Burn the Negative - by Josh Winning (Paperback)

About the Book

"In this incendiary mash-up of horror and suspense, a notorious slasher film is remade...and the curse that haunted it is reawakened"--

Book Synopsis

"A spine-tingling, rip-roaring yarn that hearkens back to the thrills and chills of the best '80s slasher horror. Hand this to readers who liked The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones, or My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite." -- Library Journal

Arriving in L.A. to visit the set of a new streaming horror series, journalist Laura Warren witnesses a man jumping from a bridge, landing right behind her car. Here we go, she thinks. It's started. Because the series she's reporting on is a remake of a '90s horror flick. A cursed '90s horror flick, which she starred in as a child--and has been running from her whole life.

In The Guesthouse, Laura played the little girl with the terrifying gift to tell people how the Needle Man would kill them. When eight of the cast and crew died in ways that eerily mirrored the movie's on-screen deaths, the film became a cult classic--and ruined her life. Leaving it behind, Laura changed her name and her accent, dyed her hair, and moved across the Atlantic. But some scripts don't want to stay buried.

Now, as the body count rises again, Laura finds herself on the run with her aspiring actress sister and a jaded psychic, hoping to end the curse once and for all--and to stay out of the Needle Man's lethal reach.

Review Quotes

"In "Scream 4," Gale Weathers asks, 'How meta can you get?' This is Winning's excellent answer: A child star from a cursed cult classic film grows up to become a journalist writing about a remake of the very movie she starred in, as real bodies pile up. The best slashers are the ones where, for all your Randy Meeks-ing, you can't quite figure out who the killer is. This is one of those." --New York Times

"Burn the Negative is a creepy, twisty, compulsively readable haunted house of a book built from horror movies and our obsessive response to them. You'll root for Laura and fear the Needle Man. Be sure to make the popcorn and dim the lights."
--Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts

"Wow! No one can make us feel so much childhood nostalgia and then so much terror as Josh Winning! Absolutely loved it. This one's a killer." --CJ Leede, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Maeve Fly

"Smart, fast-paced, and devilishly clever." --Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters

"A spine-tingling, rip-roaring yarn that hearkens back to the thrills and chills of the best '80s slasher horror. Hand this to readers who liked The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones, or My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite." --Library Journal

"Prepare to be caught in the Needle Man's grip--you won't be able to tear yourself away." --Kat Ellis, author of Harrow Lake

"Josh Winning has won my heart with this Hollywood horror-noir, which plays out like A Nightmare On Sunset Boulevard." --Clay McLeod Chapman, author of The Remaking

"A fun supernatural thriller with Poltergeist 'cursed movie' vibes . . . I love how [Josh] Winning presents multiple suspects and generates a page-turning energy perfect for summer reading." --Sadie Hartman, author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered, via Instagram

"[A]n unnerving, spooky tale that combines mystery with bits of horror along the lines of Stephen King and Peter Straub... Burn the Negative would make a terrific film. The plot is cinematic and the script is pretty much already written." --South Florida Sun Sentinel

"A relentless supernatural page-ripper that doubled as pure catnip for the horror connoisseur in me." --David Yoon, author of City of Orange

"Burn the Negative knocked me sideways. It is both fresh and familiar--a dark, satirical, and unflinching observation of the movie industry and childhood celebrity, with a monster that will make even your nightmares wake up screaming." --Rio Youers, author of No Second Chances

"This book had me hooked from line one! Slasher? Final Girl? Haunted hotel? Cursed movie within a movie within a book? Is it possible to seamlessly fold everything a horror fan loves into one story? Josh Winning not only says it is, but in Burn the Negative, he pulls it off flawlessly." --J.H. Markert, author of The Nightmare Man

"Satisfyingly creepy! A fantastic supernatural thriller that harkens back to horror's glory days." --J.D. Barker, author of A Caller's Game

"The mystery is a compelling one, the details unsettling from the jump... A pulpy exploration of the monsters we make and a love letter to cult-classic frights." --Kirkus Reviews

"If you love horror books about horror (like a terrifying nesting doll), you need to go forth and pick up a copy of Burn the Negative.... I loved absolutely everything about this book." --Book Riot

"Burn the Negative treads the line deliciously between supernatural and psychological horror, and Winning's story whips along at breakneck pace towards a shocking payoff." --Ally Wilkes, author of All the White Spaces

"I was gripped and chilled by Burn the Negative. There was the impulse to binge just one more chapter before closing the covers, combined with layered characterization, sensitivity, and Winning's respect for and love of pop-culture and what it gives, and takes away." --Deirdre Sullivan, author of Perfectly Preventable Deaths

"Smart, spooky and steeped in horror movie lore, Burn the Negative will have you turning the pages so fast you'll leave scorch marks." --Matt Glasby, author of The Book of Horror

"An all-consuming obsession...a perfect mash-up of Night Film and Harrow Lake." --Dawn Kurtagich, author of The Creeper Man

"This book is great. Fans of horror thrillers will be engrossed in this page-turning, twisty novel" --Red Carpet Crash

"Like the classic horror cinema it gleefully riffs on, Winning's latest [Burn the Negative] crackles with both dread and dazzle... Winning keeps readers guessing... while throwing out crafty winks and nods to well-known horror films and their makers, and driving his tale to a cinematically spectacular finale with several surprising plot twists. Horror fans should grab the popcorn for this bloody and entertaining romp." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Josh Winning is the author of the critically acclaimed The Shadow Glass. He is a senior film writer at Radio Times, has written for Total Film for over a decade, and is the cohost of movie podcast Torn Stubs. During his years as a film journalist, he has been on set with Kermit the Frog (and Miss Piggy), devoured breakfast with zombies on The Walking Dead, and sat on the Iron Throne on the Dublin set of Game of Thrones. Winning lives in London with his cat Penny and dreams of one day convincing Sigourney Weaver to yell "Goddammit!" at him.