i love when horror is weird and gross and queer and perverted and this was all of those things. definitely would recommend

80s New York, Film horror and Jewish representation.

This book is so interesting and engaging. I will be suggesting this to my audience it's so good.

Once again, Gretchen Felker-Martin reaches deep within the horrible heart of humanity while also exploring all the visceral guts of queer identity. I'm also a sucker for haunted film horror and Black Flame is an amazing addition to this subgenre. Could not recommend more.

Thank you, Gretchen Felker-Martin NetGalley, for the ARC. I leave this review voluntarily and happily. Also, thank you publishers for your hard work!

OK, this was truly a wtf. Did I just read the kind of book. Im honestly still trying to understand what all is going on in this book. There is a darkness, savagery, and definitely gore throughout this book. I had to stop a good few times to just comprehend what I had read. This is why it took me a bit longer to read this book. I definitely think this is a book you should go in blind to read. Besides just knowing the very basic plot that goes on. This is why I won't do a paragraph about the plot. Itle will probably be a sentence or two just to make it simple. I just can't get over the amount of rage there is in this book. The hatered and just all the emotions this book has to make it up. I will say if you're not ok with Homophobic language or the overall not likeness of the lgbtq community, there are some hostile moments in this book. Also, there are parts about Jews and their culture that might upset others.

Other than all of that, this book was very much twisted and dark. A book that did confuse me at times and made me so mad I wanted to strangle some of the characters. The imagery played just like a film as i read, and i love it when a book does that. It certainly makes me fall deeper into the story and makes me experience the book in a better way. It certainly has me feeling sick along with the main character and wanting some of the things that she did along the way.

I definitely will have to reread this a second time to get a better understanding of the complete picture. This book definitely was worth the read.

This was fine! Felker-Martin will never write a book with characters that hit me as hard as Fran and Beth did, but I did truly like Ellen; closeted, scared, pushover, deeply into film restoration. I think I would have liked this to be longer. The cursed film situation wasn't as interesting to me as Ellen was. The woes of her lift and the horrible people in it took a bit of a weird backseat to the shenanigans of the film in the middle of the book and I just wanted ... more somehow.

this book is remarkable: wholly unapologetic in its transgression, deeply visceral while still being poetic, with a deep historical thread rooted in cultural disruption. kinky, gory, and heart-wrenchingly painful, gretchen felker-martin captures the terror and anguish of a closeted existence with such beauty. truly a masterpiece of queer horror, this one is bound to become a cult hit just like the films it pays homage to.

Ellen, a super closeted Jewish lesbian, is tasked with restoring a Weimar Republic-era 'pornographic' film. But as the film is painstakingly brought back to life, it awakens...well, a LOT in Ellen — particularly as she starts to hallucinate the characters from the film in waking reality.

Eerie, hella queer, nasty, vengeful, and ultimately rewarding, Black Flame was a little less my cup of tea than I hoped but still an interesting read. It took me a while to get into the 'can't put this down' mood (about 2/3 of the way?) but once I did, I was totally invested in what would finally happen. Lots of really cool gory imagery that will stick with me for a while, and I'd love to see this as a film.

(Also, special shoutout to the cover art as it's cool as hell and was 100% why I checked this out in the first place!)

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really expected to love this one but something about it just did not click for me. It was a bit hard to follow at times and it took a bit too long to get to the really descriptive scary parts. The second half was great and the horror really delivered but overall it left me with too many questions.

The second I read that Gretchen Felker-Martin was writing about an occult film I needed to read it. Cuckoo destroyed me in the best way, and I love artifacts that bite back.

It’s a story about someone unmoored from their roots, who has made the safe choice again and again and been left empty as a result. But empty things don’t stay that way for long.

I… don’t even know what to say about this one. I read it in nearly a single sitting. There’s a lot going on here, none of comfortable or safe. It’s visceral, and awful, and I couldn’t look away.

Fast-paced and deeply unsettling, Black Flame explores the different forms that attempted erasure of queer people and their histories have taken on throughout the 20th Century, including when it comes from within. Felker doesn't catch quite every ball that she throws into the air, but much like the film at its center, it compels you further nonetheless.

Creepy, creepy, creepy. Felker-Martin's horror is always visceral and queer and heavy-hitting. In this book, Ellen restores film, and this particular film begins haunting her, forcing her to look at her past and present and decide what she really wants.

The Goodreads description has it as "for fans of Midsommar," and I feel that's a poor comparison here. (It also says "historical" which...I GUESS.) If you thought Midsommar could've gone way harder, okay, now we've got a starting point. (Again, I GUESS.)

Fletcher-Martin has done it again! This is a gross and disturbing book that I can't stop thinking about in the best way.

Holy cannoli, Batman! What the hell did I just read!? I don't even know what to say other than Black Flame was absolutely insane.

Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin was WILD! Excuse my friend but HOLY FUCK! I need more from Gretchen ASAP! I just devoured this. I don't want to give anything away, but you're gonna want to read this. STAT!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Traumatic, non stop, intense horror and gore, with an intense undercurrent of self hatred, passion and madness. I love the concept of a possessed film, and the attention to detail in the restoration scenes really grounded the plot.

What I liked
-Vivid imagery
-Genuinely disgusting and upsetting, I felt a wide array of emotions while reading.
-Vibey. Felt like scenes from a movie or a nightmare

What I didn’t like
-Hard to follow
-Was never sure if the non-linear storytelling was on purpose or if it was an editing error.
- I’m not dumb but I was definitely confused more often than not. The confusion didn’t feel like “my fault” and felt more like I wasn’t given enough context or information.

Do you want it?
More than anything.

This novel is a new favorite. This is deeply unsettling, gorey, and oozing with rage. I both loved and hated this because of the uncomfortable places it takes you.

It’s going to take me at least 2-3 business days to process everything that happened in this book.

As far as horror goes I think Black Flame does a good job of making the reader uncomfortable. The writing style felt very frenzied and panicked, even at the beginning. It took me a moment to situate myself in Ellen’s world and figure out what was going on.

The dynamic of fever dream and reality was engaging. I seriously had to stop a few times to figure out what was happening and what wasn’t.

If you like uncomfortable horror, I would definitely recommend- however I would strongly urge you to read your triggers! It’s dark dark.

Felker-Martin out-Barkered Clive Barker with this searing nightmare of a novel. Here there be monsters, gore enough to make me squirm, tragedy and triumph enough to make me cry more than once, and a sheen of celluloid cast over it all, erotic and queer and glistening and unflinching. I swallowed this one whole. I cannot wait to read it again.

This book ruled. I could not put it down. Do you like grotesque body horror, blood and guts, urine, clive barker, cool castles, haunted films? If yes. Then this book is for you. So cool.