The Last Word

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of mental health conditions, suicidal ideation, child death, and substance use disorder.

Throughout the novel, several key characters indulge in fiction to alter their reality or to escape from it altogether, and even the quasi-epistolary structure of the novel is designed to heighten this effect, for the details provided from each perspective are shaded with different biases. Most significantly, Emma’s reality is frequently contrasted with Deek’s book-within-a-book, Murder Beach, and his strategic shifts from the “real” events of the main plotline demonstrate his attempts to changes aspects of reality that do not suit his own personal narrative. By shifting rapidly back and forth between these two perspectives during the novel’s most action-packed moments, Adams emphasizes Deek’s fixation on using fiction to reshape events into a form that flatters his own ego and supports his expectations. For instance, while in reality, Emma taunts the attacking Howard with a message on the window that reads “Amateur,” the narration of Murder Beach changes this message to a plaintive plea of “Please don’t kill me” (157). The fictionalized version of Emma’s message portrays her as weak and fearful of her attacker rather than contemptuous and strong.