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Wednesday 3 September 2014

'Black Ice' by Becca Fitzpatrick - Book Trailer review



Well I never in a million years imagined I would be sat here writing a trailer review, because I always like waiting until the finished product is released so that I can make a complete judgment, but oh my god I can't even resist. 
I have never seen a book trailer before (yep, here's me, living a sheltered existence!) and I didn't actually even know they existed until I saw Becca Fitzpatrick, the author, posted the trailer earlier. I will admit, I was kinda unsure on whether it would be a good idea or not. I usually hate reading books after watching films, because I already have an image of the lead character in my head that contradicts with what I want to imagine. Similarly, I usually object to people being pictured on book covers, but the 'Black Ice' cover is absolutely gorgeous (something I don't say lightly, it takes a lot for a book cover to impress me) so it's already completely gone against my belief system, but I think I love that. 
Another thing I'm going to admit, that I am extremely embarrassed about; I didn't know Becca Fitzpatrick had another novel on the way. I absolutely adored 'Hush, Hush' and the follow up novel, 'Crescendo', but then life got in the way and I still haven't managed to read 'Finale' (I might have read 'Silence', it's shockingly bad of me but I can't actually remember...) but the first two books in the series are that good that it's extremely high up on my favourite YA series of all time list. So, as you can imagine, I went into this trailer feeling nervous but absolutely and utterly excited. I hadn't heard anything about this book, so I was entering into it completely blind, but it was all the much better for that. As a media student I am so used to having to absolutely tear apart and evaluate trailers that you could almost call it my forte, but I'm gonna try not to use too much terminology cause I get very wordy very fast. 
The beginning of the trailer starts off so enigmatically, it completely grabs you. Watching, from what I can only assume to be the killers point of view, as he cuts out newspaper clippings about the murders, looking pictures of the girls and having a necklace that I'm equating up to a trophy for his kills? Equal parts creepy and absorbing, establishing the plot line automatically with the writing "Three green dots, three abandoned shelters, three dead girls, one killer." The music is creepy as hell, with what sounds like a jangling of chains sending a shiver running straight down my spine and the effect on the video is reminiscent of multiple true life crime dramas that I've watched throughout my life. 
I'm assuming this is a YA novel based on Becca Fitzpatrick's previous work but this trailer is creepy as hell. A girl staying in a cabin in the woods with strangers in the middle of a blizzard is a recipe for disaster. But that just makes it all the more better as a book trailer. While we know hardly nothing about the characters in this brief two minutes it's just so enigmatic that I want to know more. Yes, you can tell that the trailer was made on a low budget as the acting isn't so hot and it has a very definitive home movie atmosphere to it, but that isn't as much as a negative to me as it might be to other people. If this had been a film trailer it wouldn't have worked but, remembering that I have no previous knowledge in the medium of book trailers, this is exactly what I would have expected to market a book. It gives away enough of the plot without making it easy to predict what is going to happen which, when combined with the tagline on the book cover of 'Falling in love should never be so dangerous...', then gets turned completely on its head making it even harder to work out. 
This trailer is equal parts revealing and confusing but it's already convinced me that I'm gonna need to purchase 'Black Ice' as soon as it hits shelves at the end of October. 
Now, to go and Youtube book trailers for the rest of the day, strictly for "research purposes"...

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