Review: The Last Town – Blake Crouch

Wayward Pines #3

SYNOPSIS: Welcome to Wayward Pines, the last town.

Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work. Their children are taught that David Pilcher, the town’s creator, is god. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed.

But Ethan has discovered the astonishing secret of what lies beyond the electrified fence that surrounds Wayward Pines and protects it from the terrifying world beyond. It is a secret that has the entire population completely under the control of a madman and his army of followers, a secret that is about to come storming through the fence to wipe out this last, fragile remnant of humanity. – via Goodreads

Well there we have it folks, the trilogy is done. It’s a super fast trilogy to read, and I am glad that it is all done and dusted now. While not this insanely intricate trilogy, it was fun, albeit predictable and a little silly. Each book has a distinctly different feel to it, and this final one was through and through survival horror, but it was good.

Absolutely nothing shocking came to  light here again, but it was interesting to read about what happened in Wayward Pines after that cuckoo -crazy Pilcher shut off the power. Issues are addressed in this book, the ego of man, but there is no real and substantial lesson to be learned here. The book focuses on the residents of Wayward Pines and the narrative flicks between some characters, be it just to tell about a slice of horror, or to contribute to the main story overall.

Ethan is still not a character I am particularly sold on, and the supporting characters don’t really win you over either. There are still more fragmented sentences than you can shake a stick at and The Last Town still sports the phenomenally questionable and impossible logic and reasoning as its predecessors, but when ones does not focus too closely on that. It barrels on as a light, entertaining read. I am still frustrated at how one dimensional the characters are, and how preposterous things are at times, as well as the silly interactions between people. They come across as so hollow.

I have noticed that these novels are particularly popular and have a loyal following, and maybe I expect more mystery from a thriller, and you know, maybe more thrills, but I could recommend these books if you are looking for a light, quick read. Maybe you find more heart in it than I did. Either way, I don’t regret having purchased these, and they kept me buy and intrigued for a few hours – enough so that I read them back to back, not as filler reads.

Rapid Review: House at the End of the Street (2012)

“People don’t notice all the secrets around them. Even though they’re right in front of them, just hiding, waiting to be found.”
– Ryan

SYNOPSIS: After moving with her mother to a small town, a teenager finds that an accident happened in the house at the end of the street. Things get more complicated when she befriends a boy who was the only survivor of the accident. – via IMDB

You know, I watched this as part of the box set that Natasha got me for Christmas. I initially thought that it was the remake for The Last House On The Left, and when we started watching I realised they were two totally different films, so it was new to me. I know that Cinema Parrot Disco raged about this – she is no fan. Me? I thought that it was a decent albeit stupid popcorn film. It’s not revolutionary and great, though it features some pretty decent performances, but I can think of a huge selection of other movies that are a bigger waste of time. House at the End of the Street suffers from being generic, bland, and silly. It isn’t necessarily boring, and there are aspects to it that had so much potential to scare and get under the skin, make you think a bit, and yet those golden opportunities were passed up. There were some twists to it, one that I didn’t quite expect, but very few of them were pulled off with the finesse that they deserved. The movie never really quite hits the highs it wishes to. I thought that Jennifer Lawrence and Max Thieriot worked very well together. I also enjoyed Thieriot’s performance, and think that he is an actor that performs quite well but doesn’t get noticed much. He has potential for certain things, so it’s always nice to see him in something. The characters here are a little annoying, like the way they go about things is quite illogical. I think the safest way to look at this movie is to see it as a horror movie for young teens… I think that is the only way that you won’t absolutely hate it. As for me? I thought it was alright and not the biggest waste of my time. While unoriginal and lacking in places, there are other aspects that redeem it somewhat, and hence I can live with it.