Review: The Last Days of Jack Sparks

The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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Actual Rating: 3.8 stars
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This is one of the most disconcerting read I've had in my life. (I think I might be starting to develop a knack for buying very disturbing books on my Kobo.) It has all the elements to make the story morbid, unnerving, and scary, but with a fucked-up (but rather predictable) twist that got hard to follow and raised a lot of questions towards the end. (view spoiler) was predictable, the rest of the twists were truly crazy surprises.

Jack Sparks was a jack-ass. Always so sure of himself, and so sardonically cynical. I hated him the moment I started reading in his point-of-view. So did he deserve the ending he got? Maybe, but his history kept me from hating him too much. I wasn't satisfied with how the ending (Jack's) was narrated. I wanted the details of his death. It was rather disappointing that every death on this book was described in its gory detail, while Jack's seemed too censored, as if writing him off as a passing fancy.

This book is definitely scary (I even refused to read this at night because my brain is fucked enough to wind me up,) but because it dealt with the supernatural, it relied on theatrics (not its fault nor Arnopp's! Supernatural stories almost always tend to.) Personally, I find stories more sinister if they are not over the top with the effects, and if it uses things that are tangible (weapons, guts, flesh, Maria Corvi's eyes and bleeding fingers, etc. has a more maniacal impact as opposed to smoke, mist, and fading in and out transparent things.)

I still enjoyed this book very much. I just wasn't satisfied with how things were at the end--there were still so many questions (view spoiler) One very minute detail that irked me more than I expected:
The name Dorca Beltre is not the least bit Filipino-sounding. I should know, I'm Filipino and have lived in the Philippines all my life. Arguably, one or two families of Beltre might be found within the country, but Dorca? Highly unlikely. Try again, buddy. He should've went with something simple as "Rita Fernandez" than shoot for something unabashedly exotic, but missing the mark.

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