Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5/5)
Pub Date: 8/16
Genre: Thriller

Run Time was my first book of Catherine Ryan Howard. The concept of a horror movie in the making captured my attention initially and with this story we are presented with a book about a movie about a book using a mixed media approach of real time action, a novel and a screenplay.

Adele is a blacklisted actress trying to make it in LA after a career ending incident happened on the set of her last movie. When she receives a call to be the lead in a horror movie back home in Ireland after a year of not working, Adele immediately seizes the opportunity. As she begins filming, the parallels of what is happening in the movie script and in real life become frightening and too overwhelming to be a coincidence.

From start to finish it's hard to know what's actually happening, what's real, what is contrived. I did enjoy the format of the book, each alternating chapter as a scene from the screenplay, but it felt like not much actually happened. I would go from being on the edge of my seat to feeling bored and waiting for something substantial to happen with the plot. The author managed to create a ton of build up at the beginning, but then it was predictable in a sense that what happened in the screenplay would somehow play out in real life. The middle of the book felt slow which resulted in losing the tension and unfortunately for me the ending didn't make up for it.

This wasn't my favorite thriller, but I did enjoy some elements and could see why other did too!

Read this if you like:
-Books about movies
-Found footage narratives (think "The Blaire Witch Project)
-Meta storylines
-Cabin in the woods vibes

**Thanks to Blackstone Publishing, Catherine Ryan Howard and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Run…to get your copy of Run Time!

Adele Rafferty is a struggling actress looking for her next big role. After the incident on her last movie set in Ireland, she moves to Los Angeles, California to make a name for herself in a country that hasn’t heard about what happened. However, Adele is finding it more difficult than she imagined to land the leading role of her dreams. She is ready to quit acting when she receives a call that is too good to be true. First, she must agree to the terms of the contract.

Sign an NDA.

Fly to Ireland tonight.

Don’t tell anyone.

Adele will be the leading actress in a horror film, and this might be her big break.

Upon arrival on set, she receives a cryptic text from an unknown number. “If you’re not, don’t go. Not safe. Trust me.”

And…the set is in a very remote location, there is barely any cell service, the crew is all men, filming is done at night, and her stylist is very creepy.

When the crew disappears before a night of filming, Adele slowly begins to unravel. Is she really in danger? Mentally unstable? Or is she being gaslit?

Adele must figure out what is going on before it is too late.

This fast-paced, compulsively readable, twisty thriller engages the reader in a compelling metafictitious multi-layered plot.

Metafiction: a form of fiction which examines the elements of fiction itself.

The story within a story within a story subplot is clever, seamlessly written, and intriguing.

At over 500 pages (more than I would usually like to read in one book), it never felt long or dragged in any way. I read it in two sittings and enjoyed First Draft, Final Draft and Run Time equally.

This is by far my favorite book by Catherine Ryan Howard and I highly recommend it to those who also enjoyed After She Wrote Him by Sulari Gentill.

5/5 stars

Expected publication date: 8/16/22

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Adele, a down-on-her-luck actress trying to make it in Hollywood, is suddenly offered the leading role in a horror movie shooting in her native Ireland. She jumps at the chance to redeem herself after a previous on-set meltdown set her career up in flames. Once Adele arrives at the shooting location in a remote and isolated area of West Cork, she discovers the horror on set may not be all make believe.

As usually, author Catherine Ryan Howard cooks up a an entertaining thriller with lots of twists and turns. This is a mixed media book like Howard’s bestseller The Nothing Man. That was a book within a book. In Run Time, it’s a movie script and a book within a book. It gets a little meta at times. I liked Adele’s character and the peek behind the scenes of making a movie- even though this movie production was totally off the rails. This is perfect for fans of scary movies (like The Blair Witch Project) and readers looking for a twisty suspense story.

Unfortunately, this was not the read for me. I felt unattached to the characters and was bored throughout most of the book. Considered DNFing a few times, but stuck it out, hopeful things would get better. I did enjoy the setting and format of the book, but overall it was a rather disappointing read.

Well its safe to say Howards books just aren’t it for me. I don’t know if its her writing or way of telling a story but this never grabbed my attention and i never felt invested in the story.

This book left me feeling underwhelmed. I found myself swinging from being really interested in what would happen next to feeling quite bored with the plot.

The author managed to create a ton of build up at the beginning of the novel. I was really curious about the mysterious circumstances that the main character found herself in and trying to pick up on all the hints. However, the middle of the book is dragged out and repetitive completely losing the tension.

Unfortunately, the ending also didn’t make up for it. I was left feeling like there wasn’t any real moral to the story or true outcome to anything. I did like the screenplay bits interspersed throughout and the overall creepy setting of a horror film. But I’m not sure if that was enough to save it for me.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This one was a wild ride! From start to finish it's hard to know what's actually happening and what's real. I loved the format, how each chapter also had a scene from the screenplay. The ending is just twist after twist after twist. Who do you trust? Who do you believe? It's almost impossible to tell. I was reading part of this late at night and got scared enough that I had to stop for the night 😂

Read/Listen If You Like:
🔪 Thrillers
🔪 Horror Movies
🔪 Fast Pace Books
🔪 Multi-Layered Stories

Book Review:
This one was such a trip! I am definitely the person that screams at the movie theater when watching horrors and when things go bump in the night so this one definitely had me breathing a bit faster along with the main character Adele.

