A book within a film within a book. You still with me?

RUN TIME follows struggling actress Adele Rafferty as she attempts to revive her career with a starring role in the horror film Final Draft. When she arrives on the secluded set in the woods of West Cork Ireland, her experiences begin to mirror the creepy happenings of the character she is playing in the film.

The premise had the potential to become convoluted, but it really worked well for me! The screenplay was woven into the story seamlessly and served as an ominous foreshadowing of what was in store for Adele. Despite the book within a film within a book structure, I found the story easy to follow even in my sleep-deprived mom of a newborn state.

Catherine Ryan Howard ramps up the tension with the atmospheric setting; the dense, dark woods was a character itself. I couldn’t pick this up before bed which is a sure sign of a creepy read. I enjoyed a combination of print and audio which was read by a full cast with fantastic Irish accents. RUN TIME would make a great addition to your spooky season TBR!

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: August 16, 2022

Many thanks to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing and Blackstone Audio for an electronic ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Review will be posted to www.instagram.com/kellyhook.readsbooks in advance of publication date

I think the concept/premise was unique and I really liked that! The writing is good and the beginning starts well and is intriguing, with Adele arriving at the house to film. I enjoyed the story but I felt like something was missing. I think it's the fact not a lot happens and I expected a bit more action. Still, a solid read overall.

This book wasn’t my fav. It was confusing and I thought the pacing was off unfortunately. The parts I liked were very captivating though

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.

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- Audio 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!

Run Time simply did not work for me which is so disappointing because I really enjoy Catherine Ryan Howard's high concept books, but I found this book of a script inside a book to be quite confusing. I finished because I have a deep respect for Howard's work but this was not horror for me and twist was not enough to qualify the book as satisfying thriller either. With that said, even though I did not enjoy this book listening to the audio in conjunction with reading the book made understanding the story much easier since the narration was really fantastic. Having an ensemble narration made the book read much better. However the excellent narration just could not save this book for me 3.75 stars.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.