Book Review: "The Last Thing to Burn" by Will Dean

Will Dean's novel "The Last Thing to Burn" is twisted and incredibly written. The voice comes through in amazing accuracy and we can tell that some very deep research into voice and authenticity has been done in order to make this as realistic as possible. I first heard about this book through other people online who had been reading the same thing. The reviews ranged from average to pretty good. But honestly, I think that the true depth of this book is either being missed or not appreciated as much as it should be.

This book is about a woman who lives with a man called Lenn. She is being held captive by him and the book opens with her running away - but she is eventually recaptured and taken back to the house. She is then kept even more captive, having her own sister's letters taken from her and her favourite book as well. She has lost all hope, she has resigned to her fate of the everyday. This is until she becomes pregnant with a child by him.

Throughout the book, she takes horse tranquilliser pills, she gives birth on a dirty mat on the floor, she finds out information about her sister that she simply cannot believe but must and she even starts to regain hope in the strangest ways whilst hearing something from underneath her home's floorboards - screaming.

The book is written brilliantly, the voice and emotions coming through in an authentic and realistic style but also maintaining this nightmarish atmosphere as well with the farmland all around her. Her ankle swells up to the point that it offers the first image of gore in the book. She has this almost rhythmic way of speaking when she speaks to her captor and when she is giving birth, this rhythm is broken because of the pain she is in. This is the first point at which we see her emotions towards him flip and completely change and his treatment of her also change slightly. He is less harsh towards her and even makes and offers her food and drink, something which she is new too. But is he doing this to be nice or is he doing it to regain her trust so that she may not run away again? There are strange twists in the book which will give you the answer. The answer I will tell you is even weirder than what you may think.

The character Lenn has incredible amounts of issues regarding his mother. He dresses ‘Jane’ up as his mother, makes her behave like his mother and even gives her a birthing like his mother was given, where his mother was given it. I think that the strangest part about it though is that he gives her his mother’s name - Jane. Every time he calls her Jane, she repeats these lines in her head “My name is not Jane.” This is as if she is trying to forget that name in order to stop the intrusive thoughts of her treatment coming in through her mind. The very name of it is the trigger for it.

In conclusion, I can honestly say this is one of the better books I have read this year so far. It has all the elements of a great horror/thriller novel. It is written with brilliant depth and amazing amounts of attention paid to realism and voice. The characters are both completely different in their wants and the twists are entirely unexpected, you could not even guess them if you tried. Again, one of the best books I have read all year so far.