Don’t read this novel if you are susceptible to nightmares!

Amazon calls Will Dean’s The Last One “an unputdownable locked-room thriller,” which is true as far as it goes. I would like to tell you more, but I don’t know how to do that without committing a spoiler. (As one reviewer wrote, “Trust me on this, the less you know about the story, the better.”) Fortunately I am not prone to nightmares, so I had no problem finishing the novel — but boy, “horrifying” doesn’t begin to describe it. No monsters, no supernatural fears, just normal human beings. Take two parts Twilight Zone, one part Lord of the Flies, one part The Truman Show, two parts Survivor, and a pinch of Dennis Lehane; mix them all together and you have The Last One.

Oh — I almost forgot. You also need to throw in the work of Philip Zimbardo and the work of Stanley Milgram. If you didn’t learn about them in college or later, stop everything and go look them up!

The story is absolutely cinematic, so it definitely will not surprise me if a movie is being made of it.

Categories: Books