โA lost classicย .ย .ย . the history of a horror-film star and a treatise on human frailtyย .ย .ย . is back to be savored and marveled at anewโ (James Ellroy, New York Timesโbestselling author of the Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy).
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Simon Moro, a sixty-eight-year-old star, is making his last picture, a low-budget remake of Edgar Allan Poeโs The Raven. Moro, infuriated by the bland horror movies of his day, sees his own careerโeven as it endsโas an ongoing effort to wallop the public with an overwhelming moral shock. And he succeeds when an elaborate publicity stunt turns into a gruesome and grand personal statement. As Moroโs life reels toward its macabre end, it also reels backward through lies and evasions to show its surprising beginning. Underneath his Frankensteinian exaggeration, Moro has a vivid and humane story to tell, even as the coffins break open and dark, erotic secrets are revealed. Brock Brower has taken the horror film in all its gory glory to create a book that recycles pop material into literature, creating a Dickensian tale of America.
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โA wonderful bookย .ย .ย . Like a circus with several brilliant performances going on at the same timeย .ย .ย . A real breaking through. I donโt think anybody ever again will be able to dabble politely in mixing โreal lifeโ and fiction.โ โJoan Didion, New York Timesโbestselling author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem
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โThe way the book skewers societyโs obsession with celebrity culture is even more valid today than when it was written, proving that great art stands the test of time.โ โForbes
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โA cult novel that amounts to a loving satiric tribute to cinema schlockmeister Roger Corman.โ โNew York Post
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