Only the Dead Know Burbank: A Novel

by Bradford Tatum

Overview

“Classic horror buffs will race through this novel that blends historical fiction with uncanny elements of the gothic. A perfect read for Halloween.” —BookPage

With Lon Cheney and Boris Karloff among its characters, this sweeping and stylish love letter to the golden age of horror cinema tells the wonderful, tragic story of Maddy Ulm. It takes readers through her rise from the complicated shadows of Berlin’s first experiments with expressionist cinema to the glamorous deserts of Hollywood. For Maddy has a secret. A secret that has given her incredible insight into the soul of horror. A secret that has a terrible price as well.

A young girl awakens in a hastily dug grave—vague memories of blood and fever, her mother performing a mysterious ceremony before the world went away. Germany has lost the first great war and Europe has lost millions more to the Spanish Flu epidemic. But Maddy has not only survived, she has changed. No longer does she eat, sleep, or age. No longer can she die. After taking up with a pair of street performers, she shocks and fascinates the crowds with her ability to survive outrageous traumas. But at a studio in Berlin, Maddy discovers her true calling: film.

With her intimate knowledge of fear, death, and realms beyond the living, she practically invents the modern horror genre on the spot. Before long, she travels to California and insinuates herself in Hollywood as the genius secretly behind The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, and Frankenstein. And yet she must remain in the shadows—a chilling apparition suspended eternally between worlds.

Clever, tragic, and thoroughly entertaining, Only the Dead Know Burbank introduces readers to one of the most unique, unforgettable characters in fiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062428752
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/18/2016
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Bradford Tatum has worked as a writer and actor in both film and television. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. Only the Dead Know Burbank is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/23/2016
In actor Tatum’s unusual, captivating debut, set in Germany and the U.S. in the early 20th century, a woman cursed with immortality eventually finds comfort in filmmaking. Maddy Ulm narrates her story with a wry pragmatism that doesn’t conceal her underlying melancholy over her unchanging condition, and her longing for the experiences and feelings that only mortals can have. Film proves to be her outlet, and horror her specialty. When one of her silent films is picked up by Universal Pictures, she heads from Bavaria to Hollywood and is soon working on some of the most famous movies of the age. Maddy loves the studio and delights in haunting the nooks and crannies of the sets, but her pervasive sense of loneliness is always evident, and she bears the crushing knowledge that she’ll be forever trapped in the body of a young woman. Spanning the course of about 20 years leading up to the rise of Hitler, this bitingly witty and darkly vibrant concoction features an irresistible heroine, and the gorgeous, lush writing easily conjures the grit and glamour of golden age Hollywood. Maddy’s story is crass, lyrical, and even tragic. Cameos by Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff will undoubtedly delight film buffs, as will the meticulously researched depiction of the dawn of filmmaking. Agent: Noah Ballard, Curtis Brown Ltd. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A dreamy, mysterious waltz with the famous monsters of filmland. Tatum brings an insider’s knowledge of the movie biz, and his love letter to America’s great national obsession with the horror movie is caustic, hilarious and terrifying. This glittering new novel is a must-read for the modern monster.” — Nick Seeley, author of Cambodia Noir

"This bitingly witty and darkly vibrant concoction features an irresistible heroine, and the gorgeous, lush writing easily conjures the grit and glamour of golden age Hollywood. Maddy’s story is crass, lyrical, and even tragic.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[T]horoughly entertaining, assisted hugely by Tatum’s erudite first-person prose and fierce commitment to his ambitious, outlandish premise.” — Booklist

“Classic horror buffs will race through this novel that blends historical fiction with uncanny elements of the gothic. A perfect read for Halloween, Tatum’s debut is a surprisingly poetic, witty love note to a bygone age of cinema.” — BookPage

From the Publisher

Classic horror buffs will race through this novel that blends historical fiction with uncanny elements of the gothic. A perfect read for Halloween, Tatum’s debut is a surprisingly poetic, witty love note to a bygone age of cinema.

BookPage

A dreamy, mysterious waltz with the famous monsters of filmland. Tatum brings an insider’s knowledge of the movie biz, and his love letter to America’s great national obsession with the horror movie is caustic, hilarious and terrifying. This glittering new novel is a must-read for the modern monster.

Nick Seeley

[T]horoughly entertaining, assisted hugely by Tatum’s erudite first-person prose and fierce commitment to his ambitious, outlandish premise.

Booklist

[T]horoughly entertaining, assisted hugely by Tatum’s erudite first-person prose and fierce commitment to his ambitious, outlandish premise.

Booklist

09/15/2016
As a child, Maddy Ulm wakes in a shallow grave near Vienna, her mouth sewn shut. She claws her way out, almost dies again, and finally finds refuge with a group of traveling players. Maddie is now an undead, never aging, and living a shadowy existence. From those early primitive theatricals she moves on to the fledgling German film industry and eventually to Hollywood at the dawn of the talking picture. Maddie's unnatural nature gives her an affinity for the horror genre, and she becomes the driving force behind classics such as Dracula and Frankenstein. She mixes with icons including Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney, but while she craves acclaim and success, her childlike appearance keeps her under the radar. The prose, while occasionally quite stylish, is slightly overstuffed. This problem smooths out as the story shifts into gear and the pathos of Maddy's being pulls readers in. VERDICT Fans of early film, especially of the horror variety, will be satisfied by this uneven yet intriguing novel by actor (Powder) and author (The Monster's Muse) Tatum.—MM

Library Journal

2016-08-01
One of the undead becomes the secret cinematic muse of 1920s Berlin and 1930s Hollywood in this historical fantasy.After a nightmarish childhood, Maddy survives both the Spanish Flu epidemic and the Great War when an encounter with what appears to be a werewolf leaves her in possession of eternal life. Her travels bring her in contact with the filmmakers who were pioneering the great flowering of German cinema during the silent era. Maddy works as consultant, actress, and director, specializing in ways to harness the visual language of film to poetic renderings of horror. Because she appears to be a young girl, though, she has no way of leveraging her accomplishments into a major directing career. The same is true when success brings her to Hollywood, though she does encounter the architects of early screen horror, the directors James Whale and Tod Browning and the actors Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff (that lovely actor who is lovingly drawn). There's a great idea at the heart of this: that an emissary from the undead is best suited to call forth the eternal poetry of movies, the stories and images that will outlast those who made them. But the opening section detailing Maddy's early years is a heavy-spirited slog, the later detour to Nazi Germany an unpleasant lapse in taste, and the book never quite finds the right tone, failing to marry the Hollywood legend and history of the industry's early years to the yearning, necrophiliac lyricism of the concept. This novel often speaks in beautiful language. Why, oh, why doesn't it sing?

Kirkus Review