Last Seen

by Christopher Castellani

I am one of those boys they keep finding in the river.

Caleb was driving home for Christmas. Steven was pounding beers at a local bar. Matthew was out looking for his ex-girlfriend. Leo was walking in the woods on a winter night. Then they disappeared.

Days, weeks, years later, their bodies turn up in icy rivers hundreds of miles apart. How did they get there? What, if anything, connects them? Some of their loved ones believe the official answers. Some are convinced the boys are victims of an insidious network called the Smiley Face Killers. Some are trying to forget them altogether. Meanwhile, Caleb, Steven, Matthew, and Leo find one other—and other boys like them—in the murky depths of the afterlife. Each tells his story in his own way, speaking his version of truth, confessing his desires and grievances and even his hopes for a future he still somehow believes belongs to him. Each revelation brings the reader deeper into their intertwined fates, along a journey through the landscapes of identity, intimacy, and the haunting echoes of unresolved grief.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Novels, Audiobook, Adult, Literary Fiction

368 pages, Hardcover

Published February 17, 2026

About the author

Christopher Castellani is the author of five books, most recently the novel Leading Men, for which he received Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Leading Men was published by Viking Penguin, and is currently being adapted for film by Peter Spears (Oscar-winning producer of Nomadland) and Searchlight Pictures.

The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story, a collection of essays on point of view in fiction, was published in 2016 by Graywolf Press, and is taught in many creative writing workshops.

His first novel, A Kiss from Maddalena (Algonquin, 2003) won the Massachusetts Book Award; its follow-up, The Saint of Lost Things (Algonquin, 2005), was a BookSense (IndieBound) Notable Book; the final novel in the trilogy, All This Talk of Love (Algonquin, 2013), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Award.

Christopher is currently on the faculty and academic board of the Warren Wilson MFA program and the faculty of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Since 2019, he has chaired the Writing Panel at YoungArts, aka the National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists. For nearly twenty years, Christopher was in executive leadership at GrubStreet, where he founded the Muse and the Marketplace national literary conference and led the development of numerous artistic programs for adults, teens, and seniors. In 2015, he was awarded the Barnes and Noble/Poets & Writers “Writer for Writers” Award in recognition of his contributions to the literary community and his generosity toward fellow writers.

The son of Italian immigrants, Christopher’s work often centers the Italian, Italian-American, and queer experience. He was educated at Swarthmore College, received his Masters in English Literature from Tufts University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Boston University. A native of Wilmington, DE, he now lives in Boston and Provincetown, MA, where he is completing his fifth novel, Last Seen , with the support of a 2024 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Last Seen will be published in February 2026 by Viking Penguin.

Reviews

[Shantha (ShanthasBookEra) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I am one of those boys they keep finding in the river.

Caleb was driving home for Christmas. Steven was pounding beers at a local bar. Matthew was out looking for his ex-girlfriend. Leo was walking in the woods on a winter night. Then they disappeared."

Over the next several years, their bodies turn up in icy rivers. Some of their loved ones buy law enforcement explanations while others are convinced the college age men are victims of the Smiley Face Killers network. The young men connect in the murky afterlife, sharing their stories and what they know about the others. They share their dreams, grievances and hopes of a life cut short.

Beautifully devastating and tragic, it is an exploration of intertwined fates, identity, intimacy and unresolved grief. While I appreciate the exquisite prose and deeply introspective fully fleshed characters, I can't say I loved it. It was gritty and edgy in subject matter but one that will keep me thinking for a long time. Know what triggers you have before you read it. Castellani is a new author for me and one I would definitely read again depending on the subject matter.

The audiobook performance by Max Meyers, Briggon Snow, Michael Crouch, Kirby Heyborne, Rebecca Lowman, and Nick Trengove breathes life and personality into the characters. It waa the perfect companion to the physical copy.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Viking Books, PRH Audio, and Christopher Castellani for an advance reader's copy and advance listening copy. All opinions are my own. 📚🎧

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book reached inside and squeezed my core. The stories told from multiple men who disappeared. I was consumed by their backstories and what got them to where they are now. Told from the viewpoint of all of them, this was a fascinating plot and way to narrate. My heart broke at many times while reading. Mostly because when people really do disappear I wonder if this is the way could they tell their own tales or keep an eye on us. Beautifully tragic and well written.

[Vmndetta ᛑᛗᛛ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a very unique mystery concept. The story is told from the point of view of boys who are already dead and can meet each other in the 'afterlife'. The atmosphere feels sad, dark, and different from most mystery books. If you want to read this book, be ready for many POVs from the dead boys and stories about what happened before and/or after they died.

I give this book 3.5 stars (rounded up). The idea is very unique and emotional, but the story can be confusing sometimes because there are many characters and POVs. The execution feels a bit messy too, and the pacing is too slow in some parts. Still, you can really feel the grief, confusion, and longing of the characters, and that is the strongest part of the book.

[Chuck Selvaggio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let’s begin with the reading experience Last Seen by Christopher Castellani offers because it’s informative.

Call the experience at once wonderful and enigmatic: at once highly enjoyable and consuming while also uncomfortable. As I read, something appeared, both from the pages and within, that morphed into the emergence of one of the book’s themes:

“Perhaps what we have to offer our youth is frightening because it’s plentiful, easily accessible, but ultimately vacuous.”

I found myself doggy paddling in the vortex of the waters, resulting from the lives and deaths of the four young co-protagonists. Each had his own irresistible, engrossing story.
Castellani’s ability to draw full, round characters through precise, relatable detail is just one aspect that makes this novel stand out and irresistible.
His writing recalls the virtuosity of a fine pianist who uses a self-assured talent to serve his art. The writing is bold in subject, but its execution is an unapologetic whisper. This is what makes it powerful. It’s so seamless, that sometimes it’s hard to tell the worlds of the dead and the living apart (another theme, perhaps).

There’s ugliness here, and hopefully we flinch. Because if we look away, we become part of the problem. Last Seen rumbles with the sense that we’re in this together. We live in the same dark world as the characters do/did. Castellani simply walked into the dark room and turned on the light before turning around and walking out again.

Hats off to those who market this book and to those who must decide what genre to file it under in their bookstores. Murder mystery? Horror? Fantasy? Literary Fiction? Every decision will be both correct and incomplete. There’s something too unwieldy here to contain, something big, something lurking, that invites us to wrestle within and to find some clarity, hope, and understanding of what we just read and what it awakened in us.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book kind of petered out for me by the end (I don't love near future speculation), I really enjoyed the majority of this book. The premise is very interesting and the writing is great. This is the first of this author's books I've read, and I'll definitely have to check out his backlist.
There have been some comparisons to A Little Life which I don't get at all, and another review said it's closer to On The Savage Side which I think is more accurate, though nowhere near as brutal or devastating.

[Melabie Reads ❤️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

~I received an Advanced Readers copy as part of a GoodRead giveaway~

'Last Seen' by Chridtopher Castellani
Review: 4/5

'Last Seen' follows the stories of 4 different boys, each own's POV. Despite never physically knowing each other, they have connected in the afterlife.
I had no background going into reading this book and was immediately hooked. This was such a unique way of story telling that let you feel like you lived through these boys and felt all of the love and heartbreak they endured.

People are caught up on wondering how these boys died but the point is to learn how they lived. And how they continue to live on through those they loved.

If you enjoy deep, literary fiction you will devour this novel. There is beauty inside of everyone if you look hard enough.

"I am one of those boys they keep finding in the river."

[~Bellegirl91~ · Rating 1 out of 5]

First 1 star of the year..... great. All I can say is I had high hopes for this book and even at the beginning with some hinting of a network of a serial killer(s) and the concept of the synopsis, but.....


it didn't turn out that way *eye roll* instead the structure of this book was A COMPLETE MESS, things I personally don't and didn't agree on that made me cringe but not judging anyone over it. I just didn't like it and was beyond overly repetitive, dragged on and on like an energizer bunny. And the last part of the story with the 4 boys, was the most random thing I've listened to and still a mess and confusing to me.

