Black Flame, Gretchen FelkerMartin
Black Flame, Gretchen FelkerMartin
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Black Flame

Author: Gretchen Felker-Martin

Narrator: Dana Aronowitz

Unabridged: 4 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/05/2025

Categories: Fiction, Horror, Lgbtq+


Synopsis

One woman's deadly obsession with a haunted archival film precipitates her undoing in Black Flame, from the USA Today bestselling author of Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin.

“[Narrator Dana] Aronowitz's skillful portrayal of Ellen's breakdown will lead listeners to ponder if she can possibly survive this horrific experience...Aronowitz does a winning job of keeping all listeners involved.” — AudioFile

A cursed film. A haunted past. A deadly secret.

The Baroness, an infamous exploitation film long thought destroyed by Nazi fire, is discovered fifty years later. When lonely archivist Ellen Kramer—deeply closeted and pathologically repressed—begins restoring the hedonistic movie, it unspools dark desires from deep within her.

As Ellen is consumed by visions and voices, she becomes convinced the movie is real, and is happening to her—and that frame by frame, she is unleashing its occult horrors on the world. Her life quickly begins to spiral out of control.

Until it all fades to black, and all that remains is a voice asking a question Ellen can’t answer but can’t get out of her mind.

Do you want it?
More than anything?

Also by Gretchen Felker-Martin:
Manhunt
Cuckoo

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

About Gretchen Felker-Martin

GRETCHEN FELKER-MARTIN is a Massachusetts-based bestselling horror author and film critic. Her debut novel, Manhunt, was named the #1 Best Book of 2022 by Vulture, and was one of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 by Esquire, Library Journal, and Paste. Her sophomore novel, Cuckoo, debuted on the USA Today bestseller list. You can read her fiction and film criticism on Patreon and in TIME, The Outline, Nylon, and more.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Becky on July 07, 2025

Starred review in the July 2025 issue of Booklist and on the blog: [URL not allowed] Three Words That Describe This Book: immersive, details of film preservation, disorienting Other words: vicious, nasty, erotic, discomfort, engrossing, historical, Jewish immigrants, NYC setting......more

Goodreads review by aster on June 13, 2025

i love when horror is weird and gross and queer and perverted and this was all of those things. definitely would recommend......more

Goodreads review by Trisha on August 05, 2025

This is a shocking, dark, gory read. And that cover. . .it's just so good! Ellen is at a very rough part in life. No longer questioning sexuality because straight is the only answer, and plugging along in a job that keeps a roof over the head and is somewhat satisfying. But when an old film is seized......more

Goodreads review by Lilibet on August 03, 2025

You know a book is gonna be good when the epigraph has a Clive Barker quote. Black Flame is this twisted, kinky, horrific love child of horror and exploitation films while simultaneously setting about the task of being a cutting and timely commentary on hypocrisy within the Jewish community. What I......more

Goodreads review by Jeremy on July 26, 2025

Cursed Films, Cosmic Terror, and Coming Out Black Flame is not just a horror novel, it’s a descent into madness, identity, and cinematic dread that transcends the boundary between fiction and reality. Gretchen Felker-Martin continues to cement their status as one of the most vital voices in contempor......more


Quotes

Praise for Black Flame

"Nasty, erotic, kinky, vicious, suspenseful....Felker-Martin uses the trope of the cursed movie and creates something utterly unique that manages to horrify, beguile, and empower in equal measure. If you are going to read one horror book this year, make it this one."
—JOHANNA VAN VEEN, author of My Darling Dreadful Thing

"Black Flame is a literary razor blade raked right over the reader's eyeballs, Un Chien Adalouing the shit out us with nearly every page. Gretchen Felker-Martin is ready for her close-up, and this book further testifies to her blood red reign as horror's enfant terrible."
—CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

"Felker-Martin’s stunning prose is equal parts grotesque and lyrical as she turns an unflinching gaze on the extremes of compulsion and desire on the way to a truly devastating climax. The story threads the difficult needle of presenting unsympathetic characters and complicated relationships without compromising its vision, and the results are spectacular."
Publishers Weekly (STARRED review)

Praise for Gretchen Felker-Martin


"Cuckoo is, like Felker-Martin's previous novel Manhunt, absolutely masterful."
ROXANE GAY, New York Times bestselling author of The Bad Feminist

"Manhunt is a modern horror masterpiece.”
—CARMEN MARIA MACHADO, author of National Book Award finalist Her Body and Other Parties

"With [Cuckoo], Felker-Martin appoints herself the new High Priestess of splatter....A story of love, hate, and sacrifice that spares no suffering, but takes no pity."
—TONY TULATHIMUTTE, author of National Book Award finalist Rejection

“Disgustingly rendered and brilliantly imagined…. A fresh, stomach-turning take on gendered apocalypse.”
—NPR on Manhunt

"Cuckoo is a breathtaking novel of body horror; a heartbreaking, angry, terrifying, unflinching indictment of Christian America's cruelty; and it's a soaring, boundless ode to queer survival. It's flat-out mesmerizing."
PAUL TREMBLAY, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie

A grisly, gory, glorious work of splatterpunk social horror — and the perfect introduction to both subgenres.”
—BUSTLE on Manhunt

“Tense and frighteningly visceral, Cuckoo is a masterwork of body horror thrumming with high octane viciousness.”
ERIC LAROCCA, author of At Dark, I Become Loathsome

“Felker-Martin can write: Manhunt expertly drops one political target after another, breaks your heart with nearly every character, and keeps up a relentless velocity— all while just being plain fun as hell.”
—TORREY PETERS, PEN/Hemingway Award winning author of Detransition, Baby