To Emma, this can’t just be a coincidence. Soon after, disturbing incidents start to occur at night.

Kane, and posts a one-star review that drags her into an online argument with none other than the author himself. One day, she reads a poorly written-but gruesome-horror novel by the author H. Her only human contact is her enigmatic old neighbor, Deek, and (via text) the house’s owner, Jules. My review: LOL yes.Īfter posting a negative book review, a woman living in a remote location begins to wonder if the author is a little touchy-or very, very dangerous-in this pulse-pounding novel of psychological suspense and terror from the critically acclaimed author of, No Exit.Įmma Carpenter lives in isolation with her golden retriever Laika, house-sitting an old beachfront home on the rainy Washington coast. There’s also dark humor, nail-biting suspense, and a heroine worth rooting for. Because this is a book by Taylor Adams, whose No Exit sent everyone’s heads spinning, you can expect a doozy.

What happens next is so diabolically clever that to give away any more plot would risk spoiling the delicious surprises lurking inside The Last Word. (Between this and Megan Miranda’s The Only Survivors, it’s been a banner spring for thrillers set in isolated beach houses.) When Emma gives his latest book one star, it makes him angry enough to track her down in her remote beachfront cottage and force her to change her opinion. Kane, whose violent and sadistic fiction hints at a real-life cruel streak. The amateur reviewer is Emma Carpenter, a woman going through a rough patch who opts out of society by house sitting on the Washington coast. The twist? The critic is the hero-and the author just might be a psychopath. And in the relentlessly paced The Last Word, one scathing review ignites an online feud that spills over into real life.

(My most memorable: a simple, brutal “LOL no.”) Most of us try to ignore them. The dreaded one-star review, often accompanied by a line or two of snark.

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