Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Last Word

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

87 reviews

erinmichele_reads's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective tense

3.0

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a_libraryghost's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I started this book wanting a twisty but easy to read thriller after being in a reading slump, and that’s exactly what I got. In some ways it exceeded my expectations, mostly it met them and in a couple ways I was disappointed.
As others have pointed out there are a lot of twists though despite this most of them are pretty predictable. There was one twist I was surprised it took so long to reveal because it seemed very obvious very quickly. Though I will say while I was right about almost everything, I was made to second guess my assumptions. The two major twists directly linked to Emma were the ones I didn’t see coming and definitely were the most compelling.

In fact, Emma in general was the best part of this story. So often when reading or watching horror you do not care whether the character lives or dies, or you might want them to die for being so stupid, but I was rooting for Emma (and Laika!) the whole time and she is really what kept me reading.

I had two big issues with the book. One was the invincibility of the characters like

Howard is hit by a van, has his hand struck by a hammer, and is stabbed in the chest with a katana…AND CAN STILL WALK?!

and the other is the laughably stereotypically the way the villain is depicted. Like the author pulled him straight from a reddit meme
Neckbeard? ✅
Fedora? ✅
Literally says “I guess nice guys do finish last”? ✅
A FUCKING KATANA?! ✅

I think Adams tried to subvert it a bit and give him some more depth but it when the nice guy line came I just had to laugh and it felt a bit like I was reading something straight on reddit.

I do agree the ending dragged on but I liked it and was pretty happy with the outcome.

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stacylaughs's review against another edition

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dark hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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pirate's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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the_bookish_babee's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

📖 third person

📖 dual pov

📖 reader fmc

📖 dog’s thoughts

📖 flashbacks

emma is house sitting at a beach house in washington. she has ample time to read & she’s enjoying it. she stumbles across a book that she didn’t enjoy. she left a 1 star rating & soon after began being tormented & harassed by someone. she quickly realizes it must be the author, because who else could it be? she has to do everything she can so that her and her dog, laika, can escape

—

is it ironic to give this book 1 star, when that was the forming point of the book? maybe. is my rating still a 1 star? absolutely

first & foremost - laika does not die. when things started happening to the dog, i googled to see if she would survive, bc if not it was going to be an immediate dnf. i wish i had still dnf’d though, bc this book was not it

this book was terrible and honestly i don’t understand all of the people rating it so high & raving about it. did we read the same thing?

this book is dual pov, but it may as well have been one pov. the fmc’s pov says something and then the mmc’s pov says the exact opposite & vice versa. it was him constantly believing he’s such a mastermind & so great, fast forward to the fmc’s pov talking about how much of an idiot he is (disclaimer - she was correct)

also the ending of the book is weird. it goes from chapter 38 to the acknowledgments to a statement from the strand beach pd to chapter 39 to the epilogue? was this just an audiobook error? possibly. was it annoying? yes bc if i hadn’t kept listening past the acknowledgments, i’d have missed part of it - which in reality, would i have been missing anything? no. but still, it’s the point

your tbrs are too long to waste time on foolish books. do yourself a favor & skip this one. i wish i had. the author owes me compensation for wasting time of my life on this

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kenziewol's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Will I ever give a 1 star book review again?…probably not

Seriously though this book had me going wtf multiple times, I thought I knew but I was wrong, but then also kinda right???? But not really? And I was genuinely getting mad at the end and was even kinda scared at some moments (I feel so blessed I don’t live alone because I’d be terrified to sleep at night for fear of being watched 😅) — I listened to the audiobook version and would definitely recommend

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crabcake28's review

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dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this expecting a lot after reading No Exit and I wasn’t disappointed. While it didn’t exactly have the mood I was hoping it would have, I still enjoyed it immensely. The book had me in shock, heart broken, cringing, and even laughing out loud at parts. I absolutely loved the back and forth between narrators and the realization that one of which was not in anyway reliable. Definitely the kind of book I’ll reread with a whole new perspective.

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