Last Entry First: An LDS Novel in Letters and Journal Entries

by C.K. Abbott

Devoted journal keeper Annie Smith arrives in Seattle to find that everything she owns has been lost in a moving van fire. She starts a new journal immediately, which she dubs PJ (Pauper Journal) because it's just a simple spiral notebook. Annie knows that she could reinvent herself. She's in a new city, a new LDS ward, and a new apartment complex. With her husband and two small children, she tries starting over with nothing. Fourteen-year-old Jane Watley wants to be a detective, and she spends her time quietly observing those around her, but her spying entangles her in a mess she wishes she didn't even know about. Courtney Williams, running from habits that could consume her, meets a boy who seems to be able to see past the addiction and rocky past. When these lives converge, all will be changed, for better or worse.

271 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 20, 2011

Reviews

[Lucinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's more 2 1/2 stars but it has potential. With a professional editor and a rewrite, it could be a really good novel. There are obvious mistakes, typos, grammar issues, naming characters before they're introduced, using the wrong character names, etc, that could have been avoided with some good editing. The story is basically good and makes some interesting, heartwarming points but it's not very well developed internally. The hopping back and forth between characters' journal entries is tiring and confusing- it's obvious that the author resorted to the many Points of View in order to make the story flow for all the characters but it fell short since all the journal entries have the same voice, only the names before each one are different. I suggest either developing each journal entry more independent in its own voice, sticking to 1 or 2 PoV by the main characters, or have an omniscient narrator.