Overall, I soooooo wanted to quit this book and DNF it. The only reason I didn't do that is because I bought both the kindle book and audible discount with it through Amazon and wanted to get my money's worth hahaha. And the only way to do that is to finish the dang book. In general when ignoring the things I didn't agree on personally, and listened to to as a story, it was worse for me and confusing and ugh.

Anyone who ends up liking this book, I'm glad you did and had better luck than I did. I don't want to say what I didn't agree with since people tend to forget we ALL have different views and opinions from each other and that's OKAY we do, but some tend to cause disagreements into being defensive and argumentative and I don't want that in my comment section.

So let's just leave it at that and be respectful for people's opinions of things and what book speaks to them and doesn't more than others. This was NOT for me unfortunately but wouldn't judge anyone for wanting to read it for themselves and see if they liked it or not.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing a novel must be incredibly difficult. It takes a level of talent and dedication that I truly admire — which is exactly why I always struggle when it comes to writing a negative review. Authors put so much into their work, and I genuinely appreciate the craft even when a story doesn’t fully connect with me.

It’s very clear that Christopher Castellani is an extremely talented writer. I really did enjoy his writing style — it’s thoughtful, atmospheric, and often quite beautiful. At times I found myself completely mesmerized by the way he builds scenes and captures emotion. Unfortunately, the story itself just didn’t quite work for me.

Going into Last Seen, I expected the mystery surrounding the Smiley Face Killers to be the central focus of the plot. Instead, the novel is much more about the boys themselves and the complicated relationships and lives that shaped them before their deaths. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing — in fact, it’s an interesting and more character-driven approach to a story like this — but I think it left me feeling a bit off balance as a reader. I kept waiting for the narrative to shift back toward the mystery element, and because of that I often felt like I was searching for something that wasn’t really the book’s intention.

The story itself is undeniably original. While it touches on themes that have certainly been explored before, the way Castellani approaches them feels unique and deeply personal. There’s a lot of darkness and tragedy here, and while I’m usually comfortable with heavier subject matter, I sometimes found the narrative structure a little confusing, which made it harder for me to stay fully grounded in the story.

I’ll be honest — this wasn’t a book I particularly enjoyed, and I came close to setting it aside at times. But I ultimately pushed through because I was so curious to see where everything would lead. While the ending didn’t leave me with the sense of satisfaction I was hoping for, I do think that’s partly because I went into the book expecting something very different from what it was trying to be.

Overall, while Last Seen didn’t quite work for me as a reader, I still have a great deal of respect for Christopher Castellani as a writer. His talent is clear, and I can absolutely see how this story may resonate deeply with other readers who connect more with its character-driven focus.

Many thanks to Viking & NetGalley for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

[Aaron Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

R | Relationships & Characters: 4.75
E | Engagement & Enjoyment: 5
A | Atmosphere & Setting: 5
D | Development, Plot, & Themes: 5
S | Style & Structure: 5+

💭 𝙈𝙔 𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙐𝙂𝙃𝙏𝙎

“Last Seen” moves beyond its true-crime inspiration to become a powerful reflection on memory, masculinity, loneliness, and the deep human need to be seen. Through the afterlife perspectives of four young men, the story explores how identity is shaped not only by the relationships and choices we make in life, but also by how we are remembered, and how sometimes we are misunderstood after we’re gone. The depth and emotional complexity of the characters made this an unforgettable reading experience, and the author delivers a deeply satisfying, thoughtful conclusion that lingers long after the final page.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is structured in an interesting way. The reader hears directly from the boys, but also from those who knew them, loved them, and those still affected by their loss. If you liked Notes On An Execution, this has similar vibes.

[Jennydlovesthebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last Seen wasn’t my favorite. It’s dark and a bit twisted at times, and the constant jumping from story to story made it feel more disconnected than advertised. I kept waiting for the threads to come together, but they never really did. Castellani’s writing is solid, but overall it just didn’t land for me a decent but not memorable 3-star read

[Kailey (kmc_reads)]

I wanted to like this but it’s VERY character driven and basically one bit stream of consciousness as opposed to plot (vs the Noelle Ilhi book Ask for Andrea which I devoured).

