What do you think?
Rate this book
Twin Peaks #2
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier
The crucial sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Secret History of Twin Peaks, this novel bridges the two series, and takes you deeper into the mysteries raised by the new series.
The return of Twin Peaks this May is one of the most anticipated events in the history of television. The subject of endless speculation, shrouded in mystery, fans will come flocking to see Mark Frost and David Lynch's inimitable vision once again grace the screen. Featuring all the characters we know and love from the first series, as well as a list of high-powered actors in new roles, the show will be endlessly debated, discussed, and dissected.
While The Secret History of Twin Peaks served to expand the mysteries of the town and place the unexplained phenomena that unfolded there into a vastly layered, wide-ranging history, Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier tells us what happened to key characters in the twenty-five years in between the events of the first series and the second, offering details and insights fans will be clamoring for. The novel also adds context and commentary to the strange and cosmic happenings of the new series. For fans around the world begging for more, Mark Frost's final take laid out in this novel will be required listening.
The return of Twin Peaks this May is one of the most anticipated events in the history of television. The subject of endless speculation, shrouded in mystery, fans will come flocking to see Mark Frost and David Lynch's inimitable vision once again grace the screen. Featuring all the characters we know and love from the first series, as well as a list of high-powered actors in new roles, the show will be endlessly debated, discussed, and dissected.
While The Secret History of Twin Peaks served to expand the mysteries of the town and place the unexplained phenomena that unfolded there into a vastly layered, wide-ranging history, Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier tells us what happened to key characters in the twenty-five years in between the events of the first series and the second, offering details and insights fans will be clamoring for. The novel also adds context and commentary to the strange and cosmic happenings of the new series. For fans around the world begging for more, Mark Frost's final take laid out in this novel will be required listening.
145 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2017
330 people are currently reading
6255 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 803 reviews
September 6, 2019
So now we are basically calling fan-service "novels," huh. Yep these are the days. And so this "novel"'s theme is Twin Peaks--so all's good. I will admit that I've only watched season 1 and the brilliant hard-R-rated film (my qualifications for critiquing this may be suspect, IT OK). But I do know who killed Laura Palmer... The central enigma in this whirlpool of enigma.
I suppose this bridges the 25-year gap between the original sensational show, and this new Showtime revamp (which I will immediately rent from the library when it becomes available).
Personally, the Log Lady coming back as an archive in a very astute narrator's case file was my own personal brand of fan service. You will have here--Frost evokes much in very little (Blue Rose?); not a discernible plot at all, but--people going into comas. Heavy Washington State drug use. Brilliant villains and brilliant girls with high IQs going down various rabbit holes that some monstrous evil force puts there...
Completed the new series recently. It's the single most brilliant slice of television gonzo retro terror and drama. Unique and unmissable. Ferocious, Unmissable!
I suppose this bridges the 25-year gap between the original sensational show, and this new Showtime revamp (which I will immediately rent from the library when it becomes available).
Personally, the Log Lady coming back as an archive in a very astute narrator's case file was my own personal brand of fan service. You will have here--Frost evokes much in very little (Blue Rose?); not a discernible plot at all, but--people going into comas. Heavy Washington State drug use. Brilliant villains and brilliant girls with high IQs going down various rabbit holes that some monstrous evil force puts there...
Completed the new series recently. It's the single most brilliant slice of television gonzo retro terror and drama. Unique and unmissable. Ferocious, Unmissable!
October 26, 2017
More satisfying than The Secret History, if only because it is entirely concerned with familiar Twin Peaks faces and not retro-fitting historical UFO lore with a TP connection. Fills in some blanks between the two series (Where's Donna? What kept Ed and Norma from getting together during the intervening 25 years?) and fixes some discrepancies created by the Secret History (why did SH say Norma's mom died in the early 80s when she showed up in the original series? Did Annie get written out of the narrative altogether?) but creates at least one new one (Annie was born in 1973 per the Final Dossier, but is in her early 20s in the original series, set in 1989). An autopsy performed by Albert in 1989 (I won't say whose) is filled with anachronistic language like "trigger warning" and "craft brewery" (or did Albert also spend some time "unstuck in time"?).
Your big questions from the new series (what's up with Audrey? what's the deal with the final episode?) are not authoritatively answered here, but you will receive some gentle nudging towards Frost's preferred reading of events.
In all, a pleasing - if very brief (Goodreads suggests this is 176 pages, as a librarian I catalogued it at 137, with a small handful of unnumbered pages) - final(?) glance at this universe for fans, though as with the Secret History calling it a "novel" is a bit charitable.
Your big questions from the new series (what's up with Audrey? what's the deal with the final episode?) are not authoritatively answered here, but you will receive some gentle nudging towards Frost's preferred reading of events.
In all, a pleasing - if very brief (Goodreads suggests this is 176 pages, as a librarian I catalogued it at 137, with a small handful of unnumbered pages) - final(?) glance at this universe for fans, though as with the Secret History calling it a "novel" is a bit charitable.
June 21, 2018
I’m new to the world of Twin Peaks, but as someone who holds advanced nerd degrees I’m familiar with a lot of franchises that have decades of continuity, intricate histories, and scores of characters who have gone through extreme story arcs. Yet, I think Twin Peaks is the only one that could release a short tie-in book that seems like it’s just filling in some story gaps until the very end when it drops a couple of revelations that made me reexamine what I assumed I knew about the story all over again.
Damn, and when I started watching the old show on Netflix last summer I thought it was about solving the mystery of who killed one girl...
OK, just to recap. The series ran for only two seasons back in the early ‘90s. A prequel movie was done after that, and then 25 years later the show returned with 18 episodes that seem not just about a surreal battle between epic forces of good and evil, but also what I thought to be a slyly brilliant meta-commentary on TV as well as the nostalgia driving the resurrection of old shows. The previous tie-in book, The Secret History of Twin Peaks, was released before its return and functioned as a set-up for it. The Final Dossier is about wrapping up some of the loose ends and acts as a kind of afterword to the series.
Following the style of Secret History the story is told in a series of FBI reports from Special Agent Tammy Preston to Deputy Director Gordon Cole that recaps and sorta explains what happened. (Or at least as much explanation as we’re likely to officially get.) It also fills in the gaps about what happened to many of the original characters as well as what occurred after the events of the last of the new episodes.
What’s interesting is that a Twin Peaks viewer sometimes knows more than Agent Preston so when she has a question we often know the answer. So it’s like even though the FBI has some pieces of the puzzle only someone who watched Twin Peaks, not any of its characters, is in a position to see the whole picture. Understanding that picture is a whole different story. Probably only David Lynch and Mark Frost could do that, and it sounds like they’ve said all they have to say on the subject.
I was slightly disappointed in this until the ending. Secret History did similar things but was also telling us a story we didn’t know at all as well as having its own central mystery to solve. This seemed only to exist as a way to tell us all the things the show didn’t have time to get into. There’s also a depressing similarity to many of the characters’ fates. What happened on the show 25 years ago seemed to have tainted almost everyone, and there’s damn few happy endings. The best that many of them managed was to maintain the status quo with their lives not getting any worse.
