The Last Days of Video

January 19, 2015
In Hawkins's funny but derivative first novel, the year is 2007 and video stores are becoming dinosaurs. But in the college town of Appleton, N.C., Waring Wax, owner of Star Video, is determined that his failing store will survive. It doesn't help matters that he is constantly drunk, surly to his customers, and up to his eyeballs in debt. To make matters worse, his Christian distributor has just dropped him, the town council wants to turn his space into a community arts center and, worst of all, a Blockbuster Video has just opened up nearby. But Waring has a plan. It involves Match Anderson, a local boy turned Hollywood auteur, who has returned home to make his latest movie. But Match, it seems, is plagued by the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock and might be too distracted to help. The author has a good time gently poking fun at the video-store culture that produced Quentin Tarantino. But the author's other targetsâChristian zealots, box-store capitalism, and self-help cultsâseem like a leftover comedy routine. The novel seems to strive for a balance between nostalgia and quirkiness, but too often settles for the easy laugh.

Starred review from January 15, 2015
In this funny, surprisingly tender debut novel, Hawkins tells the story of a misfit group of video-store employees whose efforts to save their beloved shop offer the reader a cast of lovable oddities and a streak of infectious adoration for the power of movies. Waring Wax is the unhappy, unpleasant, frequently drunk owner of Star Video, a video rental store with an impressive collection of titles and oddball employees and a business that, in 2007, is slowly getting strangled by the growing presence of Blockbuster and Netflix. When a Blockbuster opens 50 yards away, the threat to Waring's livelihood and only true home turns dire. With the help of two faithful employees-the beautiful, prickly Alaura and the awkward and virginal Jeff-he sets out to save Star Video with a series of increasingly ridiculous schemes that thrust the three of them into the presence of corporate bullies, the cultlike Reality Center and a famous film director who's in town to make a movie while secretly plagued by Alfred Hitchcock's ghost. The plot is often ridiculous and has a whiff of enthusiastic camp, but the characters have enough heart and vivid imperfections to make their story irresistibly engaging, even when they find their lives plunging toward slightly outdated small-town miseries. They careen from one encounter to another, propelled by a generous dose of nostalgia, loud humor and narrative energy, but they're given the depth to make casually beautiful phrases ring true. "When her eyes opened, flashbulbs went off in his mind," says the book, and it sounds exactly right. A novel that manages to be both very funny and very sad, with an unrepentant belief in both movies and love served with a cleverness and irreverence that are difficult to resist.

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February 15, 2015
It's early in the twenty-first century, and the credits are about to roll for Star Video. The store, in a North Carolina college town, is facing the threat of newcomers like Netflix, and the fact that a new Blockbuster has opened just down the street doesn't help. But store owner Waring Wax and his employees aren't going down without a fight. While the story line is familiarband of quirky misfits battles evil corporate giantwhat sets this debut novel apart is how Hawkins effortlessly reveals the inner workings of his characters. Drunken Waring is challenged to finally take the reins of his business; after getting dumped, tattooed store manager Alaura turns to an experiential learning center to try to straighten out her life; and freshman Jeff faces his insecurities about leaving country life behind for a fresh start. The novel is riddled with film references and easily lambastes the sneering superiority of cinephiles, while still preserving a sense of wonder for the magic of movies. The Last Days of Video is an unapologetic, quirky, and surprisingly moving elegy for the passing of the local rental hangouts.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)