The theme of the lost movie is something that horror circles round to every now and then, with mixed results.
For her latest novel Hailey Piper has decided on said motif, but thankfully this is quite an engrossing read.
We follow Val, a woman, who 30 years prior, lost her sister in an incident in a cinema which screened a film that doesn’t appear to have been screened since and one that no one appears to have any recollection of.
While she attempts to move on, despite the battle scars that linger, a new murder brings it all back to Val, who teams up with a former classmate to try and solve the mystery and get her sister back once and for all.
The beauty of This Movie… is in the mystery element. Piper knows how to dangle the carrot and keep the mystery going while giving us a rich character study with Val.
She isn’t perfect by any stretch but she’s also broken by the loss of her sister, something which shattered her family dynamic, perhaps for good.
I find Piper’s work sometimes an acquired taste, but This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want is one of her finest novels to date. It’s engrossing, with characters you can care about plus some interesting twists and genuine drama.
This is the story of a cursed film worth taking a chance on.
This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want by Hailey Piper is now available in various formats from Titan Books.
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