Like the two other books by Gretchen Felker-Martin, I loved this one as well! Ellen, a closeted lesbian, is tasked with restoring a film many believed to be lost during the Holocaust. Soon she becomes obsessed by the project. This book talks about repression and antisemitism, and it is done is a visceral way only Felker-Martin can do. Ellen is figuring out who she is as she pieces together this film that she believes to be actual footage. I also have to state to check your trigger warnings, as Felker-Martin portrays very gruesome realities, and I definitely felt uncomfortable at times. However, I feel that is the whole point. We should not be comfortable with various topics, but we also need to discuss them, and specifically how to not have them happen again, or how to fix them.

4 stars

I am here for it. I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I'll also enthusiastically recommend it but only to a very specific kind of person and reader. This is not one for the masses, the prudes, or the less adventurous. Everyone else? Buckle up.

If you know this author, you'll be expecting a gritty, graphic, somewhat out there experience, and you will get all of those things and more with Ellen, whose relatively pedestrian name hints (falsely) at her externally mundane life. But there's more to Ellen, who is a restorer of films. When it comes to her most recent project, Ellen is piecing together not only one of the wildest films I've ever heard of but also deeply hidden pieces of herself.

Throughout this novel, Ellen's uncertainty about what is real and imagined, who she is, and what her deepest desires actually are becomes so chaotic and powerful that it consumes both her AND the reader's sense of reality. Yes, there's body horror, graphic descriptions of sex and acts some people may not typically associate with that, and much more, but that's not the most sinister part of this experience. The psychological elements here, particularly the coming to terms with who she is and what she wants, make Ellen a model for a real person as much as a fictional character. Can you really know yourself until you've spent significant amounts of time alone with yourself and faced what you did not know you truly desired? Ellen is here to show us.

As has been the case for me with every book I've read by this author, there are parts of this read that made me uncomfortable. That's intentional. I was DYING to listen to an audio version of this and was incredibly fortunate to be able to do that, thanks to a misunderstanding on my part and real kindness on someone else's. Being able to listen to the book added a sense of reality and perspective to wildly unreal events; this all heightened my experience, and I recommend this option when and where accessible.

I continue to really appreciate the originality this author brings to horror and identity exploration, and readers who can manage this content should snap this up immediately. Everyone else, stay away. The beach reads are waiting for you on another shelf, and there's no shame in that (just as there is no shame in the absolutely wild antics that happen here)!

Gretchen Felker-Martin does the damn thing AGAIN! WOAH! This author never disappoints and delivers every single time!
Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin is deliciously dark, evocative, and gory.
This book is just another reason why I’ll read anything she writes.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this ARC.

Recently I have been binge reading a lot of romance. So, when my mood finally shifted, and I decided I wanted something different, it only seemed right to dive head first into some grade-A horror.
Black Flame follows Ellen, a closeted lesbian in the 1980s, as she works to restore a German pre-WWII queer exploitation film. However, the hauntingly grotesque and hedonistic images of the movie begin to consume her, forcing her to face her debilitating fear of her own sexuality as the occult power of the film begins to bleed over into reality.
Being honest, I am just such a fan of how Gretchen Felker-Martin writes horror. The way in which the narratives of both Cuckoo and Black Flame are so character centric, while still developing these rich psychological mindscapes, invokes the perfect amount of paranoia and empathy, even while you are literally choosing to play witness to these characters falling apart. It also brings out that necessary human element so that as a reader you can see the emotions and the fear that inspired the story—shame, lust, a questioning of our own desires, this want to normalize and not be the outsider even if that means denying ourselves, and what that denial costs us. We can see it all through Ellen’s experiences as she is forced to confront the self she has chosen to be, and the one she has chosen to hide.
Ultimately, Black Flame already feels like it should be a classic in the best way possible. It reminded me a lot of The Ring or more recently Talk to Me, just because of that hyper-fixation element and how the supernatural slowly pours into the protagonist’s day to day, wearing on their sanity and their resolve.

Like Cuckoo, I struggled to connect with Felker-Martin's characters and often felt halfway removed from the story. There's a lot to love here, especially with the gross-out, Barker-esque elements. This is a simple issue between reader and author.

Black Flame is grim and a cautionary tale, within the same vein as the film I Saw the TV Glow, only with a much more violent and historical core.

