Scan barcode
A review by rg9400
The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Last Hour Between Worlds is a fun popcorn read (narrated by the brilliant Moira Quirk) reminiscent of Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It follows Kembral Thorne, a Hound, who is simply trying to enjoy a party that her rival, Rika Nonesuch, a Cat, is also attending. Quickly, things start to go wrong as people start dying and the world keeps resetting as the house they are in seems to be getting sucked into weirder and weirder dimensions of reality as they seem to be caught up in a game with cosmic players. To be clear, while the setup is similar to Seven Deaths, this really isn't a whodunit or that focused on the intricacies of the timeloop. There are certainly reveals and ways that the characters try to counteract what is going on, but it feels a lot less mystery driven than I was originally expecting. This is my main complaint as it seems more focused on trying to do worldbuilding instead, which often leads to mixed results because I struggled to keep all the rules straight and wasn't always sure everything made sense or was consistent. I feel the book would have been better served not getting so fixated on crafting all of these rules to explain the mystery since the reader learns about them well after the characters, meaning the characters are working with knowledge the reader does not know. Instead, it could have spent more time on the things we do know such as the list of suspects and players and the loop. The concept also leads to some interesting imagery, though I wish the prose was a bit stronger to really bring some of those weirder aspects to life. Despite this criticism, I still really enjoyed this book. A lot of that is due to Moira Quirk's excellent narration paired with our lovable duo whose quirky dynamic works really well.