Last Days
By Brian Evenson and Peter Straub
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Nominated for the Shirley Jackson award and winner of the ALA/RUSA Best Horror novel, Brian Evenson’s Last Days is an intense, profoundly unsettling down-the-rabbit-hole detective noir. Kline is a former detective who’s cool head in the face of a brutal amputation makes him the perfect candidate to infiltrate a dark cult that believes amputation brings one closer to God. Kline is tasked with finding the cult leader’s killer. But to get to the truth, Kline must lose himself—literally—one body part at a time.
Last Days was first published in 2003 as a limited edition novella titled The Brotherhood of Mutilation. Its success led Evenson to expand the story into a full-length novel. In doing so, he has created a work that’s disturbing, deeply satisfying, and completely original.
Brian Evenson
Called "one of the world's foremost authors of books about programming" by International Developer magazine, best-selling author Brian Evenson has written about programming for over three decades. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been widely translated. Brian is interested in all facets of computing, but his primary focus is computer languages. He is the author of numerous books on Java, C, C++, Python etc. Brian holds BA and MCS degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign.
Read more from Brian Evenson
Children of Lovecraft Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Song for the Unraveling of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Supernatural Noir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Windeye: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Collapse of Horses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fearful Symmetries Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lovecraft Unbound Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Father of Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Python Programming Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cabin: A Short Horror Story Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fugue State: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Java Programming Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Open Curtain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImmobility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales From OmniPark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJavaScript Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCome Join Us By the Fire Season 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMove Under Ground Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhose Future Is It?: Cellarius Stories, Volume I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEd vs. Yummy Fur: Or, What Happens When A Serial Comic Becomes a Graphic Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Last Days
Related ebooks
The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Entropy in Bloom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Occultation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Open Curtain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFather of Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beneath a Pale Sky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House of Windows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wasp Factory: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Star: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Laws of the Skies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5North American Lake Monsters: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Some of Your Blood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grip of It: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Last Days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A God in the Shed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Become Monsters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Carrion Comfort: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spider Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Velocities: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Small Shadows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They All Died Screaming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Croning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boatman's Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Experimental Film Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elizabeth: A Novel of the Unnatural Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil's Call Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Harbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Dust You Shall Return Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salvage the Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Last Days
31 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow...where to start? Probably by saying that there will be some spoilers, so caveat lector. Last Days begins with Kline, a former undercover cop who recently had his hand cut off by a criminal, being engaged by a cult to investigate a crime that has been committed at their compound. The Brotherhood of Mutilation takes the biblical passage " if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off" literally and believe that the more amputations one has, the closer they are to God. They have chosen Kline for the job specifically because of his recent amputation. As Kline investigates, he discovers that the crime he has been tasked with solving hasn't been committed and that he is meant to be the fall guy.After fighting his way out of the compound, Kline falls in with the Pauls, a splinter group of the Brotherhood who are all called Paul and think it's only necessary to amputate one's right hand to demonstrate devotion. The leader of the Pauls convinces Kline that he will only be safe from the Brotherhood if he kills them first, thus setting the stage for a finale that makes a Tarantino film look tame in comparison.Evenson has created a strange, twisted, and utterly compelling story. Last Days is in many ways a critique of religions taken to extremes, and the lean prose gives the book a realistic feel that makes it all the more chilling. Ultimately, this is one of the most thought-provoking books I've ever read and it will continue to haunt--in a not unwelcome way--for a long time.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kline, suffering from depressions after forcible cutting of his own hand is dragged against his will to investigate a murder of the head of a religious cult, one that follows the precept that you should cut of your hand if it offends you.Whoa this books intense, I could just not read it in one sitting. That's partly due to my feeling on amputation but mostly its just Brian Evensons extreme story and hard hitting style. Its almost pared down to the minimum, there are no long descriptions here, no out of place word (no surnames!). There is a perfect balance kept between the extremity of the story and the brotherly matter of fact tone. Its violent but never gratuitous, its characters deeply unlikeable but always interesting and never unbelievable. You are too dragged into the labyrinth of fleeting and changing facts unable to leave until till end. This is book is expanded from the "The Brotherhood of Mutilation" novella but it doesn't seem to suffer, thematically its suits being cut into a few sections, keeping you unsettled.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What to say.... I picked this one up due to the quality of the limited edition by Underland Press, beautiful book from an aesthetic point of view. Story wise this book certainly sets itself apart. Composed of two sections, "The Brotherhood of Mutiliation" and "Last Days", the novel tells the story of Kline, a detective who loses his hand. This results in Kine becoming an object of interest for a crazy "the more body parts I remove the closer I am to God" cult. While the story stars a detective there is no mystery to solve, it's basically just the evolution of Kline himself that takes center stage. For me, reaching the end wasn't a monumental relief or feeling of accomplishment, just a sort of "Well THAT happened" feeling. The plot felt more geared for a short story/novella (alas that's what the first half of this novel originally was) and I didn't feel too captivated by it. It isn't poorly written though, so it earns a place on my "Quick summer reads" list.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/53.5 stars
The bloodiest book I ever read. It's only fiction, though, and they do way worse things to animals"brought to life for food."
