The Last Post by Renee Carlino

(Spoilers Ahead)

Before I start writing about this book, I have to just say something... This is probably the 5th or 6th book by Renee Carlino that I have read.  I was first introduced to her by a close friend and just fell in love with the story of that first book (Before We Were Strangers).  I have loved every book sense.  Last year, I had the chance to meet Renee in person when she visited our book club to discuss Swear on this Life (yep, loved it!).  As for Renee as a real-live person, oh I just adored her.  She was such fun.  We chatted like we had been friends for years.  So when I saw this new book, The Last Post, was coming out - I bought it right away.  Then I found out she was coming back to our book club again this year and I was so excited!  And then I read this book and I was like... well, crap.  I didn't love this one nearly as much.  But how am I going to tell Renee that? I'm not, haha.  But I am going to write here to gather my thoughts before book club (which is tomorrow!).  This is one of the books I read in 2019 but is still making its way on to this blog so I can process my thoughts before book club.

So here's the deal with this book... Laya is married to a daredevil (like, professionally) who in the first chapter or two of the book dies while doing a daredevil stunt and leaves Laya's world flipped upside down.  (Don't worry, that's not a spoiler, it's in the book summary on Goodreads. You still have time to leave.)    Laya describes herself as the opposite of the daredevil: pragmatic, regimented, career driven (she is in her medical residency).  So what is shown as the story develops is just how opposite these two are.

After Cameron (her husband) dies, Laya moves across the country back to New York to live in one of her father's rental properties and wallow in her well deserved misery.  She doesn't return to work and seems to just be floating along.

Now let's meet Micah.  Micah is a Harvard educated architect who works at Laya's father's firm and basically goes around feeling sorry for himself.  He doesn't like his bosses (not Laya's father, but the other partners), he doesn't want to just go out and party any more, he complains to his twin sister all the time, he locks himself in his parents cabins in the woods and grows out what seems to be a beard that would give Tom Hanks in Castaway a run for his money all because of what? I don't really know. Because he's a weirdo?

But let's get back to Laya.  She is depressed, sitting in a NYC apartment, not working and writing messages to her dead husband on Facebook.  First person, present day messages.  Like "Hey Cameron, maybe we should have kids." Yeah, so that seems pretty close to a breakdown. Her family (and Cameron's family) are obviously upset by this and try to tell her to stop.  However, she just feels fully justified in this being her very weird and unique way to grieve. Super interested to hear from Renee where this idea came from!

But Micah, the weirdo recluse with a beard, goes back in the office, meets Laya one day when she stops by and then starts following her Facebook and reading these posts she is writing to Cameron.  And guess what, he seems to be attracted to this strange way of grieving (because, hey, who is he to judge, he's a weirdo recluse with a Harvard education).  He does something that is so completely creepy and starts basically answering her posts by doing things. For example, she posts to Cameron about how she regrets they never got to see this specific band play live.  As a result, Micah goes out, buys two tickets to this band's concert and delivers one to her anonymously.  And then he goes to the concert and sits in the seat next to her!!!  Seriously.  I can't make this shit up.  (But apparently, Renee can.)  She doesn't recognize him at the concert (or maybe she does she later admits).  They jam out, she starts crying, he sort of half stalks her out of the concert to which she (rightfully so) flees from him.

This weird shit goes on for awhile.  Micah shaves (thank goodness, that beard sounded disgusting).  Laya's at the office one day for lunch with her Dad. Dad is suddenly "too busy" and insists Micah take her to lunch in his place (playing matchmaker because obviously he doesn't know what a weirdo Micah is).  Micah does yet another weird stalker thing and takes Laya to this ramen place that she JUST posted on her Facebook page to Cameron about while they were in the cab on the way to lunch.  Somehow, this isn't too weird for Laya and she goes along and ends up crying in her noodles.

This goes on and on.  Weird stuff. She is still posting to Facebook. He is still stalking her (even though they become actual Facebook friends).  He is basically professing his love to her at any given moment and she is like "hey dude, my husband just died... but sure, we can still hang out."

Micah's twin sister gets hit by a car right in front of Laya's apartment because Micah and his sister were scoping out where Laya lived.  Laya comes out and helps calm Micah down. At the hospital her passion for medicine comes back and she decides to go back to work.  Yay!

Laya gets a dog (yay!) and Micah still lingers around almost telling her that he loves her all the time.  The entire inner dialogue from Micah is just creepy.  I would give more quotes but I don't have my copy of the book nearby at the moment.  Just trust me, he's weird.

Somewhere along the way, Micah decides that he wants to confess what a stalker he was so he does.  To which Laya is pretty upset.  But it only seems like that lasts for like a minute, then she is like... yeah, let's eat pancakes.

But then things fall apart again (frankly at this point I don't remember why) and Micah is on his way late one night to console his sister who just dumped her weird vegan boyfriend (their relationship was my favorite part of this novel) when he is in a bad car accident and almost dies.  Laya's at the hospital and goes in to observe his surgery.  Micah's sister thinks Laya is a bad luck charm and wants her to stay away from Micah.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot the part where Laya's mom died very suddenly (aneurysm I think) when Laya was 3 years old.  Then Laya's husband died 3 years after they met.  So Laya is convinced that anyone she is close to has a 3 year time limit and then they will die (I'm summarizing, but you get the point).  So that put an interesting spin on the way we can let things like that get under our skin.  For example, I am convinced I will die by the time I am 70.  No one in my family (on either side) has lived past 70 for as far back as I have found.  As a result, I have just accepted the fact that I have less than 30 years left on this planet and want to live them as best I can.  HOWEVER, that does not mean I want a weird stalker following me around and trying to fulfill the whims of my social media posts (unless I am posting about how I would REALLY like to win the lottery or something... said stalker should feel free to give me the winning ticket).

Let me get refocused... damn this is longer than I expected. This is why I don't write these things by hand. I would have given up a long time ago with a pen and paper.

Honestly, at this point I don't really remember how it ended. Again, this is why I started this blog.  I read this book less than 3 weeks ago and I have already forgotten the ending. Damnit. Basically Laya gives Micah a chance, they eat pancakes and she finally deletes her husbands Facebook account.  Oh! And she also starts to come to the realization that maybe she was glorifying Cameron in his death some.  Maybe he wasn't so great.  Maybe THEY weren't so great.  But of course, no one wants to say that about someone that has passed away. So this may be the most normal behavior of the entire book.

So, here are the things I want to ask Renee:

• Where did the idea of the Facebook posts come from?  
• Did she know that Laya & Cameron's marriage wasn't great from the beginning or did that come to her along the way?
• Did she think Micah was a creep? Or would these sort of things be normal or romantic to her?  Renee's male characters are always such hearthrobs that make your skin tingle.  I guess Micah did as well, but more in that "am I being followed" way.  
• Did anyone else get reminded of the super creepy character Joe from You by Caroline Kepnes when reading this??

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½ (I rounded to 4 on Goodreads and if I am being really honest, the extra 1/2 is purely because I 💓 Renee.