3 out of 4 stars
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Final Notice by Van Fleisher is an exciting and fast-paced novel that explores the question of what people would do if they learned that they had only days left to live. The book follows the lives of several senior citizens who receive the VT2, a cutting-edge new smart watch that constantly monitors their health - and includes a controversial feature that predicts date of death with high accuracy up to a month before their demise. While some of the seniors use this knowledge of their “Final Notice” for good, a disturbing number of individuals use this information, along with their new guns purchased with help from the NRA’s new senior gun discount, to seek revenge on those that have wronged them. The story quickly turns tense and thrilling as stories surrounding the creators of the VT2 watch, FBI investigators and a kind, liberally-minded senior couple in California all mesh together with the stories of the VT2 owners to create an example of the dangers of racism, ageism and uncontrolled gun ownership.
I truly enjoyed the way that Fleisher built his characters’ stories and intertwined them to make a point about the current political climate in the United States. The book could have easily become a dry political read, but the relatable characters and page-turning suspense made the book feel more like an action novel and less like propaganda. There was also a good dash of humor thrown in to lighten some of the darkest moments throughout. Romance, disappointments and the universally appealing exploration of mortality all made the story even more entertaining and good for the soul.
While I enjoyed the book tremendously, many readers may be offended if they do not agree with the politics presented within. I could relate to the reasoning of the more liberally-minded characters, and I am very passionate about gun control; a more conservative thinker would likely find little to relate to in and may even become offended by this story, especially the way that many of the Republican characters are presented (except for the moderate conservative Senator McAdam). I believe that the points Fleisher made were important, and I am sure that there is something for people at every end of the political spectrum to learn from this novel; I just think that the depictions of right and left as evil versus good were a little too black and white in most parts of the book. This could easily lead to a smaller customer base for this work of fiction.
I also find it important to mention that, while the personalities of most characters were believable, there were times that I felt a certain person could have had a more colorful or well-developed personality. It seemed that Fleisher took a few liberties with characters and even presented a couple of contradictions within the plot, and I am afraid this may have been a way for him to support his black-and-white morality. There were times that the author attempted to show both the “good” and “bad” characters as multidimensional and human; they just were not very consistent.
Due to a few formatting errors and the smaller flaws mentioned above, I am giving Final Notice by Van Fleisher 3 out of 4 stars, though I wish I could give it a 3.5 rating. I personally found it to be one of my favorite books that I have read recently, and it was definitely exciting. I just think that it could have been written in a way that did not offend one political viewpoint to benefit another. Fleisher did point out at the end that he is probably “preaching to the choir,” so perhaps he think that only more liberally-minded readers would purchase this book in the first place. I still think he could have been a bit less emotional and more polite at times.
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Final Notice
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