The Last Three by Almon Chu

"'Just three more stops,' I thought to myself. I gripped my knife, the handle digging into my flesh. I closed my eyes and tried to think of Eris." A descent down the path of self-destruction, does salvation lie around the corner or is it merely an illusion? The Last Three is a captivating story of a lost soul on the streets of a modern dystopia.


This novella was a complete surprise to me. I didn’t expect to find so many levels of meaning throughout its pages, as sometimes stories or novellas can feel rushed and not mined for all the nuances they could actually have.
This one, however, is a good example of how one can be written correctly.
The city, the grunge that fills it, is a definitely a protagonist in these pages. As many classical authors have done before, the scenery becomes much more than just background noise, instead coming to influence the characters and their actions. I loved the vivid descriptions of the world around Jon, the protagonist, the world that invades his head more and more with each page.

The other thing that is striking is the “realness” of the story. It is harsh and to the point, leaving the reader with a feeling of having lost his or her footing. The writing style accentuates this with short, striking sentences that bang around in the reader’s head long after the novella is done.

This is one of those pieces of writing that I feel confident in recommending to all of you who love literary works that make you think. I say go buy a copy!