The fact that fiction feels perhaps a little too close to reality right now adds to the discomfort you feel when reading this. Deeply atmospheric and often creepy, I enjoyed this once I got into the flow. Wasn’t too keen on the ending but I understand the direction they took.

Well, this was an unsettling read, as the world feels like it is descending further into chaos, this kind of situation appears a lot closer to being a possibility which gives the story an extra edge when reading. I shall set aside the terrifying nature of that thought for a second to say that I really enjoyed the story concept.

The mix of an almost end-of-the-world situation, a rural hotel with people from all walks of life and nationalities, dwindling supplies, a body found where it shouldn’t be, and fear of the unknown, creates a wonderfully tense story with a chilling and uneasy atmosphere.

The story is narrated by Jon an academic who decides it prudent to keep a historical record of what happens after the nuclear bombs have hit. I enjoyed exploring the group dynamics through Jon’s eyes, seeing which people gravitated toward each other and how the dynamics shifted as things became more desperate.

The one thing I wasn’t keen on was the mystery of the body found. I appreciated the idea of Jon feeling like he didn’t want this death to be overlooked just because of what else was happening around them, however, I feel like the execution wasn’t quite right.

There were so many other horrors around them that this part of the storyline could have been left out or changed to fit the other situations the hotel was facing. It’s hard to explain without spoiling it but the explanation for what happened felt a little tacked on to the end when there were other opportunities to have Jon pursue these same ideals in a way that would have made more sense considering the rest of the storyline.

I think what really got to me every time I went back to this book was the doubt that came with every decision the characters made. It made me think about how the fear of the unknown can hold us back, and how we all cling to a routine to be able to keep functioning. It is such a thought-provoking story in that way, it was a little daunting thinking about what would I do in that situation.

The Last is a story that I won’t forget in a hurry, it is tense and thrilling with a harrowing atmosphere (although I definitely chuckled at the ending), and clever writing that makes the story authentically chilling.

I really enjoyed this book it was fast paced and kept me glued to the story. I will definitely be reading more by the author.

This book had a premise that intrigued me, everything I like in a good story - isolation, dystopia, near future, apocalyse, psychological thriller... At first I was really enjoying this but it took a bit of a turn for me which may be partly due to the fact that I was reading it while literally in labour so at times feels a bit like a fever dream! It took me longer than expected to finish reading. I think it would be fantastic on screen but the pacing was just a little off for me as it was, and that may be personal rather than anything else.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

As I mentioned a while back I've started to work on my review backlog and while going through my TBR on NetGalley The Last immediately popped out to me. Written before the COVID-19 pandemic, it nonetheless felt like a super timely novel that combined some social commentary with a murder mystery. Turns out The Last is a lot more than that. Thanks to Viking and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks also for their patience.

Nuclear war is a purely human threat, unlike natural disasters like floods and earthquakes (let's set aside human involvement through climate change for a second), and because of that it is on a different level. The threat of nuclear war is the threat of a trigger-happy president or prime minister, unpredictable and sudden. It is also a threat that wanes and rises in importance. During the Cold War it was the Sword of Damocles hanging over the childhood of my parents. With the end of the Cold War came the hope that it was the end of the nuclear threat, and yet we have seen these kinds of tensions rise again and again as more and more Western governments lean towards a populist/nationalist/right-wing agenda. Hanna Jameson's The Last is defined by this tension, having been written after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. While he is not named, Trump and the ideology he unleashed figure throughout this book as the Americans at the hotel try to come to terms with their potential culpability in the end of the world. Yet it's also only one of the factors at play and Jameson wisely leaves the specific how and why of the destruction vague. Would we know the specifics, if it happened now, or would we also be in that terrifying uncertainty Jameson's characters find themselves in? I think the latter, and as such The Last definitely resonated with me.