[Ashley Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was beautiful and very well written. I’m gonna pick up some of his other works.

[Matthew Minicucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review from the Sunday Pittsburgh Post Gazette (February 15th): https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/books...

Full pre-publication edit of the text below:

Christopher Castellani begins his new novel with an epigraph from Anne Carson, one from her 1992 collection SHORT TALKS. It’s an excellent choice as the epigraph ends in a way that feels wildly connected to the contents of this book: “they are victims of love, many of them.” But funnily enough, I would have selected another one of Carson’s pieces from Short Talks as the epigraph for this work: her short talk “On Ovid.” In it, the speaker details a lonely and distant Ovid on the shores of the Black Sea (obviously already exiled from Rome) “putting on sadness like a garment” and “teaching himself the local language (Getic) in order to write an epic poem no one will ever read.”

All of the men in Castellani’s novel strike me in almost the exact same way: they are the storytellers of this book, despite the fact that they are, for the most part, unheard, and all of them just “one of those boys they keep finding in the river.” An epic poem is always a long history of oral tradition, while also being a long history of textualization: that process by which oral stories are codified into text. Matthew Cardullo, Caleb Aldrich, and the rest of the boys you meet in this work are all still the storytellers of their own lives, a story that, perhaps, no one will ever read. At least, not in full. That they’re often unaware of the circumstances of their own deaths (unheard, unfound, and other compound adjectives as needed) is immaterial to the fact that the story continues on.

In this way, Last Seen first reminded me of Kevin Brockmeier’s 2006 novel THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD, where lost souls wait in a city in a kind of second-life waiting for the last memory of them in the “real” world to fade. Wonderfully, Castellani puts his storytellers in an even bigger role, giving them clear (if with varying levels of accomplishment) ability to influence the world of the living. These boys get to watch the mothers, girlfriends, and old lovers wander through their lives after losing them. They’re haunted by them, as we all are, but not exactly in the way you might imagine. As Tess, former girlfriend of one of the boys says to a friend late in the novel “you don’t think there’s something different about a dead beautiful boy? Something that hits different? All that potential, all that strength gone to waste?”

One of the most interesting things Castellani does here is play with the notion of what is “real” and what is imagined by these drowned storytellers. Admittedly, in the pure logic of the book, all of it is real – from the murky waters the boys are suspended in they must just adjust to, to the living characters continuing their trajectory of their lives into the late 2030s. But the movement from remembered to forgotten, life to death and back again reminded me (like the book’s Matthew Cardullo, so fascinated by the classics and the origins of words) that the word for “real” or “true” or “genuine” in Ancient Greek is alathea, which itself is a combination of a meaning “not” and lathas meaning “forgetful” or “concealed in some way.” The second half of this word also gives us the name for the river of the dead in Greek: Lathe – a place where, once drunk from, once crossed, one forgets all that happened before and is left with no clear sense of time and causality. Thus, like these beautiful boys in their new watery afterlives, what’s “real” is merely what hasn’t been forgotten.

In totality, Castellani does a fairly incredible thing, for this reader at least: it removes its central narrators from the action of the story and instead builds a world that remembers them and, further, can’t hide from the truths and confessions in their memory. Because the boys aren’t truly gone. Nothing is silenced. No one really escapes, in this book, from “putting on sadness like a garment,” as Anne Carson might say of Ovid. Last Seen is a book, in both style and content, of passion. From the Latin passio, of course, meaning “to suffer.”

[Bora Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Viking Penguin for this arc. This is my honest review.

——

I got caught red-handed. You expected one thing to be true, then you’re hit with a reality check, and now you feel guilty. Step back and rethink please. The reality: death is death. A natural part of our lives. Gruesome and tragic, yet never a fairytale. Never a spectacle. What do I mean by this? You’ll need to read to find out.

What led these boys to their deaths? What connected them? You spend the majority of the book looking into their past, reading all the signs and clues. Each of them, drastically different from one another. Although morbid and terribly depressing, listening to the boys in their current state, expressing their wants, desires, and regrets, was extraordinary. You can’t imagine how they must feel.

