This book combines so many of my favorite things. I felt like I was in a scary movie while I was reading this. I love the dual timeline, and how parts of the story was set up like a script. The story line was engaging, the unexpected psychological twists with Ella were fantastic, and I didn’t even expect them. Trying to figure out “who dunnit” had me applying all my horror movie knowledge to come up with some of the most left field guesses, to see if I had it all figured it out.. but I didn’t.
If you like slasher horror movies, I would definitely give this one a read. Solid 4 stars. Very entertaining, and very cool concept!

This book was a real thriller!

Smile for the Cameras is a fast paced thriller that will keep you hooked.
It has unexpected twists and turns and it even has dual timelines, which I am a sucker for!

And who doesn't love well-developed characters?! They all have distinct personalities and each one contributes to the book's ever growing tension.

This book though will mislead you and make you think you have the answer and know what is going to happen but, you could not be any more wrong :)

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone that loves slasher movies and the whole overall cinematic feel.

I loved this book! It was a combination of Scream, Friday the 13th, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Grad Night, a low budget cult classic, is the focal point of the book. The book goes between Then and Now, with Ella, the Final Girl’s point of view. A 20 year reunion brings everyone back to the place Grad Night was shot. A past secret turns the reunion into an actual scary movie. This book kept me wanting to read more. If you like old school scary movies, you’ll enjoy this book. Thanks NetGalley for an ARC for my honest opinion.

I loved going to the video store in my teens to rent a slasher/horror film to watch with my friends! This book took me back to those days-Smile for the Cameras was a twisty, fast read! Addictive-all that was missing was my popcorn! Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for the ARC. All opinions are my own. Publication Date: June 24, 2025 Add this to your TBR list-a great summer read!

I loved this book. There’s been an uptick of reality stars coming together for a reunion style books lately and that’s fine but this one really kept my attention. I loved all the characters and ended up reading this cover to cover because I needed to know who lived and who did the killing. Very good job

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

Grad night, a classic horror movie that everyone loves. But what if behind-the-scenes, was even more scarier than the movie. While wrapping up filming, something horrible happened and for 20 years the actors kept it a secret. But what if the secret threatens to come out and the actors must face what they did. Filled with twist and turns told in dual time skips. Ella must figure out who is hunting them.

I have read Miranda Smith’s other work and they are great reads. I enjoyed Smile for the Camera though, it was hard to get through first half. It was slow paced until the other half where it picked up speed. I was thrown off by the twist and honestly didn’t see it coming. One thing I didn’t like was the actors reaction to finding Dani’s body. It was too calm??

Ella is ready to reclaim her acting career, but to land her next big role, she’ll have to confront the horror of her past—literally. Twenty years ago, she was the final girl in Grad Night, a slasher film that turned her and her co-stars into overnight sensations. But what happened off camera all those years ago still haunts her.

Now, reluctantly attending a Grad Night reunion, Ella thinks she can grit her teeth and get through it. That is, until the bodies start dropping—killed in ways ripped straight from the movie’s most infamous death scenes.

I love a good slasher—books, movies, the whole blood-splattered package. The thrill of figuring out the killer, the motive, and whether they’ll actually get away with it? Chef’s kiss. And this book delivers all of that and some mind-blowing twists that I never saw coming.

If Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer are your kind of horror heaven, you need this book on your shelf. Preorder it now or grab it on Pub Day—June 24, 2025. You won’t regret it.

Thank you NetGalley for his eARC. This was a very slow start. I really enjoyed the duel timelines and the different movie scenes. However I did not care about any of these characters and what happened to them. So it’s hard to believe that the original Grad Party movie would have been as big as they say. They are comparing it to huge franchises and by the scenes it didn’t seem like it was comparable. Also they kept mentioning this horrible thing they did over and over but you don’t find out what it was until the last 30% of the book. I would say that the ending did wrapped up nicely

Ella has been avoiding thinking about her time as the star of cult-classic horror flick Grad Night for years. Too many secrets lay in the memories. In the intervening years she has shed her label of final girl when she moved home and dedicated herself to taking care of her ailing mother. After her mother's passing and with hopes of getting back into Hollywood, her time for distancing herself has expired.

The twenty year reunion of Grad Night is quickly approaching and Ella is the only holdout from the original cast. Succumbing to the pressure and with hopes of stardom in her eyes she accepts an offer to appear in the reunion, shot on the same location as the original in Tennessee. What mysteries await her? Will she be able to survive again this time?

The first two thirds of the story go pretty quickly and stick to the usual thriller horror movie tropes. The characters themselves are interesting but I found the plot reveal a little underwhelming and I guessed one of the big mysteries which left me wanting a bit. An average thriller but, nevertheless, entertaining. 3.25 stars.

I received this advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an ARC of this novel.


As a former film student and a 90's kid I really enjoyed the throwback vibes and nostalgia of the slasher films. This is a fun read for anyone who's a fan of those times of movies. And I enjoyed the bow and then dual timeline.