It also seems to go out of its way to correct a mistake in Secret History with a weird and unlikely story about how that book said that Norma’s mother had died before the show started even though there’s a whole sub-plot with her and her living mother in the original series. However, it’s odd that Frost goes to such links to correct that gaffe here when there are several other continuity errors and contradictions that aren’t addressed. (e.g. The story of how Big Ed and Nadine came to be married is nothing like how Big Ed describes it on the show.)
So it seemed like this was simply a bit of extra material to answer the questions of hard core fans, but that it hadn’t even been particularly well-researched or thought out. That’s when the last few chapters kicked me in the head with a very important bit of follow-up on the impact of one of the last big events in the return episodes, and then came a revelation that pretty much blew my mind and changed my perception about a whole facet of the entire series. (It’s possible that a more dedicated Twin Peaks fan may have twigged to this before I did, but it certainly doesn’t seem like information that the series gave us.)
I’m not entirely sure that I like the idea of dropping something that seems so crucial in a follow-up book rather than putting it in the series itself, but nothing is easy or straight-forward when it comes to Twin Peaks. The entire show is begging to be picked apart and analyzed with layer after layer of themes and meaning examined so it doesn’t seem like that much of a cheat that one nugget was held back and tossed out later.
This would have exactly zero appeal to anyone who hasn’t the show, and it’d be pretty confusing if you haven’t read Secret History either. But for those who have it does provide a lot of interesting extras to think about.
Fair warning: Any untagged spoilers about the show in the comments will be deleted.
Damn, and when I started watching the old show on Netflix last summer I thought it was about solving the mystery of who killed one girl...
OK, just to recap. The series ran for only two seasons back in the early ‘90s. A prequel movie was done after that, and then 25 years later the show returned with 18 episodes that seem not just about a surreal battle between epic forces of good and evil, but also what I thought to be a slyly brilliant meta-commentary on TV as well as the nostalgia driving the resurrection of old shows. The previous tie-in book, The Secret History of Twin Peaks, was released before its return and functioned as a set-up for it. The Final Dossier is about wrapping up some of the loose ends and acts as a kind of afterword to the series.
Following the style of Secret History the story is told in a series of FBI reports from Special Agent Tammy Preston to Deputy Director Gordon Cole that recaps and sorta explains what happened. (Or at least as much explanation as we’re likely to officially get.) It also fills in the gaps about what happened to many of the original characters as well as what occurred after the events of the last of the new episodes.
What’s interesting is that a Twin Peaks viewer sometimes knows more than Agent Preston so when she has a question we often know the answer. So it’s like even though the FBI has some pieces of the puzzle only someone who watched Twin Peaks, not any of its characters, is in a position to see the whole picture. Understanding that picture is a whole different story. Probably only David Lynch and Mark Frost could do that, and it sounds like they’ve said all they have to say on the subject.
I was slightly disappointed in this until the ending. Secret History did similar things but was also telling us a story we didn’t know at all as well as having its own central mystery to solve. This seemed only to exist as a way to tell us all the things the show didn’t have time to get into. There’s also a depressing similarity to many of the characters’ fates. What happened on the show 25 years ago seemed to have tainted almost everyone, and there’s damn few happy endings. The best that many of them managed was to maintain the status quo with their lives not getting any worse.
It also seems to go out of its way to correct a mistake in Secret History with a weird and unlikely story about how that book said that Norma’s mother had died before the show started even though there’s a whole sub-plot with her and her living mother in the original series. However, it’s odd that Frost goes to such links to correct that gaffe here when there are several other continuity errors and contradictions that aren’t addressed. (e.g. The story of how Big Ed and Nadine came to be married is nothing like how Big Ed describes it on the show.)
So it seemed like this was simply a bit of extra material to answer the questions of hard core fans, but that it hadn’t even been particularly well-researched or thought out. That’s when the last few chapters kicked me in the head with a very important bit of follow-up on the impact of one of the last big events in the return episodes, and then came a revelation that pretty much blew my mind and changed my perception about a whole facet of the entire series. (It’s possible that a more dedicated Twin Peaks fan may have twigged to this before I did, but it certainly doesn’t seem like information that the series gave us.)
I’m not entirely sure that I like the idea of dropping something that seems so crucial in a follow-up book rather than putting it in the series itself, but nothing is easy or straight-forward when it comes to Twin Peaks. The entire show is begging to be picked apart and analyzed with layer after layer of themes and meaning examined so it doesn’t seem like that much of a cheat that one nugget was held back and tossed out later.
This would have exactly zero appeal to anyone who hasn’t the show, and it’d be pretty confusing if you haven’t read Secret History either. But for those who have it does provide a lot of interesting extras to think about.
Fair warning: Any untagged spoilers about the show in the comments will be deleted.
November 1, 2020
This is just really bad fan fiction. Yes, it’s written by the co-creator of the series, but it only shows that Mark Frost doesn’t understand the story he co-created. At least, he doesn’t understand it the way David Lynch and most of its fans do. Twin Peaks is not about connecting all the dots and answering all the questions (though there are many moments, especially in season three, when answers to certain questions would be most welcome). Rather, it’s more of a narrative doorway to many different possibilities and musings. This is particularly true throughout the brilliant, dark, infuriating third season, when the possible interpretations crash in on one another in sometimes frustrating ways. The final episode seems almost disconnected from the rest of the story, and rather than answering any questions, or even leaving a cliff-hanger that makes any sense, it suggests that maybe every story we think we know is always in motion, always ready to yank us into a parallel story. I don’t know if this explains why our own stories seem so fractured and complex, or if it just makes everything feel more that way, regardless of the logic we think we see around us. Can there ever be a world in which Laura Palmer is happy? Is there a lesson Cooper needs to learn, or is he stuck with his misguided self-confident arrogance, which will keep throwing him into story after story but will never give him a resolution?
These are interesting questions. Wondering what Dr. Jacoby was up to in the 25 years between the original series and the third season is not. At least, it’s not worth a chapter of a book. The Final Dossier is different from the also-bad Secret History book in that it’s not “archivist” documents but instead is all memos written by Tammy Preston to Gordon Cole, trying to tie up loose ends from the investigation. This is a problem, because in the show, Agent Preston is a boring minor character who says about 15 words total. Now we read a book written by her in which she is over-the-top chatty and sarcastic. Where did this come from? The voice is also inconsistent, and some of what she reports from historical documents (Albert used the phrase “trigger warning” in 1989?) is odd.
A lot of the book seems to want to retcon details that don’t obviously fit in anywhere. Some of it is trying to fix things that Frost got wrong in the previous book. One entire chapter is an enormously convoluted retcon that tries to cover up the fact that in the earlier book Frost forgot that Norma’s mother didn’t die in the 1980s. What Frost comes up with is so much worse than just admitting that the previous book was wrong (as any fan of the series could have told him). More embarrassing is that this book refers to the Log Lady as “Margaret Coulson,” mixing up the name of the actress (Catherine Coulson) with the name of the character (clearly given as Margaret Lanterman in the series). Nobody caught this before the book was published?
There are no answers to more pressing plot-related questions, such as when, how, and why Ray Monroe started working for Philip Jeffries, why Jeffries is now inside a large tea kettle in an old motel room, why the Arm now looks like a cheap plastic tree instead of a small man in a red suit, the origins of Janey-E and Sonny Jim, whether Miriam recovers in the hospital (okay, that’s not so pressing; but I’m still curious). Sadly, there’s no further background on the Mitchum brothers and Candie, Sandie, and Mandie. Not urgent, but I love those characters and would actually like to read more about them.
