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.

CW: Gore (Major); Homophobia; Transphobia; Antisemitism; Misogyny; Fat Phobia; Obsession; Bodily Fluids/Odors; Nazis; Religious Preaching; Stalking

Felker-Martin's novel was a spooky, visceral thrill ride. The cursed film, and the setting of remastering and preserving it, were engaging, but just as much is Ellen. Ellen is a complex character, competent in her duties, haunted by her mistakes and desires, and great to follow as she grows throughout the novel.

The book has major themes that bolster this book for me, particularly in relation to our contemporary environment. It is openly against censorship, supportive of preserving queer history, balancing the remembrance historical atrocities, namely the Holocaust, while also recognizing contemporary ones, namely Israel's actions in Palestine. All of these are reflected in the book's 1980s setting organically, but nevertheless bridge to current concerns.

Gretchen Felker-Martin is rapidly becoming not just one of my favorite horror writers of all time, but also potentially one of my favorite writers ever. Violent, fascinating, creepy, deeply unsettling, and yet every page is dripping with love for the genre as well as for its characters. I don't know that I would recommend this book to everybody due to its content, but I do know I'll be blabbing about this title to anybody who will listen for a long time.

First of all, can we talk about this fantastic eye-catching cover. Art by @dysphic: Deena Ramli and designed by @esthersarahk: Esther Kim. Had I not been offered a free review copy I'd still be picking it up for this cover alone. I appreciate it even more having read the book. Seriously great work all around.

How to describe this book? Hmmmm gritty and graphic, vividly penned, s3xually explorative, cinematicly macabre with a disturbingly occultish vibe but deeply meaningful on multiple levels.

Trigger Warnings are in effect for this book. If you're sensitive to violence skip it. The average reader would probably find this book way too graphic. Splatterpunk horror fans, however, would call it literary and mild. I fell somewhere in between. The gritty prose served its purpose for me and sucked me right into the head of the main character. The graphic elements only added to the emotion that the plotline evoked. Full immersion. Though parts turned my stomach, I loved it.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Prose: superb
Pacing: fast
Scary: creepy
Gore: yes
Character Development: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Atmosphere: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Powerful, arresting, nauseating — “do I want it?” Yes, I want to read books by Felker-Martin until my eyeballs dry up. Black Flame is an exciting addition to Felker-Martin’s canon, and this installment feels laser-focused. Ellen is a mess, Ellen feels real, Ellen’s repression is detestable, it’s pitiable, and some of the most rewarding scenes are Ellen’s stomach-churning yearning. She wants filth, she wants freedom, and the box she’s folded into won’t allow it.

Our author’s love of horror is the lifeline of this novella, and you can smell Clive Barker in its DNA. The further Ellen succeeds in restoring an infamous and thought-lost exploitation film, the further she unspools. Unapologetically queer, trans, transgressive, and political, Felker-Martin is once again at her best as she hurdles readers into a pus-filled, throbbing mess of repression.

On a technical note, in the chapter The Can, the prose states, “There was a homeless woman in her guest bedroom, for Christ’s sake” (loc 1143). It’s not until the chapter The Artifact that Ellen is called about a homeless woman who knows her: “Do you mean Molly? I don’t, um, I don’t know her last name” (Loc 1456). It’s after this chapter that Ellen brings Molly home. I believe this might be an editing issue, not a looping-timeline-plot-point.

Thank you for the arc! A tremendous read.

As always, Gretchen Felker-Martin goes hard. I love how detailed this is about the work of film restoration, and the internalized and externalized homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, antifatness, overall privilege, etc was all really well-portrayed and nuanced. All of the violence and transgression directly served these themes. It didn't feel like a single drop of blood was gratuitous (and I say this as someone who is very positive about gratuitous blood in fiction). Really enjoyed it!

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is trying to make me uncomfortable and succeeding.

Ellen is a giant ball of repression collecting internalized isms and phobias like they’re Pokémon cards. She switches pretty rapidly between being unlikable/pathetic and incredibly sympathetic because she really is going through the wringer over there. The writing style is pretty all over the place and takes a minute to get situated, but it fits pretty well with Ellen’s overall mental state. She is constantly switching between reality and the horrifying fever dream; I found it kind of hard to keep up with at times, but I think that was the intention.

