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My Starry Rating: 4/5 Stars
Reason for Rating: Another layered dark fantasy with an original storyline and lots of dark glamour and twists and turns.
What I Learned: Hollywood is definitely Hollyweird
Publication Date: November 14, 2023 by Redhook
Genres: Fantasy, Occult Fiction, Magical Realism
SYNOPSIS:
From the author of A Witch in Time comes a haunting tale of ambition, obsession, and the eternal mystery and magic of film.
1968: Actress Gemma Turner once dreamed of stardom. Unfortunately, she’s on the cusp of slipping into obscurity. When she’s offered the lead in a radical new horror film, Gemma believes her luck has finally changed. But L’Etrange Lune’s set is not what she expected. The director is eccentric, and the script doesn’t make sense.
Gemma is determined to make this work. It’s her last chance to achieve her dream—but that dream is about to derail her life. One night, between the shadows of an alleyway, Gemma disappears on set and is never seen again. Yet, Gemma is still alive. She’s been transported into the film and the script—and the monsters within it—are coming to life. She must play her role perfectly if she hopes to survive.
2015: Gemma Turner’s disappearance is one of film history’s greatest mysteries—one that’s haunted film student Christopher Kent ever since he saw his first screening of L’Etrange Lune. The screenings only happen once a decade and each time there is new, impossible footage of Gemma long after she vanished. Desperate to discover the truth, Christopher risks losing himself. He’ll have to outrun the cursed legacy of the film—or become trapped by it forever.
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REVIEW:
From the author of A Witch in Time and Ladies of the Secret Circus comes another dark glamorous read about free will, choice, and fate. Gemma Turner is a fading star of 1960s Hollywood who is unexpectedly cast in a French nouvelle vague horror film where the lines between fantasy and reality start to disappear. When she vanishes while filming the unsettling movie, wild conspiracies and secrets from the past cast an eerie glow over the production, director, and cast of the film. In the 2000s, a young film student named Christopher has held a nearly life long obsession with Gemma and her mysterious disappearance. The search for the truth will lead Christopher to shadowy people and places connected to the film and a confrontation with an evil that could only be found in the movies.
The Star and the Strange Moon was a tour de force with its creepy cinematic storyline that was juxtaposed with the moodiness of the French nouvelle vague, and the glitz of Hollywood. Sayers crafted a sinister story that explored the thin lines between illusion and horror, and beauty, and death What it means to choose freely, the price of fame, intuition, and the power of influence were featured in this creepy tale. Occult elements such as black magic, Faustian bargains, rituals, blood, curses, and a strange moon were included in this macabre story.
Sayers explored the dark underbelly of film making in a fantastical way that brought to light the issues surrounding art and eternal fame. Is getting lost in one’s own creative world a sign of madness or something else? What makes some films stand the test of time, and others not? Do you ever get to make your own choices in life, or have they been carefully set up scene by scene, by an unknown director? Each character in this story had to face their stark realities which led to encounters with evil…an evil that revealed itself to be the controlling force of every choice and decision they made.
If you enjoyed Constance Sayers previous two books, you will enjoy The Star and the Strange Moon. It has a strong female protagonist, a labyrinthine story, and black magic, all set against a backdrop of the French New Wave, Hollywood, and creepy chateaus.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Constance Sayers is the author of the Amazon best-selling novel, A Witch in Time (2020 Redhook/Hachette) as well as The Ladies of the Secret Circus (2021 Redhook/Hachette) that received a starred review from both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. Her books have been translated into six languages.
A finalist for Alternating Current’s 2016 Luminaire Award for Best Prose, her short stories have appeared in Souvenir and Amazing Graces: Yet Another Collection of Fiction by Washington Area Women as well as The Sky is a Free Country. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
She received her master of arts in English from George Mason University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She attended The Bread Loaf Writers Conference where she studied with Charles Baxter and Lauren Groff. A media executive, she’s twice been named one of the “Top 100 Media People in America” by Folio and included in their list of “Top Women in Media.”
She lives in Washington DC. Like her character in The Ladies of the Secret Circus, she was the host of a radio show from midnight to six.
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