My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Independent Publishers Group and Vault Comics for an advanced copy of this graphic novel tale of horror.

Humans always seem very close to just throwing their hands up in the air and letting themselves just rage out. Especially now. Pettiness is the new normal, being a jackass seems its own reward and a school shootings aren't even a lead story. As a society we allow this to continue, so what does that say about humans. Well maybe it isn't really our fault, maybe down deep in the codes of our DNA we are hardwired to self destruct, to rend our clothing and take a bite out of our neighbors. Or authors who tell us these truths. The Last Book You'll Ever Read is a graphic novel of horror, mature horror written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Leila Leiz and Vladimir Popov, about a book, an author and her bodyguard and the end of the world.

Satyr is a an International bestseller and has made the writer Olivia Kade the envy of publishers, and the enemy of a lot of people. Olivia's book events are sold out affairs, complete with people who want to attack her, some that seem scarily inhuman. Wanting to continue her tour, Olivia hires a private security team lead by Connor Wilson to keep her save. With the proviso that he not read her book. The tour continues with things getting strange, people acting oddly at the events, violence rising around the nation. And then things get much stranger.

A familiar story, a cursed book and an author, but still an interesting tale nonetheless. My only real question was why her book events seemed so small, I would think the 92 Street Y or something like that would be better served. Also the story just seems to end, the journey there is fine, but the ending just comes quickly. The art is really quite good, with a nice mix of normal, to insane graphics back to normal. When things really get real, the art keeps pace well with the story. And pay attention to the art. A lot of things happen in some panels that explain some of the actions and ideas of the characters.

A decent story with good art. I hope there is more, as I would like to see where the story was going, and there is a lot of side stories that could be investigated more.

"Civilization tricked itself. Its own lie backfired. We cannot be tamed. Conditioned, perhaps. But not domesticated. A lifetime in captivity cannot hide our true natures. We are genetically wild."

So essentially, someone has written one of those books again, and this time it's called Satyr. Fair play, I would be more likely to read this one, because rather than being one of those men who usually write these books, the author this time is called Olivia Kade and looks like Kate Jackson by way of the lead in a sixties French film. But I still don't buy that it would play a key role in a complete breakdown of the world as we know it, like a watered-down Crossed meets a less imaginative Mouth Of Madness, though it probably doesn't help that the excerpts here are of course written by Cullen Bunn, a man intermittently able to write good horror comics, rather than Olivia Kade, his creation, whose talents supposedly run a little further. Not that his failings here are limited to the admittedly sticky wicket of creating a character smarter than oneself and having to back that up. Case in point: the book tour which forms the spine of the plot. I'm not objecting to the crushingly obvious direction of the bodyguard/client plot so much as the bit where Satyr is one of those books that everyone on public transport is reading, but the events aren't even in lecture halls, they're in the sort of small bookshops where I see genial non-celebrity academics launch their latest poetry book, and even there they don't look particularly packed. Some respite from the edgy platitudes and overfamiliar story comes in the art, by Leila Leiz and Vladimir Popov, which at least offers very attractive leads and a nice line in monsterfucking, though on other topics it can suggest a team who fell for how easy the Allreds make it look to do art like the Allreds'.

(Netgalley ARC)

I read an ARC of the first volume of The Last Book You'll Ever Read and Independent Publishers Group.

I instantly was interested in the promise of a comic that brought forward the horror of Chuck Palahniuk and In the Mouth of Madness. The Comic centers around Olivia, who has written a book that calls on the base instincts of humans. Calling them not just back to a more primitive state, but a violent one as well. She hires a guard, as soon those that read her book call for the "sacrifice of the prophet". While on a book tour, she watches as people seem to fall deeper and deeper into madness, civilization falling apart as books are not just handed to her bloody, but as if made of actual meat.

The story is interesting, while I'm not the sort of fatalistic person to actually think at the base we're simply violent creatures wishing to strike out and kill and destroy, stories of this nature are always interesting and fascinating in their nature. The comic makes no bones about showing us the bloody feasts of the people as they turn to rip apart those around them, or the lust they start to fall into, nudity is even used to show when they stop using clothes when civilization is being corroded apart.

So, this is a mature comic to be sure.

This comic also invokes a lot of different imagery. A lot of it seems contradictory, but in many ways makes sense within the text. I'll try not to get into too many details, but there's a lot of play of the world and characters at one point a place or a person of God and beautiful, and then the next it'll look like hell, or the character will be red, have horns and hooves like a goat.

Overall, I really enjoyed what I read, and honestly, I feel like it didn’t really feel like it came to a satisfactory end despite saying that it was a complete series, and hope that there’s a little more that explores some of these ideas that it has a little completely.

The Last Book You’ll Ever Read was vivid, colorful, violent, horror-oriented, and erotic. Definitely a comic for older readers.

The graphics is amazing. Love the gore and intensity portrayed. Storyline however is abit borderline, maybe because there is more coming. Will keep a lookout for the other instalments. Enjoyed this overall.

3 ☆ for The Last Book You'll Ever Read. Thank you Netgalley and IPG for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

➸ “a lifetime in captivity cannot hide our true natures. we are genetically wild. sooner or later, we'll use our own claws to tear the caul away.”

this was a really fun and gory graphic novel! i enjoyed the art tremendously. the story line is just fine so far, but i will definitely keep an eye out for the second part.

if you're looking for a quick and disturbing read, then this might be just for you!