The horror aspect was incredibly dark and disturbing which yknow in a horror book is a plus. I like that it managed to be this horrifyingly violent, gorey, horny nightmare while also being used as a vehicle to communicate some very deep messages.

Ultimately, I think the issue lies more in me than the book. I recognize it has a lot of good going for it and respect that, but I had a difficult time getting invested in the plot because I kept getting confused by the narration. Definitely a check the content warnings situation because while I can read pages upon pages of people being flayed alive and disemboweled I got extremely squicked out by just how much time we spent talking about bathrooms or peeing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the arc!

The best word i have for this book is "UNHINGED." Like honestly this book is... wild. just completely off the rails. The comparison to the movie Midsommar is honestly spot on. If you enjoyed that and want to read a queer, kinky version, that's pretty much exactly what you're going to get here. It's like that, or if the Amnesia game had a baby with a queer trauma memoir and then lit it on fire. Basically.

We follow Ellen, a deeply, deeeeply closeted Jewish lesbian who is forced to work on a Holocaust era... erotic snuff film? And once she starts working on it, she finds herself equal parts repulsed and obsessed. She finds herself on a descent into madness and debauchery and starts seeing things, or does she? Things go off the rails pretty soon after - this isn't a long book. I really don't want to say too much else about the plot, lest I spoil it. But I will also say I absolutely LOVED the writing style for the tone of this book. Its violent, graphic, and uncomfortable but I also laughed at some of the things Ellen was thinking to herself. Truly perverse.

5 stars. This book really worked for me. When I read the description, I was hooked. A closeted lesbian film restorer/archivist and a haunted exploitation movie. Deeply repressed lesbians battling hedonism and the real life horrors that haunt them in the daytime. This book is horny and queer and nasty and gross and filled with the kind of gore that makes your stomach turn, and yet also deeply emotional. I loved it. Thank you so much to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book will 100% not be for everyone! Gross! Smart! Painful to read and painful to think about! I like the film stuff! Some of it felt very confused!

Reminiscent of Silver Nitrate, but I found that to be tighter in it's writing and craft.

Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin is a slow, skin-crawling descent into obsession, shame, and the corruptive power of media. It follows Ellen, a lonely archivist who discovers a lost Nazi-era film. What starts as a quiet, almost clinical story spirals into something grotesque, erotic, and deeply unsettling. Felker-Martin doesn’t pull punches; this is body horror layered with psychological rot, and it’s told in prose that’s as gorgeous as it is nauseating. It’s not a fast read, and the pacing may frustrate anyone looking for conventional scares or likable characters. But if you want your horror to be intelligent, perverse, and unflinchingly honest about the things we repress, this book will get under your skin and stay there like a splinter.

I was pleasantly surprised reading i wasnt sure if i would like it and it was great!
it was grim and cruel to read it felt oppresive with that writing in the best way to show the mc dealing with that film and her realization of her sexuality, it was harsh while being poetic to represent coming out from a closeted existence. it was an excellent queer horror

Black Flame follows Ellen, a film restorer who’s closeted after years of being shaped and silenced by therapy, drifting through a life that doesn’t feel like her own. She’s in a relationship she doesn’t want, thinking constantly about the girl she used to love, and barely holding herself together. Then she gets assigned to restore this strange, unsettling film and everything starts to unravel.

The deeper Ellen gets into the restoration, the more reality slips. The book becomes this spiraling, hallucinatory nightmare, full of gore and grief and something even harder to name. It’s scary but also raw and sad and furious. Felker-Martin writes obsession and dysphoria in a way that feels so real.

I didn’t expect the ending to hit as hard as it did. It’s violent and disturbing, but it also felt tender in a way I wasn’t prepared for. I finished it and just sat there for a while, trying to process what I’d just read. I love all of Felker-Martin's novels, and maybe it's recency bias, but this one might just be at the top of my list.