The Last Word is quickly becoming one of my most popular reviews on Goodreads because of the biggest question that everyone is desperate to have answered: Does Laila the dog live? Does she survive? So many people tell me that it’s a spoiler to reveal the answer, but I completely disagree. First of all, it has no bearing on the outcome of the story, you don’t know who the villain(s) is/are and you don’t know what happens with the plot and story. So here’s the answer:
Laila the dog, while in peril multiple times during the course of the novel, survives just fine in the end.
Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll give you a synopsis and a review below. This is a fun book, especially if you’re an avid reader and particularly if you ever review the books you read.
The Last Word is an April 2023 release by William Morrow Publishers. The paperback version is scheduled for release in December 2023. See link below to order the hardcover or Kindle version, or to pre-order the paperback.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, see disclosures for more detail.
About the Book:
Emma Carpenter lives in isolation with her golden retriever Laika, house-sitting an old beachfront home on the rainy Washington coast. Her only human contact is her enigmatic old neighbor, Deek, and (via text) the house’s owner, Jules.
One day, she reads a poorly written—but gruesome—horror novel by the author H. G. Kane, and posts a one-star review that drags her into an online argument with none other than the author himself. Soon after, disturbing incidents start to occur at night. To Emma, this can’t just be a coincidence. It was strange enough for this author to bicker with her online about a lousy review; could he be stalking her, too?
As Emma digs into Kane’s life and work, she learns he has published sixteen other novels, all similarly sadistic tales of stalking and murder. But who is he? How did he find her? And what else is he capable of?
Displaying his trademark command of rapid-fire pacing, unnerving atmosphere, and razor-sharp characterization, Taylor Adams once again delivers a diabolically disturbing—and deadly—game of cat and mouse.
My Thoughts:
I gave this book 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for fun
First off, let me assure everyone that the dog is FINE in the end. Many of the people, not so much, but the dog is unharmed.
I adore the premise of this book and anyone who reads and reviews will too. Emma is house sitting in a remote location on the coast. She is dealing with some personal things (that we find out about later) and doing a lot of reading. Her closest neighbor recommended she read a particular book and Emma finds the book to be inane and horribly written. She leaves a 1-star scathing review on Amazon, and the writer claps back and asks her to take it down (small quibble, you can’t comment on Amazon reviews anymore, but I’ll forgive that) and she refuses. After some more back-and-forth, he starts threatening her and Emma believes that he might have found where she is and is out to harm her.
This book does require a lot of suspension of disbelief. But it’s wildly entertaining and keeps up a decent pace throughout, throwing in a few surprises and twists along the way. I didn’t buy a lot of what happened, but the whole premise is so wild and tongue-in-cheek that I have to give the writer props for that. Also it is so much better than his last book (Hairpin Bridge) , which I gave 1-star to by the way, and since Adams lives in my state I guess I should be glad he didn’t hunt me down but I digress…
Loved the fake Acknowledgements section, that was fun and I got a kick out of reading it, and I adored the insider reviewer tidbits, such as using sockpuppet accounts to give positive reviews. That said, there are a few too many twists, I thought the book was almost over and then I looked at my Kindle and I was only at 70%. It was a case of “You thought it was over…fooled you!” too many times for my liking. Yet, as a whole the story worked well and I enjoyed my time reading it.
I definitely recommend this one, especially if you’ve ever written a 1-star review (or really wanted to).
