A group of actors in the middle of the woods all harboring a dark secret? What could possibly go wrong??

This story follows Ella who has been invited to join fellow cast and crew of the movie Grad Night for a 20 year reunion. She is hesitant to go but is eager to revive her acting career and her agent assures her this is the way to do it. We soon learn that something happened during the original Grad Night shoot and nothing is what it seems.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! There are so many twists and turns I didn’t see coming. It’s very reminiscent of an 80’s slasher movie and I loved that! I really enjoyed the flashbacks and script scenes as well.


Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

I enjoyed this final girl themed book. I really liked the dual timelines, 90s nostalgia, and the characters. The writing was well done and I would be interested in reading more from this author. I also really liked that it included Hollywood and the industry. A solid horror read.

The reunion was supposed to revive their careers—not their worst nightmare.

📚 4 Reasons to Read
Final girl legacy – A chilling dive into what happens after the credits roll, with Ella facing her past in the most deadly way.


Slasher reunion vibes – The original cast reuniting at the creepy cabin? Horror gold with a twist of nostalgia.


Buried secrets – Everyone's hiding something, and the past refuses to stay dead.


Hollywood horror – A razor-sharp look at fame, trauma, and how far people will go to protect their image.

I have been in the most horrible reading slump for the past few months. But this book snapped me out of it. It’s fun, campy, and has a dual timeline that isn’t confusing. The pacing is very quick, and reading it during the summer gives me a woodsy vibes. It’s not a complex book but it is slightly twisty. So if you like just fun horror, check this one out.

This book was so much fun. It was great to flip between past and present to get a better understanding of what brought these characters to this reunion and how each of them was approaching the idea. I flew through this book, and I think it makes for a great fun summer scare, or an awesome book to read to kick off spooky season this fall.

I absolutely loved the script excerpts scattered throughout. I'm a film lover so love reading scripts in general, but I also thought these were really well placed and helped with navigating tonal shifts/breaking up the book into sections.

Being in the head of a character that isn't exactly a reliable narrator, but also isn't deliberately withholding information in how she narrates was a really refreshing take on the concept of the unreliable narrator. While in the moment of reading I wasn't sold on the killer's reveal, looking back it's fun to see how it intertwined with everything else going on.

Overall, it was a fun slasher book, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror movies and books, but especially for fans of The Pledge, Your Lonely Nights Are Over, and Mister Magic!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my e-ARC of Smile for the Cameras!

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
🎥 have ever wanted to be in a movie
🔪 love slasher films
🤫 can keep a secret
👻 ever see things that aren’t there

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

Twenty years ago, Ella Winters was the it girl. She made a name for herself in Hollywood and throughout America as the sole survivor in the cult-classic slasher Grad Night. But the real horror is what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling—something terrible that Ella and her co-stars agreed never to speak of again. Shortly after the movie’s premiere, Ella disappeared from the acting scene under the pretense of caring for her ailing mother, hoping for a quiet life out of the spotlight to ease her guilty mind.

Since her mother’s passing, Ella has decided to return to the silver screen. And with the cast and crew of Grad Night in the process of filming a reunion documentary, Ella has an express ticket back into Hollywood’s good graces. Weighed down by the secret she’s been keeping all these years, Ella apprehensively makes the trip to the original set—a cabin in rural Tennessee—to reunite with her castmates for the first time in more than a decade. But when the actors begin to meet the same gruesome fates as the characters they originally played, falling victim to someone dressed as the Grad Night villain, it’s clear their secret is out.

Now, the question is: Can the final girl survive one last nightmare?

• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

I was so excited for this one, but sadly I was a bit letdown. The pacing was just a bit too slow for my tastes, and I considered DNFing a few times. I’m glad that I didn’t, as I really wanted to know who the bad guy was. I was also shocked by the twist, as I just didn’t see it coming. My favorite parts of the story were when they were filming in the past, as I feel like I learned a few things about what it’s like to be on set. I also enjoyed the movie, and would love to see it actually made into a full length film! Overall, this one just slightly missed the mark for me, but if you love campy slasher films, then you’ll probably love this one!

This was a fun nod to the slasher genre but it’s not doing anything that hasn’t been done before.

