Review by nyquillll - The Last Party

nyquillll 's review for:

The Last Party by A.R. Torre

3.0

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Honestly a bit confused by the book - more so because I gave it a try to see if there are other thriller authors besides Freida and if I can enjoy some or why I might not. I really do think I can’t hang with the pacing, because even though this book probably took place over a couple of months, it felt so dragged out for the penultimate scene of the party, which I know you’re building suspense for. But the how the book wraps up kind of felt slow and fast at the same time too?

I did like how the author put thought into the intricacies of how all the characters would relate to one another. Some I followed the bread crumbs and others I was surprised by. I also really loved actually how each chapter started with a statement from someone being interviewed - so you get a taste of the present and of the future after the crime has occurred. I will say at about the 40% mark, I already

predicted that it wouldn’t be the kids who were killed, I actually wasn’t sure if things would go a 180 and the daughter would have a psychotic break of sorts

. I think there was a lot of care and intention put into the morally gray and just morally black characters - and it also was interesting to play out the dynamic of how far someone would go to protect their daughter, as a parent, and then what that protection would entail.

Also this book had way darker themes than I would’ve imagined. There might have been some content warnings the author made? But I usually don’t look at those before - so if anyone is sensitive to that, I’d say definitely check the content and trigger warnings.

Content Warnings