Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Getting my hands on an ARC of this book is honestly the main reason I joined NetGalley, and it did not disappoint. My co-worker had listened to the audiobook version after we both read The Initial Insult and she told me I needed to read this one ASAP, so here I am.

This book was a wild, twisted fever dream from start to finish. I laughed, I cried, I cringed A LOT. It gets pretty grossly graphic at times, so… keep that in mind and be prepared. The story was nicely wrapped up with a very satisfying conclusion.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you netgalley for my arc of The Last Laugh. I must be honest and say that I joined netgalley initially for the sole purpose of procuring this book. The Initial Insult blew me out of the water. I have never finished a book so fast in my life and this sequel did not let me down.
This book is like reality television on drugs. The storyline is a complete and utter shit show (to be clear it is meant to be). If you have heard that this book is for those who liked Tiger King that is honestly the most accurate recommendation I have ever heard.
This book kept me guessing. Often with mysteries I find myself figuring out the ending. If you read this and can guess what will happen among all the chaos then you are a genius. It is just constant action and insanity. There are no lulls in the story. There is barely room to breathe. If this was a tv show I would be watching in rapt interest and horror.
This book will forever be my guilty pleasure and I cannot wait for its release date so that I can read it again and again.

The Last Laugh picks up where the Initial Insult left off- with Tress recovering from her crazy night filled with drugs, murder, and... well... a panther. With Felicity and the panther both missing, Tress is struggling to keep up with all of her lies and struggling with a nasty wound that is sure to be her end if she doesn't seek care. The alternate viewpoint is Ribbit, Tress's cousin, who is desperate to find Felicity (who he believes is destined to live life by his side) and to take revenge on all who have wronged him, including Tress.

Through all of the secrets and lies, the two are at odds but only Ribbit knows that. Tress's search for the truth of what happened to her parents is in a tighter race against time than she realizes.

Mindy McGinnis never fails to take her readers on a wild ride from page 1 all the way to the end. As an adult reader of YA I sometimes can see where a story is going from very early on, but I think McGinnis does a wonderful job of peppering in twists and turns that keep me guessing. I also appreciated the Tell-Tale Heart vibe of Tress's best friends necklace. I highly recommend this book for high school libraries and to readers who love a thriller!

Highly recommend this book! This was my first book to read by this author and I can't wait to read more! The characters and the story stay with you long after you finish the book. One of the best books I have read in a long time.

A worthy conclusion to the duology but the first one was much stronger in my opinion—still, solid entry.

After finishing up The Initial Insult, this book taunted me. It pointed and laughed at me because I wanted to read it. I was willing to give it all up for this book. Mindy left us all hanging on by a thread and I was shocked at what she put us through. Then that cliffhanger she threw at us was immeasurable.

Welcome back to Amontillado, Ohio!

This picks up right where the Initial Insult left us. A panther was on the prowl, Ribbit is hungover and the world saw his creative gestures, Tress is hanging on by a roll of duct tape, and Felicity is chilling behind magic wall number one. If you think that sounds crazy, you don't know how much more insane this book was. Here we see how all this plays out in flames.

Wow! I don't think I've said the "F" word so much in my life as I did while reading this book. I mean, my mind was blown wide open. Except there were no maggots in there. This is the prime example of how a retelling should be. I thought the first book was crazy and that there was nothing that could top that. Oh my goodness, I was so wrong. This one is over-the-top insane and disgusting as all hell. And man, oh man, did I love this!

The Last Laugh was phenomenal. The Initial Insult duology was the best horror retelling made current that I have ever read. Mindy is one hell of a fantastic storyteller and I can't wait to see how she amazes us next. If I have to pick one author to take on horror classics, my money will always be on Mindy.

If you love a good revenge story and love to be grossed out then this duology is for you!

I am not sure what I just finished. And I have no idea how to describe it, but in the end I was less traumatized than after book one.

Mindy McGinnis is a wonderful author and this is perfect for young adults and older adults. Both will enjoy this book.

3.5 Stars
Well that was absolutely bananas. The first half is a little slow, which made me wonder if this story really needed to be two novels long, but I kept feeling that it did in order to really appreciate everyone’s motivation by the end. This novel is even more gruesome than the first but also more uplifting? Even though there are few happy endings, everything does get tied up nicely.

I love the first book in this series but the second one just didn’t hit the same way. Still would recommend.

Wow, this was a wild ride. The first 20% I wasn't sure if I even wanted to keep reading but as things escalated it got really good!

This is a story about the final insult.

The author could write a personal revision of the phone book & I would likely read it because I apparently enjoy things that deeply stress me out. The first book was one of my favorites last year because I love all things Poe-ish & the concept of a town named Amontillado in Ohio was intriguing. Book 2, was book 1 with an infusion of highly flammable chemicals.. It’s aggressively grim, but somehow still beautiful.

Five ⭐️, this scarred me.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Harper Collins Children’s for this eArc!

Wow! What a conclusion to this duology!

It had so many twists in the plot that I did not see coming. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where all characters are morally grey or straight up villainous, as these characters were. Who do you root for? The fact that people were willing to turn on their own family members just to acquire more money and power. Tress and Felicity get appropriate endings; while not exactly happy, they do make sense, as former besties torn apart by tragedy find closure.

I do NOT know where to start with this review. This sequel was just as sick and twisted as the first book. There were so many twists I didn’t see coming. There was fire, attempted murder, a pissed off Orangutang, demented family members after one thing, MONEY. The way McGinnis tips her hat to so many of Poe’s short stories was incredible. If you love Poe, you will LOVE this book. Now I need something light and fluffy to get out of this dark hangover of a story! Thank you Edelweiss for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the e-arc of The Last Laugh, the second part of a duology with the Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis. Not having read the first in the duology, I had to play a bit of catch-up, but was quickly engrossed in this updated Edgar Allen Poe tale. The author has all the elements for a successful Poe-esque tale: intrigue, betrayal, horror, psychological thrills, and characters with names like Usher, Montor, and Allen who sound like they belong in one of his lost novels.

The story has new twists that I didn't see coming and was fast-paced which made for a great read. Now I have to go back and read the first of the two books.

A great finale! I love the twistedness that is this book. The motives that come to light piece together what happened bit by bit.
The author doesn't tie everything up in a bow at the end either and that makes it even better, because that is life.
The character development is amazing, I will continue to recommend this duology to everyone.

A dark and incredibly compulsive read. This book was so tense and I could not stop reading it. Ending was perfection!

Hardly ever do I truly believe sequels surpass the first, but WOW. Mindy outdid herself and wrapped up this story all nice and tidy with a bow. Tidy being full of deceit, lies, truth, death, loss, murder, psychotic tendencies, and just plain good.
What a YA psychological thriller should be all about.
Revenge. Secrets. Wit.
Tress is back with her POV. Then Ribbit, her cousin who you think you know, but have no idea, and Rue - the orangutan who knows more than she leads on.
You don’t want to pass this up. Grab The Initial Insult now and get all the answers and then some with The Last Laugh.

The Last Laugh is the sequel and much-anticipated follow up to The Initial Insult, both of which are a part of The Cask of Amontillado retelling by Edgar Allan Poe.
🦧
The sequel picks up right where book one left off: it’s the early morning the day after the infamous Halloween party that left Felicity buried alive, a panther on the loose, Ribbit filmed and humiliated and Tress Montor barely hanging on from being scratched by the panther. The blood loss causes her to hallucinate, while also fighting the guilt of what she did to her former best friend in the hopes of finding out what happened to her parents years ago. The story takes place Saturday-Thursday of homecoming week while everyone is also on the hunt for Felicity, but the only hunt Tress is on is still trying to solve the mystery of her parents’ disappearance. When there’s a break in the case, will Tress be able to keep herself together and survive long enough to find out what happened?
🤯
The last emoji is legit me reading this incredibly dark YA book. I didn’t think I could love or be obsessed with the second as much as I was the first book, but OMG did McGinnis take us on a ride with this one. So many twists and turns, a reveal I did not see coming and many moments of shock and awe, as well as multiple references to Poe’s other works. Those who have read McGinnis’ books before will definitely recognize her trademark darkness in this…if you know, you know. She’s the queen of gritty, grisly YA that I can’t stop reading and recommending. Grab your copy of The Initial Insult NOW and The Last Laugh when it releases 3.15. You won’t be disappointed.

CW: animal abuse/death, blood, gore, murder, violence, physical abuse, fire, death, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, seizures (discussed)

4 stars.

I didn’t love this book as much as the first one, but I still loved it.

Mindy McGinnis writes in a very visceral way. In this sequel there are even more injuries, blood and death than in the first book. That scene with the maggots, and one with the fire, will be stuck in my head for a long time. This book can be very graphic at some points, and I actually love that aspect. All the descriptions in general are very vivid, McGinnis builds her world so well that I can imagine every little detail. The town, the animals, the fire, the demolished house… It’s just amazing. Oh, and when Tress is having a fever and under the influence of drugs, my God, I was feeling dizzy too. It gets to a point where you as a reader can’t really decide if what’s happening is real or not, because Tress is so confused and ill.

Another aspect that I enjoyed is how the story is absolutely nuts. But the characters are so well developed that you believe that it’s possible for them to end up in these situations. Is it realistic? Not really. But in the context of the book, it is believable. These characters do shitty things, one after another, and these are the consequences.

Tress is a fucked-up protagonist, who does terrible things, but seeing her environment and how she grew up, I was actually rooting for her. You get to understand her, the author puts you in her shoes, makes you see the world through her eyes, and you realize that she didn’t have many options. And when she did, she took very bad decisions.

Ribbit, on the other hand, who is the other narrator of this sequel, is just despicable. But we can also understand his motives, his twisted reasoning. We see him in a very different light in this second book. Here we get into the dark hidden corners of his mind, and it is not a nice place to be in.

Besides the writing and the characters, the retelling of Poe’s iconic stories is what makes this duology so fun to read. The incorporation of The Tell-Tale Heart and Hop-Frog is great.

My only critique is that in The Last Laugh we soon discover the big mysteries of the first book, and even though there is still some information missing, the general direction of the story becomes predictable. In a way, maybe the story would have worked better as a standalone, as one big book. Most of Ribbit’s chapters could have been omitted, because they add tension to the book, but not much happens. Or at least, not much that is unexpected, because his storyline closely follows the plot of Hop-Frog.

Overall, I highly recommend this duology for its characters and its dark twisted plot. If you’re a fan of Poe’s short stories, you’ll find the plot even more engaging, and if you enjoy thrillers and horror in general, you cannot miss these incredible books. Everything Mindy McGinnis writes is amazing, just the right amount of gritty and dark.