As soon as I finished the novel, I was tempted to read it straight through a second time because this is one that I think will become even more impressive upon closer inspection. Narrada en un tono cómico negro, cáustico, que evidentemente hace una crítica brutal sobre las Sectas y de lo que las rodea, el fanatismo desmedido. The deceptively simple prose keeps the book brisk and even gripping as its puzzles grow more craggy and complex.

In fact, it is a surprisingly complex, frustratingly inscrutable, and uncompromisingly disturbing story full of gore, religious fanatics, and blood. In its core, you could say that Evenson's Last Days is The Trial of horror literature, a Kafkaesque nightmare of being trapped within an elusive and surreal hierarchic machinery. Last Days is one of those brilliant narratives that seem very simple and straightforward and then end up having more layers than a truck full of onions. Just as the bloody mess of the brotherhood directly mirrors actual religious practice, so do other aspects of the book, such as its use of space: most of the book takes place in rooms or compounds, whether in a hospital or elsewhere.

Kline is a badass noir hero - after having his hand cut off, he used a hot plate to cauterize the wound, then blew his attacker's brains out. Kline certainly knows the danger he's in, and has in fact been boringly repetitious in his demands to be let go, let out, left alone. O Blessed Flying Spaghetti Monster in the sky, if it be thy will, reach deep into my mind with your Noodly Appendage and cleanse it from this pestilent horror which has thusly stained it. Several of my readers requested I'd review this book over the years and holy moly, the hype DOES check out.

eres impresionable, avisado quedas…la novela no se trata de un paseo por el bosque una mañana de primavera 😬. Yes, to a large extent, this is about religion, also, clearly, about Mormonism in particular, but Evenson’s scope is larger. He reminds me a lot of Hammett's Continental Op, who is less of a person and more of an entity forcing his way through a solution until an answer is given to him. The first part honestly feel more like a horror novel and the second part feels more noir (particularly of the Mickey Spillane violent variety). Of course, that’s before the shit hits the fan but I’d be running like hell at the mere mention of these people, not trying to be casual and get along with them.

All ends in tears, as Kline oversteps the rope he's been given to hang himself in a nefarious plot to rid the world of a bad “holy” man; the body count mounts; and Kline doesn't escape without losing yet more body parts to the Brotherhood of Mutilation. Interestingly, as he shoots his way to freedom, he asks himself how many bullets he must fire before he is no longer human. What does is the brutal mutiliation he was forced to perform on himself during one case; an attacker forced him to cut his own hand with a cleaver. If you ever were watching The Maltese Falcon and wanted to know how it would be if Humphrey Bogart would get involved in something really, really weird, then this is your chance! My chorus line is conditional: IF you comply and join by yourself and just as far as you do so, nobody will have to force you.