{"id":1034,"date":"2015-05-03T05:46:34","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T13:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2017-12-18T08:32:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T16:32:13","slug":"review-the-last-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/review-the-last-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Last Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>
\n The Last Word<\/a> by Lisa Lutz<\/a>
\n My rating: 3 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

Last book in the Spellman series, and it feels like it. You have to decide for yourself if that speaks ill or not. Personally, I don\u2019t think it does, but then, I waded through all six Spellman documents without much break in between. I can imagine that reading one novel a year from 2007 through 2013 (with a break in 2011 for a stand-alone novel) would leave one wanting more out of number six. And it was only after publication that subsequent editions of number six were subtitled \u201cThe Next Generation\u201d which, too, I think, set some unrealized expectations.<\/p>\n

The theme throughout has been farcical dysfunction, and how Izzy is a reformed-screw-up. Here in number six, she\u2019s fully adult, and screwing that up too, but it\u2019s inexperience, not selfish indifference, that fuels the chaos. Thankfully, a tragedy of sorts brings the family back to being on the same team, and everything works out. This is what I mean when I say it feels like a final novel. A couple of dangling threads get tied up a bit too neat, and while I want to lambast Lutz for laziness, I\u2019m going to instead forgive her the desire to just move one. <\/p>\n

As a person who likes to write, I have a lot of respect for all of the various plot lines that Lisa Lutz manages to weave together. Dozens of different stories intertwining, some of them tied together, and some of them disparate. But for all of that, the Spellman novels were usually more about character than anything else. And let\u2019s face it: everyone\u2019s a foil for Izzy. So too in 6, the final foil, if you want.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve said in previous Spellman doc reviews, I don\u2019t know who would read a review for this novel\u2014if you\u2019ve read one through five, I can\u2019t imagine you\u2019d look for a reason to read six. You\u2019d just read it. Nor can I imagine someone wanting to check-up on the series\u2019 worthiness before diving in. You decided if the first one is right for you, and if it is, so are the other five.<\/p>\n

But for what it\u2019s worth: Six is a nice finish. A little bit slower, a little bid sadder, a wee bit nostalgic, but ultimately, a nice smile and satisfaction at a series well-read.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Last Word by Lisa Lutz My rating: 3 of 5 stars Last book in the Spellman series, and it feels like it. You have to decide for yourself if that speaks ill or not. Personally, I don\u2019t think it does, but then, I waded through all six Spellman documents without much break in between. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Review: The Last Word”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p24y52-gG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}