Monday 1 August 2016

Blog Tour: The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp

The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Published by Orbit on 28th July | Paperback Original | £8.99

WARNING
Jack Sparks died while writing this book

In 2014, Jack Sparks - the controversial pop culture journalist - died in mysterious circumstances.

To his fans, Jack was a fearless rebel; to his detractors, he was a talentless hack. Either way, his death came as a shock to everyone.

It was no secret that Jack had been researching the occult for his new book. He'd already triggered a furious Twitter storm by mocking an exorcism he witnessed in rural Italy.

Then there was that video: thirty-six seconds of chilling footage that Jack repeatedly claimed was not of his making, yet was posted from his own YouTube account.

Nobody knew what happened to Jack in the days that followed - until now. This book, compiled from the files found after his death, reveals the chilling details of Jack's final hours.

An extraordinary literary creation
Lisa Jewell, international bestselling author

Wittier than the lovechild of Stephen Fry and Charlie Brooker’
Sarah Lotz, author of The Three

This is the Omen for the social media age
Chris Brookmyre, author of Black Widow

Chilling and utterly immersive
M. R. Carey, author of The Girl With All The Gifts

Quite brilliant. An assured, ultra-modern occult story with real depth of character, a compelling and satisfyingly twisted narrative and a streak of genuine malevolence’
Andrew O'Neill, comedian, presenter and musician

An absolutely great read
David Schneider, comedian, director and actor in I’m Alan Partridge and The Day Today

This is one of those books where I'm sad when I'm not reading it. It manages the rare feat of being both horrific and hilarious, which makes me insanely jealous of Arnopp’
Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author

Super-spooky and addictively written
Heat magazine

Brilliantly unnerving. I couldn't put it down’
Tiernan Douieb, comedian


Funny, clever & scary as hell
Sarra Manning, Red Online

It’s very much about the world we live in now and how we’re all connected, how our lives are all recorded for posterity, or until the internet stops working, and I loved the way this novel played with those kind of contrasts’
Sarah Shaffi, The Monocle Arts Review

A magnificent millennial nightmare

Alan Moore, creator of V for Vendetta

**********

REVIEW

The Last Days of Jack Spark is definitely a very odd book. However, it's not a bit scary. At least I do not think that. I actually found it to be more tragic, a black comedy kind of book, well without much comedy. A book about guilt, life after death and possessions. And, there were moments when I found the book a bit dreary. 

However, it also had some really great moments, or rather it ended with a bang. I love that ending, if the rest of the book had felt as good as the ending, then I would have loved the whole book. But, alas, I found the story, especially when Jack was in L.A to be the part that I least enjoyed. But, then came the ending, then everything started to make sense and that's when I started to enjoy the story. And, that's when I started to feel sorry for Jack (let's face it, he's a jerk for 95% of the book). 

I liked the style of the book; The Last Days of Jack Spark being the manuscript that Jack left, and interviews with people that met Jack and recorded conversations, etc. I liked how Jack's memories of events contradicted everyone else. If it just had been scary, then it would have been a marvelous book. Sure, it's gory and all, but not scary. But, I guess for people not that used to horror is this book scary to read.

So, not a personal hit for me, but not a bad book. I basically like the books style, and the unusual story and the ending were terrific!

I want to thank Orbit for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! 



Jason Arnopp is a British author and scriptwriter. His background is in journalism: he has worked on titles such as Heat, Q, The Word, Kerrang!, SFX and Doctor Who Magazine. He has written comedy for Radio 4 and official tie-in fiction for Doctor Who and Friday The 13th. The Last Days of Jack Sparks is the first novel which is entirely Jason’s own fault (though some readers will blame Jack himself).

#JackSparks | www.jacksparks.co.uk | @JasonArnopp




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