Hostages on a Maleficent Ship

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After reading the book blurb for The Last One by Will Dean, I started the Kindle, hoping, in the early stages of Caz and Pete’s boarding of the ocean liner, that she suffers some kind of stroke or other episode that causes her to imagine all the things she experienced in the blurb. It sounds like such a bad dream, worse than the kind where you’re naked in the elementary school cafeteria at lunchtime, or it’s the end of the college semester, and you forgot to attend classes for one of the ones you registered for. Perhaps she’s even dreamed the boarding itself, along with the boyfriend, as she hadn’t had a relationship in months, and her refusal to enter the ship’s gambling entertainment room brought up a deep seeded trauma from earlier years. 

 
Once it became clear what was happening, it felt like the characters were trapped inside “Christine” on crack, “The Truman Show“ on meth, and “Runaway Train” on steroids, all rolled into one. Caz later bemoans they are “Held hostage on a maleficent ship.” My only thought was “What kind of mad scientist author brain could conceive of such a sick, twisted, demented, diabolical plot?” Which I answered, “A very successful one,” followed by,”How fast can they make this into a movie?!” One of the characters, Smith, states, “You ever read the pulp books back in the eighties and nineties? Choose your own adventure. You’d reach the end of a chapter and you’d have to decide to do this thing or that. Choose a sword and jump to chapter sixty-two or choose the medical kit and jump to chapter ninety-seven, that kind of thing. It’s like we’re in one of those books right now.”

Reading this riveting novel is a white knuckle ride with readers bouncing like silver balls in a pinball machine off each plot twist into a new direction. Just when you think everything’s safe, “bam” you hit another twist, right up until the very end. Read this if you dare! 

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