Smile for the Cameras, Miranda Smith
Smile for the Cameras, Miranda Smith
List: $22.00 | Sale: $15.40
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Smile for the Cameras

Author: Miranda Smith

Narrator: Abigail Reno, Marwan Salama, Louisa Zhu, Vas Eli, Jeff Ebner

Unabridged: 9 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/24/2025


Synopsis

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

A CRIMEREADS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

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?

About Miranda Smith

Miranda Smith writes psychological and domestic suspense. She is drawn to stories about ordinary people in extraordinary situations. Before completing her first novel, she worked as a newspaper staff writer and a secondary English teacher. She lives in East Tennessee with her husband and three young children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by James on June 24, 2025

Great concept... a horror movie had some unsettling things happen onset, and someone disappears. Years later, the lead actress is finally convinced to do another movie in the cult phenomena that launched her career. Except when she returns, the horrors start happening again. Who knows what they did......more

Goodreads review by Chelsea | thrillerbookbabe on May 21, 2025

Thank you so much to Random House and Miranda Smith for my copy of this book! It was about Ella, a famous final girl from a horror slasher Grad Night that debuted twenty years ago. Now, the studio wants to do a reunion, but Ella and her co-stars agreed to never return to where a real horror took pla......more

Goodreads review by Marianne on June 02, 2025

Ella is the “final girl” from a 90s slasher film called Grad Night and she is back for a reunion after twenty years. Ella doesn’t want to go back, but if she doesn’t her career will never move forward. Someone knows what happened twenty years ago and we are uncovering the truth one page at a time. T......more

Goodreads review by Elle G. Reads on June 02, 2025

Smile for the Camera is a fun slasher thriller about a group of actors who come back together for a reunion after 20 years. The split wasn’t just friends growing apart either. Something bad happened and their secrets are coming back to haunt them. Overall, I enjoyed this one. I loved the 90’s slashe......more

Goodreads review by ☠︎︎ A.K. ☠︎︎ on June 30, 2025

3.5/5 ✩ “He thinks the crux of every horror movie is the sex and the violence. Sure, that might be why people buy tickets, but the heart of every horror film lies in the women on-screen.” Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with this ARC. QUICK SUMMARY Smile for the Cameras is......more


Quotes

“A gloriously glossy solid slasher with more unexpected twists than a roller coaster . . . Fans of ʼ90s horror flicks (like me) are going to lap this up.”—John Marrs, USA Today bestselling author of The Family Experiment

“Miranda Smith takes full command of horror tropes and the ‘final girl’ archetype to tell a story worthy of the big screen. Grab some popcorn and settle in for the isolation thriller of your horror-loving heart.”—Tessa Wegert, author of Death in the Family

The ideal read for anyone nostalgic for the self-aware camp of ʼ90s slasher films or fans of page-turning psychological thrillers with twists you’ll never see coming.”—Kristen L. Berry, author of We Don’t Talk About Carol

“Utterly addictive . . . This campy, riveting, and bingeworthy novel puts a fresh, bold take on the genre . . . A delicious must-read for summer!”—May Cobb, author of The Hunting Wives