There’s quite a bit about Audrey, but that’s a huge area where Frost’s retconning is unneeded. At the end of the original series, Audrey (much as I love her) is obviously dead. The fact that she reappears in season three is problematic, but Lynch leaves it relatively open for us to assume that she is, in fact, dead and either in the Black Lodge or hell. At the very least, she’s in a mental institution, locked in her own imagination. (The difficulty here is Richard; I don’t know any good way of explaining him.) So when Frost comes up with a backstory where Audrey opened a hair salon in Twin Peaks . . . please, no. That is not the way it happened.
There’s some explanation of where Annie is now, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Omitting her from the third season was a very strange choice.
The series, though I love it, certainly has its continuity problems, but Frost’s books are so off the mark (ha ha), it’s really disappointing. This is a case where the TV series just is a TV series, and it doesn’t translate well to any other medium.
These are interesting questions. Wondering what Dr. Jacoby was up to in the 25 years between the original series and the third season is not. At least, it’s not worth a chapter of a book. The Final Dossier is different from the also-bad Secret History book in that it’s not “archivist” documents but instead is all memos written by Tammy Preston to Gordon Cole, trying to tie up loose ends from the investigation. This is a problem, because in the show, Agent Preston is a boring minor character who says about 15 words total. Now we read a book written by her in which she is over-the-top chatty and sarcastic. Where did this come from? The voice is also inconsistent, and some of what she reports from historical documents (Albert used the phrase “trigger warning” in 1989?) is odd.
A lot of the book seems to want to retcon details that don’t obviously fit in anywhere. Some of it is trying to fix things that Frost got wrong in the previous book. One entire chapter is an enormously convoluted retcon that tries to cover up the fact that in the earlier book Frost forgot that Norma’s mother didn’t die in the 1980s. What Frost comes up with is so much worse than just admitting that the previous book was wrong (as any fan of the series could have told him). More embarrassing is that this book refers to the Log Lady as “Margaret Coulson,” mixing up the name of the actress (Catherine Coulson) with the name of the character (clearly given as Margaret Lanterman in the series). Nobody caught this before the book was published?
There are no answers to more pressing plot-related questions, such as when, how, and why Ray Monroe started working for Philip Jeffries, why Jeffries is now inside a large tea kettle in an old motel room, why the Arm now looks like a cheap plastic tree instead of a small man in a red suit, the origins of Janey-E and Sonny Jim, whether Miriam recovers in the hospital (okay, that’s not so pressing; but I’m still curious). Sadly, there’s no further background on the Mitchum brothers and Candie, Sandie, and Mandie. Not urgent, but I love those characters and would actually like to read more about them.
There’s quite a bit about Audrey, but that’s a huge area where Frost’s retconning is unneeded. At the end of the original series, Audrey (much as I love her) is obviously dead. The fact that she reappears in season three is problematic, but Lynch leaves it relatively open for us to assume that she is, in fact, dead and either in the Black Lodge or hell. At the very least, she’s in a mental institution, locked in her own imagination. (The difficulty here is Richard; I don’t know any good way of explaining him.) So when Frost comes up with a backstory where Audrey opened a hair salon in Twin Peaks . . . please, no. That is not the way it happened.
There’s some explanation of where Annie is now, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Omitting her from the third season was a very strange choice.
The series, though I love it, certainly has its continuity problems, but Frost’s books are so off the mark (ha ha), it’s really disappointing. This is a case where the TV series just is a TV series, and it doesn’t translate well to any other medium.
November 26, 2017
thanks but i like my david lynch content as incoherent as possible
November 10, 2017
(sadly) For Twin Peaks completionists only. No spoilers.
If you're reading this, you're a Twin Peaks fan. Great! Me too. If you're reading this, you've probably watched everything, read everything, but you're still hungry for more. I know the feeling, and that's why I pre-ordered THE FINAL DOSSIER, a companion-novel to Season 3. But it's hard for me to recommend to you, dear reader, and here's why:
The White Lodge (the good stuff):
The final half of the book explores some of the events that make up the ending of Season 3. You're not really going to get anything beyond Episode 18, but some of those topics are explored. There are musings on Judy, Major Briggs, Phillip Jeffries, and time. Again, there's no explosive revelations, but there are a few dots that are connected that I missed when I watched Season 3.
How's Annie? This book talks about Annie, who was surprisingly missing from THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS. You may like it -- you may not. I, however, was satisfied.
Garmonbozia (the bad stuff):
There's very little substance. Sure, the publisher reports that it is 170+ pages, but a good chunk of that is "dossier" file cover photos, stills from Season 3, and blank pages between chapters.
Much of the book details loose ends that you didn't probably care much about. For example: were you left on the edge of your seat in THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS when there were apparent contradictions between the text and the show regarding Norma Jennings' family lineage? Me neither. But hey, one of the longest chapters in THE FINAL DOSSIER explains away this continuity error. Maybe you're like me, and you enjoyed seeing Dr. Jacoby's new life in Season 3. But don't you want to know how he got to that point? Not really? Another one of the book's longest chapters follows the sordid events of post-Season 2 Jacoby. Oh, there's Donna and Audrey stuff here, too, but not much that you haven't already guessed or put together on your own.
THE FINAL DOSSIER has several moments that "took me out" of the experience. Albert Rosenfeld making a "trigger warning" joke in a 1989 autopsy report? References to a character dating Donald Trump? References like this are jarring and disrupt the usual "Twin Peaks" experience, which often feels timeless and removed from current circumstances. Tammy Preston, who has assembled THE FINAL DOSSIER doesn't always have a consistent voice either, sometimes being overly methodical, sometimes mysteriously spiritual, and at other times a wise-cracking audience stand-in.
It's not as fun as THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS. The epistolary form of SECRET HISTORY was enjoyable, and while the "retro-fitting" of American history onto this fictional town wasn't universally loved, I liked it a good bit. There's none of that in THE FINAL DOSSIER -- it's just 18 brief chapters written by Tammy Preston. Well, I guess one of them is written by Albert Rosenfeld, but that's it.
Final Recommendation:
If you've seen all of the show twice over, read the other books, and listened to podcasts about Twin Peaks, then I'd recommend THE FINAL DOSSIER. For anyone else, pick up THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS or THE SECRET DIARY OF LAURA PALMER first before you consider this one.
A word of warning:
As I mentioned, some of the cracks are filled in regarding Audrey, Sarah Palmer, Annie, and a few other characters. It is my experience that these pre-existing gaps are wonderful -- they allow your imagination to work and writhe. THE FINAL DOSSIER will clear up a few of those mysteries, making those connections concrete, and leaving less room for your imagination.
If you're reading this, you're a Twin Peaks fan. Great! Me too. If you're reading this, you've probably watched everything, read everything, but you're still hungry for more. I know the feeling, and that's why I pre-ordered THE FINAL DOSSIER, a companion-novel to Season 3. But it's hard for me to recommend to you, dear reader, and here's why:
The White Lodge (the good stuff):
The final half of the book explores some of the events that make up the ending of Season 3. You're not really going to get anything beyond Episode 18, but some of those topics are explored. There are musings on Judy, Major Briggs, Phillip Jeffries, and time. Again, there's no explosive revelations, but there are a few dots that are connected that I missed when I watched Season 3.
