The Last Murder At The End Of The World by Stuart Turton

You Can Buy "The Last Murder At The End Of The World...Here

Rating 3⭐

First published 2024

432 words (paperback)

You Can Find Out More About Stuart Turton...Here

• The Blurb...

The small group of villagers who live on the tiny island lead simple, but happy lives. There is no world beyond their shores, but they're content with what they have. Only Emory feels frustrated. Unlike everyone else on the island she doesn't yet seem to have a purpose. All she seems to be good at is asking questions.

But then one of the scientists who guides the villagers is found murdered and as there has never been a crime before, there is no detective to call on. There is only Emory and her gift for asking questions. So now Emory must explore every inch of her island - from the cliffs to the jungles, from sandy beaches to the very top of the mountain - to find clues that apparently don't exist.

How can she solve a mystery on an island where no one lies but there's still no way to find the culprit?

• Our Review...

I cant recall if I have ever read a post-apocalyptic/science fiction/murder mystery before. This may be my first. The world has ended, all that is left is a tiny island, with a few hundred people which is surrounded by a killer fog, full of killer insects. It is only kept at bay by equipment cobbled together and maintained by three scientists. They are the elders, each very different. The way of life is no longer technologically advanced but is none the less idyllic. That is until the senior scientist is found murdered. Emory our disaffected gobby chip-on-the-shoulder  villager, who just cant seem to settle into the lovely-dovey hippy-dippy vibe of the island is called upon to find the murderer when there hasn't been a murder in living memory. However she is against the clock. If she doesnt solve in a couple of days the island will be engulfed by the killer fog. 

So simple, yes? well yes and no. Here is where POTENTIAL SPOILERS come. The author has so may things going on  and they come at you at such a pace that I felt a little overwhelmed and  unable to keep up. There is a central intelligence hub that has contact with each individual mind on the island but not collectively. This intelligence can converse with each person (as a voice in their head) but the people cannot use this to communicate with each other. Its name is Abi and it acts as an addition to their own conscience. It subtly  guides the individuals. When reading we are sometimes in the point of view (POV) of Abi in the person and sometimes we are in the POV of the actaul person. So each person is potentailly not one but two unreliable narrators. A very clever trick to write an engaging tale but it can be tough to follow. In addition strange things happen to the villagers. An enforced curfew where they all just fall asleep at a given time and wake up the next day covered in bruises and scrapes. Oh and they drop dead at sixty1

In addition the convoluted clues for the murder come thick and fast. I just couldn't process all the info quickly enough or to any great depth. I felt like I was watching an episode of countdown where I could get a four letter word but everybody else was getting 6 and 7s. Perhaps I should have read it slower I did guess the perp before the end but didn't get the how and the why. 

While I did feel a little out of my depth, there is much to commend this book. The author's imagination is off the scale. The scenario and world structure are both very creative. The moral behind the tale is one that can be seen throughout the world at the moment and is (as always very relevant.) Looking through the lens of this book man's capacity for destruction and the invention of A.I. is basically fuel mixed with fire. As ever evolution will find a way....

• Selected Quotes..

From my vantage in her mind – and the minds of everybody on the island – I can predict the future with a high degree of accuracy. It’s a confluence of probability and psychology, which is easy to chart when you have access to everybody’s thoughts. Streaking away from this moment are dozens of possible futures, each waiting to be conjured into existence by a random event, an idle phrase, a miscommunication or an overheard conversation.

My only skills seem to be noticing things people don’t want noticed, and asking questions people don’t want answered.’

I’ll have to treat her like everybody else, concealing information while subtly manipulating her actions. As with every other human, her emotions make her erratic. She can’t be trusted to act logically, even in service of her own goals, which is what I’m for. Sometimes the only way to win a game is to let the pieces think they’re the ones playing it.

He was a billionaire’s son. He never had to learn to hide his emotions convincingly, or make excuses for his behaviour. The world did that for him.

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The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

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The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 

Rating 4⭐ 

206 pages

You can buy The Haunting Of Hill House...here

• The Blurb...

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a 'haunting'; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

• Our Review...

THOHH is considered to be one of the cornerstones or horror writing and you can see why. Seen through the eyes of Eleanor a young, vulnerable, innocent soul. The story shows how such a naïve, blank canvas of a person can be targeted by more powerful and dark influences. If this scenario is true with people in life, perhaps it can be true with otherwordly spirits interacting with the human world.

While reading this novel you may think to yourself that the tropes here are well worn and have become a bit of a cliché. That may be true but this is the tale that began a lot of the tropes as this was written in the 1950s, way before the Overlook hotel drove Jack Torrence bonkers in The Shining. As the novel was written in the 50s some of the interaction between the characters, especially Eleanor and Theodora, must seem a little dated to our ears.

The four guests settle in to the house and initially Eleanor and Theodora hit it ,off right away becoming firm friends. I have seen other reviews suggest there is an air of lesbian romance between the two. Personally I didn't pick that up but I'm a grumpy old man so not my area really. As the house sets its sights on Eleanor their friendship unravels under the intensity.

Despite being given the history of the house we are never quite sure whether the house is haunted by dead spirits or if the house itself is an evil entity. Eleanor herself drawn to the only place she has felt wanted. At the shocking conclusion we are left wondering whether the things that occur are the result of paranormal activity or mental illness. Or in the thin line between the two, could paranormal activity induce mental illness. Indeed which is more terrifying is a question the reader will inadvertently ask themselves subconsciously. It will certainly make you think.   

• Selected Quotes...

the gate was so clearly locked—locked and double-locked and chained and barred; who, she wondered, wants so badly to get in?—she made no attempt to get out of her car, but pressed the horn, and the trees and the gate shuddered and withdrew slightly from the sound.

I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.

She watched them, seeing their apprehensive faces, wondering at the uneasiness which lay so close below the surface in all of them, so that each of them seemed always waiting for a cry for help from one of the others; intelligence and understanding are really no protection at all,

‘Nothing in this house moves,’ Eleanor said, ‘until you look away, and then you just catch something from the corner of your eye.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James

The Shining by Steven King

• About The Author

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."

Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".

In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.

Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison

Rating...4⭐

You can buy Make Room! Make Room!...Here

You can find out more about Harry Harrison...Here

240 pages.

• The Blurb...

The planet's population has exploded and resources are stretched to breaking point. And, in a sweltering, overcrowded New York City of 35 million desperate inhabitants, a police detective must try to solve a murder. The basis of the cult film Soylent Green, this eerily prophetic novel is a nightmarish vision of a world in meltdown.

• Our Review...

I read this book as part of the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. Click  here for details.

This week's prompt was a book with a similar plot to another book. However I have made a faux pas here. Make Room! Make Room! is the book that the 1970s film Soylent Green is based on. There is a famous revelation in the film. 

Spoiler Alert stop here if you do not wish to know what that revelation is!

In the film it is revealed that the mass produced, processed food that everyone eats is actually human flesh. So I assumed the book would be similar so that I could partner it with Tender Is The Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica which deals with a similar industrialised cannibalism theme. Bit creepy I know but the aim was to diversify my reading. So far so good but I had a surprise to find out there is no cannibalism in Make Room! Make Room! (MRMR.) Never thought I'd ever say "I was left deflated by the lack of cannabalism in a novel" I don't know if by diversifying my reading I am becoming a more rounder person or more dark and depraved!

So sadly lacking in mass canabalism but this is a terrfying picture of the very near future. Most dystopian novels, such as 1984, Farenheit 451, Brave New World et al, focus life after the event that caused society to collapse. MRMR paints a slow motion, blow by blow account of the collapse of civilisation and it's seems very real and very near and for that reason is terrifying. 

In MRMR massive over population the world over due to lack of birth control has resulted in all the world's resources such as food, water, fuel being on the verge of exhaustion. Meat is an astronomically expensive luxury. It can only be obtained via shady underground dealers known as "Meat-Leggers" akin to our drug dealers. Set in New York, huge numbers of people sleep in squalor on stairwells and in decaying abandoned cars in parking lots. Cars abandoned because there is no fuel. refuse collects in the street, water is rationed. Riots and crime are rife. In this sprawling metropolis we pick out the story of Billy a young man forced into theiving. He robs the wrong apartment and kills local crime boss Mike. Shirl the gangster's moll is left with nowhere to go and ends up living with Andy, the investigating officer and his room mate an ageing army veteran named Sol. Shirl struggles with living in poverty. All the while Andy is trying to chase down Billy.

While the plot is ok, its characters really only serve only to give an insight into a society collapsing under its own weight.

The scenes with masses of people everywhere in my mind reminded me of recent trips to London over the last few years. I live in West Wales in a rural county with no cities and only two small towns, not too populated and plenty of natural and beautiful open spaces.  When I go to London and travel amid the masses with no natural greenery, lack of personal space, no room on the pavement it makes me uncomfortable. I was shocked when on an escalator on the underground crowded with people, some people were walking or running up and tutting (and worse) because I did not know the city etiquette of standing on one side to allow these people to pass. They thought me rude or possibly weird. I in turn thought how sad their lives must be that must they run up a crowded escalator. When I read MRMR  these memories came back and when I imagined a little scenarios like this, but upped on steroids, I could easily picture the chaos the author was after. 

Disclaimer I fully appreciate that someone from the city may feel uncomfortable in my neck of the woods too. 

The book was published in 1966 and the novel was set in 1999. Fair play the author got a lot bang on. Scarcity of resources, escalating costs, ever decreasing quality of life and so on. However the main driver of these issues is climate change not overpopulation. Climate change was unheard of in 1966. Ironic now that depopulation in the next few hundred years will be a  bigger problem than overpopulation.  That's if climate change grants us a few hundred years. 

I found this to be a fascinating book. Like watching a car crash that I may be involved in one day.

• Selected Quotes..

One time we had the whole world in our hands, but we ate it and burned it and it's gone now.

After the damp hallway the heat of Twenty-fifth Street hit him in a musty wave, a stifling miasma compounded of decay, dirt and unwashed humanity. He had to make his way through the women who already filled the steps of the building, walking carefully so that he didn’t step on the children who were playing below. The sidewalk was still in shadow but so jammed with people that he walked in the street, well away from the curb to avoid the rubbish and litter banked high there. Days of heat had softened the tar so that it gave underfoot, then clutched at the soles of his shoes.

It was hard to get your hands on cash money, and cash money was the only thing that counted. They never saw any at home. The Welfare ration cards took care of everything, everything that kept you alive and just alive enough to hate it.

On the end of a string they carried their prize, a large gray dead rat. They would eat well tonight. In the center of the crowded street the tugtruck traffic moved at a snail’s pace, the human draught animals leaning exhaustedly into their traces, mouths gaping for air.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like This...

Blind Faith by Ben Elton. Click here for review

Logan's Run by William F Nolan.

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• About The Author...

Harry Max Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey; March 12, 1925 – August 15, 2012) was an American science fiction (SF) author, best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and for his novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966). The latter was the rough basis for the motion picture Soylent Green (1973). Harrison was (with Brian Aldiss) the co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Aldiss called him "a constant peer and great family friend". His friend Michael Carroll said, "Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean or Raiders of the Lost Ark, and picture them as science-fiction novels. They're rip-roaring adventures, but they're stories with a lot of heart."

The F-Word Reality Show by Chris Westlake

 

289 pages

You can buy The F-Word Reality Show...Here

You can find out more about Chris Westlake...Here

• The Blurb...

Andrew Macintosh is one of fifty seemingly random individuals offered the opportunity to appear in a reality show, to be aired to millions of viewers across the world. There is only one catch: the contestants must not – under any circumstances – tell anyone where they are going.

Before entering the show, each contestant chooses their F-Word reward for winning: Fame, Fortune or Freedom. Transported to a giant glass hall in the middle of nowhere, guards patrol the hall and cameras watch their every move. There is nowhere to hide.

As the days pass and the events unfold, Andrew discovers that not only is he fighting for his freedom, but he is fighting to stay alive. The choice is brutally straightforward... Andrew must kill, or be killed.

The F-Word Reality Show is a compelling thriller that will leave you wondering whether the cameras watching your every move are your best friend, or your worst enemy.

• Our Review...

In the F-Word Reality show. Andrew is a man socially adrift and a little lost. He is offered the chance to take part in a reality game show, where he can win fame, fortune or freedom. There is one condition nobody must know he has agreed to take part.

So far, so good. Andrew jumps at the chance of something, anything happening in his life. But be careful what you wish for.  Andrew is housed with 49 other "contestants" who simultaneously discover they  must battle to the death, completing various themed rounds over the next seven days. Only the last contestant left alive wins. Literally death or glory!

I don't know where to put this book on my shelves. Is it science fiction? Well probably not. There isnt any science in it as such. Is it just general fiction then? Yes but only just. Game shows are getting more and more extreme in an effort to capture an audience who have become dulled to contestants breaking legs in TV game show ski jumps, extreme physical beastings as in SAS training and so on. Life is cheap and given where we are as a society it would not surprise if the scenario of the F-Word Reality Show became a real game show during my children's lifetime. 

While writing the review for this book I did some research about extreme game shows. Have a read of this website, it will blow your swede...Here

There will be obvious comparisons with this book and the recent Korean TV world wide hit Squid Game. Indeed you can see the narrative is heavily influenced by the show. However the book is very British in it's persona. The TV show was bright colours, symbols and quirky. This novel is introverted, gritty and post-industrial. It's like Squid Game has been written by George Orwell and Andrew is our Winston Smith. 

What elevates the simple story is the way the author encapsulates two things about society.

Firstly the seemingly relentless, monotonous daily grind at the bottom of society including the isolation and lonliness of a society that is well on its way down the slippery slope of losing its soul and sense of camradarie. 

Secondly he displays a keen eye for the depravity and lack of moral standards intrinsic to the upper reaches of society. I would be surprised if both these themes were not honed during the pandemic lockdown when scandals of PPE and parties were at their height. I think the pandemic cleared the mist of rhetoric, the scales fell from our eyes and  many people saw what society was really like and not the myth they had been sold. I think the author has really taken this on board.

If you enjoyed Squid Game read this book. If you didn't see or enjoy Squid Game still read this book. It'll make you fear and cheer for the protagonist and it'll make you weep for society.

• Selected Quotes..

Sometimes as I walk the soulless, deserted streets I imagine that I’m living in an apocalypse.

I’m haunted by yesterday’s words, the most brutal of them all. What exactly do you have to lose, Andrew?

“And now I live in a bleak, one bedroom flat on my own. Sure, I get to see the kids every so often. But you know what? You know what really gets me? I get the distinct impression that they don’t want to see me. Not really.”

Do you really think those people out there are living? Or do you think they are dying slowly?”

We said that viewers could pay to watch fifty suicidal contestants fight to stay alive for seven days. The irony of it all never fails to make me chuckle.”

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Duel by Stephen Havard. review...Here

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

The Running Man by Stephen King.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy.

• About The Author...

Chris’s page-turning novels will make you doubt what happens next, but leave you in no doubt that you sure as hell want to find out. His thrillers toy with your mind and play with your emotions.

Chris has published five novels, including three thrillers. His latest novel, THE F-WORD REALITY SHOW, is a compelling thriller which will leave you wondering whether the cameras that follow your every move are your best friend or your worst enemy.

30 DAYS IN JUNE is a serial killer thriller, and I AM HERE TO KILL YOU is a psychological thriller, with a key focus on cults, the power of manipulation, and brainwashing.

After completing a Creative Writing course in 2010, Chris Westlake's short story, Welsh Lessons, was awarded 1st place in the Global Short Story Award (not bad for the first writing competition he had entered). He followed this up with 1st place in the Stringybark Erotic Fiction Award and 2nd place in the HASSRA Literary Award.

Chris is determined to write many, many more novels - his main regret is that he didn't start writing earlier. He is always looking to make his next novel even better than the last. He is continuously experimenting with different styles, different genres.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

 

You can buy Brave New World...Here

You can find out about Aldous Huxley...Here

288 Pages

• The Blurb...

Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here. Our perfect society achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs.

You can be happy too. All you need to do is take your Soma pills.

Discover the brave new world of Aldous Huxley's classic novel, written in 1932, which prophesied a society which expects maximum pleasure and accepts complete surveillance - no matter what the cost.

• Our Review...

Compelling glimpse of the future set in what would be the year 2540 AD. The novel was written in 1932. So now in 2022, we are in 90 years into a 608 year journey i.e. 15% of the way there. And you can definitely see traits developing in our society that could end up in a Brave New World. 

I think Huxley would be amazed at how far along we are with regards to things like IVF, mass medication, paypal/bitcoin, fake news, Tinder and rampant capitalism. When you take it all into consideration its a bit scary how far down the line we are.

In reality this book is an extreme thought experiment. What would happen if you mixed the theory of mass production. (ala Henry Ford motor cars) which was still relatively new during Huxley's time and the theory of Pavlov's Dogs (link here) applying it to humans and then taking it to the extreme. We don't need AI to destroy our humanity, we can do it ourselves with bio-engineering.

The title Brave New World is taken from Shakespeare's Tempest where Miranda meets outsiders for the first time in her life and says. ‘Oh wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! Oh brave new world, That has such people in’t.’

The book follows a small cast of characters. Bernard and Helmholtz are both Alphas in the caste system but both are not quite right, not quite totally docile. Lenina a bog standard Delta and John aka The Savage, a man born in the old fashioned way not involving test tubes and jars and who was brought up on a reservation of wild indigenous tribes.

Humans are mass produced in labs. They are kept happy and content by programming and drugs. There is a constant flat-line of life. There are no wars, disasters, plagues, poverty or unemployment. All great you may say but there must be balance, so there is no love, no individualism, no self-reliance, no great artistic or cultural progress. Even scientific progress is highly restricted. Is the prize worth the cost? I think that would depend on who you ask. I think those in the lower strata of society may well conclude that the basics of life plus a lack of want are well worth missing out on opera, Shakespeare and quantum entanglement theory. But I think Love would be the big loss. The Love not just of a partner but of family too. Imagine no wife or husband, no mother, no father, no siblings, no grandparents. Is life worth living without Love? 

It is a short and easy read.

Really enjoyed the concepts presented. Only two points irritated. One of the main characters constantly quoted Shakespeare. Which in part was ironic in Huxley's society he was classed as a savage.  In addition I thought the end could have been more developed. But all in all hell of a book, one that will stay with me forever.

At some point I may do a compare and contrast 1984, A Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 and Blind Faith. 

• Selected Quotes...

"on the low floors were the presses and offices of the three great Lodon newspapers- The Hourly Radio, an upper- caste sheet, the pale green Gamma Gazette, and, on khaki paper and in words exclusively of one syllable, The Delta Mirror."

"Words can be like X- rays, if you use them properly- they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced."

"A man can smile and smile and be a villain. Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain."

"The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma."

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

1984 by George Orwell. Click our review...Here

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Click our review...Here

Blind Faith by Ben Elton. Click our review...Here

• About The Author

Aldous Huxley, in full Aldous Leonard Huxley, (born July 26, 1894, Godalming, Surrey, England—died November 22, 1963, LA. , U.S.), English novelist and critic gifted with an acute and far-ranging intelligence whose works are notable for their wit and pessimistic satire. He remains best known for one novel, Brave New World(1932), a model for much dystopian Science Fiction that followed. Aldous Huxley was a grandson of the prominent biologist Thomas Henry Huxley and was the third child of the biographer and man of letters Leonard Huxley; his brothers included physiologist Andrew Fielding Huxley and biologist Julian Huxley. He was educated at Eton, during which time he became partially blind because of Keratitis. He retained enough eyesight to read with difficulty, and he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1916. He published his first book in 1916 and worked on the periodical Athenaeum from 1919 to 1921. Thereafter he devoted himself largely to his own writing and spent much of his time in Italy until the late 1930s, when he settled in California. (from Brittania.com)

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

 

176 Pages

You can buy I am Legend...Here

You can find out more about Richard Matheson...Here

This review is by...Owen Powell 

• The Blurb...

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth ... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.

By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.

How long can one man survive like this?

• Our Review

The world has fallen. Lost long ago to a supernatural, nightmarish scourge that has all but devastated humanity, leaving in its wake one sole survivor. Robert Neville is the last human on Earth, fighting to live in the midst of a harrowing vampiric apocalypse. Every single night outside his house, blood-sucking creatures prowl in the darkness, clawing at his door, begging, screaming for Neville to come out. Neville, however, is a very cautious individual, a trait that has no doubt aided in his prolonged survival. The doors and windows are boarded, garlic cloves hang upon his walls, a mirror displays on the front door, and an assortment of wooden stakes lie at his disposal should he need them. Having survived liked this for so long now, Neville has grown accustomed to the vampires. He knows their tricks, their needs, what affects them and what doesn’t affect them. He knows, for example, that in the day, they retreat into abandoned buildings to seek shelter from the blistering sunlight. This is when the roles switch, and Neville becomes the hunter instead. 

Having never seen the movies, but also being very intrigued by the concept, I was very eager to read this book. It starts off strongly by showing rather than telling. We see how well Neville has adjusted to his role as the sole survivor by witnessing the practices that have kept him alive for so long. We experience the internal conflicts of a man devoid of all human interaction, subjected to hiding from and slaying vampires for the rest of his life. In fact, it seems that Neville’s greatest enemy is not the vampires themselves, but his own mind instead. He argues with and berates himself constantly, almost doubting every single thought he has. He drinks often to drown out the intrusive, internal-criticisms, as well as to forget the tragedies of his past. The writing is very eloquent, at times the narrative blends fluently into Neville’s own thoughts, giving the reader a better understanding of who he is and how he thinks. The exciting scenes are nail-bitingly enticing, I found myself fully immersed in the danger more than once. Unfortunately, I found these excellent scenes of tension to be few and far between.

For a book about the last man in a vampire apocalypse, it is somewhat uneventful. In fact, in this story, I can comfortably say that Robert Neville spends considerably more time THINKING about vampires rather than killing them or running from them. There is a large section in the middle of the book where he tries to learn more about how the vampires came to be, and for me this was kind of a slog to get through. It was kind of interesting but also not really. I felt such lost potential for some exciting vampire-filled escapades during these sections, but for a lot of this book, nothing REALLY happens. This isn’t to say that nothing happens at all, like I mentioned before there are some exciting scenes and a few plot twists, but most of this book I unfortunately found somewhat droning. 

Despite all this, I believe that I Am Legend is still worth a read. If not for the terrifying aspect of a vampire apocalypse, then to experience how the last man on earth tries desperately to hold his mind together. 

• Selected Quotes...

‘A man could get used to anything if he had to.’

‘Then he stood in the dark kitchen, eyes tightly shut, teeth clenched, hands clamped over his ears. Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone!’

‘Why not? His mind plodded on. Why go through all this complexity when a flung-open door and a few steps would end it all?’

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Cell by Stephen King

The Strain by Guillermo del Torro

• About The Author...

Richard Matheson was born on February 20, 1926, in Allendale, New Jersey. After his parents, Norwegian immigrants, Bertolf and Fanny divorced, his mother took him to Brooklyn, New York, where he attended school. After graduating high school at Brooklyn Technical High School, he spent time in the United States Army during World War II. When he returned home, Richard earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, in 1949. After finishing his degree, Richard settled in California. There he became a screenwriter, specializing in fantasy, horror, and science fiction.

One of the television shows he wrote for was "Twilight Zone". The iconic episode, "Nightmare at 2000 ft." was written by Richard. The opening and closing statements recited by Rod Sterling were his work, too. He also wrote Duel, which was the first movie made by Steven Spielberg.

After Richard became a novelist, many of his books were turned into movies, including "I Am Legend", which was made into a movie three times. "The Shrinking Man", "Hell House", "What Dreams May Come", and "A Stir of Echoes" were all books written by Richard that later became movies. Another of his books, "Bid Time Return", was made into the movie, "Somewhere in Turn".

In the 1950's and 1960's Richard was a member of a society of writers called the Southern California Sorcerers. Other members included Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, George Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan and Jerry Sohl. In 1973 Richard won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for a teleplay he wrote for the "Night Stalker". In 1984 was given the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, also the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Horror Writer's Association. In 2010 Richard was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

In 1952 Richard married Ruth Ann Woodson. Three of their four children, Richard Christian, and Chris and Ali followed in their father's footsteps and became writers. In 2013, Richard Matheson died quietly in his home, surrounded by friends and family. At his death, he was eighty-seven years old.

Stephen King dedicated his book, "Cell", to Richard Matheson. Listing him as his creative influence. George A. Romero said that his iconic movie, "Night of the Living Dead", was influenced by Richard's book, "I Am Legend". After reading "A Dress of White Silk" written by Richard, Anne Rice was influenced in writing her vampire and fantasy novels.

"Richard Matheson's ironic and iconic imagination created seminal science-fiction stories and gave me my first break when he wrote the short story and screenplay for Duel. His Twilight Zones were among my favorites, and he recently worked with us on "Real Steel". For me, he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov" Steven Spielberg.

Richard Matheson was a well loved and well respected writer. A genius of science fiction and fantasy, his work has become some of the most influential of all the writers in his genres in history.

(from bookreports.info)