Book Review: The Last Word by Taylor Adams

My Rating: 2.5⭐️

After a personal tragedy, Emma Carpenter chose to live in isolation in a house on the Washington Coast. Her sole companion is her golden retriever Laika and her interaction with others is limited to the owner of the house, Jules and her elderly neighbor, Deek with whom she communicates via handwritten messages from her window. Emma spends a lot of time reading. After her neighbor recommends a horror novel by an author by the name of H.G.Kane, which she doesn’t enjoy for several reasons (that are quite believable), she doesn’t hesitate to share in her one-star review – a review that prompts the author to initiate an online conversation with her. Needless to say, he wants her to change her rating which she absolutely refuses to do. The online conversation gets heated with the both of them trading insults. Just when she thinks that things have calmed down, Emma begins to feel like she is being watched and also suspects the presence of someone in the house. Are her fears unfounded or is she really being stalked? If so, to what end?

The premise of The Last Word by Taylor Adams is original and enticing, to say the least. For me, the premise was the best part of this story. I really enjoyed how the author builds on the premise up to a point ( the first 100-odd pages are suspenseful, well-structured and fast-paced). However, as the narrative progresses, the pace does begin to drag, the elements that were meant to build up the tension begin to feel a tad repetitive and the characters all too unbelievable (and maybe a tad stereotypical, bordering on ridiculous?). The narrative is long-winded with too much going on. I enjoy twisty reads, but with too many twists, I found myself losing interest in the plot around the midway mark. I did love Laika, the dog and though the ending did redeem the book to an extent, overall I can’t say this was a satisfying read.