How's Annie? This book talks about Annie, who was surprisingly missing from THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS. You may like it -- you may not. I, however, was satisfied.
Garmonbozia (the bad stuff):
There's very little substance. Sure, the publisher reports that it is 170+ pages, but a good chunk of that is "dossier" file cover photos, stills from Season 3, and blank pages between chapters.
Much of the book details loose ends that you didn't probably care much about. For example: were you left on the edge of your seat in THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS when there were apparent contradictions between the text and the show regarding Norma Jennings' family lineage? Me neither. But hey, one of the longest chapters in THE FINAL DOSSIER explains away this continuity error. Maybe you're like me, and you enjoyed seeing Dr. Jacoby's new life in Season 3. But don't you want to know how he got to that point? Not really? Another one of the book's longest chapters follows the sordid events of post-Season 2 Jacoby. Oh, there's Donna and Audrey stuff here, too, but not much that you haven't already guessed or put together on your own.
THE FINAL DOSSIER has several moments that "took me out" of the experience. Albert Rosenfeld making a "trigger warning" joke in a 1989 autopsy report? References to a character dating Donald Trump? References like this are jarring and disrupt the usual "Twin Peaks" experience, which often feels timeless and removed from current circumstances. Tammy Preston, who has assembled THE FINAL DOSSIER doesn't always have a consistent voice either, sometimes being overly methodical, sometimes mysteriously spiritual, and at other times a wise-cracking audience stand-in.
It's not as fun as THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS. The epistolary form of SECRET HISTORY was enjoyable, and while the "retro-fitting" of American history onto this fictional town wasn't universally loved, I liked it a good bit. There's none of that in THE FINAL DOSSIER -- it's just 18 brief chapters written by Tammy Preston. Well, I guess one of them is written by Albert Rosenfeld, but that's it.
Final Recommendation:
If you've seen all of the show twice over, read the other books, and listened to podcasts about Twin Peaks, then I'd recommend THE FINAL DOSSIER. For anyone else, pick up THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS or THE SECRET DIARY OF LAURA PALMER first before you consider this one.
A word of warning:
As I mentioned, some of the cracks are filled in regarding Audrey, Sarah Palmer, Annie, and a few other characters. It is my experience that these pre-existing gaps are wonderful -- they allow your imagination to work and writhe. THE FINAL DOSSIER will clear up a few of those mysteries, making those connections concrete, and leaving less room for your imagination.
January 16, 2018
Fuck you, Tammy.
November 10, 2017
The Final Dossier is a direct sequel to both Mark Frost's The Secret History of Twin Peaks and to the third season of Twin Peaks. And I'll just get this right out of the way: if you're a fan of the show, you need to read this book.
Twin Peaks: The Return premiered in May of 2017. David Lynch directed every episode and had complete creative control over every aspect of the new season. You'd think that he would have every opportunity to tell the story he wanted to tell (and you'd be right), but that doesn't mean Lynch was going to do that in a way that would please all of his viewers. His work was always closer to abstraction and ambiguousness, and the finale of The Return was no different: out of so many questions that were left open since the 90's and throughout the new season, he answered almost none. So Mark Frost, the series co-creator, wrote a book that would do just that: answer questions.
Surprisingly, The Final Dossier really answers almost all of them, or at least gives the reader enough information to draw their own conclusions. Written by Tammy Preston, everyone's new favourite FBI agent, we get the dossiers on almost every single character we've grown to know and love over the course ofsix three seasons and a movie. Want to know what was up with Audrey in The Return? Maybe you were wondering if the little girl at the end of Part 8 was really Sarah Palmer, or what was up with Phillip Jeffries, or what was that glass box in Part 1, or what happened to Major Briggs, or what Evil Coop was up to? Do you want to know how's Annie? Because I am telling you, there are answers to all of those questions right here, in The Final Dossier. It's priceless information.
I don't know if I can call it a downside, but this is a very short book. I mean, I finished it in a day, and I never finish books in a day. There are only about 100 actual pages of text here, excluding the illustrations and the publishing information. On the one hand, you really don't need more than that — add more, and the book would feel bloated and artificially stretched out. On the other hand, it's not a cheap book, but that surely won't stop any Peaks fan, especially considering how valuable the information in this book will be.
So if you're a Peaks fan, what are you waiting for? You don't need me to tell you, just go and read it!
Twin Peaks: The Return premiered in May of 2017. David Lynch directed every episode and had complete creative control over every aspect of the new season. You'd think that he would have every opportunity to tell the story he wanted to tell (and you'd be right), but that doesn't mean Lynch was going to do that in a way that would please all of his viewers. His work was always closer to abstraction and ambiguousness, and the finale of The Return was no different: out of so many questions that were left open since the 90's and throughout the new season, he answered almost none. So Mark Frost, the series co-creator, wrote a book that would do just that: answer questions.
Surprisingly, The Final Dossier really answers almost all of them, or at least gives the reader enough information to draw their own conclusions. Written by Tammy Preston, everyone's new favourite FBI agent, we get the dossiers on almost every single character we've grown to know and love over the course of
I don't know if I can call it a downside, but this is a very short book. I mean, I finished it in a day, and I never finish books in a day. There are only about 100 actual pages of text here, excluding the illustrations and the publishing information. On the one hand, you really don't need more than that — add more, and the book would feel bloated and artificially stretched out. On the other hand, it's not a cheap book, but that surely won't stop any Peaks fan, especially considering how valuable the information in this book will be.
So if you're a Peaks fan, what are you waiting for? You don't need me to tell you, just go and read it!
February 18, 2021
"Hello, Agent Cooper. I'll see you again in 25 years."
The Final Dossier tells us what happened to key characters in the 25 years in between the events of the second season and the third and we get details and insights to those characters which were left unknown after the second season.
I'm very happy with this book, it was again; compiled very well and easy to read. I was also glad to find out more about certain characters some of which were key characters and some minor - I was glad to find out more of them all.
The Final Dossier tells us what happened to key characters in the 25 years in between the events of the second season and the third and we get details and insights to those characters which were left unknown after the second season.
I'm very happy with this book, it was again; compiled very well and easy to read. I was also glad to find out more about certain characters some of which were key characters and some minor - I was glad to find out more of them all.
May 3, 2023
Stiu ca toata magia din Twin Peaks este tocmai lipsa unei explicatii totale si finale, insa curiozitatea m-a impins sa aflu si mai multe despre personaje. 😅
In acest volum gasim lamuriri cu privire la soarta protagonistilor principali - dupa ultimul sezon ramasesem usor confuza in anumite privinte - in mare, am primit raspunsuri la majoritatea intrebarilor. Fiind scrise sub forma unor rapoarte oficiale, nu pot spune ca povestile m-au impresionat in mod deosebit, mi-au placut mai mult celelalte volume din serie. 😊
In acest volum gasim lamuriri cu privire la soarta protagonistilor principali - dupa ultimul sezon ramasesem usor confuza in anumite privinte - in mare, am primit raspunsuri la majoritatea intrebarilor. Fiind scrise sub forma unor rapoarte oficiale, nu pot spune ca povestile m-au impresionat in mod deosebit, mi-au placut mai mult celelalte volume din serie. 😊
July 3, 2022
Here's a book you will have to do some "homework" for: before you read it, you will want, at the very least, first to watch Twin Peaks: The Return (A Limited Event Series), as The Final Dossier includes brief references to characters and events that are more fully depicted in that television program than they are in this book (really, to get the most out of reading this, in addition to Twin Peaks: The Return, you'll want to see the thirty episodes of Twin Peaks that aired on ABC in 1990-91, along with the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the collection of outtakes from that film titled The Missing Pieces, and to read The Secret History of Twin Peaks).
