The perfect mesh between thriller and horror with a dash of paranormal. I don't typically go for this genre, but I went into this one blindly and I'm glad I did. I also read this during the day with all the lights on!

Laura is on her way to LA to report on a streaming series that is a remake of a '90s horror flick. kOne that she happened to be the leading child star in. She played Tammy Manners who was a little girl with the gift of telling people how the Needle man will kill them. The film became infamous when eight of the cast and crew members died, all in similar ways to the movie. Laura now has to confront her past and try to find answers.

This was a perfect story. I also think the author did a great job portraying the pressures that are put on child actors. All around 5 stars for me!

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This novel is a love letter to horror movies! Inspired by Scream, Candyman, and Nightmare on Elm Street, we follow protagonist Laura Warren on a trip down memory lane as a movie she starred in as a child gets ready for a reboot. This is a must read for horror lovers!

This was my first novel by Josh Winning and I’m hooked. The entire time I was reading, I was comparing it to Grady Hendrix, which is always a compliment in this genre! This felt very much like watching a horror/slasher film but “reading version”. The storytelling was creative, the Winona Ryder comments made the protagonist feel relatable as someone who generally only reads thrillers, and it was a very difficult book to put down. This is a book I will definitely reread in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

really good. I almost think it went a touch too far. I would've cut the last bit right after Laura looks into the mirror in her sister's trailer. I think it gave the sense that the Needleman was still alive in her and that bad things were about to happen but wasn't overt.

This was not what I thought it would be. I felt the character was a little too much doom and gloom and the plot didn't live up to the hype. I went in expecting a good horror, a haunting of sorts, but it fell flat. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I'm going to have to go with a one star rating on this one.

This book started off strong but I have to say I was disappointed by the ending. I was instantly hooked on the story of a successful child actress who seems to be followed by death as everyone who worked on her hit movie died. When she returns reluctantly years later as a reporter to interview those making a sequel/adaptation disaster strikes again. I think you have to really be into the supernatural to enjoy this book. There were certainly twists and turns along the way but I was hoping for a logical explanation to the events and there just wasn't one.

A perfect mix of slasher films/horror themes. This was dark and creepy and left me feeling quite unsettled. What more could a girl want, right? I do find that I'm not a huge horror fan, but this was done so well and I thought that how it turned out was really smart and well done.

Thank you to NetGalley as well as Penguin Group Putnam and, of course, the author, for this ARC.
Truly appreciated!
#NetGalley #PenguinGroupPutnam #JoshWinning #BurnTheNegative
Please, please, please, PLEASE make this into a movie! This was a creepy, funny, meta creep fest.
Laura is a journalist on her way to sunny LA from England in order to cover the impending release of a remake of a cult horror hit. She doesn’t realize until she’s enroute that the movie in question is The Guesthouse. Laura has an unfortunate connection to this movie. When she was seven years old, she was the star of the original and her name was Polly Tremaine. This movie is said to be cursed. Every other main actor from the film has died in ways that mimic the movie. Laura has done extensive work to separate herself from the movie and her traumatic childhood. When she gets there, she begins to experience black outs and always wakes up near a dead body. A dead body of one of the main participants of the remake. They have been killed in the same method and order as the victims of the original Guesthouse. Desperate, Laura joins forces with her sister and a psychic in order to stop the curse and clear her own name.
This is the first book by Josh Winning that I have read, but it won’t be the last. This book was delightful! The way this book is laid out and clever, it reminds me of Scream. Scream is one of my favorite horror franchises for these same reasons. They both have plenty of scares and comedy and they’re both clever in their self-deprecating, meta style. I loved the references to other horror movies and I loved the Needle Man, who is the main villain of The Guesthouse. He was Freddy and the Babadook in one. This was a quick and easy read. The characters were compelling. I didn’t like Laura at first but that changed as I got to know her. That isn’t an easy feat as most people tend to stick with their first impressions, even with fictional characters.
I don’t have anything negative to say here. I’m hoping for a sequel and a movie!

Very good meta-like horror, had a very fun time going through it. Interesting concept for a horror novel and I'm very excited that this is a new thing that is getting big in horror fiction.

