The Last Book In The Universe

“Those who will be alive at some future date. I don’t know why, but the way he says it gives me a shiver. Because I’d never thought about the future. You want to be down with the Bangers, you can’t think about the future. There’s only room for the right here, and the want-it-now. The future is like the moon. You never expect to go there, or think about what it might be like. What’s the point if you can’t touch it or steal it or shoot it into your brain?” 

Ryter openly talks about the future, and his wish that people will read books again someday. This kind of speech makes Spaz feel uncomfortable because it is so unusual for him. The people he knows can only focus on the present; they aren’t living for a future, but for the moment—what feels good, what keeps them fed, what they want right away. These people are operating as a series of impulses.

“For some reason the idea of ‘future’ gets inside my head and won’t let go. Future. That’s like a time that doesn’t exist yet. A world full of people who haven’t been born yet, doing things that nobody’s thought of yet.” 

At home later, Spaz can’t stop thinking about Ryter’s concept of the “future,” and what it opens up for him in terms of possibilities. And just that quickly, he’s populating the world with people who haven’t even been born, considering a world capable of holding more than just himself and what he sees around him today.

“This tiny, widgy little face wrapped in a soft blanket. Her squinty eyes and her tiny little lips all smooched up like she’d been sucking a lemon. How she smelled like warm milk. Baby stuff—she was only a few days old, okay? But what I really remember is what happened when she saw me staring down at her. Her whole face smiled and her little hand came up and tried to grab my nose and that was it, I loved Bean right from that moment and it never changed. No matter what happened, all the bad things later, and me losing my family unit because of her, it never made me love Bean any less.” 

Ryter prompts Spaz to tell him the first thing he remembers as a child, and this is the result. Despite not being related by blood, Spaz experiences a deep and true brotherly love for his sister from the moment he laid eyes on her. This is obvious from his description of her as she was several days after her birth, from over a decade into the future. Spaz cared for Bean when she got ill as an 8-year-old, and he intended to do so again now that they were young adults.

“The thing that’s really important to understand about Bean is that she only sees the good in people, and never the bad. Because my foster dad, I suppose he’s basically okay, but he’s got this bad side, too, and Bean never saw it. Like she’d erased the idea of ‘bad’ from her mind. So when everything blew up and Charly—that’s his name, Charly—so when everything blew, and Charly got it fixed in his head that I was growing up dangerous and that somehow Bean might get infected with whatever it was that made me a spaz, Bean never saw it coming.” 

In one succinct passage, Spaz sums up a key difference between his foster sister and his foster dad. While he concedes here that Charly is mostly a good person, he divulges a bit later in this chapter that Charly was capable of physically and verbally abusing his children. Bean cannot see the bad in people, but here, Charly—her foster father—represents the bad she cannot see.

“‘Shut up!’ I scream. ‘Shut up!’ And then I’m running away, running as fast as my feet will take me, running until I can’t hear him anymore and the only word in my head is the word that never leaves, the word I hate the most, the word that means me. Spaz, spaz, spaz.” 

Ryter is determined to change Spaz’s mind about his condition as someone with epilepsy, believing that if he tells Spaz about other great men and women throughout history who have had epilepsy, he will start to believe in himself and his own greatness. But for Spaz, his condition is what separated him from his family; “Spaz isn’t just a name, it’s a warning” (35). Spaz hates his own name— what it signals, and what memories it holds for him.

“The boss man of the Bangers sits in a big, padded chair, like the throne of a mighty king in the backtimes. His eyes are open but you can tell he’s not seeing the room, or the candles all around, or me. He’s seeing whatever is happening inside his head, where the mindprobe is playing. Putting him right there, like he’s inside a moving hologram only better. Better than real. Better than anything.”

Spaz is describing something he’s never experienced himself, only heard about and seen. Here, he’s witnessing Billy Bizmo, the latchboss and most frightening person he knows, under the influence of a probe. He is so eager to get to Bean that he disregards the rules and visits Billy himself and then forces him out of a probe. Billy's anger is so forceful as to indicate the reality that probing is addictive.

