Reviews

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

alanadurand's review against another edition

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1.0

Here’s a scathing review of a book with a main character who gives a scathing review. Until the final acknowledgments that proved otherwise, I genuinely hoped the author designed this as an meta experience for the reader.

This was very bad. Most of it felt like a child telling a story they made up on the spot, or a middle schooler stretching sentences for an assigned word count on a class paper. It had some of the weakest character development I’ve ever wasted time reading. The story-embedded-in-the-story was sloppy and indulgent. It was worse than predictable: parts of it could be guessed in advance and the rest I just didn’t care about one way or the other. The throwaway element of mental illness was cheap and irresponsible.

I feel bad writing a review this bad, but I owe it to myself and the dozen times I muttered “this is really bad” throughout.

Would not recommend.

hangrymomma's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.5

chelseariddle's review against another edition

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3.0

Decent cat and mouse game- I loved the perspectives, you think you know what’s going on the entire time but still some surprises!

shaib3's review

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2.0

DNF’d at 53%

sheridankedwards's review against another edition

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4.0

Y’all I legitimately have so many feelings about this book! I debated about going 3 or 4 stars, but decided on 4 due to the sheer creativity and interest of the plot. A crazed killer whose penchant for writing gruesome “fiction” lands him at the doorstep of a woman who gave his latest slasher novel a one-star review. She’s thrust into a real-life horror scene as she struggles to survive the night. The book unfortunately tries to do a LOT - too much from my POV - and I have so many questions still. But, it’s a lot of fun, the protagonist is deeply likable, and I LOVE that the villain is an incel. I recommend as long as you’re able to practice suspending your disbelief!

kmesser's review against another edition

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4.0

The Last Word is everything I want in a summer thriller. This book is fast paced, fun, raises your blood pressure and keeps you turning the pages needing to know what happens next. Now, I'm not a huge thriller reader, and this one requires you to suspend disbelief, but if you can do that, you will have a blast.

Emma is housesitting a home for the summer with Laika, the world's best golden retriever, while she lives in insolation working through some grief. One of her coping mechanisms is to read amazon review books. One day she reads a terrible horror novel and leaves a negative review, causing the author to contact her and threaten her into removing the review. When Emma refuses, the author takes matters into his own hands. The action starts almost immediately and I had to know what happened to the point of reading this within 24 hours.

For the animal lovers out there, the dog does not die and there are some trigger warnings for animal harm. I want to be completely transparent that there were tough parts involving Laika to read and if you are sensitive to that at all, please proceed with caution.

All in all a solid summer thriller and so much fun to read.

kittyray18's review against another edition

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4.0

This book makes you laugh and makes you anxious at the same time. Spoiler alert - The dog does not die because a lot of my anxiety was around that. Really good lots of twists.

yogagirldev's review against another edition

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4.0

Wow… wow… went into this book having no clue what I was in for!! I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time reading this book. Having only read this novel by Taylor Adams, I cant say it was his best but damn am I excited and nervous to read No Exit soon! Definitely would recommend this thriller!

marisbookstagram's review against another edition

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3.0

A story within a story - really interesting concept and unique storyline. Couldn’t compare this to any book I read before even if I wanted to! It was a great book but somehow not for me, that’s why I didn’t want to rate it.

valeriecanread's review against another edition

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4.0

Gripping and fast-paced cat and mouse story. This book was basically a series of gotcha moments, where you’re lead to believe one thing happened but end up getting the rug pulled out from under you every time. Loved the isolated coastal setting. Makes me never want to write a bad review for a book online ever again.