Review by doodlebeanz - The Last Party

doodlebeanz 's review for:

The Last Party by A.R. Torre

4.0

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

PLEASE READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE GOING INTO THIS BOOK! IT IS DARK AND VERY VERY FUCKED UP! PROTECT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH YA'LL!

I am sticking with a 4 star for now, but I feel that by the end of this review, it will drop down to a 3.5 star rating. This book was a wild ride from the first page. I knew it was a story about a woman who was obsessed with a serial killer, but I did not expect this sort of plot to play out. I expected a woman who was obsessed with a killer who was in prison; maybe having correspondence with him and visitation... but this was a whole other can of worms. I am happy that I went in relatively blind though, just knowing there was a serial killer link. I don't think I even read the description of the book! I saw someone I trust (as far as book recs go) recommend it on Instagram and I immediately downloaded it since I had seen it floating around GoodReads a few times before. I am happy I did!

Perla one of, if not the worst, characters I have ever read about. She is diabolical, narcissistic, sociopathic and psychotic. Usually in thrillers that center around family units, either the husband or the child are the problems and the mother is an innocent bystander. This is not the case with Perla. She is utterly heinous. Her inner dialogue was appalling and deplorable.

The way she was jealous of her child, who was 11 years old, and the way she saw the world was... terrifying.

Some people are just born wrong and Perla was one of those children. I don't even think it's a matter of nature vs nurture, I think Perla was just a bad egg. She was a born psychopath. I do think Sophie got some of her insanity as well, but it's left up to the reader to decide if she would grow up to become similar in all ways to her mother.

Grant was just a perfect target for Perla and her games. I felt badly for him, he was so brainwashed and lost in his own grief that he couldn't see the forest for the trees, or he just didn't want to.

Who would marry the daughter of the man who (allegedly) killed his sister? There was just so much to unbox there psychologically, and he was just a grieving sad man who was projecting his love for his dead sister on his wife, who survived the same attack.

It was honestly sad, reading about Grant from Perla's POV, he seemed like a genuinely good guy.

I knew the twist almost immediately, knowing that

Perla was the one who did the murders and her father tried to kill her to save her and then took the fall because he loved her

, but that did not even matter. The story was SO well written that I was so absorbed and worried about everything happening, there being this creepy undertone the entire time that definitely gave me goosebumps more than once, so the fact that I caught on early on wasn't even a negative thing. I actually think it made it creepier, which is maybe why the twist is kinda obvious so early on.

The first few chapters were a bit confusing, getting into the way the story was formatted and written. For some reason, I was confused by what was going on. There isn't much introduction to the characters, it's like I was thrown into a show mid season if that makes sense. It was as if I should know things about the characters but I was only on the first chapter. But once I got used to the writing style, it started making a lot more sense and it sucked me in entirely.

My gripes with this book and why it did not get a full 5 star rating from me was the unrealistic-ness of it, how more things weren't discussed more/tied up nicely

(i.e., Perla's therapist knowing she was a narcissist and that she was lying [how long did she know? What was going to be her approach?], the whole Paige the nanny falling for the crime sub-plot in Perla's head didn't make much sense, the entire night of the second attempted murder with Grant confronting Perla and fighting for the knife and just killing her easily, the letters that Leewood had saved for Sophie...)

.

Like in most thrillers/books nowadays, endings are always abrupt and they are either tied up in too perfect of a bow where everything came together too perfectly and it leaves the reader disappointed... or the author goes for this ambiguous, leave it up in the air with no closure and tying things up only half way which still leaves the reader disappointed. This book was SO good at explaining things in pieces, and I thought I'd get full explanations and I did for *some* questions, but others were just... kind of talked about.

Was Leewood actually a pedophile or did Perla make that up in her head? Was Perla in love with her father? I felt that it was speculated a lot, but never fully discussed. The book also talks about how Leewood and Perla had an inappropriate relationship, where Perla acted like the wife, was that one sided or did Leewood play into that? Why did we never hear from the therapist again? I would've loved to read her POV, since we only got Perla's and she was so sure of herself that she was tricking the therapist and everyone around her, when in reality, her thoughts of grandeur and how intelligent and smart and cunning she is was just in her own head. I would've loved to have at least a chapter from the therapist's POV, as she realized (right away? After 1 session? After 3?) that Perla was a con-artist and was a total narcissist. Also, what were in the letters that Leewood left for Sophie? Is Sophie just going to grow up to be like Perla? Why did they even introduce the nanny?

Just so many things didn't add up and they weren't explained and that is always SO annoying to me.<

Content Warnings