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A review by livyalusk
Last Words by Michael Koryta
3.0
It was hard to rate this book, but I settled on 3 stars as I enjoyed it but it was too messy for me to recommend it to anyone.
What was scary about this book wasn't the murders or the mystery, but the constant idea of characters having had everything taken from them, losing all control, not being believed or trusted and not even being able to trust themselves. It was interesting how they dealt with those situations of varying scales, but overall I think their sanity was tested much more than their personality and I just didn't like that. I think mystery plotlines can test characters and allow us to see their personalities in the way it affects them, but there was pretty much nothing here. The protagonist has a discernable personality which is rare for your average Detective McDetectiveFace character, but he's too messy. Koryta likes to put an angry white guy in a bad situation and make you root for his good qualities to prevail as he struggles, but I didn't really care what happened to this one.
I think the main message of this book was not to try too hard to control everything, because the more you struggle the more you lose, and if you want power too badly you'll end up with none. This tied in with themes of regret and insecurity. If I can rely on one thing in a Koryta novel, it's his constant reminders of the themes that happen even in the smallest of situations... probably an English teacher's dream.
The book also wrapped up in a very strange way. Not just because of all the mysterious information they discovered, but because of the way it was given to them very much out of the blue. Nearing the end, I was panicking thinking there were plots that wouldn't be resolved, and then they just were.
In general, this book is a decent read for people who like the genre, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Something that got to me was to do with the genre, and that is that he just falls into conventions that are just a bit off. None particularly disrespectful, but lots of little tiny moments that just bother me while reading. He's created something new for himself, but the inspiration from older crime writers and Stephen King (my arch-nemesis that he looks up to...) is quite present.
Now there was one detail that REALLY should've stayed in Michael's head and then he should've been lobotomised. The main character's mother used to pretend to be a Native American in order to scam people. This is already a silly idea, but it gets worse. The character rightfully hates it and thinks she's disrespectfully appropriating their culture ... but then he goes on to say that he grew to love the 'chant music' and thinks it's so powerful that he uses it to hype himself up. This man goes to the gym and listens to Native American chant music. WHAT? Jail.
What was scary about this book wasn't the murders or the mystery, but the constant idea of characters having had everything taken from them, losing all control, not being believed or trusted and not even being able to trust themselves. It was interesting how they dealt with those situations of varying scales, but overall I think their sanity was tested much more than their personality and I just didn't like that. I think mystery plotlines can test characters and allow us to see their personalities in the way it affects them, but there was pretty much nothing here. The protagonist has a discernable personality which is rare for your average Detective McDetectiveFace character, but he's too messy. Koryta likes to put an angry white guy in a bad situation and make you root for his good qualities to prevail as he struggles, but I didn't really care what happened to this one.
I think the main message of this book was not to try too hard to control everything, because the more you struggle the more you lose, and if you want power too badly you'll end up with none. This tied in with themes of regret and insecurity. If I can rely on one thing in a Koryta novel, it's his constant reminders of the themes that happen even in the smallest of situations... probably an English teacher's dream.
The book also wrapped up in a very strange way. Not just because of all the mysterious information they discovered, but because of the way it was given to them very much out of the blue. Nearing the end, I was panicking thinking there were plots that wouldn't be resolved, and then they just were.
In general, this book is a decent read for people who like the genre, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Something that got to me was to do with the genre, and that is that he just falls into conventions that are just a bit off. None particularly disrespectful, but lots of little tiny moments that just bother me while reading. He's created something new for himself, but the inspiration from older crime writers and Stephen King (my arch-nemesis that he looks up to...) is quite present.
Now there was one detail that REALLY should've stayed in Michael's head and then he should've been lobotomised. The main character's mother used to pretend to be a Native American in order to scam people. This is already a silly idea, but it gets worse. The character rightfully hates it and thinks she's disrespectfully appropriating their culture ... but then he goes on to say that he grew to love the 'chant music' and thinks it's so powerful that he uses it to hype himself up. This man goes to the gym and listens to Native American chant music. WHAT? Jail.