‘One Last Word’ Review: A Pandora’s Box of Family, Love, Friendship, and Breaking Glass Ceilings

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

In her latest novel, Suzanne Park presents a story about the adult struggles of finding love, healing relationships with family and old friends, and establishing one’s career. “One Last Word” follows Sara Chae, a 32-year-old Korean American woman living in Silicon Valley in California and working at a tech company. She’s a high-powered and hard-working individual who has an idea for a new app that allows users to draft messages to their family, friends, and colleagues that would send upon the user’s death, allowing them to get in one last word.

Sara’s app malfunctions one night after a different Sara Chae dies, and now several drunken messages Sara drafted up with her sister Jia have been sent out to Sara’s misogynistic old boss, overpowering parents, ex-best friend Naomi, and high school crush Harry. Sara now has to deal with reconnecting with her high school crush Harry, facing the truth of her lost friendship with Naomi, and standing up to her parents about the difficulties of her childhood — all while proving that her app is not malfunctioning and is worthy of investment.

Park spins a lively and relatable tale, framed around each relationship the protagonist now gets the chance to fix. Park doesn’t shy away from the not-so-glamorous parts of adult life, especially as she describes Chae’s experience with having to move into her sister’s apartment after leaving her job.

The story also leans into the very real experiences of women of color in the tech world. Sara Chae deals with sexist and racist comments from her peers and higher ups in the tech and startup community, but routinely takes them into stride — the author’s intentionality in depicting an independent and confident woman in the STEM space shines through in a way that empowers her readers.

Park is sure to make her protagonist a well-rounded character and effectively highlights areas of the protagonist’s life where she is not as confident through three storylines sparked by messages mistakenly sent out through the app.

Throughout the novel, Sara struggles to reconcile with being the oldest child to immigrant parents in the United States. However, this isn’t a story of an adult child rebelling against their parents or giving in to what their parents want, but rather one of care and a desire for understanding and repairing familial relationships. In a pivotal moment at the end of the novel, Sara stands up to her parents and asks them to give her space to figure out her life on her own without meddling or placing stressful expectations on her. Park’s inclusion of this storyline touches readers, especially those of similar backgrounds, and offers a new and diverse perspective on the typically hard-hitting topics of intergenerational trauma and guilt that color the lives of adult children of immigrants in the United States. Park’s depiction of this common divide between immigrant parents and their children is heartfelt but lighthearted, which helps to normalize the experience and depict a way out, rather than a rumination on the experience’s difficulties.

In the sphere of romance, Park presents another version of Sara Chae. After Sara’s message is sent out, she finds out that not only is her high school crush now aware of her interest, but he also works for the venture capitalist company that runs the competition that her app was picked for and is her assigned mentor for the competition. From the beginning of Sara’s interaction with Harry, it is clear that Harry has some interest in Sara, but she stays almost stubbornly unaware of his interest.

Park utilizes this relationship to highlight her protagonist’s insecurities surrounding her outward appearance and social life as an adult, but at times takes things too far. The novel is peppered with Sara’s self descriptions as cowardly, exercise-averse, saggy and socially lifeless — Sara frequently compares herself to her sister Jia who is described as more social, pretty, and cool than Sara is. Park’s efforts to create a character that is relatable to other introverted women navigating the intricacies of a networking and connections-based workplace falls flat, and readers feel more pity than sympathy for the protagonist’s “tough, rubbery outer shell.”

These elements interrupt the flow of the story at times and are incongruous with one of the novel’s main themes of female empowerment in male-dominated workplaces. Even further, they run the risk of perpetuating the stereotype that people who keep to themselves — especially in the tech and computer science space — are not fun.

By the end of the novel, the author makes an attempt to redeem the protagonist’s insecure nature. The story closes out with Sara winning the competition and finally clarifying her new relationship with Harry, resolving her issues with her parents, and reuniting with her ex-best friend — it is through conversations with these characters that Sara becomes aware of the ways that her insecurities have prevented her from moving forward in these relationships.

However, this redemption moment does not strike as strong of a chord with readers as it could. Park drops several plot twists in the midst of Sara’s reconciliation efforts, the first being that Harry has secretly been married the whole time Sara has been starting a relationship with him, and the second being that Jia is the one who sent out the messages and it wasn’t an app malfunction at all.

These plot elements are revealed towards the end of the novel, leaving the protagonist and the readers without much time to process. Sara’s warranted distrust of Harry and of her sister is short-lived, as she is thrust into the final round of the venture capitalist competition for her app soon after these revelations. By the end of the competition, Harry and Jia’s transgressions are to be forgotten and the book ends with Sara celebrating her success with Harry and her family. These final plot twists distract from the more important moments of the book: Sara’s continued triumph against racism and sexism as she works to make her app a success as well as her reconciliation with Harry, Jia, Naomi, and her parents.

Woven into a funny and chaotic story about the Pandora’s box aftermath of an app malfunction, Park’s novel addresses the not often talked about experiences of life as a woman in her thirties — and specifically woman of color in the tech industry and eldest child of immigrant parents. While not the most unique story, “One Last Word” offers a feel-good sense of relatability to underrepresented readers who may see themselves in Sara Chae’s clumsy awkwardness, spunkiness, and drive to stand up for what she believes in.

—Staff writer Selorna A. Ackuayi can be reached at selorna.ackuayi@thecrimson.com