, who works, I believe restoring, or archiving old films.
Ellen starts working on an infamous exploitation film called The Baroness, which was long thought destroyed in a fire by Nazis. As Ellen works on the film, the scenes, the essence of the film, begin to poison her mind.
She becomes convinced the film is real, and that it’s happening to her. She’s having visions, hearing voices, and unsurprisingly, her life begins to spiral out of control.
That’s a great concept. I love the sound of it. As I was reading this though, it was very hard to follow. I did get snippets of what’s described above, but it was a challenge to track what was going on, and difficult to visualize what Ellen was seeing, feeling and going through.
As always, Gretchen Felker-Martin includes very heavy and important examinations of gender and identity, and those were certainly an important piece of this story. Ellen’s character arc feels like a real transformation over the course of the action, and I did appreciate that as well.
In fact, I buddy read this one with a friend, and commented when we were done, how I wished this had been longer, because the final bits were where it really started to come together for me. I wanted more of that clarity, not just for me, but for Ellen as well.
I guess the best way I can describe my experience with this would be uneven. I’m used to feeling more drawn in, and connected throughout GFM’s works, so I think that’s why I walked away a little unsatisfied.
Nevertheless, Gretchen Felker-Martin will always get extra points from me for her insane-levels of creativity and the fact that she always brings something new to the table. While not my favorite from her, I am glad I read it, and look forward to Felker-Martin’s next release.
Thank you to the publisher, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. The audiobook was very well narrated by Dana Aronowitz. They definitely brought it to life!