Review: The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak (Spoiler-Free)

Is parental trust a willful form of blindness?

On one hand, this is a compulsively readable popcorn thriller, but on the other it's a complex examination of a strained parent-child relationship. I was lucky enough to attend a talk by the author about the themes of the novel, and his description of the fears of parenthood really resonated. He's a father himself, but he voiced the fear of the inevitable point when one's children become their own people with their own minds, unable to be read. A child is malleable up to a certain point, but eventually they can't be protected. You can't control if they make the right choices. No matter what, to a certain extent, you will lose them.

And that's what this book comes down to. A father desperately trying to love his daughter in a reality where that might not be possible.

I was expecting this story to be fast-paced and wild, but I wasn't expecting it to be so sad.

The Last One at the Wedding is a solid thriller with original themes and it makes me want to read more of Rekulak's work.