Adele is a blacklisted actress trying to make it in LA after an issue on set at her last job, so after not working for a year when she gets a call for an big paying job back in Ireland to be the lead in a horror she jumps at the chance to act again.

The movie she is to film is about a woman named Kate who is on a trip in the woods with her boyfriend and she starts reading a book and the things happening in the book start happening to her too. So when Adele starts experiencing things on set that mirror the plot of the movie she starts to worry for her safety.

As the book continues Adele continues to live out this layered horror as it happened in the script and in the book mentioned in the script. The twists and turns as this happened absolutely had me sucked in and not wanting to stop reading.

The only things I didn’t like was that it took me a little bit to get into the book as it had a slow start and I didn’t like how the reveal was done at the end, it felt lacking mystery and like all the cards had been flipped over for the reader. I always like a mystery that still leaves you wondering a bit and this one just didn’t have that for me with the way it was wrapped up.

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC of this book! I am so grateful to obtain a copy to read in advance of its release in exchange for my honest feedback!

Set up:
Adele Rafferty is an actress who is down on her luck. She can’t seem to catch any breaks. After an embarrassing audition, she swears off acting. That DAY she gets a call offering her a lead role in a horror indie film, Final Draft. They need her to fly out tonight. Obviously, she takes it.

Quickly, Adele realizes that things are amiss onset, and she starts to see similarities between her life and the script of the movie she’s acting in.

Is she paranoid? Is the script haunted?

Review:

I thought the premise was catching. Howard is my favorite actor, so I was VERY excited for this book. Sadly, this book was not for me.

Keep in mind , the same things happen over and over and over. Book, movie, book. So it just got too trippy.

It was TOO much for me. I constantly felt like maybe I’m just too simple to keep up with what reality I was in. Was this the book? The movie? The other book? Cue: Michael Scott gif *I don’t know*.

Big sigh. I’m really sad because I think this did have good bones, but it really felt not ready to me.

I will still pick up Howard’s next book, but I hope I enjoy that one better than this.

Thank you netgalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Run Time was my first experience with Catherine Ryan Howard’s work and the blurb about a horror movie in the making really drew me in. Adele is an out of work actress who gets a mysterious phone call offering her the lead role in a horror film. She jumps at the chance without knowing much about the director or the film and heads to the secluded location in West Cork.

The first 25% of this novel was mysterious and I was invested. I loved the meta concept about a book within a movie setting and how everything was connected. Sadly, around the 50% mark, hardly anything had happened and I quickly lost interest. Most of the novel is Adele wandering around the forest looking for the crew members, hearing knocks on the door, fumbling around in her cabin, etc. I was hoping for more of a plot but for a book that’s over 500 pages, I need substance and Run Time didn’t provide that.

While this one missed the mark for me, I still plan to read CRH’s backlist books. Many thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love books by this author! Her writing is always fresh and fun. This story didn’t quite live up to her previous books for me, though. It felt a bit too slow. I did like the mystery aspect and thought her characters were interesting. Overall, it was good and would work for thriller fans who don’t mind a slow burn and who like stories within a story and filmmaking.

3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4 for this review.

I am a huge fan of Catherine Ryan Howard, and she has become one of my top auto-buy authors. I’ll read anything she writes and would love to get in her head for just five minutes. Each of her books is entirely unique, and I have loved them all. Run Time is no exception.

I love books that are about horror movies. I just can’t get enough of them. Here we have a book about a movie about a book using elements of live action, a novel, and a screenplay. In the words of Gale Weathers: “How meta can you get?”

Run Time is atmospheric with its isolated cabin in the woods setting and very intense with its panic moments you’ll experience right along with the characters. And the gaslighting. So much gaslighting!

This one might appear long with its 500+ pages, but don’t let that scare you off. Many of the pages are screenplay and not full pages. I flew right through this one in two days.

It’s an easy recommendation for me. I loved it.

Read if you like…
✨Books about movies
✨Found footage narratives
✨Meta storylines
✨Intense, ominous, atmospheric books

My thanks to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book before its publication date. And more thanks to Blackstone for the finished copy I received.

