Reading Skywards – Your Friendly Bookshelf

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher ‏ : William Morrow
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 2025
Format:  Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, and ebook
Print length ‏ : 288 pages
Genre:  Horror Fiction / Suspense Thriller

MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “HORROR MOVIE” BY PAUL TREMBLAY

I got the book from a hardcover sale at Barnes and Noble. It has special custom-sprayed pages in red, which makes the book black and white. It is super cool. The fact that it was a special edition and on sale was amazing. I picked the book because it was in a bookish podcast and I was intrigued about the book that was a movie within the movie…

The main character, “The Thin Kid” narrates the book from when he was cast as “The Thin Kid” by the director and writer, Valentina and Cleo. From there, he takes us to how the movie was done, but especially, how the mask that his character has to wear, fused with his own character… at times, he was not able to distinguish acting as The Thin Kid and his own persona.
The book takes one back and forth, from when the movie was first made to now that the movie has been remade (or rebooted). It also interweaves the main script of the “Horror Movie”, which is terrifying in itself. We see the script revealing what the movie is about, and we understand “The Thin Kid” in a way, became real to the main character.
It was an easy read. Fast-paced and interesting all the way. It kept me going page after page as the creepiness gets more and more real.

PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions—demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost? 

MY RATING: 4.5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: PAUL TREMBLAY

Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, Sheridan Le Fanu, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the national bestselling author of The Beast You Are, The Pallbearers Club, Survivor Song, Growing Things and Other Stories, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. His novel The Cabin at the End of the World was adapted into the Universal Pictures film Knock at the Cabin. Two short stories “The Last Conversation” and “In Bloom” were Amazon Original shorts.

His essays and short fiction have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and numerous “year’s best” anthologies. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts and has a master’s degree in Mathematics. He is represented by Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management.