An interesting dystopian novel, reminded me a lot of Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven. I enjoyed the narrative style, and the way this allowed the reader to puzzle things out as the novel progressed. However, I was a nit disappointed by the ending, I found it abrupt and it let the novel down.

Slightly suprised at the low average rating on this one - I enjoyed it and if you like distopian post disaster reads, particularly focusing on the immediate aftermath, it's good.

I tried reading this book twice. Once on kindle and the other when I found the paperback for 25p in a charity shop. I put it down both times, bizarrely as it turns out, at exactly the same point.

I can't put my finger on what made me stop reading but I do know that the characters never felt real to me and I couldn't empathise with their plight.

Not for me.

Set in the aftermath of a series of nuclear explosions in various locations around the world, this story concentrates on a group of survivors holed up in a hotel in Switzerland. Both a tale of survival and a murder mystery, the book was a bit different from the usual thrillers I read and although the pace was quite slow, it never got boring.

I've just finished this book. I have to say I really enjoyed it. I do love a good 'end of the world' storyline and with it you get a 'whodunnit' too!

It is hard to say a lot about this book without giving too much away but it centres around several very interesting characters that find themselves stranded in a Swiss hotel at the end of the world. I have to say that it actually did make me think about how life would be if this dreadful scenario played out for real!

I really enjoyed learning about the different characters and what made them tick. It was also great to read about how they each felt and acted during this awful time.

I would definitely recommend this book. Very enjoyable.

*I requested a copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review*

The contents of ‘The Last’ weren’t what I was expecting. The book is fantastic, but its synopsis is a bit misleading. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where major cities experienced nuclear bombing and the world was thrown to chaos. The story, written by a historian, is an attempt to chronicle life’s events after that crisis - and he does not hold back. From a hotel filled with guests and staff, it eventually dwindled to a group of twenty, all varying ages and nationalities. On a day when they found their water tasted off, a few of them (including the historian) set to see what was wrong, and finds a body of a dead girl. The historian, then tries to get to the bottom of things, as he searches for clues and interviews the residents of the hotel in hopes of finding the murderer. However, the book isn’t really about that. Under the guise of finding a possible killer, it dives in the topic of survival and human nature. A lot happens in this book. Add the fall-to-winter setting, and the hotel being in the middle of nowhere, you’ve got an atmospheric apocalyptic novel.

The book was an intense read. It doesn’t give the reader time to breathe, unless the narrator himself is taking a break. It was hard to put down the book at the most intense times, but at the same time I wanted to take a break because my heart was pumping fast from what was happening. I honestly thought it was going to lean in the murder mystery kind of fiction (because of the blurb), but I still got a good story out of it.

Emily St John Mandel blurbed this too. If you liked Station Eleven, you might like this too.

I like this - I mean, in what version of the world am I not going to be entirely here for a dystopian thriller? Basically what's happening here is there's a nuclear war and everything is Very Bad. The story follows a group of people who're stuck at the Swiss hotel they were stopping in when the nukes were launched. They're kind of trying to make the best of things. Then, somebody finds a body.

The premise is clever, and interesting and full of potential and I really liked how the story unfolded actually; the fallout from nuclear war is always something Other - the hotel is so isolated that you have no idea what's occurring beyond it and can only imagine the chaos and that makes for an eerie kind of a read.
The main character, Jon, is the best kind of unreliable narrator and one I never particularly warmed to, which again, kind of works. Actually, that said, I don't think I liked anybody. this was a hotel full of unlikeable people and I find myself wondering if that was intentional?
There's a lot going on here, and yet at the same time not much at all which is an odd thing yet still, it's a book that had me turning the pages pretty quickly so fascinated by the whole idea was I.
The ending bugged me though (give me a better resolution than that, please, give me more) and whilst I did like the isolation of the story for the most part, by the end I was invested to a level that I wanted to know more about what had happened and why and those answers never came.
Overall though, this a good read - a unique read. I liked it.

The Last is described as a dystopian psychological thriller, exploring what happens in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. I think, given current events, this is a fairly plausible scenario and, for that reason, it’s a compelling read.
Our narrator is a professor, Jon, who has travelled to Switzerland for a conference. During his stay, a series of nuclear attacks are initiated and the world as we know it ends.
Along with a number of others, Jon remains in the hotel trying to maintain life as they know it. There are leaders developing and factions emerge, but there remains a desperate attempt to hold things together and retain their sense of humanity.
When the body of a young girl is discovered, Jon is determined to investigate. Thus begins a rather unusual mystery, and I have to say the truth - when it emerges - is stranger than anything you could cook up.
The Last was an interesting read, but there was a lack of detail that frustrated me. Some of the details were beyond far-fetched and I’m not entirely convinced that such a disparate group of people would have maintained their everyday lives for as long as they did.
Thank to NetGalley for allowing me access to this in exchange for my thoughts.

Thrilling story with a plot that kept me turning the pages, really well written with great characters. Highly recommend to everyone who is a fan of this genre.

I really enjoyed this book although to be honest, the murder held no interest for me. I preferred to focus on the hotel inhabitants interactions and assumptions and personally found the murders solution (& ending) to be ridiculous and unnecessary.

Not at all what I was expecting. I was looking more for an Agatha Christie style, x number of people trapped in a house, which one is the murderer? If you’re expecting the same, it is most definitely NOT! It is a dystopian, psychological meandering through the minds of a group of people thrust together following a nuclear world war. In our timeline. It’s disturbing. I’ve probably marked it rather hard because it is not at all my ‘cup of tea’, but I did want to finish it so that must say something.

