Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I love watching horror movies so "Smile For The Cameras" by Miranda Smith was a must read for me.
This book didn't disappoint, it was fast-paced, entertaining, frightening & it had tons of unexpected twists to keep you guessing.
I would definitely read another book by this author.

Smile for the Cameras was a book that was out of my normal go to for reads. I don't normally read books that have a horror theme. That being said I actually really enjoyed reading Smile for the Cameras. It was a great and fast paced read. You have a group of former friends that filmed the movie Grad Night when they were just kids and getting into the acting business. Tragedy stuck on the film and they all went in very different directions. Now 20 years later the cast is back together and filming a reality series based on the franchise and its success. The story is wild, a little violent but overall really good and worth the read.

The plot is expertly crafted and maintained an aura of suspense. Fast-paced, entertaining, and sufficiently frightening to warrant keeping the lights on if you’re a fan of classic horror movies

I am obsessed with this book! It was so engaging and such a unique storyline. I loved stepping into the world of former teen movie stars as they explore what happened after filming their horror movie. This is exactly the type of book I look for as someone who loves horror movies, teen slashers, and thrillers!

I thoroughly enjoyed this campy plot filled with homages to past horror films.

Every time I thought I had it all figured out, something was revealed to show I was wrong.

I think in the end certain parts were a bit unrealistic, but that's the endgame for most horror films, right? A lot of unbelievable things happen at the end of a story that was fairly believable at the beginning.

I thought the pacing was good and I stayed interested for the entire story.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for an e-copy of SMILE FOR THE CAMERAS to review.

I rate SMILE FOR THE CAMERAS four out of five stars.

I loved this so much! Very much like Scream or other campy horror movies, including the "final girl" and a villain in a creepy Lion mask.

The author did such a good job tricking the reader! I really did not expect the big twists towards the end. This was so entertaining throughout and fast paced. There are a lot of characters to remember, but I feel like it helped make it more difficult to figure out who the killer is. Making the ending all the more shocking.

I grew up watching the classics so this felt like a homage to them. I also loved how they kept hinting at something being amiss and I just kept reading because I couldn’t wait to figure it all out. I loved the movie script scenes we get every other chapter. Seeing the behind the scenes was so cool too. The buildup was good and the drama was messy. The ending was a little corny but I think all horror movies are. This was less scary and more suspenseful. Overall a solid 4/5!

I’m not a big horror reader, but I enjoyed this story. It kept me hooked from the very beginning, and I truly could not come up with a theory that made sense while reading it, so the twists were unexpected.

Definitely go into this one with the understanding that it calls on a lot of horror genre cliches. If you read it with an open mind and a lighthearted appreciation for cheesy horror films, you’ll enjoy it more. It’s almost like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Cabin in the Woods had a baby.

Smile for the Cameras is a quick, easy read. Though it does take a while for the suspense and scare factors to start. I was over halfway through the book when it really started amping up, which I feel is just too long before getting into the meat of it. I’m also not sure how I feel about the ending. It was a bit far-fetched and weak considering all the buildup.

A fun summer horror to add to your TBR!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this book.

Smile for the Cameras comes out on June 24, 2025!

I love a good Final Girl trope and this was a solid addition for the canon! Th snack and forth from past to present really helped the mystery unfold well!

The premise of this book was so fun and intriguing, with so much great potential. 80s horror summer camp vibes was so fun to read. However, I strongly think the story could've been executed better. Overall, a fun summer horror read!

Miranda Smith’s Smile for the Cameras brought anything but a smile to my face—more often, it provoked yawns or eye rolls. With a sprawling cast of characters (past and present) and a "story within a story" framework, it tries to deliver a twisty slasher-thriller. Unfortunately, the result feels more muddled than menacing, despite the eerie '90s cabin setting and the lurking presence of an unwelcome guest.

The big question: what if the creepiest person isn’t a stranger, but someone you used to trust? Sounds promising, right? Sadly, the execution falls flat.

Smith does get points for the setup. As a fan of classic slasher flicks, I appreciated the nods to genre conventions: a “final girl” in the form of a washed-up B-list actress, best known for her breakout role in Grad Night, who agrees to a reunion interview with her former cast and crew. Once at the remote location, old memories resurface, secrets unravel, and things (predictably) go off the rails.

It sounds like it could work. But as I read, I struggled to believe that Grad Night—the fictional film that anchors the narrative—could ever have been successful. From the brief scenes we get, it comes across as a bland, sex-heavy slasher with none of the originality or tension that made real-world classics like Scream or Friday the 13th stand the test of time. In fact, I wondered if those films even exist in this book’s universe—because that’s the only way Grad Night makes any cultural impact.

The novel also suffers from clunky pacing and underdeveloped characters. A flood of names and backstories are dumped onto the page early on, with little time to connect or care. The final twist left me shrugging rather than shocked, and by the end, I found myself disengaged from both the mystery and the people at its center.

Smile for the Cameras had potential but fails to live up to its premise. It may scratch a very specific slasher nostalgia itch for some, but for me, it didn’t make the cut.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for the ARC.

