‘Probably bad to laugh during the exorcism of a thirteen-year-old girl, right? Well, I just did. You should SEE this bullshit.’ [loc. 517]
The eponymous Jack Sparks is a bit of a lad: bad-boy former music journalist making a name for himself with books such as Jack Sparks on Drugs, Jack Sparks on a Pogo Stick and -- forthcoming -- Jack Sparks on the Supernatural. Except that the latter is never to be completed, because Jack Sparks, attending an exorcism in an Italian church, mocks what may or may not be a demon, and finds himself targetted by something very unpleasant.
The novel is presented as Sparks' last work, with additional material by his estranged brother Alastair, his editor, a combat magician, various social media... Sparks is loudly and belligerently sceptical about the supernatural: he dismisses ominous incidents as fakery and illusion, and refuses to credit the evidence of his own senses. Is he just being thoroughly obnoxious, or does he have something to prove?
Sparks, it quickly becomes obvious, is a thoroughly unreliable narrator: he claims to have quit drugs, he concocts an elaborate fantasy centred on his flatmate Bex, he gives an account of a childhood incident which doesn't match what Alastair has written. Though Alastair is not much more reliable, or much more likeable.
There are some unpleasant scenes in here -- not all of them depicting demonic carnage -- but I found it more gory than scary: perhaps that was due to the pacing, which seemed rather uneven, or the fact that I disliked most of the characters and did not care what became of them. If Jack had been a little more forthcoming about his secret hopes, or his own vulnerability, I might have warmed to The Last Days of Jack Sparks: as it was, I remained unengaged and kept reading simply for closure. The denouement, with the smell of burning and the cloakroom, was nicely done and perhaps the scariest thing about the novel.
Features guest appearances by film-makers Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick, of Blair Witch Project fame.
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