I was absolutely riveted to this novel (everyone go away so I can read vibes). Excellent thriller, creative ideas, satisfying ending, and a lot of fun.
I definitely recommend for thriller fans and anyone looking for an entertaining book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard
🎬
What you read to read this book:
* a large cup of tea
* chocolate bar of choice
* fully charged phone
* power bank for phone
* a torch
* a spare torch
* torch batteries
* a cushion to clutch / hide behind
🎬
Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard is a book about a movie about a book… bear with me.
🎬
Adele has moved to LA to find a new role and a new life, after 14 years starring in “Ireland’s second-worst soap opera”, when she gets a call to return to Ireland to star in a new psychological horror being directed by Steve Dade. From the moment she arrives on set strange things start to happen, and the coincidences between real life and the movie are hard to ignore. Or is she imagining things, after everything that happened the last time, it’s hard to tell.
🎬
Meanwhile, in the movie, Kate has escaped to the West Cork countryside with her boyfriend. In the cottage they’re staying in Kate finds multiple copies of a book and the owner tells her that the author wrote the book while staying there. She picks up a copy and starts to read; the coincidences between real life and the book are hard to ignore, or is she imagining things.
🎬
Described as a “cleverly plotted high-concept thriller” - they’re not wrong. It’s clever, it’s creepy - I’ll never look at a forest the same way and there were times I wondered if I would have to sleep with the light on - and there are also some cheeky nods to Catherine Ryan Howard’s other books and interests.
🎬
Run Time is very Catherine Ryan Howard. The concept reminded me of The Nothing Man, which featured a book within a book, but Run Time takes the term ‘meta’ to a whole new level. You get two stories in one ands you’re equally invested in both, and the movie scenes are in script format so it’s very easy to follow but keeps you guessing!
🎬
Run Time is published on 16th August in the US. Highly recommend for fans of crime fiction / psychological thrillers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎬
*Thanks to the publishers @blackstonepublishing for the digital copy of Run Time via @netgalley*
🎬
#RunTime #56Days #TheNothingMan #NetGalley #NetGalleyShelfDestruction #CrimeFiction #PsychologicalThriller #CatherineRyanHoward

Catherine Ryan Howard does it again! She is a must-buy author for me and Run Time did not disappoint. I love all of the film elements and I think her writing gets better with each book. I recommend her to everyone I know and can't wait to see what she writes next!

Okay I have to say that I LOVED THIS.

Summary:
Adele Rafferty is an ex-actress from Ireland who's basically been blacklisted in the UK, she's looking for a fresh start in LA. Turns out her big break may be back home on the set of "Final Draft" an Indie horror film with a skeleton crew and questionable directing decisions. When things start to go wrong, Adele fears her past has caught up to her or that something even more sinister is afoot.

My thoughts:
As a theatre/film lover I loved that there were sections of the script of the movie they were filming in it. Like a story within a story within a story. I loved how it didn't take itself too seriously, often times it even poked fun at itself in the dialog. I did guess who the killer was in the movie as well as guessed who was behind the strange things going on on set, but it was so much fun I basically read it in one sitting when I finally got the time. The ending was kind of convoluted but they poked fun at that too so what can I say 🤣
Loads of fun I'm going to need to read more Catherine Ryan Howard.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC this book will be available August 16th! 🖤

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this e-ARC! I was so excited to read this one after the massive success that the author's debut novel had. This thriller was sometimes fun but I do think it was maybe too easy to guess what was coming next? Some of the characters made very frustrating decisions and I really had to push through to finish and I'll say that in the end, maybe it wasn't even worth it.

Thank you so much to Catherine Ryan Howard and Blackstone Publishing for my copy of this book that comes out on August 16.

The scene is set. The actors are in place. The setting is a remote cabin in the woods. Adele Rafferty is running scared.

Final Draft is a psychological horror set in the remote woods of Ireland. Based on a “true story that hasn’t happened yet”, Adele thinks this movie is both her big break and recovery from the disaster that was her first foray into the silver screen. After the whirlwind 24 hours it takes her to drop everything in LA and arrive in remote Ireland, she receives a text that tells her to GET OUT OF THERE NOW and begins to suspect there is something more nefarious going on than just a horror movie.

Thoughts: This is the best book you will read in 2022 and you can quote me on that. The premise of a book within a screenplay within a movie within a book is not as confusing as it sounds, and turned out to be one of the most riveting books I’ve read in a long time. Adele is a wonderful main character, both dynamic and unreliable. The story is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Catherine Ryan Howard, and that is well-written, full of twists, and symbolic of the world around us.

I loved the greater message about women empowerment and how sometimes we have to save ourselves. It was both relatable and heartbreaking to read the male characters in show business, but even more interesting to hear about women and the results of men’s actions. This story is powerful, creepy, and extremely meta in the best way.

I haven’t read a book that truly creeped me out like this in a long time. The setting was dark and slimy and had all the right elements to make me keep the lights on while reading. I could never quite put my finger on what was really going on, and I think that’s what makes for an exceptional story. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone as one of the biggest successes of the year. FIVE STARS!

This book was META. Three almost identical, intertwining stories - an actress reading a movie script about a woman who is reading a book. I found Run Time to be very creepy and suspenseful but I was a little disappointed with the ending/explanations.

I think this book was unnecessarily long, but it is a quick read despite the length. Adele Rafferty is a disgraced actress being offered a second chance at her dream. Living in LA, she is flown back to Ireland to star in a teeny indie film called Final Cut. Things start to go sideways fairly quickly. Real life starts to mirror the script and Adele starts to go down a rabbit hole of madness. Is she being set up? Who would do this? Interspersed between the novel is the screenplay for Final Cut so that you can follow along on Adele's journey. The thing I really like about Catherine Ryan Howard is that she builds up s much suspense and mystery and then explains things through much more realistic premises. A fun psychological thriller.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for a copy of this e-arc.*