Review | Book review: find out what happened to Jack Sparks
You’ll need to keep the lights on when reading Arnopp’s chilling postmodern horror The Last Days of Jack Sparks, which takes the reader from Italy to Hong Kong to Los Angeles
By Jason Arnopp
Orbit
The Last Days of Jack Sparks is a satisfying slice of postmodern horror that will appeal to anyone who knows their M.R. James from their Blair Witch. We start at the end, when the titular Sparks is no more. We learn, from his brother Alistair, that the infamous journalist died aged 36 in mysterious, unsettling and possibly otherworldly circumstances. Accompanied by feisty assistant Bex, Jack Sparks travels to Italy to witness an exorcism by elderly priest, Primo di Stefano. There he receives a short, demonic film which triggers a wild quest to find its creator and an entity named Maria Corvi. In Hong Kong, Sparks meets weird “combat magician” Sherilyn Chastain, who tells him, “Sooner or later, something’s going to scare the crap out of you, whether you believe it or not.” The action climaxes in Los Angeles, where a rapidly deteriorating Sparks meets the actual creators of the Blair Witch (and Roger Corman), before becoming embroiled in a bizarre psychic experiment to create a fictional being called Mimi. Arnopp’s muscular, vibrant prose does a fair job of terrifying and convincing you about the incredible events. Keep the lights on.