Marisha Pessl takes a dark turn with 'Night Film'

The second novel by the author of 'Special Topics in Calamity Physics' unfolds more like a treasure map than a work of fiction

Partway through Marisha Pessl's second novel, "Night Film," I began to feel as if I had been taken hostage by the book. This, I should hasten to add, is not its intent. The saga of a legendary film director, Stanislas Cordova, and the suicide of his 24-year-old daughter, Ashley, "Night Film" is willfully portentous, claustrophobic even, a novel that means to explore hidden meanings, in which each turn seems to unveil another layer until illusion and reality begin to merge. It is also, at 600-plus pages, at least a third too long, an overwrought narrative that hints at much but delivers little and, for all its feints and twists, remains surprisingly unsuspenseful in the end.

via Books - latimes.com http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/features/books/~3/QYNp-HQrJCY/la-ca-jc-marisha-pessl-20130818,0,7914945.story