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2 out of 4 stars
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VitalTech has created a fantastic new fitness watch that has an additional feature. The Final Notice alert gives the wearer a head’s up that their mortality is very limited. While some people use this time to get their affairs in order and say goodbye to loved ones, others view this as a free pass to settle the score. What would you do if you knew you had one week to live?
I have mixed feelings about this book and I rate it 2 out of 4 stars. Going into it, Final Notice is an interesting take on human morality. Would you kill if you knew you were going to die in a week? The trouble I have with this story is that it is so extremely biased against guns. I don’t mind reading an author’s point of view but this felt like Fleisher was shoving it down my throat. We get it, you’re against guns! It’s written as though there could be two sides to the story but really there was not. With very limited exceptions, almost everyone who received a Final Notice alert is embroiled with gun murder somehow.
Guns aside, the author really seems to care about immigrant issues as well. And that’s fine, except it comes across as preaching or as if I had been reading a pamphlet. Scenes between Trudi and Vince sounded rehearsed, one person was just setting up the scene for the other person to expound why immigrants were great people and how neither of them could believe there is such racism in the world. It read as very forced, not at all authentic.
I felt there was too much backstory in this novel. I really didn’t need to know almost any of the backstories to any of the characters. It didn’t help me understand them intrinsically better and it was frustrating to read something thinking I was going to need to know it for later when I didn’t need that information after all.
On occasion Fleisher broke the fourth wall: “For those of you wondering if he was wearing socks – seriously? – the author feels sorry for you but is compelled to say he was.” Little touches like this were out of place and not needed. I understand the need for a bit of levity but again, knowing Vijay wore socks when he had sex was not important to the story. For that matter, the romance between Vijay and Jennifer didn’t do anything to move the story along, either. The small details they discussed regarding the company and the VT2 watch could have happened in other scenes.
I did like the way Trudi and Vince’s stories were wrapped up. They were the main characters in the book and while I wasn’t a huge fan of some of their dialog I was genuinely interested to read their outcome. Miles the dog was a minimal character but he was an engaging little guy and added touches of brightness to an otherwise grim topic.
I would recommend Final Notice to people who are passionate about gun control and sympathetic to immigration issues. I would not recommend it to people who are looking for plot twists or a non-biased storyline.
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Final Notice
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