Burn the Negative by Josh Winning
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**2.5-stars rounded up**
Even though it had a promising start, sadly, Burn the Negative really let me down in the latter half of the story. I’m bummed about it, y’all. I wanted to love this.
Let’s discuss that initial set-up, shall we?
In the beginning we meet our MC, Laura, an entertainment journalist living in London. We are introduced to Laura as she is making her way to L.A. for a new assignment. She’ll be covering a modern remake of a 1990s Horror-Cult Classic movie called The Guest House.
It quickly becomes clear that there is a lot of mystery and dark lore revolving around the original movie and that Laura has first hand knowledge of that film.
As it turns out, Laura was a child actress who actually had the starring role in The Guest House. Since that time and the tragedies that struck many involved in the film-making, Laura has changed her identity and never let on to anyone who she truly is.
This includes her boss who sent her on this assignment.
Obviously, she’s concerned about returning to L.A. Having anything to do with this new remake, even in the slightest way, makes her nervous. It seems Laura’s doubts are for a reason too, as almost as soon as she is on the ground in L.A., strange things begin happening around her.
So far, so good. I’m a sucker for stories revolving around the filming of Horror movies, series or documentaries too. It also had a strong is it supernatural, is it not supernatural-feel to it that I tend to enjoy.
I was getting major Poltergeist vibes because of all the lore surrounding the making of that movie and the aftermath; the Poltergeist Curse, if you will.
Laura, as a character, was quite mysterious herself. I was interested in learning more about her, as she slowly unveiled the truth of her time with the film, the reasons her family left L.A., and her life since. She has a rather dry personality, but I wasn’t put off by it. She was fine.
There was a certain point though where I stopped enjoying the ride. More specifically, when I stopped feeling as much that it was inspired and started to feel more like it was falling into cliche territory.
I can name the point where the switch-flipped too. Without giving too much away, I will just say it had to do with a road trip, a gas station and the police.
After that point, I started to be more annoyed with the story than pleased by it. Particularly, the dialogue towards the end bordered on cringe and I’ll admit, I was happy when it wrapped up.
Overall, while there were aspects of this I enjoyed, it was too much of a mixed bag for me to give it a higher rating. The concept was fun, but the execution throughout didn’t stay consistent in my opinion.
With this being said, I know a ton of Readers are going to love this. If the synopsis sounds interesting to you, please give it a go. You could end up finding a new favorite!
Thank you to the publisher, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I would be interested in checking out more of this author’s work.