Former actress Adele Rafferty is about to give up on her acting career when she suddenly receives an opportunity of a lifetime. Or so she believes. Adele is offered a leading role in a horror movie called “Final Draft” due to the original actress being unavailable. Believing this may be her next big break, she jumps at the opportunity for this second chance. However, Adele soon discovers that the real horrors lie off the page.
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The idea and concept for this book is incredible. The movie “Final Draft” features a couple named Kate and Joel who spend their romantic getaway in an isolated cabin in the woods. Kate discovers a book in the cabin and upon reading it, begins to notice that the events taking place in the book are now happening in real life. As Adele prepares to play Kate, she starts to discover the same occurrences in the script are now happening on set. How are the exact same situations occurring in real life? Who is behind all of this? Or is it all in Adele’s head?
I had high hopes for Run Time, but unfortunately I felt that the story was overly descriptive and the characters weren’t well developed nor likeable. While I don’t expect characters in a horror setting to be perfect, there were just too many alarming instances that were ignored and swept under the rug time and time again by the main character, Adele. It seemed as though the situations and settings were better described and developed than the characters were. When it came to big reveals, not only were some of them predictable (and the author does poke fun at this) but the dialogue also felt very unnatural.
Besides the lack of character development in Run Time, I thoroughly enjoyed the script “Final Draft.” Howard would include the movie script throughout the book as Adele filmed and that was the most captivating part. If “Final Draft” were a real horror movie, I’d definitely enjoy watching it. I’d still recommend this book for horror lovers and fans of Catherine Ryan Howard. Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this advanced readers copy (eARC) in exchange for my honest review. Run Time is expected to be released on August 16, 2022. Pre-order your copy on Amazon today.
Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard
Genre: Horror
Pages: 350
Rating: 3/5
You have shared a really interesting review that is really honest. I haven’t heard of this book before. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Lauren x
Thank you so much Lauren!
What an amazing premise. I love that the script was part of the book. Too bad the book didn’t live up to your expectations.
The script was such a wonderful addition! Thank you for reading Wendy!
adding this book to my TBR. sounds like a wonderful thriller / mystery read.
I hope you enjoy it! Thank you for reading!
Great review! The premise for this one sounds really intriguing and like something I’d really enjoy so it’s a real shame it fell short and ultimately didn’t meet your expectations. As much as I love mysteries and horror character development is more important to me! Thank you so much for sharing x
I completely agree Ceri! Thank you so much for reading!
Seems really imteresting.
It’s definitely an interesting concept. Thank you for reading Mariann!
It’s a shame that this book didn’t live up to its hype! I’m not a big fan of horror books anyway x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Thank you for reading Lucy!
It sounds like the book had a lot of potential but was somewhat disappointing. Character development is a must for me. Thanks for sharing your honest review.
Character development is key! Thank you for reading Jodie!
This sounds like such an excellent premise and something so different. It’s a shame it wasn’t brilliant though!
Right! The idea is brilliant but unfortunately it did fall short. Thank you for reading Jenny!
The plot sounds really intriguing but I can see why you gave it a 3/5 star! When a storyline is predictable and convos do not not sound natural, I lose the motivation to finish that book! Also, it’s really bad that there were no character development 🙁 But I loved reading this review, thank you so much for sharing xx Penny | http://www.whatdidshetype.com
I completely agree! There were moments that were hard to get through because of poor dialogue or character building, but the movie script made it worthwhile. Thank you for reading Penny!
The plot of Run Time does sound really interesting, and I do like horror books, but it’s a shame that the characters lacked development. It is also interesting that parts of the movie script were included in the book though.
I agree, I loved how the book itself contained a script. It’s unfortunate for the character building but the script made it worthwhile. Thank you for reading Karalee!