The Only One Left

Believe it or not, I really did want to like this. The story really had me up until about 2/3 of the way through. Then it just falls into a convoluted mess where its biggest downfall is that it tries too hard to explain every single little thing in a sort of Chekov’s universe. Sheesh!

While the end certainly ruined everything for me, I have to give credit where credit is due. I did quite enjoy most of the characters and felt like they were pretty realistic. And the main character’s reactions to how things unfolded cracked me up. It was very self-aware. Much like with Sager’s other work, Final Girls, the author toyed with the reader quite a bit and even poked fun at the genre and its fans’ expectations.

But was the ending really that bad? Absolutely. At first it was like “oh” and then “oh!” and further with “I can see that” and even a little “wtf?!” Sager just didn’t know when to quit though. Just when I thought I’d read it all, the twists and the callbacks and all that jazz just kept coming and coming with no sight in end. As if all of that wasn’t enough, there’s one more shocker thrown in and, to be quite honest, it was beyond dumb. At that point, the book went from dumb fun pulp territory to just straight up insultingly bad. Avoid at all costs.