Smile for the Cameras

By Miranda Smith

An actress desperate to reclaim her fame must survive the real-life plot of the horror movie that made her famous in this psychologically twisted locked-room thriller.

"A gloriously glossy solid slasher with more unexpected twists than a roller coaster . . . Fans of '90s horror flicks (like me) are going to lap this up."--John Marrs, USA Today bestselling author of The Family Experiment

Twenty years ago, Ella Winters was the it girl. She made a name for herself in Hollywood and throughout America as the sole survivor in the cult-classic slasher Grad Night. But the real horror is what happened when the cameras weren't rolling--something terrible that Ella and her co-stars agreed never to speak of again. Shortly after the movie's premiere, Ella disappeared from the acting scene under the pretense of caring for her ailing mother, hoping for a quiet life out of the spotlight to ease her guilty mind.

Since her mother's passing, Ella has decided to return to the silver screen. And with the cast and crew of Grad Night in the process of filming a reunion documentary, Ella has an express ticket back into Hollywood's good graces. Weighed down by the secret she's been keeping all these years, Ella apprehensively makes the trip to the original set--a cabin in rural Tennessee--to reunite with her castmates for the first time in more than a decade. But when the actors begin to meet the same gruesome fates as the characters they originally played, falling victim to someone dressed as the Grad Night villain, it's clear their secret is out.

Now, the question is: Can the final girl survive one last nightmare?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593983165
• ISBN13: 9780593983164
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The camera sees all!

The setting was really cool with the cabin in the woods and the lake and some awesome cliffs, especially at that time of day with the clouds! If you are a fan of the slasher movies, then this book will be nicely enjoyable because there is a well used axe and a creepy lion mask wearing person lurking around! I found it to be a fast read and hard to put down as it jumps back and forth between past and present with the making of the movie and then twenty years later for a reunion. I did like Ella, who seemed like a decent person, even if she has been tormented by the events around the time of the first movie. Lots of blood, both fake and real and some good, if tragic twists, that kept me stuck in the book to see how many people were going to make it out alive, and if they deserved to after what they may or may not have done in the past and present. I enjoyed this story though now I have a strong desire to go watch a slasher film! Too bad Grad Night is not a real movie. lol!