Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Last Word

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

184 reviews

greatestheights's review against another edition

2.0

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I refuse to hide this extremely spoilery review for this very important reason: The dog survives! The book will spend an almost cruel amount of time trying to convince you otherwise, though, so be warned.

More spoilers from here on out, as I bravely dare to rate and review a thriller about a murderous writer going after the bored, grieving woman who roasted his book on Amazon. I too am bored and grieving, but this is Goodreads, and I promise not to be too mean.

Anyway.

I am once again absolutely begging thriller writers to please, for the love of God, stop writing villains with mental illness. It is not the fun plot device you think it is! I've known and cared for two people who have Howard's diagnosis, and it's not a goddamn punch line. People with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of it. Too, Howard's diagnosis was a red herring. It added nothing to his character except to perpetuate a bunch of gross stereotypes.

That aside, I enjoyed a lot of things about this book. It was entertaining, creepy, full of twists, and the aforementioned (alive!) dog should have been the narrator. I also spent a ton of time rolling my eyes, sending screenshots to my best friend demanding to know how there could be so many hours left in the audiobook by the fifth time I thought it surely had to be drawing to a close, and wondering how many more times Howard was going to bisect something.

This is just a PSA to all white ladies: If you smell synthetic butter around your remote rental house and think a shadowy figure is watching you sleep, do not pass go, do not collect whatever the fuck, do not CONTINUE BLITHELY LIVING IN THE HOUSE — just leave. Also, don't play Hangman with random old men who have telescopes. Also also, how did this genius astrophysicist warrior woman not know what Hangman was?!

A BIG TW BELOW:

tw tw tw tw infant loss!!!

Idk why I keep picking up books that have surprise infant loss plotlines, but lol, I keep finding them. The detail was particularly brutal, and even though I knew it was coming, I sobbed for the last hour of this book.

Lots of other stuff to say about the plot and characters and Emma's interesting range of choices, but I've truly gone on long enough and I'm still not sure how I want to rate it. Twoish stars because...*gestures broadly*

Taylor Adams, if you're reading this, please don't murder me with a katana.

Content Warnings

morethanmylupus's review against another edition

4.0

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This entire book is a very big statement on why authors really shouldn't read reviews of their books. Reviews are for readers not for authors. This book was set on a nearly isolated coastline and both the environment and the house itself were so atmospheric and creepy. The book kept me reading as the author got more and more deranged. It's a little graphic in places, so if you prefer a cozy mystery, read cautiously.

Spoiler for those worried about the fate of dogs in books they read:

Don't worry! The dog doesn't die! I was very, very concerned, but it worked out ok. </spoiler)

Content Warnings

carissa230's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Emma is living in isolation. The only company she has is her dog and a neighbor she plays hangman with through their windows with binoculars. When the neighbor suggests she read a book, she is shocked by how much she dislikes it. She puts up a 1-star review and the author immediately responds. When she starts feeling someone in the room with her while she sleeps and thinks there is someone outside she wonders if she pushed the author too far.

This was so fast-paced. I read this book in 1 day! It's been a while since I just took in a whole book in a day. The only reason it's not a 5-star for me is I saw one of the plot twists coming and I think it was supposed to be a shocking one.

Content Warnings

noladawnreads's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

bookedupandie's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

So good! I was absolutely sucked into this story and devoured it. I felt like I was right there with the MC during her night of terror. I loved the twists and enjoyed trying to guess them before they happened. I also dreamt I was reading it the night before I finished it, which should tell you how good it was!

Content Warnings

katyannreads's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious

Content Warnings

starsbyname's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's rare for me to give a book 5 stars, but this one deserves it (and I'm not just saying that to avoid getting murdered by the author). I started this book last night, realized I had to put it down if I wanted to sleep without nightmares, picked it up again this morning and read straight through it. That's the first time that's happened in a long time, so thank you Taylor Adams!

(Also, just a note to readers like me - the dog is okay in the end :)

Content Warnings

mflynn8908's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The main character irritated me right from the start. She seemed rude, annoying and overall just mean however, once you learn her back story you understand why.
I did guess what was going to happen about 50% into the story but the author had some twists towards the end that made me second guess if I was correct or not so it did keep me invested in reading the story.
This is the second book I’ve read from this author so far and I can say that I actually enjoyed this one much more than I enjoyed no exit.

Content Warnings