Black Hole Cinema Club by Christopher Edge

Thanks to the team over at Netgalley, I was able to get my hands on an ARC of Black Hole Cinema Club by Christopher Edge and I am so grateful for that privilege. After reading Escape Room by Christopher Edge, I knew that I needed to read this book so when it became available as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) I was over the moon.

Lucas and his friends love movies, especially when there is a marathon on at their local cinema, The Black Hole Cinema. The 5 friends are very excited when a new movie marathon is announced to be shown in 4Di, the latest in immersive cinematography. Settling into their seats, the group watch as the intro words scroll across the screen telling them what lies ahead for them, but something seems off. The screen has gone dark, but it seems to be getting bigger…and closer! The screen seems to be swallowing the rows in front of them, inching closer and closer. Scrambling for their lives, Lucas and his friends battle to escape however, looking back, Lucas watches as one by one his cinema gang are engulfed in the inky darkness before taking his last breath before he also succumbs to the black hole.

What follows is a fast-paced adventure through classic cinema, pitting the friends against an unseen enemy deep below a glacier, alone in the middle of the ocean against a beast stirring from its slumber and across the Amazon Rainforest to discover a lost city. Will they all survive to see the next movie, or will some perish to final evil?

Black Hole Cinema Club did not disappoint in the action department. Each chapter was packed with peril and edge of your seat cliff-hangers, creating tension and this innate hunger to find out more about what was going on. I really enjoyed how each character was thrown into their own movie sequence while the others had to battle along side to make it to the end credits. It wasn’t until the final couple of chapters that everything started to fall into place and what seemed like random, out of place anomalies were revealed to be crucial signposts in each movie. I thoroughly enjoyed trying to figure out what was happening and don’t get me started on the twist!! Wow! I did not in a million years see that coming and it created this ending that was totally different to what I expected.

Overall, Black Hole Cinema Club was a great first read of 2024 and has me pumped to devour more books. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more from Christopher Edge in the future. He is up there in my top 5 favourite authors now.