In comparison to The Secret History of Twin Peaks, The Final Dossier is shorter, at about half the length, and less interesting visually. Where the earlier book includes full color reproductions of photographs, postcards, old letters, and pages from the Twin Peaks Post, most of The Final Dossier's pages are typewritten FBI reports, with a few black and white photographs throughout.
As well, The Final Dossier is much less varied in terms of narrative voice: while The Secret History includes materials written by various characters from the original television show (along with things written by--or represented as having been written by--actual historical persons), the typed FBI reports included in The Final Dossier are all written by the same FBI agent. This agent, the "T.P." who reviewed and commented on "the Archivist's" work in The Secret History, here presents the results of her continued investigations of the the town and the people associated with it in the weeks and months following the events represented in Twin Peaks: The Return.
The perspective, too, is much narrower than that of The Secret History: while that book traced the history of the town of Twin Peaks, and related parts of its past to such subjects as early American pioneering, twentieth century technological advancements, secret societies, and occult and paranormal events, The Final Dossier focuses mainly on events and characters appearing in the television series and films.
In my review of The Secret History of Twin Peaks, I mention how that book contradicts things represented in the original television series. One positive thing about The Final Dossier is the way in which it clears up one of those contradictions, while at the same time answering a major question that was not addressed at all in Twin Peaks: The Return.
Acquired May 15, 2019
Gift from Jenn
In comparison to The Secret History of Twin Peaks, The Final Dossier is shorter, at about half the length, and less interesting visually. Where the earlier book includes full color reproductions of photographs, postcards, old letters, and pages from the Twin Peaks Post, most of The Final Dossier's pages are typewritten FBI reports, with a few black and white photographs throughout.
As well, The Final Dossier is much less varied in terms of narrative voice: while The Secret History includes materials written by various characters from the original television show (along with things written by--or represented as having been written by--actual historical persons), the typed FBI reports included in The Final Dossier are all written by the same FBI agent. This agent, the "T.P." who reviewed and commented on "the Archivist's" work in The Secret History, here presents the results of her continued investigations of the the town and the people associated with it in the weeks and months following the events represented in Twin Peaks: The Return.
The perspective, too, is much narrower than that of The Secret History: while that book traced the history of the town of Twin Peaks, and related parts of its past to such subjects as early American pioneering, twentieth century technological advancements, secret societies, and occult and paranormal events, The Final Dossier focuses mainly on events and characters appearing in the television series and films.
In my review of The Secret History of Twin Peaks, I mention how that book contradicts things represented in the original television series. One positive thing about The Final Dossier is the way in which it clears up one of those contradictions, while at the same time answering a major question that was not addressed at all in Twin Peaks: The Return.
Acquired May 15, 2019
Gift from Jenn
November 1, 2017
This book entirely misunderstands the appeal of Twin Peaks. It does not clarify anything one could not speculate on from a close look at the third season of the show, instead it is more interested in demystifying and destroying any sense of personal interpretation in the interest of Lore.
If one is the person who loves wikias and timelines, this is the book for you, but that is not what Twin Peaks is about.
Not to mention the annoying things like a trigger warning joke in 1989, the only bisexual character being a depressed drug addict and totally unnecessary attempts to turn Donald Trump into some kind of supernaturally evil man instead of the totally mundane evil man he is.
Whereas the ending of Twin Peaks season 3 left me with a sense of wonder, mystery and dread, this book left me with nothing but a sour taste in my mouth.
If one is the person who loves wikias and timelines, this is the book for you, but that is not what Twin Peaks is about.
Not to mention the annoying things like a trigger warning joke in 1989, the only bisexual character being a depressed drug addict and totally unnecessary attempts to turn Donald Trump into some kind of supernaturally evil man instead of the totally mundane evil man he is.
Whereas the ending of Twin Peaks season 3 left me with a sense of wonder, mystery and dread, this book left me with nothing but a sour taste in my mouth.
December 21, 2018
*www.onewomansbbr.wordpress.com
*www.facebook.com/onewomansbbr
**3.5 stars**
Twin Peaks : The Final Dossier by Mark Frost. (2017).
Some followers of mine may recall that I read The Secret History of Twin Peaks a few months earlier by the same author. This novel is much easier to read than the previous one - the formatting is clear, the book is significantly shorter and the narrative is simple to work through. I wouldn't suggest reading this if you haven't watched all of the tv series, including the 2017 one, and the movie. There would be spoilers everywhere if you choose to ignore this advice haha. I enjoyed this book clarifying some events from the series that weren't clear to me at the time of watching, and tying up some loose ends. But at the end of the day, it is Twin Peaks, so some things are left unexplainable and random. I personally liked this novel but it wouldn't be something I would re-read.
*www.facebook.com/onewomansbbr
**3.5 stars**
Twin Peaks : The Final Dossier by Mark Frost. (2017).
Some followers of mine may recall that I read The Secret History of Twin Peaks a few months earlier by the same author. This novel is much easier to read than the previous one - the formatting is clear, the book is significantly shorter and the narrative is simple to work through. I wouldn't suggest reading this if you haven't watched all of the tv series, including the 2017 one, and the movie. There would be spoilers everywhere if you choose to ignore this advice haha. I enjoyed this book clarifying some events from the series that weren't clear to me at the time of watching, and tying up some loose ends. But at the end of the day, it is Twin Peaks, so some things are left unexplainable and random. I personally liked this novel but it wouldn't be something I would re-read.
November 3, 2017
Let me preface this review by saying that I've always felt that Mark Frost did not get enough credit for Twin Peaks. His contributions to the original show have been unfairly eclipsed by David Lynch’s genius and I think Frost was responsible for more of what we loved about TP than people remember. I loved his novel List of 7 and thoroughly enjoyed The Secret History. Having said that, this book was a complete pile of crap.
It had the narrative flow of a Wikipedia summary of a tv show and the few plot revelations that people are going on about felt like 4th-rate fan fiction. The beauty of Twin Peaks : The Return was in the ambiguity and mystery (something heightened by The Secret History). The Final Dossier coldly and dully removed this beauty but without the satisfying plot payoff that genre fiction generally provides. And the charming book design that made The Secret History so charming was missing. So disappointing.
It had the narrative flow of a Wikipedia summary of a tv show and the few plot revelations that people are going on about felt like 4th-rate fan fiction. The beauty of Twin Peaks : The Return was in the ambiguity and mystery (something heightened by The Secret History). The Final Dossier coldly and dully removed this beauty but without the satisfying plot payoff that genre fiction generally provides. And the charming book design that made The Secret History so charming was missing. So disappointing.
November 6, 2017
It's a little bit "Twin Peaks for Dummies."
But, hey, I'm a dummy.
But, hey, I'm a dummy.
January 1, 2023
Skippable, to be honest, but better than the first book.
