The Star and the Strange Moon
by Constance Sayers
I think I wouldn’t have been so disappointed in The Star and the Strange Moon had the premise not been so intriguing. This book had the potential to be so excellent, but the pacing was all over the place and most of the novel just dragged on while the best parts felt rushed.
In 1968, French-American actress Gemma Turner’s career was struggling. She’s starred in surfer movies that while popular aren’t exactly critically acclaimed. Now she has the chance to work with a French director on a new horror film, L’Etrange Lune that may reshape how the public thinks of her. Gemma finds the director, the set and circumstances around the film to be unusual and creepy.
Cut to the nineties. Christopher Kent is a young man searching for a purpose. His mother was mentally ill and he was removed to live with relatives, where he never really felt like he fit in. Prior to the era of podcasts and internet sleuthing, he becomes obsessed with the mystery around Gemma Turner. While filming L’Etrange Lune she vanished without a trace. Christopher studies cinematography which allows him to become closer to the Gemma mystery. In a wonderfully creepy twist he learns that every 10 years the only existing copy of the film is screened–and every single time it’s different even though that’s impossible.
I love a missing person mystery and the twist about the film changing every ten years was wonderfully weird and spooky. Unfortunately the execution of this book was all over the place. We spend way too much time with Gemma before she even gets to the film set, taking in lots of backstory that ultimately doesn’t impact the plot. It’s about halfway through the book that we even learn about the mysterious screenings and changing films.
There’s a lot loaded onto the front and back ends of this novel with most of the action and intrigue condensed into the middle. The result is that I had a hard time sticking with the book in the beginning, and then felt unsatisfied by the end.
The concept of The Star and the Strange Moon was excellent, but the execution failed making most of the book a chore to get through. I think most readers will have to be very invested in finding out the ending to this story in order to stick with it.
– Elyse
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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