The Last Word by Taylor Adams

*Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Publication Date: April 25, 2023

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 352

Genre: Thriller; Suspense; Horror

Rating: 4/5

The Last Word is an extremely suspenseful thriller that takes the reader on an exhilarating ride. I would even say some of this book could be classified as horror for some of the grisly moments and creep factor. The Last Word also has an impeccable premise where our strong female protagonist, Emma, reads a truly awful book on her Kindle and leaves a 1 star review. When confronted by the author to take her review down Emma doubles down which then sets off an unbelievable set of events.

Coupled with the high level of suspense is a truly creepy isolated setting. As you can see from the cover, Emma is staying at a beach house that during the winter is almost completely isolated from the rest of the town. She does have a neighbor that lives opposite her where they only communicate through white boards and binoculars. This isolation adds so much to the suspense to say nothing of the sinister atmosphere that is created.

As much as I loved and throughly enjoyed the wild ride this book took me on, I did feel like almost everything was easily predictable. I don’t mind when some things are obvious but I did end up feeling a little let down that I saw so much coming. However, there were a couple of reveals that left me truly shocked. I also feel like the way the story builds up leaves it no choice but to become so over the top that it is almost comedic. You definitely need to suspend your disbelief at some elements of this book but it is also why it is so entertaining and easy to fly through.

Taylor Adams easily succeeded at telling an engaging, riveting, and memorable thriller that well deserves the title of thriller. The horror elements were a great choice because I never thought this book would go to those places. There are numerous content warnings for this book so please check. If you are looking for a book that you can read in one sitting and will leave you breathless then keep this book in mind.