February 11, 2018
The core fundamental of human existence is wonder - and its analogue is fear. You can`t have one without the other, flip sides of the coin.
And even as we "wonder" at what we`re doing here, so do we also fear - so deep down below the surface of our lives that few can bear to look at it - that life is a meaningless jest, an extravagant exercise in morbidity, a tale of sorrow and suffering lit by flashes and made bearable only by moments of companionship and unsustainable joy. Along the way, as we struggle to comprehend why this strange fate has befallen us, time becomes no longer our ally but our executioner.
And even as we "wonder" at what we`re doing here, so do we also fear - so deep down below the surface of our lives that few can bear to look at it - that life is a meaningless jest, an extravagant exercise in morbidity, a tale of sorrow and suffering lit by flashes and made bearable only by moments of companionship and unsustainable joy. Along the way, as we struggle to comprehend why this strange fate has befallen us, time becomes no longer our ally but our executioner.
June 15, 2018
TWIN PEAKS: THE FINAL DOSSIER is the possibly misleading title for one of two companion novels written by Mark Frost (a.k.a. the other guy than David Lynch in creating Twin Peaks). Mark Frost has always had a more occult world-building sensibility to Twin Peaks than David Lynch, which by means that he actually wants things to make sense even if he has to involve Theosophy, the Men in Black, and Native American spiritualism in his writings.
This is the companion guide to THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS which focused primarily on the past of the universe and its characters. TFD is more of a epilogue and manual for TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN which was somehow even more confusing than the original.
Basically, this book explains the backstories of many characters in The Return as well as the fallout from the finale as well as its implications for the timeline. It explains in as much a coherent narrative as possible, via FBI files by Agent Tammy Preston (a character in The Retur), how we got from the ending of Twin Peaks: The Original Series to the Return.
This is a book for mega-fans and I'll judge it on that basis. This book says what happened to Audrey Horne, Donna Hayward, Doctor Jacoby, and numerous other characters. It also gives the fates of characters I don't think anyone actually gave a crap about like Lana Milford and Vivian Blackburn. There's also a few jokes which are hilarious like explaining James' ill-conceived second season "romance" with a black widow wasn't worth mentioning because it was so boring.
The fates of the majority of characters from the original series are almost universally depressing but realistic. Annie Blackburn ends up catatonic for the rest of her life, Audrey lives a loveless marriage with a psychopathic son, Donna Hayward becomes a model only to become addicted to opiods, and so on. Only a few characters get anything resembling a happy ending and even those are questionable.
The book also provides as coherent an answer to "what the hell happened in the season finale of The Return" as we're probably ever going to get. In short, I think this is probably something every Twin Peaks fan should pick up if they want answers--which being fans of a David Lynch work, isn't necessarily something that's an affirmative.
9/10
This is the companion guide to THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS which focused primarily on the past of the universe and its characters. TFD is more of a epilogue and manual for TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN which was somehow even more confusing than the original.
Basically, this book explains the backstories of many characters in The Return as well as the fallout from the finale as well as its implications for the timeline. It explains in as much a coherent narrative as possible, via FBI files by Agent Tammy Preston (a character in The Retur), how we got from the ending of Twin Peaks: The Original Series to the Return.
This is a book for mega-fans and I'll judge it on that basis. This book says what happened to Audrey Horne, Donna Hayward, Doctor Jacoby, and numerous other characters. It also gives the fates of characters I don't think anyone actually gave a crap about like Lana Milford and Vivian Blackburn. There's also a few jokes which are hilarious like explaining James' ill-conceived second season "romance" with a black widow wasn't worth mentioning because it was so boring.
The fates of the majority of characters from the original series are almost universally depressing but realistic. Annie Blackburn ends up catatonic for the rest of her life, Audrey lives a loveless marriage with a psychopathic son, Donna Hayward becomes a model only to become addicted to opiods, and so on. Only a few characters get anything resembling a happy ending and even those are questionable.
The book also provides as coherent an answer to "what the hell happened in the season finale of The Return" as we're probably ever going to get. In short, I think this is probably something every Twin Peaks fan should pick up if they want answers--which being fans of a David Lynch work, isn't necessarily something that's an affirmative.
9/10
November 1, 2017
This doesn't explain everything, but it sure explains a lot. It's a just-right balance between keeping the central mysteries of the show alive, while also providing enough detail to satiate the curious. It just feels like Frost and Lynch decided to do all the basic exposition at the end of the show with this book instead of at the beginning. Pretty sure any diehard Twin Peaks fan was planning to read this anyway, but I hope you don't mind if I add my voice to the choir saying this was a fitting epilogue to the show we all love so much.
April 28, 2025
The Final Dossier is a must-read after finishing the third season of Twin Peaks. It clarifies and fills the gaps that I didn't pick up.
“Life is what it is, a gift that is given to us for a time—like a library book—that must eventually be returned.”
“And even as we "wonder" at what we’re doing here, so do we also fear—so deep down below the surface of our lives that few can bear to look at it—that life is a meaningless jest, an extravagant exercise in morbidity, a tale of sorrow and suffering lit by flashes, and made bearable only by moments of companionship and unsustainable joy. Along the way, as we struggle to come to terms and comprehend why this strange fate has befallen us, time becomes no longer our ally—the spendthrift assumption of our youth—but our executioner. It all feels at times like a merciless joke made at our expense, without our consent.”
-Mark Frost
“Life is what it is, a gift that is given to us for a time—like a library book—that must eventually be returned.”
“And even as we "wonder" at what we’re doing here, so do we also fear—so deep down below the surface of our lives that few can bear to look at it—that life is a meaningless jest, an extravagant exercise in morbidity, a tale of sorrow and suffering lit by flashes, and made bearable only by moments of companionship and unsustainable joy. Along the way, as we struggle to come to terms and comprehend why this strange fate has befallen us, time becomes no longer our ally—the spendthrift assumption of our youth—but our executioner. It all feels at times like a merciless joke made at our expense, without our consent.”
-Mark Frost
November 19, 2019
Not only does this book fill in backstories and details we never knew about from the original series, but more importantly it explains, to a degree, some of the happenings in the confusing clusterfuck that was Twin Peaks: The Return. My biggest gripe with the book is, I wanted to know more about some of the main characters and could have used less about some of the minor characters who actually got longer chapters. A must read for TP fans.
July 5, 2021
I recall feeling disappointed when Twin Peaks The Return didn’t really tell us what much of the original cast had been up to in the twenty five years following the end of season two.
Having now read this book, and learned such dubiously boring facts as “Audrey opened a salon”, all I can say is thank god it didn’t.
Having now read this book, and learned such dubiously boring facts as “Audrey opened a salon”, all I can say is thank god it didn’t.
February 22, 2018
There is no light without darkness--and this may trouble us--but without it how would we tell one from the other?
Tammy Preston, fresh off the events of The Return Part 18, has compiled a final report for the Blue Rose Task Force on the Twin Peaks incident, attempting to become her own Archivist now that she is fully embroiled in the deep and disturbing mystery. What she finds both answers questions, and opens new doors that might never be closed.
For starters, I loved reading these even more than The Secret History. Rather than deciphering handwriting and reading documents, we get Tammy's tone and writing throughout as she tells stories and veers of on tangents, opining on events and talking directly to Gordon, often in snark. Her editorial footnotes were some of the best parts of the first book so getting an entire book written from her perspective was pretty enjoyable.
