The Last Book in the Universe Book Review

The Last Book in the Universe, by Rodman Philbrick, is about a teenage boy called Spaz who suffers from epilepsy. Spaz was a foundling, meaning he was picked up off the street and taken in as an infant. When Spaz was around four his foster parents, Charlie and Kay, had their own child, a baby girl named Bean. Bean, being their biological daughter, was cherished more than Spaz so when Spaz had one of his episodes around Bean he became a safety hazard for her and Spaz was resented by Charlie. It got to the point that Charlie banned Spaz from their family unit and he was forced to go to a latch in the Urb. Spaz survived as one of the Bangers, one of the more feared gangs, run by Billy Bizmo. One day, on Billy's orders Spaz was sent to rip off an old gummy called Ryter. When he arrived at Ryter's cube, due to the help of a child that he bribed with a choxbar, Ryter was sitting in his cube with everything ready to be taken, just waiting for Spaz. Spaz took just about everything, except for a book that Ryter was hiding from him, but Spaz didn't care. The next evening when Spaz got back to his cube, waiting for him in the shadows was a runner with a message from Bean. Bean was dying from leukemia and her last wish was to see him again. Immediately, Spaz went to Billy to ask for permission and safe travels to his old family unit, but Billy denied him that. All Spaz wanted to do was see Bean before she died, so without permission Spaz and Ryter, who had insisted that he come to know how it all ends, left at dawn the next morning through the pipes. They were followed through by the small boy Spaz had given a choxbar too, Little Face. The three companions made it out of the pipes and into the next latch, they were taken by a group called the Monkey Boys, but Ryter talked their way out by persuading the second in command tek to take control over the latch instead of leaving it to the brain dead leader, Mongo the Magnificent, who had been probing for a year straight. They caught a ride with a few teks' in a takvee to the next line of pipes. Once they made it through the second line of pipes, the latch that they saw is on fire, smoke everywhere and all the people in complete chaos looking for edibles. They find a beautiful proov girl in a silvery dress standing on top of a rundown takvee, the same girl that so kindly gave Spaz edibles a few days prior, she was yelling at the mob to get away but they didn't budge. Ryter heroically ran in the opposite direction of the mob shouting about edibles to get them away from Lanaya, the proov girl, and it worked. Swiftly Spaz, Little Face, and Lanaya got into the takvee and took off as soon as Ryter, barely, made it back. Lanaya had agreed to bring them the rest of the way to the family unit for so kindly saving her life. The rest of the ride went smoothly until they ran into Lotti Getts, the leader of the Vandals. Lotti said that the only way she would let them through peacefully was if they would find the latch runner that was bringing in illegal mindprobes into her part of the latch, they agreed and began looking. They started by talking to some very high ranked people in the latch, none of which knew anything about it. Lanaya suggested they go to Vida Bleek, a fellow mobster, as a last resort, so they did and they discovered that there was no latch runner at all, Lotti was just using them to distract Bleek while her army attacked his. While all of Lotti's men were in battle they made a quick getaway in the takvee to Spaz's old family unit. They piled into the Spaz's old cube, even Lanaya, and Spaz bubbles with excitement as he sees Bean again. Spaz only gets to spend a little over a day with Bean before she goes into a coma, and all of their hope is lost, that is until Lanaya says that Eden might have a cure for Bean. Spaz, Ryter, Little Face, and Lanaya sneak an unconscious Bean into Lanaya's castle, as she is the next inline for the throne of Eden. Lanaya sits down with her parents and convinces them to help Bean, and they, even with the no normals in Eden rule, cave. Bean is put into a hospital and the doctors' decide to modify her genes and give her a few perfect ones to rule out the disease and help her immune system. Even with the major risks, It all went smoothly and Bean awakes good as new. Spaz, Ryter, and Bean over stay their welcome to the point that the council finds out about them being in Eden, Lanaya fights for them but in the end they are forced to go back to the Urb, Bean to her family unit, and Little Face secretly gets to stay in the castle with Lanaya's parents, as the council does not know he's there. Once Spaz and Ryter get back to their latch they find that things are worse than ever, complete chaos, and one of them is going to get it. They disobeyed Billy and the mob is crazed, so Billy orders that they take Ryter. For once in Spaz's life he doesn't fear Billy Bizmo, so he asks why, why, Ryter and not him? And Billy comes clean and tells Spaz that he is Spaz's father. Spaz is Billy Bizmo's son, but he doesn't care and he wants nothing to do with Billy. With Ryter gone, Spaz decides to write, the book Ryter was working on previously was destroyed by the mob, so Spaz takes it upon himself to write the last book in the universe.


One of the main themes in this book is that everyone has a story. The first example of this theme is when Ryter insists that Spaz has a story, "Everybody has a story"(19). The second example is when Ryter tells Spaz that he'll decide if Spaz's story is worth telling. "What you're really saying is, that you don't have a story worth telling," he says. "Let me be the judge of that"(33). And the third and last example of this theme is when Spaz decides that Ryter was right about him having a story and decides to tell it. "Yes, I'm thinking, yes I'm writing, yes, yes, yes"(223). Those are three examples on why I think the themes is that everyone has a story.


This book appears to take place somewhere in the United States that was greatly affected by an earthquake referred to as "The Big Shake". This post-disaster version of the United States is called the Urb.  The Urb is made up of different latches and the family unit. In each latch there is major destruction, and they're scattered with thieves, war, gangs that you need to be in to survive, and mindprobes. Mindprobes are needles that you stick in your brain, that put you in a temporary virtual reality that is so much better than life in the Urb. Overall, the Urb is not a very kid friendly environment, and after Spaz was banned from the family unit that's where he, a kid, had to go and survive. Before Spaz left on his adventure to see Bean the latch was run in an unauthorized dictatorship and it's very hard to feel safe and at home somewhere like that unless you're probing witch Spaz cannot because of his epilepsy. Everything was just collapsing on it's own. "In some of the latches the leaders have stopped leading. Anarchy regions. Mobs run wild, burning, and looting"(202-203). When Spaz returned from Eden the Urb was even worse then when he left, and It didn't seem to phase him. Ryter was happy to be home but Spaz wanted to forget. "What if I want to forget everything?"(210). Spaz once lived in a suitable cube in a family unit, he understood that the Urb was a terribly dangerous place, I think that he pushed his opinion on the place to the side because he understood that he must survive whether he liked it there or not. He wanted to forget about Eden so he wouldn't have to think about how much better the proov's have it, because the relationship he had with the Urb was simple. He knew his place and that wishing life was better was not an option, the Urb was his home now and as violent as the whole situation might be he was greatful.  


I would not recommend this book to other 7th graders, because overall it is just a challenging book to get through. The beginning of the book bored me to a point where I had to force myself to actually finish it. Once I got through the dull and tedious beginning, the middle was a bit more adequate with more action and thought-provoking writing. The end of it had a massive plot twist and then nothing. Nothing to nurse me back to health from the astonishing truth of why Billy didn't want Spaz to leave the latch. Although, that part got to me a little bit the rest of the book left me unfazed and didn't leave all my emotions flooding through me all at once like, in my opinion, a good book should one way or another. For these reasons, I would not recommend this book to other 7th graders.