I really enjoyed the lucid structure of Ellen's maddening present as opposed to the concrete and clear past of Bartok. The denial of truth, both personal and not, strengthens the narrative and makes it all the more grueling to experience.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this ARC!

This book follows Ellen, a closeted lesbian, who is tasked with restoring a film many believed to be lost during the Holocaust. She quickly becomes obsessed and chaos ensues.

Gretchen Felker-Martin’s writing is aggressively engaging. She takes you by the throat and throws you so deeply into the story that it’s all you can think about. I devoured this in one day, desperately needing to know the end.

With themes of sexual repression and antisemitism, this book excels at paralleling occult horror with the horrors of reality. That being said, please check trigger warnings before you read as the material is HEAVY.

Just like Manhunt, I know I’m going to find myself coming back to this book. Anyone who has spent 5 minutes talking to me about books knows that I love Gretchen Felker-Martin. This piece is just another reason she is on my “auto-buy author” list.

Cursed Films, Cosmic Terror, and Coming Out

Black Flame is not just a horror novel, it’s a descent into madness, identity, and cinematic dread that transcends the boundary between fiction and reality. Gretchen Felker-Martin continues to cement their status as one of the most vital voices in contemporary horror, delivering a story that is deeply disturbing, richly thematic, and undeniably brilliant.

At the core is Ellen, a film restorationist assigned to a long-lost, ultra-graphic cult film. But as frames are meticulously restored, reality begins to distort. Thus blurring the line between nightmare and lived experience. The deeper Ellen digs, the more unraveling occurs, not just externally, but internally. Her journey is one of delayed identity, suppressed trauma, and the raw, unflinching horrors of self-recognition. I saw myself in her; the silence around grief, the breakdowns, the terrifying clarity of truth finally surfacing.

Felker-Martin masterfully fuses perversion, cosmic dread, and queerness into something both grotesque and gorgeously human. This book is dark. It is graphic. And it is relentless. Certain scenes deliver imagery so vivid and visceral that I genuinely avoided reading after dark. I was fully convinced the shadows might birth the Baroness herself, in all her ghastly glory.

Clocking in at just around 200 pages, Black Flame moves fast. It wastes no time unleashing its horrors, and once the blood starts spilling, it does not let up. Despite its brutality, there’s a profound emotional core here—a story about survival, identity, and confronting the monsters within and around us.

If you’re a fan of cursed media stories, cosmic horror, or queer narratives steeped in blood and revelation, this is your next read. Just know what you’re getting into: this one pulls no punches.

For those sensitive to certain content, I highly recommend checking the trigger warnings before diving in!

This book was absolutely disgusting and I absolutely loved it. The gore and horror was the perfect amount of descriptive, enough to get your blood curdling but not so much that it was superfluous. There were a couple points where I got a little lost, but not so much that I couldn't catch up and the amazing description made up for it.

This book was... something else. I loved it and hated it. It was both repulsive and sensual.

It's not a breezy read. The main character is so disconnected from herself, from her identity, her queerness, her attractions. SA trigger warnings for those who prefer to know ahead of time. The writing was captivating and I lost myself in it.

This is sounding far too fangirl-y but I'm not sure what else to say - it's not going to be for everyone. But for anyone who's struggled with queer identity, who's pushed themselves into a mold to make other people around them happy, this book captures that struggle beautifully.

A visceral, terrifying descent into madness. Nothing is scarier than living an inauthentic life, a life stuffed in a closet you don't want to be in. This is such a powerful fever dream of identity and repression that explodes into a cathartically visceral conclusion. Gretchen is a powerhouse author that I think will be one I will forever gravitate to. What a novel.

Black Flame is the third book I’ve read by Gretchen Felker-Martin, and wow—she just keeps proving why she’s one of the boldest voices in horror right now. This book is raw, brutal, and absolutely fearless, blending body horror with deeply human themes of control, identity, and survival. Every page simmers with tension and rage, making it impossible to look away, even when you want to. If you loved Manhunt or Cuckoo, this one pushes the limits even further. Dark, messy, unforgettable—Felker-Martin doesn’t just write horror; she weaponizes it.

⭐ 5/5 – For readers who want horror with teeth.

As always, Gretchen Felker-Martin creates horrific art in the form of BLACK FLAME, a story imbued with a cinephile's love and a historical connection to what it is to be queer.

