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A review by tvolkert
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I really enjoyed this book! I had both a physical copy and the audio ARC and liked both versions. I am shocked that this has such low ratings because I enjoyed it so much! This is my book club's July book and I cannot wait to discuss it with them in a few weeks.
The narrator's voice (in the book not the audiobook narrator) is an AI that can hear all of the characters thoughts and speak to them. Because they can influence and manipulate the characters, the narrator becomes an important character as well. I thought this was a really interesting narration choice by Turton. It is so timely with the huge advances in AI/ML recently. It was fascinating to see how the AI, Abi, manipulates the characters into doing what it thinks is best. Niema questions at one point whether she (the creator of the AI) is in control, or if Abi is the one controlling her. I loved not knowing.
It took until 15-20% of the way in for me to feel like I understood who the characters were and what was happening. This seems intentional because we get very short chapters that switch between many POVs. Because this is a mystery, that feeling of not know what is happening worked for me. But I could see why others may not like how long it takes to grasp the world. Once everything starts to pick up I was hooked. There are lots of fun twists and turns (some I saw coming and some that came out of left field).
Now for the audiobook narration, I did enjoy the narrator but I was surprised that the narrator was a man when the story's narrator, Abi, is described with she/her pronouns and because most of the characters are women. I guess an AI does not really have a gender though, even if we refer to it as such. Aside from my initial surprise, I liked the narration.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing an eARC of this audiobook!
The narrator's voice (in the book not the audiobook narrator) is an AI that can hear all of the characters thoughts and speak to them. Because they can influence and manipulate the characters, the narrator becomes an important character as well. I thought this was a really interesting narration choice by Turton. It is so timely with the huge advances in AI/ML recently. It was fascinating to see how the AI, Abi, manipulates the characters into doing what it thinks is best. Niema questions at one point whether she (the creator of the AI) is in control, or if Abi is the one controlling her. I loved not knowing.
It took until 15-20% of the way in for me to feel like I understood who the characters were and what was happening. This seems intentional because we get very short chapters that switch between many POVs. Because this is a mystery, that feeling of not know what is happening worked for me. But I could see why others may not like how long it takes to grasp the world. Once everything starts to pick up I was hooked. There are lots of fun twists and turns (some I saw coming and some that came out of left field).
Now for the audiobook narration, I did enjoy the narrator but I was surprised that the narrator was a man when the story's narrator, Abi, is described with she/her pronouns and because most of the characters are women. I guess an AI does not really have a gender though, even if we refer to it as such. Aside from my initial surprise, I liked the narration.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing an eARC of this audiobook!