I think it’s important to highlight the lives of these boys, of who they were, how much they were loved (or not loved), REGARDLESS of the circumstances surrounding their deaths. But what about their family and friends (and maybe strangers they've passed by)? I say this with EMPHASIS because yes, we focus the attention on the victims, 100% correct, but I think we should also elevate the voices of those closely affected by it as well. I think that is equally important. This book does a great job at this. We cannot judge whether someone is deserving or undeserving of a voice. We don't get to decide if their deaths are significant enough to talk about. Aren’t they just ordinary humans like the rest of us? [I strictly mean ordinary people, with no platform or following. Your neighbors. The people in your community. All ordinary people.]

Then you near the end of the book, and you remember, “Wait, these boys are DEAD. They can’t ever live the lives they were meant to. All this time, I thought they would miraculously get their happy ending. Have another chance.”

I think it’s wrong to go into this book looking for reasons to judge these boys. You have to look at it through a different lens. Change your perspective. You're not allowed to decide if their deaths were justified or unjustified. You also can't judge the other people in this book either.

If you like mystery, thriller, and character studies, you’ll be in for it. Might not be what you expected, but I think that’s the point. I got caught red-handed, veering into delusional territory of what I thought was true for these boys. You’ll know what I mean if you give this book a try. I think everyone should.

Spoilers ahead.
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Another thought: Let's say these boys WERE killed by the "Smiley Face killers". Their stories would be posted for the entire world to see. Crime podcasters would flock to tell their stories in an instant. Everyone would know their names. The reality is, their deaths were ordinary. It can happen to ANYONE. By chance. Their names aren't known to most of the world. Does that mean their lives weren't important or interesting enough to tell their life story? That's the problem. In the beginning, you expected them to be connected because they were all murdered by the same person. The real reason for their connection made me choke. I was caught believing in a grandiose tale. Nonetheless, these boys deserved to have their life story told to the whole universe, as equally as victims of serial killers, etc.

[George Stull · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about life…as told through the dead. It offers a unique perspective in which you learn the stories of four young men, who are all dead when you are introduced to each of them. There is an introduction that establishes the basic connection between them, how they can communicate, their social standing etc. It’s through this premise that the author tells their stories. The story of each dead young man focuses on one important person in each of their lives. For Leo, it’s Katie. For Steve, it’s Monica. For Matthew it’s Tessa, and Caleb has James.

Through a series of stories, you learn their backgrounds, what they care about, who they were and what attaches them to their living person. Each history is beautifully written. It reminds you that they were human, with unique experiences, emotions, cares and fears. The writing is superb. As the reader, I could feel the emotions being portrayed. The love, the anger, the frustration, the heartbreak. I could feel the confusion of the dead and the sadness of the living. Each story is very different, yet I found myself lost in each. They were all tremendous. None of the characters are perfect people, they all have flaws and downfalls, but you understand them. That’s what makes this book so moving, so real. The writing also focuses on key relationships and time periods, helping the reader become part of the moment in the story without having to piece together too many places, too many times or too many characters. It makes it so much easier to experience the story.

This is a book that is about humans and their relationships. It’s a reminder that life isn’t a guarantee, to exist in the here and now and live your life while you can. This book is infuriating, it’s painful, it’s hopeful and it’s amusing. It makes you ponder how to handle trauma and death. It makes you question life. It’s four intertwined stories centered on eight individuals, told in a unique way, that you know is simply a fictional representation of the suffering, the loss, the love and the contentment that we all carry.

[Bookworm In Space · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Séance in Paperback Form: A Review of Last Seen

Christopher Castellani's Last Seen is a classification nightmare, and I mean that as a compliment. Is it a murder mystery? Horror? Literary fiction? Marketing departments are currently weeping into their genre spreadsheets because every label fits yet none stick. Usually, missing persons stories focus on the search, but here, the book is the missing. Caleb, Steven, Matthew, and Leo vanished into icy rivers, only to narrate their own aftermath from the murky depths of the afterlife. It's less a procedural and more a séance in paperback form.