Do you like:
Queer horror?
Jewish characters?
Movie history?
Ambiguous endings?

It's 1985. Ellen is 33 years old, not married, no kids, and has a long history of being not what mother wanted. From a lesbian triste with a trans woman named Freddie when she was 18 to refusing to meet the men her mother is all but shoving her way. Ellen would rather spend her time repairing old film at her job where she deals with a slew of men looking down on her. To make it worse? Her boss insists she work on a film by a former Nazi. Ellen is dropped head first into the horrific realities of WWII and fights her inner self from coming out.

I genuinely was not sure how I would feel after reading this. After reading Cuckoo earlier this year I became a fan of Felker-Martin. I enjoyed reading Queer stories that hadn't been told and the harsh realities some people don't acknowledge. It's life.

I think Black Flame will stay with me for a long time. I tend not to read history focused books because of how much it sticks with me but I am so glad I read this. Not only does Felker-Martin paint a devastatingly beautiful story, you're also grabbed and yanked into Ellen's world and daily life. You feel the repressed feelings and self hate in every thought Ellen has. You want to sympathize with her but also want to shake her and tell her to grow up and defend herself. It's relatable on a whole other level as a fellow Queer person.

The reason this doesn't get 5 stars for me is some parts felt rushed. There are two deaths in this that felt either out of nowhere or just rushed by. Maybe I'll give it another read and see if I missed anything. The ending itself felt a little rushed but was easy to keep up with.

I look forward to seeing what comes next from Gretchen Felker-Martin.

I just think this author is not for me, as this is the second of their books I've read and the second I've had absolutely no emotional connection to. I just find Felker-Martin's prose to be cold, so when these graphic, disturbing scenes are being described, I don't feel anything; it's like reading a medical lab report sometimes in these pages.

Add to that the feeling of deja vu due to the plot's closeness to Silvia Moreno Garcia's Silver Nitrate, and despite a relatively short length, Black Flame often drags. Some interesting ideas and some shocking scenes, but maybe I just didn't "get" what they were supposed to add up to.

Holy Moly...this book was an experience. It's been a few days and I am still processing it. I read it in two sittings - a train wreck I needed a break from halfway through but could hardly look away from. Like the film in the story, I felt this book might be alive to haunt me.
Felker-Martin's writing is superb. I will read anything they write. Very visceral, very raw. The descent to madness is so real.

Misogyny, homophobia, repression and oppression, sizzling film reels, historical horror and film critics and restorations abound. When you start this book, you instantly find out that it's going to be quite the ride. I want so badly to avoid spoiling this one because reading it was such an experience, and I think anyone who reads it has/ will feel the same. This takes place in a time when we were much less cool with differences and originalities, and it shows. The gore was so unique and plentiful I had to take double takes and reread paragraphs entirely, so I think that might be my favorite part of this publication. The way Felker- Martin nails the tragedy of fearing fitting in, sexuality, and coming into your own is so....different, nuanced, interesting, and recommended by me. READ THIS if you're cool with hella triggers, Quentin Tarantino levels of graphic violence, and sex scenes that get real weird, maybe real bloody too. Thanks so much to the author and Tor Publishing Group for the eARC! #torpublishinggroup #blackflame #gretchenfelkermartin #blackflamegretchenfelkermartin

This was extremely dark. I wish there had been a trigger warning with this book so if you do decide to read it definitely look up those trigger warning. Now all that being said I really enjoyed this. It was definitely dark and has some serious triggers but if you can handle those things this book is worth the read. Its dark and interesting. It gives off similar vibes to like a freak show meets haunted film. It was great honestly.

Not sure this one is for me, though the setting is really interesting and I was oddly compelled by the protagonist's middling sexual experiences. That kind of bone-deep exhaustion resonates.

A film restoration project goes horrifically and spectacularly awry when the subjects within the cursed reels find a murderous life of their own. Like with most of Gretchen Felker-Martin's work, there are going to be some people who will immediately bounce off this due to the graphic nature of the topics being explored, but this is an absolute quality work of fiction that goes to some frankly incredible places. If you are going to read this, expect gore, body horror, and various prejudices, phobias, and acts of violence throughout, though nothing that feels like it is being done for mere shock value. Every element present in this story feels very deliberate, and the stuff that is meant to scare you will definitely leave you more than a little freaked out.

A great read! Definitely something to add to your horror collection.