Jon is a historian at a conference in a secluded Swiss hotel, ignoring messages and emails from his wife, when the world ends. What follows is a blur of days, filled by panic, numbness, uncertainty and death. When he decides to keep a record of the goings-on in the hotel, a kind of record of the remains of society, he seems to regain some clarity. Yet this is shattered when he and two other men find the remains of a girl in one of the water tanks who was most likely killed on the day disaster struck. And so he begins a hunt for clues and answers which, together with the rising tensions among the hotel-guests, leads to increasing paranoia and danger. While the mystery surrounding the girl is technically the impetus for Jon's searching, it is only a secondary part of this story of survival. Should they stay in the hotel? Should they leave? What's out there? And is it better or worse if they're the only one's left. The Last is a novel full of questions and only limited answers. While not every part of this novel runs equally smoothly, I was nonetheless immensely captivated.

Hanna Jameson's novel is largely dependent on the way she establishes and builds her characters. Central to this is Jon and I really adored Jameson's choice to have him "write" the novel. In his "record" he interviews other guests, searches the hotel, and ventures beyond its walls, each time expanding the reader's understanding of this world a little further. Jon's narration is relatively self-aware, in that he is aware of his role as "documenter". His drive to be honest leads to some unflattering comments about himself, but also to a sense of urgency and has the effect that the reader feels equally unsure and paranoid. We get to know the other characters through Jon's narration which means it naturally biased. Not all of these characters feel equally fleshed out and I don't know whether that was intentional, as Jon is biased, or whether some simply weren't properly developed. I was wavering on what to rate this book. I don't do half "points" but this felt like a 3.5 to me for a variety of reasons. I really enjoyed it, the characters were interesting, and a lot of the points the book raised really intrigued me. But it left me feeling a little underwhelmed by the end, as if some points had not been fully resolved or resolved in a way that belied the tone of the rest of the book. Especially the mystery of the dead girl feels a little unstable, in the sense that it is sometimes the most important thing and at other times completely falls away. By the end, I hardly cared whether it was resolved, only to be a bit nonplussed by the way it suddenly was. But Jameson definitely had me gripped, so I will be looking for other books by her in the future.

The Last is a novel of isolation and paranoia at the end of the world. Jameson tracks the way society crumbles and the ways it tries to keep itself afloat. While not all of it is a hit, most of it is intruiging.

I rally enjoyed this dystopian thriller. It was a mix of mystery with a murder to solve and how people survived/ coped after a catastrophic event. There were some good characters in the story and I enjoyed seeing these develop throughout the story. However, the ending did not really do it for me, it seemed a bit rushed and I think there could have been so many other ways that the book would have ended that would have seemed more satisfying.

The premise of the last - an end of the world apocalypse scenario meets a country house style murder mystery - sounded absolutely fantastic but, for me, The Last didn't wholly deliver on that. There was just a bit too much going on for the novel to really develop into a cohesive whole and I found the lack of focus - both in terms of the multitude of characters and the number of additional plot strands being thrown in - resulted in a disjointed reading experience. I also found the majority of the characters to be wholly unsympathetic, which made caring about what happened to any of them something of a challenge. A unique premise - and definitely a book with a page-turning quality - but sadly not for me.

Hmmmmm a bit far fetched for me but I persevered with it and in the end thought it was quite good, though it did seem a bit mixed up at times and I wasn’t keen on the ending, in all I can’t complain and it was okay 🙈

I found this story interesting but not particularly enjoyable. Not really my style. I found it a little disjointed and found it tricky to get in to the flow

Atmospheric and skin-crawling in places and the story line seemed a bit disjointed. Was a bit confused and unfulfilled by the ending.

Atmospheric and really creepy at times. The plot didn’t always come together and the ending took a strange turn for me. Would try this author again

Nuclear War by Crazed US President meets Country House Hotel Murder Mystery

Though this had an utterly gripping beginning – no spoilers, as it is all in the product listing – nuclear holocaust – and an unusual setting – isolated hotel where there had been a conference, somewhere in the middle of nowhere Switzerland, things begin to fall apart. With the novel, not just the end of the world.

The challenge is one of lack of discipline and focus. Basically Jameson is an anything and everything writer – rather than everything BUT the kitchen sink, the sink itself is thrown in for good measure.