“The old man raises his stick and bars the door, like he’s buying time while he thinks about his answer. ‘Two reasons,’ he says after a pause. ‘First, I want to know how your story ends. And second, this will be my last opportunity for great adventure. A mission to save the life of a beloved young woman—what more could an old man want? I shall accompany you, and then write our tale of courage in my book.’ ‘You’re crazy,’ I warn him. ‘You might be killed.’ ‘Crazy?’ He laughs and shakes his head. ‘They said Don Quixote was crazy, too.’”

Spaz wants to go on his journey to Bean alone, but Ryter is determined to tag along. He says it is for his own curiosity and sense of adventure, but also has reasons that include writing the mission down and fulfilling some kind of damsel in distress subplot that he’s lacking in his daily life. True to form, he brings literature into the debate, in the form of Don Quixote, which some say is the first novel ever written, but Spaz has never even heard of.

“‘Fine. Agreed. I shall not speak of the innumerable famous and successful human beings who shared your condition. I shall not speak of Julius Caesar, Napoléon Bonaparte, Leonardo da Vinci, Agatha Christie, Lewis Carroll, or Harriet Tubman. I will never again mention Joan of Arc, Vincent van Gogh, Sir Isaac Newton, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Edgar Allan Poe, or the great Paganini. Done. Finished. My lips are zipped.’” 

Despite Spaz repeatedly asking Ryter not to bring up his condition, the old man seems incapable of letting the matter rest, reciting lists of people with the affliction. This is more for the benefit of the reader than for Spaz himself, as the names of these "backtimers," devoid of context, would be meaningless for Spaz anyway. In addition to Charles Dickens and Alexander the Great, the reader is now equipped with a dozen historical figures all sharing the same genetic disorder.

“‘Pleasant dreams,’ he says, and I’m thinking, right, like I’m really going to fall asleep in a rat-filled pipe, but the next thing I know he’s shaking me and whispering, ‘Wake up. They’re coming.’ I hear it. shika-tik-tik, shika-tik-tik The sound gets closer and closer. Something is coming down the Pipe to get us.”

Their first night in the Pipe, Ryter and Spaz sleep in shifts, and during Ryter’s shift, both characters are terrified as they hear something scary and unfamiliar approaching. This chapter ends on a cliffhanger; when Chapter 10 opens, the reader finds out alongside the characters that Little Face has followed them down the Pipe with a stick, and that’s their “monster.”

“Monkey Boys. I’ve heard of them. Monkey Boys control this latch like the Bully Bangers control theirs. But the creatures pouring out of the ruins no longer act human; they’ve become as wild as the paint on their faces. And it isn’t only the face paint— their teeth have been sharpened into fangs, and their fingernails are like yellowed, curving claws.”

This describes the protagonist’s first encounter with a rival gang. The Monkey Boys are wild and animalistic in their behavior, unlike the Bully Bangers, who are cruel and can be brutal, but are still thoroughly human. Their teeth and claws are sickening; while they may not know exactly what is in store, both Ryter and Spaz immediately acknowledge that something isn’t right.

“Lying on the bed-throne is a shriveled, starving creature soaked in his own filth. Most of his hair has fallen out and lies in a fuzzy pile around his head. His teeth are gone, and his eyes are milky blind. I can barely make out the faded red monkey tattoo on his withered chest. At first glance you might think he’s dead, but he isn’t—not quite. His fingers twitch a little, and his mouth works, as if he’s trying to speak, and you can see where veins pulse weakly in his scrawny neck.” 

This paints a sobering picture of the formerly terrifying latchboss, Mongo the Magnificent, after spending a year looping endlessly on a probe where he thinks he’s living as a proov. He refuses to come out, and everyone is so terrified of him that they won’t get near enough to help him. 

“‘No right to say you’re brave and good and have a perfect nose?’ Ryter chuckles and rubs at his scraggly white beard. ‘Wait, I understand. What you really mean is, a normal doesn’t have the right to speak on equal terms with a child of Eden. Yes, that’s it,’ he adds, musing to himself. ‘You can’t help but think that way. Superiority has been bred into you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, and into every chromosome between. And yet still you come to the latches, first to experience adventure, and then to help. Which proves my initial impression, that you have a good heart, despite your breeding.’”