I was pulled into this book from the first sentence and had to finish it in one sitting. It was such an interesting spin on 90s horror movies and their remakes, as well as "curses" and people who are a part of supposedly haunted movie sets. I loved all the references and the way the book ended made a lot of sense to me as it's such a ode to slashers.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Penguin Group, and Josh Winning for this ARC.
#BurntheNegative #NetGalley

As someone who loves slasher films and loves apocryphal stories and rumors about curses and lore when it comes to films, BURN THE NEGATIVE really called out to me when I read about it on NetGalley. I finally dove into it while on vacation, tearing through the book by the pool and then on my flight back home, really really taken with the love letter to slasher movies as well as the exploration of the dark side of childhood fame and celebrity. I thought that the slow build of Laura/Polly running from her past but being confronted by it head on as she is sent to cover a reimagining of the horror movie that destroyed her life was really well done, and I liked the gnarly kills of various characters. It all felt right out of a slasher movie. I also really liked how we learn about the cost of "The Guesthouse" for Laura/Polly, and the reveals about the traumas of having a controlling and mean stage mother, the wedge it drove between her and her sister Amy, and the ways that she is still traumatized by her own experiences but also the notoriety of the film. But then it kind of came to a grinding halt right at the very last moment, as we get a very slasher-y AH HA, PSYCH, SURPRISED YOU DIDN"T WE ending that came out of nowhere and just changed everything way too late. I don't like endings that do this, and while it definitely feels like something you'd see in a slasher movie, I don't like it when movies do it either.

Horror fans should definitely check out BURN THE NEGATIVE, but just know there will possibly be whiplash when you are nearing the finish line.

When Laura accepted an assignment to write an article about a new horror series, her editor did not tell her the show was a reboot of the cult classic horror movie she had starred in as a child: a movie that had ended with a curse that led to the deaths of 8 of the cast and crew. The moment she lands in L.A., the curse seems to be back full force, and it's out for blood.

This book was a solid horror/thriller with its supernatural elements firmly grounded in complex, real anxieties, relationships, and trauma. What I like about horror most is how it can be used to explore the real pain and fears of our everyday lives, and I find it's most effective when rooted in the real world; this book does that competently.

However, I had a bit of a hard time connecting with Laura and I'm not sure about the need for the twist at the end (I won't go into specifics because of spoilers). I felt like the book might have been more impactful for me if it had just stayed focused around her relationship with her mother.

Nonetheless, "Burn the Negative" is a fast-paced, well-balanced supernatural thriller/horror with a creepy creature, a compelling backdrop in the film industry, and is a new interpretation of the haunted movie trope (which I am personally very fond of).

You would like this book if you like a Nightmare on Elm Street-type villain, family/psychological horror, and an investigative element to your horror!

If Wes Craven's "A New Nightmare" could take novel form that would the Burn The Negative and I LOVED IT!


Josh Winning knows how to pay homage to good horror while also crafting a terrifying story and Burn the Negative is evidence of that. I was initially drawn to this story because the synopsis, but I was unable to put this book down until the very last page. I think this holds a lot for horror fans of all ages and types. There are classical nods to Shirley Jackson, fantastic scenes that were reminiscent of Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street, and the lore of this novel will stick with me for a while I already know. This book is truly a phenomenal thriller and it feels so fast that I blinked and it was over. Is it terrible that I'm praying for a follow up? Because the Needle Man needs more screen time. I thought that I had figured this story out, but boy was I wrong and that is exactly what Winning capitalizes on. Do not miss out on this book, because when it comes to psychological horror, it does not miss.

Perfect for fans of "The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman!

As a horror-lover this book was phenomenal! All the nods to classic horror themes were amazing

It was suspenseful and dark, and best of all, never boring

Truly wish there were more horror books like this one

Burn the Negative...

Let that title just sit right there for a moment...

What are you thinking? What do you think this book is about? Stumped? Yes, so was I, and this is exactly why I had to have it. Any book title or cover that gets me thinking will always peek my interest. I am one who chases suspense and mystery. I love a book that will stimulate my mind and challenge me to figure out the big twist.

Once I actually stopped staring at the cover and began reading I knew almost instantly that I would love this book. I am a huge fan of slasher movies and this book was right up my alley.

The characters were incredibly well done, the pace was set and the plot was executed with perfection. This was my first book by Josh Winning but I have instantly become a huge fan.

This book is everything you never knew you needed and then some.

Here is your fair warning.... Make sure you have the lights on and you are not alone when you read this!

Teaser:

Thirty years hiding from her past.

Eight deaths still unexplained.

One haunted horror film.

Nowhere left to run.