Be warned: this isn't a thriller designed to keep you turning pages for clues; it's an emotional assault designed to make you put the book down to breathe. Castellani writes like a medium channeling spirits, giving voice to the dead with such precision that their frustrations and fears feel uncomfortably real. It forces you to wonder if this is how we'd speak if we disappeared, watching the living, wrestling with unresolved pain, and forming a support group for the dearly departed.

Go in blind and do not expect a tidy mystery. This is a haunting exploration of identity and loss that proves the dead still have something to say, even if it breaks your heart to hear it. It's beautifully tragic, unique, and refuses to offer easy answers about the "Smiley Face Killers" or the nature of death itself. I'm already excited for whatever Castellani conjures next, though I'd appreciate a slight reduction in ghostly melancholy for his next trick. Highly recommended for those who like their fiction intense, unique, and emotionally unwieldy.

More reviews here:
Bookworm in Space on Bluesky
Bookworm in Space on Storygraph
Bookworm in Space on Goodreads

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Castellani is just trying to make you all cry in 2026, calling it now!

LAST SEEN is my first venture into Castellani's writing, but won't be my last. When I saw an instagram post from @vikingbooks about this title, I knew that I needed to read it. I was told prior to picking it up that it wasn't a mystery/thriller or a horror novel, but something unique that couldn't fit into just one box. I agree, LAST SEEN is much more.

Caleb was driving home for Christmas, Steven pounding beers at a local bar, Matthew searching for his ex-girlfriend, and Leo walking alone through the woods on a winter night—then they vanished, only to resurface days, weeks, or years later in icy rivers hundreds of miles apart. As their loved ones argue over official explanations and whispered theories of the Smiley Face Killers, the boys find one another in the afterlife, each telling his story in his own voice, drawing the reader deeper into their intertwined fates and a haunting exploration of identity, intimacy, and unresolved grief.

Castellani's LAST SEEN is a compelling, thought-provoking tale of four men and their disappearance and the lives they left behind. We are voyeurs in the lives of those they affected before their disappearance, while also seeing through their lives as they are ghosts themselves. The lives of these young men pulled at my heartstrings, specifically Caleb and his journey (I think I got choked up at one point), and I really was invested in seeing how this story played out. The mystery behind their disappearances isn't the main factor here. It's these men's stories themselves. Castellani's writing is so immersive and beautifully written that I forgot that I wasn't reading a thriller since it was that gripping! If you enjoyed Tiffany McDaniel's On The Savage Side, then LAST SEEN is a must-read!

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

📚Last Seen
✍🏻Christopher Castellani
Blurb:
I am one of those boys they keep finding in the river.

Caleb was driving home for Christmas. Steven was pounding beers at a local bar. Matthew was out looking for his ex-girlfriend. Leo was walking in the woods on a winter night. Then they disappeared.

Days, weeks, years later, their bodies turn up in icy rivers hundreds of miles apart. How did they get there? What, if anything, connects them? Some of their loved ones believe the official answers. Some are convinced the boys are victims of an insidious network called the Smiley Face Killers. Some are trying to forget them altogether. Meanwhile, Caleb, Steven, Matthew, and Leo find one other—and other boys like them—in the murky depths of the afterlife. Each tells his story in his own way, speaking his version of truth, confessing his desires and grievances and even his hopes for a future he still somehow believes belongs to him. Each revelation brings the reader deeper into their intertwined fates, along a journey through the landscapes of identity, intimacy, and the haunting echoes of unresolved grief.
My Thoughts:
This is a book about life…as told through the dead. It offers a unique perspective in which you learn the stories of four young men, who are all dead when you are introduced to each of them. The older characters are just as compelling, especially James. The age-gap relationship is so warm and authentic. The ending, in particular, felt quietly beautiful and moving
Thanks NetGalley, Viking Publishing and Author Christopher Castellani for the complimentary copy of "Last Seen" I am leaving my voluntary review in appreciation.
#NetGalley
#VikingPublishishing
#ChristopherCastellani
#LastSeen
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last Seen
Book Review | 📚📚📚📚 4/5
Christopher Castellani | Viking Penguin

Why I was interested in this book:
The cover drew my attention. It looked ominous with a Twin Peaks vibe. The blurb is what pulled me in to actually acquire it and read it. Part true crime. Part supernatural. Part mystery.

My assessment:
The book truly pulled me into the characters and their situations. How each character inter-related was thin but the links added an element of mystery. Last Seen was fast paced and the read was compelling. There are four inter-woven novellas about the characters and their similarly fated situations. There were plenty of twists to keep the pages turning (or screen tapping?). The book was very well written and I look forward to reading another of Castellanni’s novels.

Stories of the human condition:
Here’s where the book shined. The author plays with the reader’s emotions through non-stop psychological mood switching. Pathos meets ethos while messing with logos. From light-hearted humor, to sad sibling love, to not-quite secret affair, to haunting deaths, and a serial killer. The book is a fun rollercoaster ride. Ultimately, we feel empathy towards nearly everyone. Nearly. Regardless of their situations.

Full disclosure:
I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley(dot)com in exchange for an honest review. Based on the cover, which led me to reading the book’s blurb, I was very interested in reading this book, and probably would have purchased a copy if I saw it online.

Read more of my reviews at https://tugglegrassblues.wordpress.com/

[Maven_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last Seen by Christopher Castellani

Last Seen is a haunting, genre‑bending novel that explores the mysterious disappearances and deaths of four young men: Caleb, Steven, Matthew, and Leo, whose bodies are later found in icy rivers across the United States. While some grieving loved ones cling to official explanations or fringe theories like the Smiley Face Killers, the narrative follows these young men in the afterlife as they encounter one another, reveal their own stories, and reflect on their desires, regrets, and the love that still binds them to the world they left behind. The novel intertwines elements of mystery, literary contemplation, and speculative afterlife perspectives to delve into identity, intimacy, and unresolved grief.

I liked how tenderly Castellani gives voice to lives cut short, each narrator offering deeply personal reflections that made me think about how much nuance and yearning can go unnoticed in young adulthood. The blend of reflective prose and speculative connection felt poignant and quietly powerful, even if the structure occasionally made the mystery feel meandering. Through it all I felt pulled into their shared quest for meaning and connection beyond death.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Because its compassionate exploration of lost lives and lingering love stays with you far beyond the final page.

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christopher Castellani's Last Seen is an interesting read, but I wouldn't call it gripping or compelling. The novel is about young men who have disappeared into the water, possibly victims of the Smiley Face killer. There bodies are found hundreds of miles apart, in different rivers, but one of those left behind is trying to make sense of his loss, so he begins to study all these deaths, looking for a clue that will lead him to a killer.

Castellani uses multiple points of view: we hear from the victims, we hear from the survivors, and sometimes we get a third-person omniscient narrator. The novel is at its best when James Haan, one of the survivors, tries to piece together what happened to his young lover, Caleb. His search leads him to Derrick, a creepy old man who lives alone in an isolated, wooded area. James wonders if he could be the killer.

Ultimately, the novel fails to coalesce. I think Castellani wants us to think that, though these young men didn't accomplish much in their short lives, they're important because they were loved. Well, duh. And the supernatural elements feel forced. I don't mind hearing the story of a dead person, but when that dead person starts interacting with the living, there's a lot of room for error on the author's part. Castellani doesn't make it work.

[Jennifer Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last Seen is about a group of boys who all went missing weeks, months, years apart from each other and their stories before missing, during missing and after their bodies are found, their friends and family. At first I liked the book and found it an interesting take on what existence is like after death, where you go, why you go there.

Unfortunately the further I got into it the more trouble I had following all the story lines. Each chapter follows our four boys who died and tells a part of their story. The chapters follow different times in their "lives" when they were Last Seen, First Seen, and the Crime Seen. I often found it hard to remember which friend/family went with which boy and what happened in the last section I read with that particular story. I became more disconnected to the characters the further I got into the book and by the time I was 3/4 of the way through it I started to skim my way through the paragraphs and just wanted it over.

This just may not be my cup of tea in regards to books and I do try hard to branch out on what I read, but this one just didn't do it for me.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four young men. One winter night. And then… they vanish.

Last Seen follows Caleb, Steven, Matthew, and Leo—each disappearing under chilling circumstances, only to later resurface in icy rivers miles away. Their families are left scrambling for answers, clinging to theories (including whispers of the Smiley Face Killers), but this story isn’t really about solving the mystery.

It’s about who they were.

Told through the boys’ voices in the afterlife, this book is eerie, emotional, and beautifully written. Castellani’s writing is so immersive I honestly forgot I wasn’t reading a thriller—it pulls you in fast and doesn’t let go. The line between the living and the dead blurs in a way that feels haunting and strangely intimate.

Caleb’s story especially hit me hard. I was fully invested, heart in my throat, waiting to see how it all connected.

This is one of those books that’s impossible to neatly label—mystery, horror, literary fiction… it’s all of the above, and somehow something bigger too.

This was my first Christopher Castellani book, but it definitely won’t be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Books for the ARC!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

there's a certain level of restraint here. where some books like this sort of premise, might lean into sensationalism or cliche, Castellani takes a different path. It's the sign of a good book that it leaves you wanting more. Several of these boys' stories could have gone on - in that I wanted to read more about their already short lives.

There's a love letter in here to the lost generation of gay boys, the ones I heard about all through my own youth, first in jokes then in tears. But here in this novel is now the generation that my generation is watching grow up - in a way that seemed unimaginable 20 years ago. . And there's a degree of fear in here too -- that we keep losing ourselves along the way, through chance, malice, or bad decisions.

Castellani, through this and Leading Men, is showing himself to be a strong writer, and a must-read voice for (hopefully) many more years to come.

[Dulshi Peiris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was immediately drawn to the premise of this book. The idea of telling the stories of murdered young men from the perspectives of the deceased themselves is incredibly powerful and unique. It’s a concept that carries a lot of emotional weight and depth.

However, I found the reading experience very difficult—not because of the writing, but because of the emotional impact. Reading from the perspective of these deceased men made the story feel intensely personal and heartbreaking. It became too heavy for me to continue, and I had to stop reading partway through.

Even though I couldn’t finish the book, the premise and writing left an impression on me, and I would definitely be interested in trying other books by this author in the future.

[Quinn da Matta · Rating 5 out of 5]

After five years of eagerly waiting for another Castellani book, it finally came! And, with genuine excitement, I honestly thought I’d read it over a weekend… but it ended-up affecting me much deeper than I imagined. I would have to take breaks, especially after Caleb’s and Leo’s portions — I felt their sadness and frustrations and fears… and, at times, it did feel a little too real (and that is the work of a master storyteller!).
Christopher Castellani knows every one of these characters, and it feels like each one speaks through him, as if he were the medium responsible for telling their stories. You can only successfully tell the story of a bunch of dead boys by vividly bringing every character to life: Caleb, Matthew, Leo, Steven, Monica, Katie, Tessa, Lori, and James, and Castellani did it masterfully.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book - despite being about several men who died tragically, it was not a thriller or really a mystery. This book was so unique and so different from anything I've read recently. The format especially was really interesting and kept me very engaged.

I thought the writing was so strong, and I loved learning more about each of the characters and their loved ones. I would recommend going in to this without knowing much about it. It ended up being a lot different than I expected.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes unique novels, and isn't afraid to read about hard and intense topics. I am really excited to read more by Christopher Castellani!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

[Jen Ryland (jenrylandreviews & yaallday)]

As a consumer of true crime, I was interested to read this literary suspense story about the Smiley Face Killer(s) (a creepy and controversial true crime theory about a series of young men found dead in bodies of water) that imagines the victims able to connect in the afterlife.

Last Seen does not seem to use names of suspected victims, instead creating new characters and their family members and even presenting a surprising theory of the case.

Unique and moving, this is not your typical true crime inspired book or your typical crime novel, but I like trying new and creative things!

Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!