I discovered Brian Evenson through one of those “Best horror books”. When I read the blurbs of his books, I was sold. I told 
I I see people do agree on Evenson mastering the short story, but there are a lot of debate on his novels which I will get into now. I do agree on the opinion of him mastering the short story format. I read “All those lost days” and it was a terrific. From the content to the writing itself, everything was chef’s kiss. I found this story in The Best Horror of the Year Volume 14 if you want to read it too.
Anyway let me get to my review on Last Days. There will be spoilers, unfortunately, please read this post at another time if you want to read the novel yourself. Also note that the content is intense and I will talk about violence and gore.
The story follows a private investigator, Kline, that is summoned by a cult called the Brotherhood of Mutilation to solve a murder. They chose Kline because he lost his hand in of the cases he worked on. I will spare us all the gorey details, but basically he did everything himself. After Kline declines them, he is forcibly taken to the cult where he meets Borchert asking him to solve the case. Things are not as they seem though. The story takes another route which, I think, is the downfall of the novel. There may be a reason behind this.
The novel is divided in two parts:
I only found this out later on, but The Brotherhood of Mutilation was a novella on its own published in 2003. It is only in 2009 when Evenson added the second part. I have never heard of someone ellaborating on a novella in this way. There is also talk about a possible sequal to Last Days called *Phantom Limb” which may appear in 2026.
The language use was terrific. The descriptions made me squirm and literally writhe at times. It is both the bizarre and the beautiful sewn into this book. Some of the scenes and ideas are really creative, especially the scene where detective Kline looks at a depraved calender where a woman called “Miss Less is More” lose a body part with each passing month. It is brilliant! There are a few of these bits that shows Evenson’s commendable creativity.
The first part was a perfect harmony of different elements. Mystery, atmosphere, and tempo. The way that Evenson introduces the characters and the events without giving too much away, has a natural flow to it. It doesn’t feel like you are reading, but rather watching a movie. I see a lot of people also say that it reminds them of a noir detective film. It does feel like it, but more eerie.
Unfortunately in the second part it falls flat. I felt that too much happened. The noir effect was replaced by a common thriller where the protagonist survives every attack and kills every bad guy in the way. It is also in this part where the plot fades into action only. I thought that the end would redeem the story, but it did not. It was open ended, but in a “where to now?” type of way.
I thought I missed something. This could not be all of it, right? I did find that Evenson was Mormon and this story may critique religion which you can definitely pick up. He quotes the Bible verse Matthew 5:29-30: “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. . . . And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee…”. If the story is built on this, which it literally is, it can critique extremism in religion and so forth.
Another thing is that detective Kline does show the point that both cults made as a divine being. Maybe that is why he survives every attack. I think maybe this would have been stronger if the second half toned down on the action. It would illustrate how detective Kline indirectly joins the cults through belief, although he is physically not part of them. This does give the story more depth, but still I do feel like I am missing something.
I am conflicted. Maybe there is more theological elements that I am missing and that is why I insist on there being something more. Maybe I am just hoping for there to be more, but I think the first part is more likely. I think it was a great book with more potential if the second part was a bit different. I would definitely recommend it for you to read so you can talk to me about the possibilities so I can get some peace. Come to think of it, maybe this is what Evenson wanted. For me to strive and long for an answer that may or may not exist?
Thank you for reading! I appreciate it.
(This post is my own creation. The photographs were taken with