Second, I loved that this book focused on the characters of Twin Peaks, rather than the town itself. While discovering the history of the area, explorers who had stumbled on the Lodges, and finding connections between Roswell, government scandals, and the small mountain town made for some great flavor reading, the heart of the show has always been the ensemble cast that brings the town to life and gives emotional context to the bizarre and surreal events surrounding it. It begins as a mixture of biographical information, detailing lives before the events of the show, and lives int he 25 year gap between seasons, before moving into the more occult and otherworldly aspects of certain characters.
To that end, the biographies offer some very helpful insight into plot threads and elements not entirely clear in the show. Though the idea of mystery and digging for answers is the point of it all, Frost's additions here certainly help in that endeavor. Tammy asks as many questions as she answers and faces her own existential crisis by the end, vowing to continue to probe into the darkness, not just of Twin Peaks, but of life itself. Like the first book, it ends with an affirmation that we all must face darkness and questions to grow in life. If nothing else is taken from the bonkers world of Twin Peaks it's exactly what Margaret tells Hawk in her final note to him before her death: life is full of darkness and, more often than we would like, we must be our own light.
In short: great companion read, much easier to digest than Secret History, and generally thought provoking.
Tammy Preston, fresh off the events of The Return Part 18, has compiled a final report for the Blue Rose Task Force on the Twin Peaks incident, attempting to become her own Archivist now that she is fully embroiled in the deep and disturbing mystery. What she finds both answers questions, and opens new doors that might never be closed.
For starters, I loved reading these even more than The Secret History. Rather than deciphering handwriting and reading documents, we get Tammy's tone and writing throughout as she tells stories and veers of on tangents, opining on events and talking directly to Gordon, often in snark. Her editorial footnotes were some of the best parts of the first book so getting an entire book written from her perspective was pretty enjoyable.
Second, I loved that this book focused on the characters of Twin Peaks, rather than the town itself. While discovering the history of the area, explorers who had stumbled on the Lodges, and finding connections between Roswell, government scandals, and the small mountain town made for some great flavor reading, the heart of the show has always been the ensemble cast that brings the town to life and gives emotional context to the bizarre and surreal events surrounding it. It begins as a mixture of biographical information, detailing lives before the events of the show, and lives int he 25 year gap between seasons, before moving into the more occult and otherworldly aspects of certain characters.
To that end, the biographies offer some very helpful insight into plot threads and elements not entirely clear in the show. Though the idea of mystery and digging for answers is the point of it all, Frost's additions here certainly help in that endeavor. Tammy asks as many questions as she answers and faces her own existential crisis by the end, vowing to continue to probe into the darkness, not just of Twin Peaks, but of life itself. Like the first book, it ends with an affirmation that we all must face darkness and questions to grow in life. If nothing else is taken from the bonkers world of Twin Peaks it's exactly what Margaret tells Hawk in her final note to him before her death: life is full of darkness and, more often than we would like, we must be our own light.
In short: great companion read, much easier to digest than Secret History, and generally thought provoking.
January 23, 2018
Como todos os livros publicados concomitante e diretamente ligados à Twin Peaks (e li todos) este livro é uma delícia, não só aumenta a experiência artística desse universo como aumenta a amplitude das nossas considerações sobre a série. Todas as pontas soltas que havia no dossiê do Major Briggs são finalmente destrinchados e o exemplo mais eficaz disso é toda a questão envolvendo a Annie, personagem esta que ressurgiu como meme dos aficcionados com o fatídico "How's Annie?" durante a transmissão de toda a terceira temporada, ou, num âmbito de fofocas de jornais, também não saberíamos que Lana Milford costumava sair com Trump nos anos 90...
Tinha me prometido que o leria apenas quando a Cia das Letras lançasse uma edição visualmente requintada tal como aconteceu com A História Secreta de Twin Peaks, mas quando soube que a editora não lançaria este livro acabei optando pelo ebook em inglês em detrimento de sua edição física, na esperança de que alguma editora lance futuramente o livro no Brasil.
Eu adoro, mas tem gente que não gosta desse livro porque supostamente "estragaria" a experiência da terceira temporada por explicar demais, mas acho um complemento muito bem vindo, uma espécie de livro-fetiche.
Tinha me prometido que o leria apenas quando a Cia das Letras lançasse uma edição visualmente requintada tal como aconteceu com A História Secreta de Twin Peaks, mas quando soube que a editora não lançaria este livro acabei optando pelo ebook em inglês em detrimento de sua edição física, na esperança de que alguma editora lance futuramente o livro no Brasil.
Eu adoro, mas tem gente que não gosta desse livro porque supostamente "estragaria" a experiência da terceira temporada por explicar demais, mas acho um complemento muito bem vindo, uma espécie de livro-fetiche.
October 31, 2017
more missing pieces
For hardcore fans only, but what a joy it will be for them. Things hinted at in Twin Peaks: The Return are better illuminated without losing their mystery, and characters from the original series have important backstory filled in that wasn't necessary for the return but certainly helps.
For hardcore fans only, but what a joy it will be for them. Things hinted at in Twin Peaks: The Return are better illuminated without losing their mystery, and characters from the original series have important backstory filled in that wasn't necessary for the return but certainly helps.
January 23, 2018
Though it's also published as a large hardback with an embossed cover and uses the same page format as The Secret History of Twin Peaks, The Final Dossier abandons its predecessor's scrapbook approach and is simply presented as a series of brief reports on various individuals, families and locations within and around Twin Peaks. (The only illustration consists of a few photographs of said locations.) Ostensibly, the dossier is Tammy Preston's investigation of how the town and its inhabitants have fared in the years since the conclusion of the Laura Palmer case, written for Gordon Cole. For those who've watched The Return, it therefore serves as a way to fill in the gaps between the old series and the new – particularly regarding characters whose roles in the latter were minimal. As another Goodreads review points out, it's arguably best described as fanservice.
Reading this straight after The Secret History of Twin Peaks did it no favours, I must say. At around 150 pages, it's padded to the extreme with plenty of blank pages (bookending each of the 'reports'), and it took me no more than a couple of hours to read the entire thing. Altogether it feels quite rushed – there are a few very obvious typos, and anachronisms like mentions of trigger warnings and a hipster craft brewery in an autopsy report that's supposed to be from 1989. There's also an elaborate explanation of an apparent mistake in The Secret History of Twin Peaks, and it definitely feels like retconning, not a story that existed all along. (Maybe there'll be another volume that'll tell us Albert had jumped through a portal to the mid-2010s before writing that autopsy report.)
Really, this is more of a 2.5 rounded up. It's an incredibly easy and quick read (of course, that may not necessarily be seen as an advantage if you've shelled out full price for an impressive-looking hardback); entertaining enough; ultimately inessential. There's a very fun Trump reference, and an intriguing twist that sheds new light on the ending of The Return, but frankly I could have got that information from the Twin Peaks Wikia.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
Reading this straight after The Secret History of Twin Peaks did it no favours, I must say. At around 150 pages, it's padded to the extreme with plenty of blank pages (bookending each of the 'reports'), and it took me no more than a couple of hours to read the entire thing. Altogether it feels quite rushed – there are a few very obvious typos, and anachronisms like mentions of trigger warnings and a hipster craft brewery in an autopsy report that's supposed to be from 1989. There's also an elaborate explanation of an apparent mistake in The Secret History of Twin Peaks, and it definitely feels like retconning, not a story that existed all along. (Maybe there'll be another volume that'll tell us Albert had jumped through a portal to the mid-2010s before writing that autopsy report.)
