Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

118 reviews

briangevine's review

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gore, Violence, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Infertility, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Mental illness, Child death, and Animal cruelty

lovelymisanthrope's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I selected this title as a Book of the Month pick.
"The Last Word" is a fast-paced thriller that follows Emma Carpenter and her golden retriever, Laika, as Emma house sits for a woman named Jules in a beachfront property. With nothing else to do, Emma spends her days reading, and after she posts a negative review of a book, she feels like she is being stalked by the author. Can her and Laika make it through the night alive, or will she become just like the victims in the author's gruesome horror novels?
In true Taylor Adams fashion, this book is graphic, gruesome, and really made me uncomfortable at times. I was so anxious throughout my reading experience because I kept waiting for something to happen to Laika and I was distraught. My anxiety hindered my enjoyment of the novel because I CANNOT read about an animal dying, and I was so worried the whole time.
Emma is a complex character, and I enjoyed reading from her perspective most of the time. Some of her rationale felt a little too convenient to propel the story forward, but I really enjoyed uncovering why she was running away from her life. I also adored her love for Laika. She did everything to save her dog, and I loved seeing their interactions together.
The big twist of who Kane, the author turned stalker, was turned out kind of interesting, but I also felt like I saw it coming.
My favorite aspect of this novel is that Taylor Adams presented this timely discourse about whether an author should be on review platforms. On the one hand, an author could use reviews to help them better hone their craft and listen to what their readers want from them in the future. On the other hand, a review platform is supposed to be safe place for readers to share their thoughts. I really enjoyed seeing this idea manipulated into a story.
Taylor Adams is definitely talented at what he does, and I will continue to pick him up in the future! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Child death, Murder, Violence, Death, Mental illness, Torture, Stalking, Physical abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident

cyndi1966's review

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Self harm

Moderate: Stalking, Murder, Infertility, Car accident, Gun violence, and Alcoholism

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Gun violence, and Confinement

Minor: Child death

jkpiowa's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident and Infertility

Minor: Alcoholism and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

kristiebringhurst's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Sexism

drquinnreads's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Child death, Violence, and Car accident

kcrockford's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, and Infertility

Minor: Eating disorder, Murder, and Stalking

honey_coated_chapters's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

°:. *₊ ° . ° .•

𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 2//5 

𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔: 327

𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: thriller/suspense 

𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔: 

•isolated setting

•determined MC

•multiple bad guys 

𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆: slasher films (think: scream and the strangers) and deep diving into Reddit threads about murder mysteries, incels and books. 

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First and most importantly — the dog doesn’t die. Now, this book was hard to rate because I actually did enjoy it, the plot is wildly different and over the top like a real slasher but, towards the middle it got so incredibly repetitive I had to put it down. Yes she’s running from the bad guy, yes there’s no way out, yes he’s outsmarted her again and thought of every conceivable way to keep her how does he keep doing that? My oh my. 

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It was good in that — I felt the tension and I was genuinely finding myself rooting for our main character to make it through. I also absolutely love slashers and this definitely gave me a nice suspenseful vibe. The killer was absolutely disgusting — the author did a tremendous job in making this guy gross and detestable. There’s a twist towards the end I saw coming, was briefly dispelled and then came to light, so that was wonderfully written. Aside from the repetitiveness, the ending made me really upset, but I’ll give it to the author that it was impeccably written… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Infertility, and Suicide

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Vomit, Death, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Car accident, Infertility, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Violence