The Last Word by Taylor Adams on April 25, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Crime, Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 352
Format: eBook, Hardcover
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“Anticipation is always worse than reality. Always.”
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. But 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?
Another intense, suspenseful, action packed novel for Adams. He does such a fantastic job of getting my anxiety to sky rocket. This book does require a lot of suspension of disbelief. But it’s wildly entertaining and keeps up a decent pace throughout, throwing in a few surprises and twists along the way. I didn’t buy a lot of what happened, but the whole premise is so wild and tongue-in-cheek that I have to give the writer props for that. I won’t say too much more for fear of spoilers but know that the story all comes together brilliantly and poignantly. I nearly threw the book across the room at several points when the story wasn’t going the way I wanted.
I gave this novel a four star rating, and no, not because I am too scared to write a one star review 🙂 I adore the premise of this book and anyone who reads and reviews novels will too.