Really, this is more of a 2.5 rounded up. It's an incredibly easy and quick read (of course, that may not necessarily be seen as an advantage if you've shelled out full price for an impressive-looking hardback); entertaining enough; ultimately inessential. There's a very fun Trump reference, and an intriguing twist that sheds new light on the ending of The Return, but frankly I could have got that information from the Twin Peaks Wikia.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
November 23, 2017
Let those such as I, foolhardy enough to purchase this sight unseen online, be aware that—minus photo spreads, between-chapter blank pages, and faux FBI case-folder covers—this miserable cash-grab is about 85 pages of text total. It’ll probably take you no more than a single afternoon to read it, which is fitting, because that’s about how long it feels like it must’ve taken to write.
In a tone that oscillates between the boringly perfunctory and the annoyingly jokey (of Peaks’ many doppelgängers: “Are they cranking out these duplicate creatures in an alternate-reality Kinko’s with some kind of Lovecraftian 3-D printer?”), this tossed-off afterthought of a book has about four modes: bloodlessly recounting events that we’ve already seen in Twin Peaks: The Return; offering the most thuddingly obvious “revelations” possible (about, for example, Audrey’s ultimate fate, or the parentage of her son); scattering a handful of (largely depressing) “where are they now?” thumbnail-sketches of original-season Peaks characters not otherwise addressed in the Showtime reprise; and adding yet more unwanted embroiderings to the silly, convoluted “mythology” put forth by its predecessor, The Secret History of Twin Peaks. (Did you know that past wearers of Peaks’ notorious jade ring have included Richard Nixon and Donald Trump? Cripes.)
I thought Secret History was a deeply ponderous slog through an embarrassingly X-Files-ian alien-visitation tangent, but at least that one felt like it took a bit of effort—not so this cynical little footnote, presumably rushed into stores just in time to wring out a few Christmas dollars from the unsuspecting fanbase (which I count myself passionately among!).
In a tone that oscillates between the boringly perfunctory and the annoyingly jokey (of Peaks’ many doppelgängers: “Are they cranking out these duplicate creatures in an alternate-reality Kinko’s with some kind of Lovecraftian 3-D printer?”), this tossed-off afterthought of a book has about four modes: bloodlessly recounting events that we’ve already seen in Twin Peaks: The Return; offering the most thuddingly obvious “revelations” possible (about, for example, Audrey’s ultimate fate, or the parentage of her son); scattering a handful of (largely depressing) “where are they now?” thumbnail-sketches of original-season Peaks characters not otherwise addressed in the Showtime reprise; and adding yet more unwanted embroiderings to the silly, convoluted “mythology” put forth by its predecessor, The Secret History of Twin Peaks. (Did you know that past wearers of Peaks’ notorious jade ring have included Richard Nixon and Donald Trump? Cripes.)
I thought Secret History was a deeply ponderous slog through an embarrassingly X-Files-ian alien-visitation tangent, but at least that one felt like it took a bit of effort—not so this cynical little footnote, presumably rushed into stores just in time to wring out a few Christmas dollars from the unsuspecting fanbase (which I count myself passionately among!).
September 29, 2021
Seguimos la línea, sólo para frikis de TP.
Y yo sigo preguntándome lo mismo: que pinta Frost en todo esto? En la t3 creo que de poco a nada, ser co-creador en su día y poner la manina pa' los billetes. Aquí le toca remozar parte de lo dicho en La historia secreta, como el tema de la doble R o la juventud de Sarah Palmer, por no hablar de que aquí de ninguna manera hay ovnis ni la madre que los parió.
No sé cómo se habrá tomado Lynch este destripe y explicación de la obra, personalmente creo que se la suda y que estuvo encantado de que se fuera a escribir este panfleto.
Y eso es lo que es. Trata de contarnos cosas de un TP que, los que lo hemos visto, sabemos que es el TP de Schrödinger y sólo ahonda un poquito en algunos viejos personajes. Nos habla de Jacobi, de Ben Horne, Ed y Norma... vale, es simpático, pero que me hable de Dona o la viuda del editor? Meh. Bien está y se lleva puntuación sólo por las pinceladas a Audry y Annie, el resto sobra.
La narradora Tammy Preston no es ni mucho menos el personaje que hemos visto en pantalla. Y lo peor.... para mi, que diga explícitamente que la niña de la "cucarrana" es Sarah Palmer (visualmente no lo es y creo que por la trama, no debería serlo)
Y lo de Joudy? Y lo de la desaparición de Laura? No sé porqué destripa si no sabe...
Está bien para completar y para los que como yo, somos fanes, muy fanes. (Hay que serlo)
Y yo sigo preguntándome lo mismo: que pinta Frost en todo esto? En la t3 creo que de poco a nada, ser co-creador en su día y poner la manina pa' los billetes. Aquí le toca remozar parte de lo dicho en La historia secreta, como el tema de la doble R o la juventud de Sarah Palmer, por no hablar de que aquí de ninguna manera hay ovnis ni la madre que los parió.
No sé cómo se habrá tomado Lynch este destripe y explicación de la obra, personalmente creo que se la suda y que estuvo encantado de que se fuera a escribir este panfleto.
Y eso es lo que es. Trata de contarnos cosas de un TP que, los que lo hemos visto, sabemos que es el TP de Schrödinger y sólo ahonda un poquito en algunos viejos personajes. Nos habla de Jacobi, de Ben Horne, Ed y Norma... vale, es simpático, pero que me hable de Dona o la viuda del editor? Meh. Bien está y se lleva puntuación sólo por las pinceladas a Audry y Annie, el resto sobra.
La narradora Tammy Preston no es ni mucho menos el personaje que hemos visto en pantalla. Y lo peor.... para mi, que diga explícitamente que la niña de la "cucarrana" es Sarah Palmer (visualmente no lo es y creo que por la trama, no debería serlo)
Y lo de Joudy? Y lo de la desaparición de Laura? No sé porqué destripa si no sabe...
Está bien para completar y para los que como yo, somos fanes, muy fanes. (Hay que serlo)
November 2, 2017
Si Showtime y Lynch no hacen 4 temporada,este es el final perfecto *o*.Confirma muchas cosas que sospechábamos y nos ayuda a entender ese final del que no entendíamos ni papa xD.
December 9, 2017
More like 3.5 stars.
I liked this more than The Secret History. At last, we find out what was going on with Audrey and several other major characters. This book was written from the point of view of Tammy Preston - my least favorite character in the new series. Her writing style is clunky and long-winded.
If there are no new episodes than this book should give some closure - that's not really possible, but this will do.
I wished there was more background on Albert (my favorite character in all series).
I liked this more than The Secret History. At last, we find out what was going on with Audrey and several other major characters. This book was written from the point of view of Tammy Preston - my least favorite character in the new series. Her writing style is clunky and long-winded.
If there are no new episodes than this book should give some closure - that's not really possible, but this will do.
I wished there was more background on Albert (my favorite character in all series).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 803 reviews