Black Flame

I went into Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin knowing little about it except that it was about a cursed film and, according to several people, I had to read it. They were right.

Ellen Kramer is a film archivist who’s tasked to restore a film called The Baroness, an exploitation film thought to have been lost in a Nazi fire. As she works on it, she starts having trouble distinguishing what’s real and what’s film as she experiences events from the film and her long-repressed desires start coming to the surface.

Black Flame is horrific, brutal, disgusting, and sexy, even while the characters -including (or especially?) Ellen are mostly unlikeable and unsympathetic. What makes Black Flame special is how Felker-Martin uses this delivery method to tell a story about identity and body image and the intersection of being Jewish and queer.

I listened to this on audio, and the production quality and narration by Dana Aronowitz were both on point.

Support your favorite indie bookstore (and me) by using my link to order the audiobook from https://libro.fm/referral?rf_code=lfm60355 OR if you prefer using your eyes to read, support your favorite indie (and give us both 20% off if it’s your first purchase) by using my link at https://refer.bookshop.org/candidanorwood.