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cyndi1966's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Infertility, Stalking, Car accident, and Murder
Minor: Child death
pomoevareads's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Broken-hearted Emma Carpenter is given a horror book to read by her neighbour where she is housesitting on the Washington state coast. She regularly communicates with the neighbour via a whiteboard and telescope. Emma would end things if it were not for her beautiful golden retriever, Laika, named after the dog sent out to space. The book-it’s terrible, and she leaves a one star review for the author. Then strange things start happening and Emma doesn’t know if she is paranoid or if the author has come after her for her poor review.
Pick a weapon, and it was likely used in this book. Full of jump starts and twists and reminiscent of 80s final girl films, The Last Word has received many rave reviews. Throw in the possible harm of an animal and you lose my trust.
I was excited to read this book based on the premise but it fell a bit flat for me. It borders on horror which I am not a fan of so perhaps I was not the intended audience for this one. Please check out other reviewers’ glowing reviews as it has a fast-paced and thrilling plot line that many will enjoy. I really enjoyed No Exit and Hairpin Bridge and will read what the author writes next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death
beyourbestshelf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder
Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Car accident, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
greatestheights's review against another edition
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
2.0
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.
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
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism and Bullying
thehappylittleelf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This book is pretty dumb. I think it's intentionally mean to be dumb? Which makes it even more dumb. If you're going to have an intentionally dumb book, make it 100 pages at the longest. I was just waiting for it to end. It drags on soooooooo muccccccccch. I kept thinking I was near the end, and then I realized I still had 200 pages to go.
This is the perfect example of the advice, "shut your brain off at the door". Nothing in the plot makes sense at all. You MUST shut your brain off, because if you give it two seconds of thought, everything crumbles.
Is it meant to be a parody? I don't know. It's not really that funny. The lines are cringey at best.
Some things to note:
Mental illness is, once again, vilified. The main murderous killer is said to have schizoaffective disorder, which is supposed to be an explanation for his actions. So, if you're looking for books that try to bust mental health stigma, this ain't it. I suppose the book tries to dodge it later by trying to claim that the guy didn't really *want* to kill, he was just manipulated into killing, but I don't think that helps.
I think this book came 30 years too late. Go watch the movie Scream instead. It did the exact same thing in the 90s way way better.
This is the perfect example of the advice, "shut your brain off at the door". Nothing in the plot makes sense at all. You MUST shut your brain off, because if you give it two seconds of thought, everything crumbles.
Is it meant to be a parody? I don't know. It's not really that funny. The lines are cringey at best.
Some things to note:
I think this book came 30 years too late. Go watch the movie Scream instead. It did the exact same thing in the 90s way way better.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism and Mental illness
mflynn8908's review against another edition
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
4.0
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.
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
Graphic: Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death and Car accident
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
minimicropup's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Determined, calamitous, suspenseful
We are following our MC house-sitting someone's vacation house for the winter and another person who has been watching our MC and scheming. Ominous events happen over the course of the MCs stay catalyzed by their one-star review of a self-published horror/thriller book.
- Set in winter along an isolated stretch of coast in Washington, USA
🔔 Somehow the narration on the audio wasn't working for me. I think it just killed the suspense / darkness. The narrator wasn't bad, just maybe not a book that was good on audio for me personally.
🙃 Oops:
No rating because this genre / plot just isn't for me (not b/c I'm scared to rate this, I swear 😉). I knew the genre and plot going in, so I wasn't mislead, I just had a serious case of FOMO when this was released. It's heavy on the action/adventure fight-for-your life plot so I had to skim a bit as I usually do for this genre, and I can't tell if it's because some scenes are too drawn out or because I always lose interest too quickly. The later part of the plot made me feel exhausted, but it wasn't OTT or poorly done, just taxing for me! I loved the tongue-in-cheek humour sprinkled throughout, meaningful commentary on the impact of book reviews and thriller/suspense/horror tropes, and creative narrative POVs.
No rating because this genre / plot just isn't for me (not b/c I'm scared to rate this, I swear 😉). I knew the genre and plot going in, so I wasn't mislead, I just had a serious case of FOMO when this was released. It's heavy on the action/adventure fight-for-your life plot so I had to skim a bit as I usually do for this genre, and I can't tell if it's because some scenes are too drawn out or because I always lose interest too quickly. The later part of the plot made me feel exhausted, but it wasn't OTT or poorly done, just taxing for me! I loved the tongue-in-cheek humour sprinkled throughout, meaningful commentary on the impact of book reviews and thriller/suspense/horror tropes, and creative narrative POVs.
Mood Reading Match Up:
- Home invasion fight-for-your-life survival trope
- Tragedy guiding character development
- Isolated locked-ish room suspense thriller
- Action-adventure fight/hide/flee scenes
Content Heads-Up: Home invasion and stalking. Death of a child. Car accident. [No pet deaths].
Format: Scribd Audio and Kindle
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
Minor: Animal cruelty
Animal cruelty is on page involving a dog, but for peace of mind it is via close calls, without gratuitous physical violenceruthypoo2's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Car accident, and Death of parent
soobooksalot's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Taylor Adams has pretty much guaranteed himself all-positive reviews for his latest book. No one-star ratings here!
The Last Word is a genuinely gripping thriller. Like, whip-through-the-pages good.
You've got an off-kilter author of some crappy horror novels, a reader giving a one-star review, a secluded beach house and some sneaky secrets.
The Last Word is right back to the fantastic cinema-ready thriller Taylor Adams established in No Exit. There's some awesome twisty creepiness here!
Unplug that landline and sharpen your katana - recommended!
The Last Word is a genuinely gripping thriller. Like, whip-through-the-pages good.
You've got an off-kilter author of some crappy horror novels, a reader giving a one-star review, a secluded beach house and some sneaky secrets.
The Last Word is right back to the fantastic cinema-ready thriller Taylor Adams established in No Exit. There's some awesome twisty creepiness here!
Unplug that landline and sharpen your katana - recommended!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail