The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I don’t know if this book was quite what I was expecting and I am perfectly okay with that. For one, Jack Sparks was an awful character. Truly dreadful. Which in a sense, I guess I was expecting given the back cover summary, but he was one of the more unlikeable characters I’ve read in a while. This can either cause a reader to abandon the mission due to this insufferable individual, or, as was in this case, completely accept and embrace the appalling individual and carry on with the story propelled by pure adrenaline and curiosity.

I couldn’t stop reading this book. I can probably say that about a lot of books (my marriage may be suffering due to this compulsive reading…), but this one in particular I really, really couldn’t stop reading. I am not sure if it was the premise itself, or the style in which it was written, but it pulled me in and I wanted more. I HAD to see how the mysterious video came to be (even though I had a pretty good hypothesis midway through, and ended up being correct, which surprisingly didn’t even ruin the enjoyment of the reveal) and I HAD to understand Jack’s secretive reasoning for needing to write his book on the supernatural in the first place. Again, neither reveal was extraordinary in a “WTF!?!?” sense. However, peppered all throughout this novel are special, more understated “wtf…” moments. I honestly enjoyed those moments more than a big, shocking reveal. It’s those hidden in the details, makes you look twice moments that linger with you after a book’s last page is closed. That haunt you, if you will.

Now without saying too much, I’ll admit that books involving aspects of time travel can get a bit dicey. I typically am the person who analyzes this paradox and splits hairs over what could and couldn’t actually be feasible and where the author might have forgotten to tie up a lose end. That being said, I actively choose not to do that here. Whether that is because Jason Arnopp really didn’t miss any lose ends (there is only one example of this I could find), or because I enjoyed the book overall so much that I didn’t want to look for holes, I’m not sure. Either way, this was a solid novel that served up equal parts creepy and thought provoking (both in regards to religion and science), with a side of comic relief.



View all my reviews