A group of young actors filmed a cult classic horror film 20 years ago and are now doing a reunion at the original filming location. While there they are haunted literally and figuratively by the one secret they’ve all been keeping for 2 decades.

This has a fun couple of twists and turns and you won’t ever know who to fully trust. If you want a fast paced thriller and love classic horror slasher films this would be a good one for you.

Thanks to NetGalley & Ballantine for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Reviews seem pretty down the middle on this one, but I enjoyed it! It may be that I grew up in the era of Friday the 13th's, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Hellraiser but the more ridiculous the plot, the more we went to the drive in/cinema. With the exception of Jaime Lee Curtis, I cannot name any of the actors or what they did after these but the movies are iconic and were a rite of passage. I thought Miranda captured the 80's/90's slasher films to a tee!!

Expected publication June 24, 2025

Rating: 🔪🔪🔪.5

Great concept – 20 years later, the cast of a hit horror film gets back together for a reunion documentary – What's not to love? Unfortunately for me, there were a handful of things I didn't love.

While the beginning and the ending were strong and engaging, I struggled a bit with what happened in between.

Ella's confusions were strange? Hard to elaborate on this without giving any spoilers. I just felt this was unnecessary and took away from the story for me.

I wish the author had spent more time developing the Grad Night film excerpts, they felt heavily neglected. This could've definitely added that extra layer of suspense I would've appreciated.

A big chunk of the story was about sex and sex scenes in the film, I felt this to be disconnected from the storyline.

Great concept, just some issues with the execution.

A debut slasher film being made Staring 4 young actors and a cocky rising director sets the playing field for what is to change the lives of their promising future. An incident buried for years hoping to be forgotten. Flash forward to 20 years later we follow the “Final Girl” in the film and how life has changed for over since that films wrap up. She is ready to get back into the spotlight and the way to do it is having to accept a Reunion of the cast for “Grad Night” the movie that set her career in motion. Everyone being back together brings the past to the for front. Can she get through one weekend to get her career back on track or will it all come back to haunt her.

This book was well paced with the build up of introducing all the key players and setting the tone for the rest of the book. Even though Ella is seen as a weaker character you truly feel every emotion that she struggles with and how everything has affected her. This book had me gripped from beginning to end so much I finished it in only two days. I pays homage to many of the age old horror/slasher movies that surely inspired this novel. We also get a glimpse into the world of entertainment and the sacrifices and man mad horrors that we lay aside for the sake of pursuing their dreams. The twits and turns at the end of the back had my jaw on the floor with surprise. Great writing all around and will be recommending this book!

Unfortunately this was a miss for me. Sounded great but was fairly generic and didn’t really do anything new

I love horror movies, and I love horror novels. This gave me the best of both worlds.

Set on a reunion shoot for a horror movie that was made 20 years prior, where the cast is dying off one by one.

If I had one thing about this I didn't like, it was that I felt like it was wrapped up a little to cleanly too quickly.
I would have liked to have seen more of the killer throughout the piece, so that I could understand a little more why they were doing what they were doing.

A solid horror piece that I very much enjoyed!

I really enjoyed Smile for the Cameras. I would say it is more successful in the mystery elements vs the thriller. I didn't feel like the real thriller elements started until I was through about 60% of the book. I think because that portion of things was a little more rushed there just wasn't time to develop any true suspense or fear in the way of a more traditional thriller. The mystery itself was really successful - I was surprised by the outcome. I really liked how the story was kind of told from 3 timelines/POVs - Now, Then and through parts of the movie script. The script additions were such a fun element especially when you could see how those specific scenes played out in the Then narrative.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange my honest opinion.

Great concept... a horror movie had some unsettling things happen onset, and someone disappears. Years later, the lead actress is finally convinced to do another movie in the cult phenomena that launched her career. Except when she returns, the horrors start happening again. Who knows what they did years ago to cause the person's disappearance? So much potential!!! But the way in which things happened in the present unraveled in a slightly disappointing way. I enjoyed various parts, especially the connections from the first time period and the current one, and the main character has a lot of charm. But I also struggled with "what happened in between" and why the murderer waited so long to get revenge. Still, I enjoyed it and will look for more from the author in the future.