I am a huge fan of slasher movies, so I was very excited for this book. I didn’t end up enjoying it as much as I thought I would, but it was still an enjoyable read! Ella is our main character/final girl who is returning to film a reunion for the slasher film she starred in years ago. The plot was overall pretty engaging, although it is a bit of a slow burn and I didn’t think the scenes written as “scripts” added much to the story. For a slasher, this has a pretty low body count. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it did seem like there wasn’t a whole lot of action throughout the book, nor was there much tension. The ending was pretty satisfying and it did surprise me. Overall I enjoyed this book and would definitely check out more from this author.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Miranda Smith’s Smile for the Cameras is a gripping, locked-room style thriller that kept me hooked from the start. The story follows Ella Winters, the sole survivor of the cult-classic horror film Grad Night. Twenty years later, she returns to the set for a documentary reunion, only to find that someone is recreating the film’s terrifying events in real life.

The eerie, isolated setting adds to the suspense, and Smith does a great job building tension as the cast members begin to realize they may not make it out alive this time. Ella is a compelling protagonist, grappling with past trauma and the burden of survivor’s guilt, which adds emotional depth to the mystery. The book also plays with classic 90s slasher tropes in a fun yet unsettling way.

While some twists felt a bit predictable, the story remained engaging, and the final reveal was satisfying. Smile for the Cameras is a thrilling read with a great mix of psychological suspense and horror nostalgia—definitely worth picking up!

It's not often that I find a book that I absolutely cannot put down, but I read Smile for the Cameras in one day. I couldn't bring myself to stop until I knew exactly what happened and why. From the very first page, there's a mystery that demands to be solved. You know that something happened, but not what, how, or why. Each chapter brings you a step closer to figuring it out, until you abruptly realize that the narrator is maybe not as reliable as you thought she was.

Ella felt like a real person as I was reading her story. I appreciated the different timelines and how they were presented. This book was written expertly, in a way that draws the suspense out until you're on the edge of your seat just waiting for that one final detail that will make it all make sense. The blending of past, present, and script sets it apart from others in the genre. That being said, my one criticism would be that the ending felt a bit rushed. What should have been an exhilarating climax was more of a calm conversation with an unexpected conclusion. It wasn't a bad thing! It just surprised me. In a way, I think that's what sets the killer apart from all other thriller books that I've read.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy of Smile for the Cameras. I really enjoyed this story of young actors getting their big break in the slasher movie Grad Night. Kept me guessing until the end.

This book was insane and the exact type of horror novel I love to read! It’s definitely for fans of I Know What You Did Last Summer or Scream. The vibes are very 90’s teen horror and it reads like a movie. The characters are fleshed out and the pacing moves well. I did think it was a little predictable and I did figure out who the killer was, but I don’t think most people would figure it out as quickly. Overall, the story is an exciting and fast read and I will definitely be recommending it!

I get this book 4 stars. It was a really good book, but I felt like I was watching a movie while reading this book but I felt like it was very a very slow read

This is my first ARC review so it’ll be a little different 😊 Overall, I liked this book. They actually got me with one of the twists and that’s pretty rare. Below are a few notes:
-I’m meh on the title, I don’t think it fits the book; if I didn’t know what it was about, I would’ve guessed it was about a reality tv show; I think the focus should be the reunion aspect
-based on the plot summary, it took waaaay too long to get to the part where the serial killer was coming for them in the present time, I thought that was going to be a bigger part of the book page wise
-I’m indifferent on how the movie script was included, but if it is, I think the scenes should be numbered differently, implying there are scenes between that were not seeing; the movie was only like eight scenes? With virtually no plot? If those script pages were actually filmed, it would probably be a 10 minute movie and it being Mr. Rhodes isn’t even interesting; number one rule for movies like this is that the killer has to be someone you wouldn’t expect
-in chapter 24 when Petra says, “two bodies and two messages. They must be connected right?” Cut this line. The bodies being connected is an absolute given to anyone reading.
-there’s also a line that says “And I'm nearing forty now. Basically, a death sentence for a woman my age in Hollywood.” That’s redundant. It should be “for a woman in Hollywood”, remove “my age”.

Hope my feedback is helpful!!

An actress desperate to reclaim her fame must survive the real life plot of the horror movie that made her famous in this psychologically twisted locked-room thriller influenced by nineties slasher...
Great book! Wow! Brought back some great memories of some chilling nineties thrillers!! This book had fabulous suspense, gruesome murders, mystery, chilling scary scenes, dark past secrets, and some shocking twists and turns! The story was very interesting! I highly recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

This took me back to the late 90s and early 2000s and gave me all the nostalgic feels. I loved a good (though corny) scary slasher movie in high school and college and I guess some things never change. The setting was perfect and I appreciated how there were two stories being told at once. I also definitely didn't guess the twist at the end, which was fun! I will say a lot of this seemed really unrealistic, but I sort of feel like you'd have to expect that given the premise of the book. It is a book about a slasher film, after all. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an ARC of this novel.