Journalist Laura Warren is mid-flight to LA when she learns that the streaming series she’s about to report on is a remake of a ‘90s horror flick. A cursed '90s horror flick. The one she starred in—and has been running from her whole life.

As a child star, Laura was cast as the lead in The Guesthouse. She played Tammy Manners, the little girl with the terrifying gift to tell people how the Needle Man would kill them. But her big break was her last, as eight of her cast and crew mates died in mysterious ways, and the film became infamous—a cult classic of fictional horror that somehow summoned the real thing. Hoping to move on, Laura changed her name and her accent, dyed her hair, and moved across the Atlantic Ocean.

But some scripts don’t want to stay buried.

After landing, Laura finds a yellow dress like the one she wore in the movie. Then the words “She’s here” scratched into the wall in an actor's trailer. And then people working on the series start dying. It’s all happening again, and Laura finds herself on the run with her sister and a jaded psychic, hoping to find answers—and to stay out of the Needle Man’s lethal reach.

An homage to slasher films with a fresh take on the true price of fame, Burn the Negative is a twisty thriller best listened to with the lights on.

4.5/5

What do we have here? A beautifully done blend of horror and suspense to whet your macabre appetite. It’s well-written and the author knows how to make the reader tense. It’s so close to perfect.

Links coming soon.

I'm a bit of a horror movie obsessive, and it's like this book was written for me. This book is to horror cinema what Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism is to, like, Phil Collins and the Extreme Teen Bible: nostalgic, consciously derivative, and still somehow fresh.

It pulls inspiration from the alleged curses that plagued real-life films like Poltergeist and twists them in a way that manages to explore real emotions and trauma.

The protagonist Laura was the child star of a "cursed" horror movie called the Guesthouse. Eight members of the cast and crew died sudden, mysterious deaths that seemed to echo those in the film. When she is pressured into writing an article about an attempt to remake the movie, creepy shit starts happening all over again.

The book itself is steeped in creepy pop culture references and tropes. Despite the many loving clichés, every time I thought I saw a twist coming, I was wrong.

When this book comes out, I'm buying a copy and it's going on a shelf next to my ratty, thrifted copy of the Psychotropic Video Guide. Where it belongs.

A really great slasher ode to the horror movies of old! It was easy to read and featured interesting characters. Great for fans of horror movies.

I wish we could do half stars on Netgalley and Goodreads reviews cause this is rounded up from 4 1/2 stars. Anyway, this book!!! This really brought back the nostalgia of classic horror movies when it came to the kills and the possibility of a movie set curse.

Laura is a journalist who takes on a new project. She’s interviewing the new director and cast of It Feeds, a new take on the 90’s slasher The Guesthouse. But Laura has a history with The Guesthouse: she’s actually Polly Tremaine, one of the main stars of the original slasher. After the original shooting of the film, many of the original cast and crew members died under strange circumstances. Laura has changed her identity in hopes to move on from her traumatic past. But unfortunately, trauma returns to the surface and soon the cast and crew of It Feeds start dropping dead . Is the original film really cursed and out for more blood or are there other sinister elements hiding in plain sight?

As I previously said, I really enjoyed the overall nostalgia I got from this book. I grew up watching classic horror movies and some of my favorite aspects of them were the trivia and the discussions on whether they were cursed movie sets. I think the design and atmosphere of the Needleman character was fantastic. It gave really similar vibes to Candyman or Freddy Krueger. The kills were so crazy and fun. Again, they just felt super nostalgic. I thought the tension through the book was very consistent. I got through this book so quick because I was dying to know where the plot was going and it didn’t disappoint.

This book is a slasher but it’s soooo much more than that. It’s a real discussion on childhood trauma. It also heavily discusses child abuse when it comes to Hollywood. Both the overwhelming pressure from being on a film set as well as the abuse from manipulative and overbearing stage parents. I feel like that’s a subject that is often pushed to the side and this book doesn’t skirt past it.

I do think the ending is a bit rushed which is why it’s not a perfect book for me. But I will say the ending is really shocking and I honestly still found myself rooting for Laura even after everything that happens.

Thank you as always to Netgalley, as well as PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for the digital ARC of this. It was such a fun ride!

This book is excellent -- it reminds me a little of something that Grady Hendrix would write but this author has laser focus on the plot at hand. I loved the homage to the "Poltergeist curse" but with its own style and the fact it's set in present time. Good mix between psychological horror and supernatural.