Smile for the Cameras is a twisty thriller with a fun dose of 70s, 80s, and 90s horror nostalgia. Miranda Smith blends eerie throwback vibes from some of the cult classics creating a fast-paced story that keeps you engaged. While some twists are more predictable than others, the atmosphere and themes make it a compelling read. A solid pick for fans of dark secrets and retro horror energy.

As a fan of horror movies and psychological thrillers, this was a fun read. It gave me Scream vibes mixed with my beloved Christopher Pike young adult books from back in the day.

The story unfolds with scripted movie scenes, along with dual timelines of the past and present. There is a colorful cast of characters and decent pacing that kept my interest. The twists were good, but I felt that the ending was not completely satisfying. It somehow fell flat by not giving a final one-two punch. That being said, I was entertained and found the book hard to put down.

This was both a love letter to 90s horror thrillers and an insanely fun read!

Former scream queen Ella Winters returns for a reunion documentary of her cult-classic slasher Grad Night, only to find herself reliving the horror, this time for real, when cast members start dying just like in the film. With a deadly secret resurfacing, Ella must survive one last nightmare.

You don't want to know much more than this, just go in blind and enjoy the ride if you love horror movie tropes!

My second opportunity to read an ARC from Miranda Smith and I was so pumped!! Smile for the Camera needs added to everyone’s thriller tbr RIGHT NOW! The build up, the twist, the back stabbing, need I say more?! I loved this thriller and it kept me on my toes. You get to read about a cast of a horror movie working on their first film together, becoming friends, and then after wrapping up, having a fun little party to celebrate. Buuuuuut… their last night does not go as planned. You’ll definitely want to snag this book as soon as it hits shelves to find out what happened 👀

I’ve already expressed my love of the classic teenage slasher film. So a thriller about a classic horror movie, during which a real-life, covered-up tragedy took place that left the stars of the beloved film traumatized, with the stars now back for a 20-year reunion, and being chased by a real-life killer? Count. Me In.

That’s pretty much the story in this book, which alternates between the filming of the movie “Grad Night” 20 years ago, and the filming of a reunion special, in the present day. During the initial filming, at the isolated cabin location, it’s often alluded to that “something” bad happened, but until the reveal, we’re not told precisely what. In the present day, at the same isolated cabin, the reunited cast and small crew find themselves experiencing some strange happenings as they begin the weekend filming schedule.

I was completely sucked in the entire time I was reading this book, because it was so good. The suspense was ratcheted up to 11, right from the start. Like I said, there’s lots of illusions to “something terrible” that happened and the core rolls involvement in it, but we’re only given small hints until the author lets us see what the answer is. I didn’t see it coming.

Unlike in a slasher movie, this solution wasn’t obvious at all! At least not to me, lol.

I can’t recommend this one enough to people looking for a great scare to get them through a summer night, or take with them on vacation. It’s just what I was looking for!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: This is a gem of a book. If you love Slasher horror, you do not want to miss this. Yes in some ways it's predictable, in other ways I found the "twist," shocking and I didn't see it coming. I've been watching the TV show "Slasher," if you like that show, specifically the vibes in season 2, you don't want to miss this. I loved that Smile for the Cameras used several different ways to tell the story, it had script of the movie, perspectives from the past, and perspectives from the present. This book is graphic and has scary scenes in it, it is both a thriller and a horror. I really enjoyed this book, there are characters to route for, others you're desperately waiting to see their kill scene. Fitting well in the Slasher genre, there is a haunting, stalking, masked killer lurking in the shadows. I really loved the scripted parts where we saw the movie scenes and the filming of them. At the same time we got the characters reactions to those scenes and the filming process as well as the documentary and deaths in the present. In summary, this book is "slasher fun," its exciting, written very well, entertaining, creative, all the things. I highly recommend. Now go read it.

I found this book to be a little confusing.. The story itself was a good one but all the back and forth between now and then, made it a little difficult to keep track of. The characters were well developed and believable and there was a nice plot twist at the end. It was one of those stories where the bad guy should be perfectly obvious but you talk yourself out of it. There were lots of suspects.