This book is about an undercover cop who, against his wishes, becomes involved in a cult where the more of your limbs you chop off, the holier you are.
1/2 a star for originality. You'd be surprised how many different parts of yourself you can chop off, and still live, as long as you CAUTERIZE lol. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A crime has been committed in an underground religious cult. Kline, a one-handed detective, finds himself forced into solving the murder. Hard-boiled detective tale? Not really; Kline seems to miraculously come to conclusions without the reader being privy to any of his actual investigating. There’s nothing deeply satisfying or profound or even particularly original about a narrative that dishes out page after page of consummate violence at the hands of completely non-relatable characters. Plot? Characterizations? The point of the narrative? Despite having read this often-repetitive tale, there’s nothing to say other than it takes more than violence and shocking events to make a good story. This wasn’t scary, just repulsively violent . . . definitely not my definition of horror.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book is certainly a quick read--I read it in one day--and Evenson is a skilled writer, but I think I would have traded some of the nonstop violence and body horror for more character development and plot.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gory and gruesome, with a terrible momentum, held together by troubling philosophical musings on subtraction, identity, and fate.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strange, profoundly unique, and unsettling. There is some of Evensons peculiar dream-logic at work here, and the setting is bizarre to the extreme; a cult which is dedicated to self-mutilation and glorifies amputation. Here Evenson employs distinctly terse prose, which starts out enhancing the noir, detective-novel like plot, but begins to serve as an increasingly strong counterpoint to the convoluted directions the story moves in. I very much enjoyed the strange ride this story took me on. 5/5
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5So terrible I couldn't finish and returned it to Audible. Protagonist is an idiot among idiots. The "investigation" makes no sense at all, even if you are insane which, clearly, the amputation freaks are. They are incapable of bringing the set up to fruition. Why do they think he gives a shit about their depravity or the caste system that organizes it? The writing is meh and I just didn't want to listen to any more of the creepy narration (I think the guy was supposed to be conveying horror, but it just came through as breathless awe). Yuk.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book Report: Kline is a PI who doesn't need clients to hire him so he can live. This is because he stole money from a man who was trying to murder him. To make sure the man couldn't murder him, Kline bought time by lopping off his own hand before killing the murder-minded malefactor.All of this takes place before we meet Kline, and is the very least awful, least repulsive, and most understandable stuff that happens in the entire 201pp of this book. Still interested? Then on we go.The book is two connected novellas, “The Brotherhood of Mutilation” and “Last Days,” comprising the adventures of Kline in the weirdest subculture that christian imagination has yet to throw up: the mutilates. These are two sects of people who amputate parts of their bodies to align themselves with scripture: “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire...” Mark 9:47 First and smallest of my anti-xian rants here commenceth: Srsly y'all can any sane person in possession of even modest decoding skills think this crap is meant literally? And if so, how can that morally defective person claim this horrifying religion is a force for love and peace after reading just this one passage?Back to the book. Borchert, leader of the mutilates and a twelve (number of body parts amputated), has Kline kidnapped and forces him to investigate the death of Aline, the leader and founder of the mutilates (a seventeen, as we horrifyingly and disgustingly learn later in the story), despite handicapping Kline by refusing to let him, a mere one (the hand that's gone), meet with any witnesses or ask any questions or see any evidence. Now old hands in the groves of noir know that this is a set-up so classic that one wonders if those blinking neon signs are visible from the parkway. 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. And then evil, evil Borchert gives Kline just enough to compel him, as a PI, to address the itch of curiousness. (Bonus points for following that reference back to its origin.)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. Escape, however, he does; and then we launch into “Last Days.”Oh my heck. Kline wakes up in the hospital, missing an entire arm now, to find a blond man with no right hand (go look that Biblical quotation up again) determined to kidnap him again, this time taking him to meet Paul, leader of a schismatic amputee group called “The Pauls” because they're all blond men with amputated right hands. Paul, the leader, wants Kline to go finish the job he thought was done, ie killing the unholy holy man.Which, not to belabor the point, Kline doesn't want to do but does, in the process meeting an old friend, killing an old enemy, and causing a degree of mayhem only describable as Biblical. Kline is seen as the Mutilate Messiah, the burning brand that will cleanse the filth and degradation of error from the mutilate community.I have to stop now, or I will vomit.My Review: This part will be short. It took me three weeks to read this book because I couldn't do much at a time. It is grim, grisly, and gruesome; it is horrifying and horrible; it is strong, strong stuff for even seasoned veterans of de Sade's revolting works.Brian Evenson was raised as a Mormon; he was told by the Mormon Church that he would have to stop writing if he wanted to continue being a Mormon. I don't know what happened after that, but I know there are more books by Evenson to be read. And, I cannot believe I'm typing this sentence, I will be reading them.One day.Evenson's vicious critique of christian religion is spot-on with my observations of the religion's effects on the world over the past two millennia. A more potent force for evil has never been unleashed. From the christian thugs burning the Library of Alexandria to the Westboro Baptist thugs condemning fags to burn in hell because their narrow-minded bigot of a gawd hates them, this religion should, in a properly run world, be closely monitored as a hate group and membership in it should deny a person all civil rights.Only recommended for the reader who seeks out the dark side.
1 person found this helpful