The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak

 

This came out like right after I read Hidden Pictures, which I liked a lot, so I put a hold on it at the library. Uh ... This is not a very good novel--nowhere near as good as Hidden Pictures, for sure. There aren't any really likeable characters, or really even believable ones, and the big twist--who the sociopath the narrator needs to deal with--is pretty obvious from about halfway in (maybe more). I'm sure Rekulak is trying to say important things, mostly about stuff like wealth and power disparities, and I'm sure that to an extent the slightly dulled and thickened narrative voice is intentional; but the overwhelming experience here is authorial clumsiness.