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A review by apriladventuring
The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
📚 2024 #13: “The Last Thing to Burn” by Will Dean
📕 This book is a thriller about a Vietnamese named Thanh who has taken a chance to move to the UK in the hopes that she can earn enough money to send back home to her parents. She ends up married to a farmer that treats his pigs better than he treats her. She's unable to leave and is under constant surveillance. Her only motivation for staying alive is to help her family, including a younger sister. Her sister was also brought to the UK and sends Thanh occasional letters describing her life working in a nail salon. Thanh can only hope that one day they're able to save enough money and return to their family in Vietnam.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5: This was a different thriller in that it shows us a glimpse of the very real atrocities of human trafficking. Thanh is basically an indentured servant to her husband. He slowly removes her very identity by destroying one of her possessions anytime she upsets him, from an original 17 items to none at all. There were some thriller tropes in here and much of the story was a slow burn, but there was one moment that actually made me gasp. It felt sorta wrong to be reading fiction for pleasure when the subject matter is something so serious in our world?
🤓 You should read this if you liked "The Drowning Woman" by Robyn Harding or "The Overnight Guest" by Heather Gudenkauf.
📕 This book is a thriller about a Vietnamese named Thanh who has taken a chance to move to the UK in the hopes that she can earn enough money to send back home to her parents. She ends up married to a farmer that treats his pigs better than he treats her. She's unable to leave and is under constant surveillance. Her only motivation for staying alive is to help her family, including a younger sister. Her sister was also brought to the UK and sends Thanh occasional letters describing her life working in a nail salon. Thanh can only hope that one day they're able to save enough money and return to their family in Vietnam.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5: This was a different thriller in that it shows us a glimpse of the very real atrocities of human trafficking. Thanh is basically an indentured servant to her husband. He slowly removes her very identity by destroying one of her possessions anytime she upsets him, from an original 17 items to none at all. There were some thriller tropes in here and much of the story was a slow burn, but there was one moment that actually made me gasp. It felt sorta wrong to be reading fiction for pleasure when the subject matter is something so serious in our world?
🤓 You should read this if you liked "The Drowning Woman" by Robyn Harding or "The Overnight Guest" by Heather Gudenkauf.