Honestly, I really enjoyed this book from the beginning,but the twist was to predictable. I think of would be better told in multiple points of view from the original cast (ella, Leo, Aries, and Riley). 2.75 stars

Thank you Netgalley for the digital ARC of this book! I have been in a reading slump for months and really struggling to concentrate, but this fun read pulled me out. It’s a bit nonsensical for sure, but I liked it and enjoyed the characters and premise. The ending surprised me enough to move it from a three-star rating to four stars.

I liked the idea of a horror film essentially being re-lived in real life 20 years later when the cast and crew get back together (some reluctantly) to film a reunion special. The author does a good job introducing the cast of characters and making them believable as individuals. The “Now” and “Then” is well done, too, as in not confusing as to which time period you’re in.

Plotting is where I had a problem. Mystery is my favorite genre fiction, and I want to be able to figure out the whodunnit—and why—or at least be right on the heels of the solution when it’s revealed. In this case, though, the author purposely misleads as a central fact about the past and present, and that irritated me.

The story does move along quickly and it’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon or evening. Just don’t expect it to stand up as a mystery.

2.5 stars, rounded to 3.

Twenty years ago, something happened behind the scenes as a movie was being filmed. the people in the movie have a reunion and what happened comes back to haunt them.

This was the first book I’ve read by Miranda Smith. Smile For The Cameras was about an actress desperate to reclaim her fame and had to survive the real-life plot of the horror movie that made her famous. But then the actors began to meet their exact gruesome fates and it’s clear their secret was out.

Unfortunately, I did not find connections to the characters nor the storyline. Ella, the main character, was lackluster and weary. She was also full of guilt and desperate to make a comeback which I found particularly unlikable. I much prefer a strong character lead in a psychological thriller story like this one. When I initially read the book synopsis, I was intrigued by the 90s slasher theme. As the story moved forward, I became increasingly annoyed with the characters and the mundane narrative. Nothing was twisted or shocking to note.

All in all, Smile For The Cameras had the potential to live up to its synopsis but the execution failed it. Fortunately, this will not hinder me in reading future books by Miranda Smith.

Thanks to Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks for the ARC. I really liked this dual time mystery. The author really conveys the growth of the characters in the present day setting

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I'm a sucker for a good slasher. If there's a masked killer, a creepy cabin, and a group of people with secrets they really should've told someone about years ago? I'm all in. So, when I saw the synopsis for this one, I knew it would be right up my alley.

And for the most part—it was.

This book sets up a killer premise (pun intended). Twenty years ago, a group of actors starred in a cult horror flick called "Grad Night". The movie was your classic teen slasher, complete with blood, screaming, and a "final girl" who lived to tell the tale. But something awful happened behind the scenes. Something real. And it's that secret—something the whole cast agreed to bury—that comes back to haunt them during a reunion documentary shoot at the original filming location 20 years later. Naturally, people start dying. And naturally, they're dying in the ways the characters did in the original film. It's meta. It's messy. It's a little "Scream" and a little "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (two of my faves).

One thing I really enjoyed was how the story moved between three perspectives: the present-day reunion, flashbacks to the past, and snippets of the "Grad Night" script. It made everything feel layered, like peeling back pieces of a puzzle. You get to see how the characters behaved on-set, how they're trying to act now (some more convincingly than others), and how the fictional deaths from the movie are starting to blur with what's happening in real life. It gave the book a very "behind the scenes of the horror movie" vibe, and I ate that up.

As for the characters—Ella, the washed-up final girl trying to stage a comeback, was likable in that weary, complicated way. She's full of regret and guilt but also desperate to move on, ready to revamp her career after years out of the spotlight. The rest of the cast was just the right mix of shady, annoying, and suspicious. You're never quite sure who to trust, which works well for a story like this. The tension is also great. It builds slowly, then takes off. I had that itchy "just one more chapter" feeling more than once.

But. (You knew it was coming.)

The ending didn't land for me.

Without spoiling anything, there's a twist that was clearly meant to be a big, shocking moment. Unfortunately, it felt more like the kind of twist that only works if you turn off your brain and ignore some pretty major logic gaps. Not in the fun, "ok, I'll let that go" way—but in the "I can suspend disbelief but not this much" kind of way. It felt like the author wanted to surprise us but did it by pulling the rug out from under the story itself. And once that happened, the killer reveal just… fizzled. It was honestly pretty underwhelming. I wasn't mad about it, just a little deflated. It's like ordering a cheeseburger, but they were out of cheese... and you really wanted the cheese.

Needless to say, this one was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, it was a very fun, fast-paced read with an awesome concept and some creepy moments. It started strong, had a great atmosphere, and kept me hooked almost all the way through. But the final act didn't quite stick the landing, which made the whole thing feel a little uneven.

Would I still recommend it? Sure. Especially if you love slashers, horror nostalgia, and ensemble casts full of secrets. Less critical readers or folks just looking for a thrilling weekend read will probably have a blast. Me? I'm glad I read it. I just wish the ending hadn't tripped on its own fake blood.

I'm gonna go now.

This was such a good book it had me hooked from the first page and I could not hardly put it down because I just had to find out what would happen next....well written and and full of twists thriller lovers will not want to miss this one!

This had all the ingredients for a fun, nostalgic slasher. But the horror? Mid. I was waiting for something to really hit or shake things up, and it just… didn’t. It kept my attention, but it never went there. If you love ’90s horror vibes, you’ll probably enjoy it, but don’t expect anything too wild.