The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp

Mr Smug Atheist

The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp is a fictional piece of journalism recording the last days of a man embroiling himself in the world of the supernatural in an effort to debunk anything he finds.  As you might expect, things don't quite go as planned.

Content Warning: Violent death

Story  ☆★★★★

The novel is set up as a piece of posthumously published journalism, with a foreword from Jack's brother setting up the concept and giving a little background.  The story itself follows Jack over twenty days, starting with watching an exorcism in Italy, moving through combat magic in Singapore and ending with paranormal experiments in Hollywood.

Jack sparks would probably be filed with the horror or thriller genres, but falls on the gory side of the spectrum rather than creepy.   The story line seems fairly typical of these genres, particularly in film: man doesn't believe in the supernatural, man experiences something that changes his mind, chaos ensues and man dies.  This doesn't tell the whole story.  Jack is not your typical cynic, he is a full blown, Ricky Gervais-aping, proto science clinging Smug Atheist*.  His mind is more closed than Woolworths, and it's this that makes you absolutely, totally certain he's destined for a fall.  It's a really snappy, readable story, though.  I chomped my way through it at a rate of knots, and wasn't bored for a moment.

The story is also tied up very neatly by the end.  No loose ends, and that's a compliment.  As far as I could tell, all of the little oddities and mysteries throughout the book are dealt with by the story's close.  However, that isn't to say this is a simplistic book or that everything is laid out neatly for the reader.  The story wraps up well, but the reader is still left with various questions regarding what 'really' happened.

* Smug Atheist is my term for an atheist who scorns anyone else who isn't an atheist.  The type of person who will share graphics that other people have made about how dumb people of faith are.  They usually only know how to engage with Judeo-Christian believers, and use their atheism to feel superior to others.

Style  ☆☆★★★

The bulk of the novel is narrated in the first person by Jack, with excerpts between chapters of interview, email and social media transcripts.  This is the first novel I've seen, particularly horror in the horror genre, really use social media properly.  Reference is made to Jack being a screen addict, and there are many references to Twitter, YouTube, and the various other applications that have become a way of life for my generation.  It's always struck me as slightly off that movies have been using the urban legends that have built up around the internet for years now, but that hasn't filtered through to the novel.

As a narrator, Jack is an utter tw*t.  He will make you grind your teeth.  Your heart will bleed, reading transcripts of interviews and diaries, for the people who have to deal with him.  But, the tone of the story always leads you to believe that he will get his just desserts.  My initial thoughts were that the novel was going to act as some kind of revenge tragedy, setting Jack up for a massive fall.  But the end effect is a little more subtle, as the reader increasingly realises how much Jack lies to us, the reader, and to himself.

Both Jack and his brother are amongst the most unreliable narrators I've ever read.  A really interesting comparison study could be drawn between this and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger.

For what it is, the style is quite slick and very readable.  It makes for a real page turner.  There's no beauty to it, though.  The tone of the novel is chatty, emulating the kind of books produced by Danny Wallace or Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn articles.  Arnopp can tell a good yarn, but can't flavour it the way Joe Hill might -- which is a pity, because it loses out on atmosphere and 'creep factor'.

Substance  ☆☆☆★★

There isn't a huge amount, to be honest.  The book really does what it says on the tin.  Fun can be had out of the unreliable narrators, puzzling out what's real and what's bravado, but that's as far as it goes.  

Verdict  ☆☆★★★

The Last Days of Jack Sparks is a fun little horror-romp around the world.  It has a narrator you'll love to hate, and a few nice twists towards the end that make it definitely worth a read.  If you're anything like me, you'll breeze through it and love the ride, but find yourself ready to move on to the next book -- maybe something a bit chewier.