The Last Word

My May Book of the Month selection was The Last Word by Taylor Adams (the other options were The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer, Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez, Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul, The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane, and Paper Names by Susie Luo). I, once again, defaulted to the thriller and I am glad that I did because this is a good one! After suffering a personal tragedy, Emma Carpenter takes a job house-sitting on an isolated island along the Washington coast. Her only human contact is Deek, an old and enigmatic neighbor with whom she plays word games from afar using a whiteboard and a telescope. She spends most of her time reading and, after finishing a poorly written horror novel by H.G. Kane, she decides to leave a one star review. She is disconcerted when the author responds to her online with a threatening message but that soon turns to fear when disturbing incidents begin happening. Emma eventually discovers that all of Kane's novels involve stalking and murder from the POV of the murderer and she suspects that they are based on true events. Is Kane stalking her and will she be the subject of his next book? The narrative alternates between Emma's POV as she plays a cat-and-mouse game with an intruder who seems to have the upper hand and the manuscript of a novel describing the events as they happen and this device is incredibly effective at creating suspense because you are never entirely sure who is writing this manuscript! Speaking of which, there are so many twists and turns and, even though I thought I had a big one figured out early on, this definitely kept me guessing until the last page. Adams uses the isolated cabin trope very well with an atmosphere of unease and foreboding and there were multiple times when I was genuinely scared because the tension is unrelenting. I really enjoyed Emma as a character because she is sympathetic with a lot of unresolved grief and trauma, which is revealed little by little, but she is also very strong and clever with an arc that feels earned. This is an action-packed thriller but I also liked the thought-provoking commentary about art vs. criticism, especially with the anonymity of the internet. I honestly couldn't put this down (I read it in one day) and I highly recommend it!

Note:  This features a dog in peril and that could be triggering for some people.