Dual timelines, magic, fancy cinema, feisty heroine, fairy tale/horror movie touch... Oh, yeah, these are some things I dig and it turns out that they all work together pretty well in this book!  Phew.  It was atmospheric and layered and you could easily envision the world and the frustrations.  It was a weird but delightful mix of surreal and real.  (Even with using the audiobook which I have a hit-miss relationship with those things and listening at 1.8 speed gives one of the character a very Drac from Hotel Transylania speech pattern.  Blah blah blah.)  

Like a lot of people have said, the book has a slow start and you don't quite know where you are going with it for a few chapters, switching between 1968 and Gemma Turner (a star who tried to get out of Beach Blanket movies and into Serious Cinema) and the 1980-onwards with Christopher Knight (an eventual film student with a messy, well, EVERYTHING.)  While I could see some of the plot points coming from a mile away, some of that is due to the book running with tropes and just the fact that most of it was more a vibes thing than a mystery thing.  Knowing what was coming did not make it any less interesting, though, and sometimes I was looking forward to seeing what Sayers was going to exactly handle it.  

Hands down, Gemma and her, uh, supporting cast were the stars.  Funny, smart, vulnerable, and fairly kick-ass, Gemma won me over very quickly.  Even when she doubted herself and sometimes did the random stupid thing, I loved her.  She had a wryness and determination that speaks volumes.  On the other hand, Christopher was an acquired taste.  At times, he was fine and I sympathized greatly with his rather awful childhood but that can only take you so far when you start being really, darn creepy.  I think, possibly and not meaning-to, Sayers was writing him somewhat autistic.  Of course, that is not an excuse for him.  He still came across at times as an unfortunate mix of pretentious film student and obsessive stalker.  Thankfully, he wasn't always like that or I would have screamed.

But still... It's all about Gemma.  :)