She starts with two tropes – end of the world, AND the country house murder mystery but rapidly throws in sex, lots of drugs, supernatural/hauntings and just piles on all the schlocky Gothic stuff she can think of, including lots and lots of suicide. And as many back stories as possible.

This was a pity, as the beginning seemed to promise so much more than the writer delivered

However, I did keep turning the pages, so was invested enough to read to the end. There were themes, or ideas, which got a bit dangled, but never went anywhere

Which, without spoilers, both seemed a bit lame, and a bit interesting.

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BREAKING: Nuclear weapon detonates over Washington
BREAKING: London hit, thousands feared dead.
BREAKING: Munich and Scotland hit. World leaders call for calm.
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As a story, #TheLast by #HannaJameson is intriguing but also slightly over complicated by one to many twists. It also has overtones of #TheSanatorium by #SarahPearce. A group of people confined to a hotel, after multiple nuclear bombs detonate & where one of them may be a murderer.
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I can't say I enjoyed this story but it was interesting. You need characters to be larger than life & in this kind of story, they need to be unreliable narrators. We definitely had this. I did start to hope the end of the book was near at the 80% mark, because there was a sense that the story was being stretched & overworked for a mediocre ending. Granted, that will seem harsh but the last few chapters weren't entirely necessary.
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I listened to this book and want to give criticism of the narration. For the most part, #AnthonyStarke does a great job, however, the attempt at accents were incredibly bad & I can't help bit wonder why the issue wasn't dealt with in production. The main accent that Starke CANNOT do, is Australian. When I heard it attempted the first time I laughed, by the end of the book, it made me want to scream. Starke does no better with Japanese, Dutch, or British. Had I not listened to the narration, I would have scored the text higher.
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Thank you to @penguinukbooks, @vikingbooksuk & @netgalley for the free e-ARC provided to me in return for an honest, unbiased opinion.

I've been trying to get through this on and off for about 9 months now and I've not been hooked. Sad DNF as the premise is brilliant I just haven't got on with it unfortunately. Going with 2 stars as I can see how much lots of people will love it.

This type of book is way out of my comfort zone, but I actually really enjoyed it!! Its good to try different genres and I'm glad I took a punt with this book!

This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

Unfortunately I didn’t finish the book which is such a shame as I absolutely loved the beginning and was drawn in immediately. A great premise and I was genuinely excited reading the first few chapters. I felt the subplot with the body in the water tanks was unnecessary and unoriginal. I would have preferred it if it had focussed solely on a few of the hotel guests and how they coped with the fact there has been a nuclear attack and they could be the last survivors on earth! The murder mystery element just fell a bit flat for me, I do regret not sticking it out to the end though and perhaps I will go back to it one day. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

When Jon, a history professor, is stuck in a hotel in the Swizz mountains during the start of a nuclear war that sees ordinary life come to a streaking stop, he begins to document the days in a diary for those who may come after. As Jon and his fellow survivors come up with a game plan to survive the harsh winter, the body of a girl is found in the hotel and Jon wonders if there are unseen people living in the room, and if there's a murderer among them.

This is an interesting, quick enough read that I would recommend to people who need something consuming to pick up while relaxing on holidays. The diary entry format made the book very quick to read though I wonder if the slowness I felt near the end is due to the fact we are only ever really hearing one perspective of the 'end of the world'.

I love a dystopian novel now and again, and the survival elements of this book definitely called my name. I did think this was a very passive end of the world book, and there wasn't actually that much surviving going on other than laying around the hotel and having the hotel chef cook for them. That was about it. There's a variety of characters in this book, all with chequered pasts and interesting stories and you definitely hop from one to another in the trust scale to the point where you start to wonder if you can trust Jon, the narrator.

The ending and conclusion of this book definitely felt very bland to me, and I was a bit disappointed in the mediocre ending.

For fans of high-concept thrillers such as Annihilation and The Girl with All the Gifts, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel as the world descends into nuclear war—along with twenty other survivors—who becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks.