Wow. Mindy McGinnis' latest book is so thrilling. I could not put it down. It's a fast-paced novel told from three perspectives: Tress Montore, Ribbit Usher, and Rue, an orangutan housed at Amontillado Animal Attractions. The panther from the first book is very much a part of this one, but readers see Rue's perspective instead. This book is all about finding family, losing family, and revenge. I audibly gasped while reading this book on more than one occasion. It is dark with an extremely satisfying ending. Highly recommend this book.

Brothers.... what the shit was this book and this duology!!!!

I've been telling people this recently but The Initial Insult is the kind of story that I eat up (but gotta do it on an empty stomach or I'll vom) and am obsessed with but would likely not actively RECOMMEND to anyone just because it is so extremely fucked up...... and I mean, yes, The Initial Insult still holds that place because Tress literally acts on her plan to torture her ex-best friend into a confession by paving her into a furnace brick by brick. Like my girl is mentally CRACKED from basically the get-go and it's CRAZYYYY. But The Last Laugh????? Honey... let's just say maggots end up inside of someone's body part and that's nowhere NEAR the worst part of this story. I had a perpetual stomachache throughout this whole book.

I guess if I were to weigh everything out, The Initial Insult has more shock value, but trying to see Tress and her cousin Ribbit recover from the events of that story in The Last Laugh is just pretty gobsmacking. They behave like no teenagers I've EVER seen before... It's like Riverdale but rated R, or whatever rating is even beyond that. Tress is literally hanging on by threads, Ribbit is descending into madness, and I can't even tell you why either of those things are happening without giving away the ending of the first book.

If you are a fan of character-driven stories, I'd say give this duology a try, but only if you are not sensitive to basically anything at all, but especially body horror. These characters are literally deranged but Mindy McGinnis has done such a good job of laying their motives out for us to see and potentially pity... or hate them in spite of knowing why they do what they do. There's deep family secrets that come to light in this book, taking me off guard completely. You don't really know who you're rooting for, or what you're rooting for to happen. When you find out certain peoples' fates, you don't know whether to be happy or sad. It's so realistically human even though it's so outlandish, and it's just a white trash soap opera but way more violent. The theme of class division isn't as strong in this story, and instead it focuses a little more on remorse, or the lack of, and just plain survival, whether that means learning to adapt to the way people treat you, or becoming above the treatment of other people entirely.

The ending of this book was nowhere near what I expected from an author like this and in a story like this, but I thought it was really good. The last lines, especially. I often say authors can't end series well, but I think duologies are excluded from that. Probably because this was initially just one long book at one point lol. I just loved this duology, although love totally feels like the wrong word... I couldn't look away from book 1 like a car crash, and I needed book 2 to let me know what happened after the wreckage got cleared away. Mindy McGinnis KEEPS dropping bangers and I can't wait to see what's next from her. I think this would do AMAZING as a mini-series on TV or something, too.

*Thank you to Katherine Tegan books,Mindy McGinnis and Netgalley for giving me a E-ARC of "The Last Laugh" in exchange for an honest review*

I really love Mindy McGinnis's books. I just think she writes kick-butt female characters SO well and I adore each of her books I've read. (Grace from "A Madness So Discreet" and Alex from "The Female of the Species" are tied for my favorite
character though.) "The Last Laugh" is the second book in a series that is a Modern day "Cask of Amontillado" retelling. Based on how "The Initial Insult" ended I was interested in how things were going to end up. I think "The Last Laugh" was a thrilling mystery and not to be missed.

This is absolutely not the book you should read when you are looking for something fun and light hearted. But since this is the sequel of Mindy’s first book, you probably already know that I can’t spoil much in this review, or you will already know that this isn’t the light hearted series it may seem.

Now Mindy is definitely a ya author I pick mostly. She has a way with words and though her work is of course, a lot darker, I absolutely devour it. It’s amazing and I’ve had the pleasure of reading this sequel.

I can’t say much since this is the second book in the series but it picks up right where we left off in the first book. It’s a very dark ya book but it was amazing. I loved every second of it and I cannot wait for others to finally read the sequel. This was an absolute delight to read! An easy 5 out of 5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for letting me read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

Ok, so I really liked The Initial Insult but wasn’t sure how the story could be continued. Boy, was I wrong! This book was gruesome, thrilling and gloriously gothic. I couldn’t stop reading. The Poe stories that were infused into the book translated perfectly. We get to hear from Ribbit’s POV *cough* Hoptoad *cough* as he deals with the fallout from his humiliation at the party and Tress’ as she processes her confrontation with Felicity (and the panther - there’s some body horror here as well). I absolutely loved it. It was a perfectly unfolded thriller and felt very cinematic.

If you are looking for a light read, this is not it. But if you read The Initial Insult, you already know what you're getting into, and #TheLastLaugh delivers. #MindyMcGinnis is one of my favorite modern YA authors, but fans of hers know that she deals with heavy, heavy topics--I think, in an appropriate way. There aren't many light-hearted pages in this book, but how could there be when the first book in the duology left off where it did?! I'm not sure I could write much here that wouldn't be a spoiler, but the story continues where it left off, flipping between Tress, who murdered her former friend Felicity, and Ribbit, who is reveling in his newfound fame after the livestream at the party--spliced in with thoughts by Rue, the orangutang. Tress is dealing with the physical aftermath of her injuries from the panther as well as the emotional guilt of what she did all the while Ribbit is scheming. Again, I can't stress enough that there are some gross and difficult moments in this book, so I may only recommend it to older teen audiences. But it is a wild, engaging horror/mystery that I could not put down. Many thanks to #NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy.