Review: The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman by Mindy Meija

PURCHASE/GOODREADS.

Imagine This: Your life’s a movie.

You’ve been playing so many roles you’re not sure who you are. There’s the you who is the good daughter, there’s another who’s the good friend, another who’s the good girlfriend and a student. Yes, a student who has the hots for the new English teacher.

The student, you find, is the only self that allows you to be who you really are. If there ever is a thing such as ‘who you really are’. You’re pursuing love finally, you’re fucking your teacher in an old barn in your small town eventually.

One night, he’d promise you the two of you will leave for New York. Then something unbecoming happens: the unbecoming of you. In which you’re stabbed in the heart and several times in the face.

You’ll never get to live your dreams, you’ll never get to be whoever you wanted to be. Your true self. Though now, all is not lost. Your dead self could help us solve the mystery of your life.

Who killed you?

My review.

Sometimes, you read all around that there’s this brilliant thriller, that’s original and suspenseful. But then you pick it up and you wish you hadn’t picked it up. Please, this book isn’t like that.

The storyline is original. The point of views are refreshing and intriguing. There’s Hattie Hoffman the lead character who’s twisted and manipulative, although she’s Amy Dunne with soul. There’s Peter, the teacher sleeping with Hattie. There’s Del, our lead investigator who has a creepy relationship with Hattie’s dad (you will have so many assumptions running through your head. I loved each and every one of them)

Well, why I think this is original:

1.      Ever read a thriller which is enacted around a Shakespearean play? You should love this thriller if you are literature fanatic(—which you are, that’s why you read)

2.      Del, our lead investigator is not a cliché. I have DNFed a lot of thrillers because the lead investigator’s point of view and even his character is so clichéd you want to cry. Like really cry. If you wanted crime fiction you might as well go get it.

3.      Yes, a lot of crime fiction takes advantage of the fact that they can only be plot-driven and read terribly. The writing of this one is fine, almost literary. So you won’t be DNFing this one because of its inexistent crappy writing.