Before this passage, Ryter has been speaking to Lanaya about her inner beauty: “I know that in your heart you are brave and good” (95). Lanaya has a hard time accepting this kind of praise and becomes defensive quickly, but as usual Ryter cannot help persisting. He is saying that despite her breeding and outer beauty, which would get her far on their own, she has maintained a sense of empathy and a caring core. It is Ryter’s belief that these are not traits that can be bred into a person.

“Bleek’s teeth are small, too, when he smiles. There’s nothing friendly about the smile, though. It’s a smile that wants to chew you into little bits. You can almost hear his mind whirring as he tries to figure an advantage.” 

This is a visceral passage and a great example of the descriptive language at use in this book. The reader immediately sees Bleek’s character come alive on the page, with his previously-described small stature and now his teeth. It is taut and economical, and Vida Bleek is conveyed well even in this brief description of his teeth.

“‘I think it had something to do with you. The Latch Queen was expecting you. So was Vida Bleek. Excuse me, but why would they even be aware of some spastic nobody?’ ‘“Nobody”?’ I say as my face gets hot. ‘That’s my point, silly. Because you’re not a nobody. You’re important enough to attract the attention of all those powerful people: Billy Bizmo, Lotti Getts, Vida Bleek. Why is that?’” 

Here, Ryter first encourages Spaz in no indirect terms to consider why he is still alive; Spaz has attracted the attention of two latchbosses as well as one boss of the underground and has lived to tell about it. This anomaly is brought to light, and they question why Spaz may be a topic of conversation before his arrival in Bean’s latch.

“I wish I could close my eyes now. Then I wouldn’t see the bullet marks above the door of my old family shelter, or the coils of cutwire blocking the entrance. The bullet marks and the cutwire have always been there, ever since I can remember, but they still make me sad.”

When Spaz first stands in front of the door to his old childhood home, he does not immediately experience a sense of nostalgia or comfort, but rather feels sadness and perhaps even a twinge of shame. Rather than rushing in, he would rather close his eyes and avoid the bullet holes and cutwire he sees in front of him. It has been there since he was a child, but that doesn’t make it any less painful for him to look at and remember.

“I’m sitting on the gutter curb, thinking the world is stupid if this is what happens to the best person ever born. What’s the point if you have to live behind cutwire and steel doors and be afraid of gangs and then get sick and die because normals are too numb to remember the cure? I’m thinking maybe letting the latches burn is the right idea. Let everything burn until there’s nothing left but cold ashes and clear rain.”

After Bean slips into a coma, Spaz is completely overwhelmed by sadness and frustration, and some anger. However, his first thoughts are still valid and poignant. There is no sense to death, or how, when, or who it comes for, and he is right to feel that he and Bean have missed out on a quality of life Lanaya has enjoyed, simply by way of being born in the Urb rather than Eden. Burning the latches won’t bring Bean back, but it might level the playing field for everyone else, especially for future generations.

“She notices how I’m looking at everything with all my might. Like I want to stick everything I’m seeing inside my brain before she pushes a button and makes it vanish.”

When Ryter and Spaz first cross through the Border into Eden with Lanaya, they are absolutely in awe of the colors. Rather than seeing gray sky and concrete monochrome, the blue sky and green grass provide a powerful rush for their senses. They are amazed by grass and the smells it produces. Soon, Spaz’s eyes begin to hurt from all the looking around, but he continues to try to take it all in. He wishes Bean could see what he sees.

“‘Thinking about the future may be great for proovs,’ I tell him. ‘But normals don’t even have a past, let alone a future.’ ‘Everyone has a past,’ he says evasively. ‘You’re wrong.’ I tell what’s happened to memories since everybody started probing. How things in the Urb seem to be getting worse and how a lot of the latchbosses are too busy probing to care.”

Jin and Spaz discuss the concept of the future, a topic of conversation which would have made Spaz feel deeply uncomfortable at the beginning of the book, but to which he can now speak about articulately. Spaz has matured; in this conversation, he sounds more like Ryter than the Spaz he was at the start. Even though he has still maintained his own thoughts and opinions, his confidence in their delivery has grown.

