As you probably already know, I am a member of a book club where four of us girls (plus from February one guy as a new member) pick a book or two and read it together, while discuss it all along as we read.
2024 didn’t start on a good note, as both books we read in January weren’t that good.
Today I bring you my review for a book that got lot of hype at one point in 2023. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of it, but at least my FOMO was cured.
The Last Word was published on April 25th 2023 and it has 340 pages.
About the book:
FROM GOODREADS /
After posting a negative book review, a woman living in a remote location begins to wonder if the author is a little touchy—or very, very dangerous—in this pulse-pounding novel of psychological suspense and terror from the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and Hairpin Bridge.
Emma Carpenter lives in isolation with her golden retriever Laika, house-sitting an old beachfront home on the rainy Washington coast. Her only human contact is her enigmatic old neighbor, Deek, and (via text) the house’s owner, Jules.
One day, she reads a poorly written—but gruesome—horror novel by the author H. G. Kane, and posts a one-star review that drags her into an online argument with none other than the author himself. Soon after, disturbing incidents start to occur at night. To Emma, this can’t just be a coincidence. It was strange enough for this author to bicker with her online about a lousy review; could he be stalking her, too?
As Emma digs into Kane’s life and work, she learns he has published sixteen other novels, all similarly sadistic tales of stalking and murder. But who is he? How did he find her? And what else is he capable of?
Review:
This was a January pick for our book club and unfortunately 2024 didn’t start well.
The Last Word was a mess, and the book we read after this one was even worse.
I would like to say that this novel started promising. The writing style was good, slow but interesting, and it was easy for me to connect with Emma.
She was a loner, clearly suffering with depression after a tragic event in her life.
I could understand why she chose solitude and comfort in this new, boring way of living (if you can call it that).
However, with part 2 being written in a different way, all the connection I had for the story and our MC slowly but surely fell down the drain.
It’s not even about the choices Emma made, it was mainly the writing style.
All of the sudden beautiful prose was replaced with harsh storytelling, with more action that in Terminator movies.
At one point so much was going on that it made puree in my brain, it was too much to handle.
Especially as I didn’t enjoy the story anyway, nor did I like the characters enough.
The closer to the end we were, my connection to the story was less and less there, until it faded completely.
The last few chapters were pure torture and I couldn’t wait to be done with it and move on.
The only reason I decided to finish The Last Word is because my FOMO activated, just like it does every time I take part in buddy reads.
If anyone asks me, this book got more hype then it deserved.
Book Dust Magic 