Last Days by Brian Evenson
A review of my first crime noir novel oulalaaaa
First, let’s get the general details out of the way.
The general rating on Goodreads: 3.75 stars
My rating: 4 stars
Tags: Crime, Noir, Cults, Mystery Thriller, Horror
TW? Absolutely, it’s gore galore.
“Intense and profoundly unsettling, Brian Evenson’s Last Days is a down-the-rabbit-hole detective novel set in an underground religious cult. The story follows Kline, a brutally dismembered detective forcibly recruited to solve a murder inside the cult. As Kline becomes more deeply involved with the group, he begins to realize the stakes are higher than he previously thought. Attempting to find his way through a maze of lies, threats, and misinformation, Kline discovers that his survival depends on an act of sheer will. Last Days was first published in 2003 as a limited edition novella titled The Brotherhood of Mutilation. Its success led Evenson to expand the story into a full-length novel. In doing so, he has created a work that’s disturbing, deeply satisfying, and completely original.”
What I liked about Last Days
It might have been only 201 pages but it left a LASTING impression. The book begins with a long introduction by a separate author, Peter Straub, and I tried to read all of it because I was not sure why it was there? In hindsight, if you pick this up just skip the introduction because it spoils the whole book (thank goodness I have no patience and eventually skipped it to start the actual story).
The writing style
Now after the tedious introduction, the book opens with our main character, Kline, receiving an odd phone call from 2 unknown fellas. The short dialogue shows the uncomfortably clipped and direct tone of voice in this book. I’ve never read such a writing style before. There was no pause or comfort for the readers, the author just wrote the most morbid and dreadful sentences that contributed to the plot and that’s it. Now I know the way I’m explaining doesn’t sound positive, but that’s just because I don’t have the words to describe this writing style, all I can say is that I loved how refreshingly to the point everything was and I loved how he was still able to build pretty good suspense without pausing the fast pace of this story.
The main character Kline
I was strangely rooting for this guy, despite the whole murderer thing, because he didn’t lie to himself or to other people. I felt both disconnected and connected to him…if that makes sense?
"Jesus Christ," said Frank. "Talk about an avenging angel. And now you've decided to turn yourself in?"
"That's right," said Kline.
"Why?"
"So I can be human again.”
Throughout the book, Kline loses sight of who he is as a man and a human being. At the same time he loses parts of himself, he gets revered and worshipped by weird cultists, and he’s left desperate to cling on to any humanity remaining. It made me feel an odd sympathy for a ruthless killer.
Would I read another book like this one? Absolutely. I liked it a lot and can’t really pinpoint what I didn’t like. There are interesting philosophical and theological questions to be pondered upon in this book and the use of mutilation was both haunting and revealing about humans and the weird things we deem acceptable.