A post for this short story is long overdue. The Last Rhino by P.J. Day was a little bit of a departure from the typical read for me. As you might have figured out by now I have an affinity for sci-fi and fantasy. This book was something I picked out to break up things a bit just as much as the size of it. My reading time was in shorter supply at the beginning of the month which made it all the more appealing as I could steal a little time here and there.

In this book, Jumla, the last white rhino roams the game preserve with little worry. Or so it seems. It is up to former soldier and now game warden to keep Jumla safe from poachers. For Tarik it is a dream job and a chance to see his family is cared for in a safer environment. Africa safe? Hardly. There is always dangers and ones past can always bring it back to the forefront. Tarik eventually must face a dark past to keep Jumla and his family safe.

The Last Rhino is more of a story that I would say puts Jumla as the connecting point at which the events (past and present) that tie the characters together. We are all tied to our past somehow in this case one that Tarik would like to forget about I am sure. Day delves deep into the human experience to bring this tale to life. Will we confront the past or keep running from it? Tarik I feel was in a sense running from it or at least trying to. It reminds me that until we confront the past it will just follow us around as his did.

Overall, it was a good book and glad I gave it a go. I just wish it was perhaps a tiny bit longer to give a greater sense of past events that shaped the characters. It also jumps may years forward at the end leaving me with some questions about what happened after the climax of the story. I did, however, like the ending of the story seeing Dante survives and takes a dark part of his past head on and has overcome it.