This was a very plausible dystopia/apocalypse and therefore that is quite unsettling especially as the book employs a set of motifs to sort of repetitively point out the ways in which the world has ended. The mystery element really is what drives the plot though it is not the most important thing in the book which is a very interesting kind of narrative construction which unfortunately sometimes sort of kind of muddled what the book was. Was it an apocalypse or was it a mystery story? And because everything is so uncertain that really does make the book drag a bit in various places but in the end it really kind of came together quite nicely

A real page turner and a perfect read for anyone who got caught up in the amazing production of Chernobyl. It’s a book that all will explore with a fevered pace.

Really enjoyed it, not a normal book I’d pick but glad I read it.

Loved the story that unfolded between all the remaining characters. The friendship and fights. It showed how people start to go against each other when the hope is lost.

Would definitely recommend this book to friends especially ones who like an end of days storyline.

A page turner

The Last has a strong premise around the potential end of the world, survival, the hierarchy of concerns when structures have fallen; it's an easy read, one you will blitz through. Overall, it felt quite surface level and that little of note happened; I just expected more, given the abundance of apocalyptic, disaster-stricken fiction out there . However, very much like the author's style and would be keen to read future titles from her.

Dystopian thriller? Yes please! Sadly, around half way into this book it started to stutter and collapse. There just wasn't enough to keep it afloat any longer. I did enjoy the writing style however so I will look out for more from Jameson in the future.

Didn't finish The Last - I struggled with the characters and the setting, and just couldn't get into it.

The scope of THE LAST is reasonably small, and this focus on largely just the one location makes it a very personal account of one visiting American who is displaced at the time of nuclear war. A group of people, only temporarily connected through all staying or working at the same hotel, do not necessarily make for the best collection of apocalypse buddies. Who knows where we will be or who we will be with when it all does finally go to hell and the world has to re-establish a new order that has hopefully learned from the mistakes of its past. That’s the hope, anyway.

As a post-apocalyptic, THE LAST is not structured on a grand scale, though the incident that cuts off Jon Keller from the rest of the world is of course a global event. We don’t hear much of what is happening beyond the Swiss town where Jon is staying, but we know it’s all bad. The rapid rearrangement of one’s priorities, the putting aside of one’s normal moral codes etc are all points examined in THE LAST. There is little explanation of the after affects of fallout, diminishing resources and whatever anarchy we imagine would inevitable happen when people are no longer being policed or held accountable for their actions. If you’re a stickler for the details, not finding out these particulars will definitely take away some of the punch of this book for you.

THE LAST has a terrific premise and an exciting start but it does about half way in begin to seem a bit like a high school melodrama. It seems that Jon and his fellow survivors aren’t concentrating on the bigger issues. Jon himself isn’t particularly likeable and doesn’t possess any qualities that make him particularly apocalypse handy. This makes him a lot easier to identify with, but not perhaps one that we are going to care too much about. There are no real heart strings being tugged here.

As it would seem that THE LAST is a natural progression to a clown being in the White House, this is the scariest take home from this read. We’ve all thought about that in the last few years too. Dystopian thrillers these days only have to look to Twitter or Reddit to find a fertile source of material, and THE LAST spins a very credible tale of how our existence actually needs very little to happen in order for it to be forever altered.

Jon Keller is on a business trip in Switzerland when notifications come through his phone with breaking news that someone has finally pushed the button and a nuclear war has begun. It doesn't take long to hear that Washington, New York, London, and Berlin have all taken massive hits with millions dead and dying. The world as they knew it had ended. When the skies turn orange historian Jon Keller knows that the trees and vegetation will soon be dead too, There is a massive rush for residents at the hotel situated deep in the woods, to get to the airports and try to get home.
Within a couple of weeks, only 20 guests and employees are left at the hotel after some of the remaining ones have ended their own lives. People from different countries, speaking different languages with fingers that point blame. Questions of 'who did you vote for?' In a crisis, people need to blame someone because it can't be their fault and the real people responsible aren't around. Keller decides to make a sort of journal for anyone who may find it one day. A record of who is left at the hotel, their thoughts and how they remember what they were doing when the world as they know it ended.
The story takes on a much darker element when the body of a child is found. Keller becomes obsessed with finding out if one of the remaining twenty is a murderer. When supplies are being used and not replenished they have to make a choice. Should a team head for the town to find food and meds?
Oh my, there are some real choice characters in this story, with plenty of rooms to hide what you wouldn't want someone else to find and Keller is like a child with a stick stirring up a bees nest. You just know that at some point something is going to give. There are many dark avenues in the story, which you need to read yourself. We aren't too many steps from our ancestors as the will to survive, create life and take it becomes so much easier.
I think that this is the most realistic futures for our world that I have read if it was ever to have an all-out nuclear war. It was a pretty scary place, I know I wouldn't survive.
There is a real uneasy about this story which grows intensely as the group faces more difficult challenges as time passes leading to a brilliant ending. Very disturbing, extremely realistic and ultimately compelling.
I wish to thank NetGalley for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

Unsettling and totally gripping, a dystopian/speculative fiction with a touch of murder mystery which makes Jameson’s novel well worth picking up! Excited to hear more buzz about this book and the author!