“‘You did it, boy!’ he exclaims, wheezing with excitement. ‘You risked your life for a fair maiden, and now she lives! Oh what a wonderful story! I can’t wait to write it down! Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve given me a happy ending!’‘But the proovs saved her, not me,’ I remind him. ‘And besides, it was your idea to come to Eden.’ Ryter shakes his head. It’s as if his ancient, watery gray eyes can see all the way inside me. ‘Oh yes, we helped along the way, Lanaya and me, and even Little Face. But it was you who started the journey, son. None of this would have happened if you didn’t have the courage to imagine it first.’”

Just after Bean wakes up from her coma, Ryter congratulates Spaz. Again, he refers to Bean as a “fair maiden,” suggesting the traditional narrative of knights with shining armor and princes saving helpless princesses, which is hardly the case with Bean. His second thought is for his book, sharing his desire to write it all down. Spaz is logical. He attributes Bean’s recovery to the proovs who saved her, and the fact that Lanaya and Ryter initiated the plan to come to Eden to save her, at a time when he was fixated on burning the latches down. Ultimately, Spaz started the journey and his approach took courage.

‘But she’s a normal!’ Jin exclaims. ‘Yes,’ says Lanaya. ‘And a normal can’t be smarter than aproov, is that what you’re saying?’ Jin shakes his head as if he’s confused. Confused not so much by what Lanaya said, but by his own feelings. ‘I try to have an open mind on these matters,’ he says, ‘but I’ve been playing chess since I was five years old, and she just learned the game today. How is it possible?’ ‘Mmm-hmm,’ Lanaya says, her eyes bright and knowing. ‘Dome a favor. Don’t say anything more. Just think about it. Think about what it means, if a girl from the Urb can beat you at your best game.’

Lanaya shows how much she has learned since she started her journey. Whereas she once would have been questioning a normal’s right to challenge a proov and would have been in just as much awe of Bean—and perhaps skeptical of her novice status—she now knows better. She is well-equipped to help guide her father out of ignorance and toward a higher understanding of what it really means to be born a normal or a proov and that normals deserve every opportunity that proovs are given. Jin is humbled.

“‘I love Bree,’ the little boy says, as fierce as a latchboss declaring war. ‘I love Bree and Bree loves me.’ And that pretty much settles the question.” 

When Bree shares her plan to adopt Little Face, her husband Jin is skeptical. Proovs are not generally allowed to bring normals into the Urb for any reason, and he cannot fathom how this child will be allowed to stay, or how the addition to their home would be a positive one. But after Little Face chooses this time to begin speaking—and has this to say—Jin cannot help but soften his outlook.

“‘There’ is a place called Stadium. Only it’s nothing like the ruins of the old stadiums in the Urb, which are huge piles of crumbling concrete and rusted steel. Stadium is really a small, curving hillside that looks like it was scooped out by a giant spoon. When we get there, the green hillside is already covered with people— proovs, of course—and the enforcers tell us they’ve all been summoned, too, just like us. ‘So they all arrived in body-cuffs?’ I ask, and one of the enforcers looks at me like I’m some sort of talking animal, not worth answering.”

The Stadium, or the traditional place where trials are conducted in Eden, resembles the ancient Roman theatre; Spaz’s association with the word, however, comes from the ruins of modern concrete sporting arenas, all still crumbling in the Urb from a time potentially before the Big Shake. Despite being compared to one another by the enforcers, Bean and Spaz are body-cuffed before being brought into the Stadium, whereas the rest of the proovs assembled on the hill have come of their own volition.

“He looks at me curiously. ‘You haven’t figured it out yet, have you?’‘Figured out what?’‘Why he’s taken a special interest in you.’ I don’t know what he’s talking about. It doesn’t make any sense. Billy doesn’t care any more about me than he does about any of the other things he owns. Luxury items, mindprobes weapons, warriors, Spaz boy, we’re all the same. We just belong to him, like everything else in his latch.”

Even just before Billy tells Spaz, he hasn’t figured out for himself that he’s the son of the latchboss. In a way, his response is not wrong as it does seem like Billy thinks of Spaz as a piece of the furniture most of the time, or at least someone he can boss around and depend upon for total obedience.