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A review by lifeonasofa
The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean
5.0
I want to just state that I’d give this book a 4.5 stars but it’s not an option on here unfortunately.
TRIGGER WARNING: this book contains A LOT of unpleasant topics being based around abduction and captivity. R*pe, Tort*re, Human Traff*cking, Emotional/Mental and Physical V*olence, Slav*ry.
Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so caught up in a thriller. It’s my fav genre but they can get repetitive or predictable. Whilst I can agree it’s SIMILAR to other captive reads such as Room or Misery ect, this book really has its place alongside them.
Firstly, Will Deans writing was brilliant. I found that I read this book SO quickly. 1 because it wasn’t unnecessarily long. 2 I couldn’t just leave at the end of a chapter, I always felt a pull to carry on. 3 it was written in such a way that I just read FAST but didn’t miss a thing. Brilliant skills.
Secondly, I think writing a book about immigration has a place in the book market. Is it for everyone? Not at all. But this kind of thing DOES happen and it made it all the more terrifying and soul destroying honestly. It just added to all my emotions whilst reading. And love that helplines ect are found at the end of the book too.
Thirdly, the book did its job. It’s was horrific, it was a tough topic but I just couldn’t stop reading. There was always a small glimmer of hope that just kept me wanting to read. As a thriller it was truly thrilling. It made me feel very uncomfortable but still delivered great character development and action packed plot. Even the ‘boring’ parts of each day made me so anxious, I had to keep going!
I felt things, I understood actions and thoughts and that can be really hard to do in such a dark book. I felt close to Thanh Dao, I felt hopeless for Cynth and honestly DESPISED Lenn through to my core. I could really picture the farm house, the land, the pig pens ect. It’s brilliant that a book can deliver all that with such an intense plot.
I would have to give 4.5 stars as I did find a couple of things repeated a little too often for my liking. I understand this is probably due to the fact that it was constantly the same day to day for all our characters but it wasn’t adding to the story really. The escape was brilliant but do agree fields are a very interesting place for fast pace action.
Absolutely brilliant. I recommend for anyone into dark thrillers. But I mean DARK. It’s defo one of the most brutal thrillers I’ve read, bordering horror.
TRIGGER WARNING: this book contains A LOT of unpleasant topics being based around abduction and captivity. R*pe, Tort*re, Human Traff*cking, Emotional/Mental and Physical V*olence, Slav*ry.
Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so caught up in a thriller. It’s my fav genre but they can get repetitive or predictable. Whilst I can agree it’s SIMILAR to other captive reads such as Room or Misery ect, this book really has its place alongside them.
Firstly, Will Deans writing was brilliant. I found that I read this book SO quickly. 1 because it wasn’t unnecessarily long. 2 I couldn’t just leave at the end of a chapter, I always felt a pull to carry on. 3 it was written in such a way that I just read FAST but didn’t miss a thing. Brilliant skills.
Secondly, I think writing a book about immigration has a place in the book market. Is it for everyone? Not at all. But this kind of thing DOES happen and it made it all the more terrifying and soul destroying honestly. It just added to all my emotions whilst reading. And love that helplines ect are found at the end of the book too.
Thirdly, the book did its job. It’s was horrific, it was a tough topic but I just couldn’t stop reading. There was always a small glimmer of hope that just kept me wanting to read. As a thriller it was truly thrilling. It made me feel very uncomfortable but still delivered great character development and action packed plot. Even the ‘boring’ parts of each day made me so anxious, I had to keep going!
I felt things, I understood actions and thoughts and that can be really hard to do in such a dark book. I felt close to Thanh Dao, I felt hopeless for Cynth and honestly DESPISED Lenn through to my core. I could really picture the farm house, the land, the pig pens ect. It’s brilliant that a book can deliver all that with such an intense plot.
I would have to give 4.5 stars as I did find a couple of things repeated a little too often for my liking. I understand this is probably due to the fact that it was constantly the same day to day for all our characters but it wasn’t adding to the story really. The escape was brilliant but do agree fields are a very interesting place for fast pace action.
Absolutely brilliant. I recommend for anyone into dark thrillers. But I mean DARK. It’s defo one of the most brutal thrillers I’ve read, bordering horror.