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A review by jbellomy
The Last Laugh by Mindy McGinnis
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Mindy does not give a single fuck. I don't even know what else to say. This blew me away. I wish I was more familiar with Poe because I definitely did not catch all the allusions -- in fact, my dumb ass didn't fully realize this duology was an homage to Poe until like halfway through this book. (yes i know it's in the description for the first book; i didn't read that. i see mindy mcginnis, i pick up the book.) Gonna go read some wiki articles but, again, hot damn am I glad to be living during Mindy McGinnis's career.
Edit: trying to catalogue all the Poe references while this is still fresh. Here goes:
**The Cask of Amontillado**
- name of the town
- names of leads: Montresor (Tress Montor) and Fortunado (Felicity Turnado)
- Montresor feels that Fortunado has committed a series of wrongs against him
- Montresor lures Fortunado into the catacombs under the pretense of wine (parallels the drug deal)
- Fortunado is ill and intoxicated as Montresor seals him into the niche
**The Black Cat**
- panther is black and referred to as "Cat" :)
- like Tress's grandpa, the narrator has had many animals. He becomes an alcoholic and mistreats the animals.
- narrator's house burns down
- replacement cat
- hiding a dead body (or in McGinnis's case, a presumed dead body) in a wall
- living being walled in & later rescued (a la Felicity)
**The Fall of the House of Usher**
- Last name, & Ribbit = Roderick
- catalepsy -- Felicity has seizures (also in "Berenice")
- Dilapidated house
- Mysterious lake adjacent to Usher house
- Madeline = Maddie (although no similarity, character-wise)
**Anabel Lee**
- Names: the first names of Tress's parents
- "highborn kinsman came and bore her away from me" -- Tress's parents are killed by the mother's family, who are basically nobility
- "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side // Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, // In the sepulchre there by the sea, // In her tomb by the sounding sea." -- the parents' bodies rest at the bottom of the lake.
**Tell-Tale Heart**
- phantom heartbeats, baby!!!
- single clouded eye (Cecil)
- narrator plots murder even though he supposedly likes his victim (Ribbit & Cecil)
- again, hiding a body in the structure of a house
- overwhelming paranoia
**The Raven**
- school mascot
- Tress says "nevermore"
- from wiki: "The narrator experiences a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember" -- relevant to both Tress and Felicity
**Murders in the Rue Morgue**
- name Rue
- "Ourang-Outang"
**Ligeia**
- one blonde blue-eyed woman, one "raven-haired," dark-eyed woman
- the panther sees Felicity and Tress as one being; Rowena transforms into Ligeia
**Mask of the Red Death**
- brutal illness takes hold of partygoers
- ominous clock chiming every hour
**The Cask of Amontillado**
- name of the town
- names of leads: Montresor (Tress Montor) and Fortunado (Felicity Turnado)
- Montresor feels that Fortunado has committed a series of wrongs against him
- Montresor lures Fortunado into the catacombs under the pretense of wine (parallels the drug deal)
- Fortunado is ill and intoxicated as Montresor seals him into the niche
**The Black Cat**
- panther is black and referred to as "Cat" :)
- like Tress's grandpa, the narrator has had many animals. He becomes an alcoholic and mistreats the animals.
- narrator's house burns down
- replacement cat
- hiding a dead body (or in McGinnis's case, a presumed dead body) in a wall
- living being walled in & later rescued (a la Felicity)
**The Fall of the House of Usher**
- Last name, & Ribbit = Roderick
- catalepsy -- Felicity has seizures (also in "Berenice")
- Dilapidated house
- Mysterious lake adjacent to Usher house
- Madeline = Maddie (although no similarity, character-wise)
**Anabel Lee**
- Names: the first names of Tress's parents
- "highborn kinsman came and bore her away from me" -- Tress's parents are killed by the mother's family, who are basically nobility
- "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side // Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, // In the sepulchre there by the sea, // In her tomb by the sounding sea." -- the parents' bodies rest at the bottom of the lake.
**Tell-Tale Heart**
- phantom heartbeats, baby!!!
- single clouded eye (Cecil)
- narrator plots murder even though he supposedly likes his victim (Ribbit & Cecil)
- again, hiding a body in the structure of a house
- overwhelming paranoia
**The Raven**
- school mascot
- Tress says "nevermore"
- from wiki: "The narrator experiences a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember" -- relevant to both Tress and Felicity
**Murders in the Rue Morgue**
- name Rue
- "Ourang-Outang"
**Ligeia**
- one blonde blue-eyed woman, one "raven-haired," dark-eyed woman
- the panther sees Felicity and Tress as one being; Rowena transforms into Ligeia
**Mask of the Red Death**
- brutal illness takes hold of partygoers
- ominous clock chiming every hour
"And the lynx which dwelleth forever in the tomb, came out therefrom, and lay down at the feet of the Demon, and looked at him steadily in the face." - last line of "Silence: A Fable"