My first book by this author with solid reviews intriguing me to read it. The plot is dark yet hopeful. The theme is grim yet inspiring. The characters weak yet strong. The story is told in an effective and emotional way that builds to a decent suspenseful ending. For me, it was a moderate page turner and deserving of the high review praise.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity in exchange for an honest review.

WHAT A BOOK!
I loved every single second I spent on this amazing story. Everything from the setting, characters description, the action is simply amazing.
Will Dean writing style is so captivating and immersing that created a book that is impossible to stop reading.
The story very well created and plotted and the plot twists simply amazing.
But what can i say just read the book and you won't regret it!


more thoughts here https://youtu.be/6Fr-QraeBcs

After reading the incredibly exciting blurb I knew straight away that I would thoroughly enjoy this book and I was not wrong! The hopeless story of Jane (not her real name but instead the name that her husband aka captor gave her) and her fight for freedom had me racing through the pages to see what happened next! Jane, real name Thanh Dao, comes to the UK from Vietnam with her sister with the hope of a new life but instead finds herself trapped on a farm unable to leave. Cameras watch her every move and if her husband sees something he doesn’t like then she is punished. This is a heavy story of survival, abuse and pain immaculately depicted by the author and I know that this book will stay with me for a long time!

Oh my god.. this is one story you will never get over... Tough subject matter not everyone can stomach. It takes balls to write this.
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From the very first page, this author pulls no punches. He tells a story of modern-day slavery, kidnapping, fear, intimidation, and a host of other topics that are not only sickening to read about but also hard to find an answer to the ongoing problem.

Even with the tough topic, this author gives explicit detail in such a manner that you can almost feel the actions within your own soul. The characters are developed in such a way that you cannot help but cheer on the victim and wish horrible things happen to the abuser. The ongoing internal narratives from the main victim are included and you find yourself thinking the same things!

Intense and heartstopping, The Last Thing to Burn is a ride that is very subtle in its pervasive way it burrows in and eats at you. This book is haunting in many ways and stayed with me for several days after completing it. Even writing this review has me thinking about the horrors within and strong, impactful ending. That is a sign of a fabulous author!

There is some lightness to be found within, however, and the suspense factor is high in this one. Definitely a must read for those looking for a story different from the run of the mill or not afraid to take on the tough subjects. Well Done!

This was a dark , tense, suspenseful novel for me. It was gripping and also heartbreaking. The author took an inhuman, torturous story and turned it into survival. I am glad I read it.
Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

“My name is not Jane.”

This is the stuff of my nightmares. A woman is held prisoner by man and is compelled to comply with his every whim. If she attempts to escape, he will break her ankle, if she fails to obey an order, he will burn one of the few “personal” possessions she has left, effectively erasing her personal history and the inner life she clings to. He ensures she becomes addicted to strong painkillers in order to better ensure her compliance and her passivity. Her day-to-day existence is a misery of fear, loathing, housework, drudgery, and rape.

Somehow this is all made even worse by the fact that the man in question is the dumpy child of a drab culture whereas the woman is a living spark from a culture full of beauty and vividness, it is as if a slug had enslaved a butterfly.

I picked up distinct vibes here not only of contrasting differences between the sexes but between different ways of life. Is this a post Brexit it novel? I very much think it is. The dull farmer with his flat life, bland food and unimaginative lovemaking seems to be the epitome of British cultural isolation. He also has all the prejudices inherent to those who voted for Brexit, the obtuse intolerance and misunderstanding of other ways of existence, the completely unmerited sense of superiority, the hatred and prejudice of everything and anything foreign.

This is a hard, hard novel to read, I found it unbearable in parts, but I could not put it down. If you have the stomach for it, you will discover it is definitely one of the best books of 2020 and probably even of 2021.

Thank you as always to Netgalley for making an ARC copy of this text available to me.

A tense thriller in the vein of Room. "Jane" not her real name was smuggled into the UK from Vietnam, hoping for work. Instead she's held on a Fenland farm by Lenn, who treats her as a slave. Her ankle has been smashed so she can't escape and worse, she finds out she's pregnant. All that keeps her going is the thought that her sister Kim-Ly is safe in Manchester.

But Lenn has lied about everything. And Jane realises that she must escape to save both her and her baby.

Thanh Dao and her sister Kym-Lyn travel from Vietnam to England in search of a better life. They do not find that.

Thanh, now Jane, is being held captive on a remote farm by, Lenn. The physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that she endures is brutal. She must always follow his rules or face the consequences. Cameras are positioned all around the house so he can always keep an eye on her. Her days of despair seem to have no end in sight. Until she finds herself pregnant.

At first she hates the seed that is growing inside her but over time she grows to love her unborn baby and wants nothing more than to keep the baby safe. This will be her baby. Hers and hers alone. She will not allow this monster, this beast of a man, to have anything to do with this child. Now having something to live for she begins to plan her escape when another woman is brought into their home and is locked in the basement. Thanh is determined not only to protect herself and child but also the woman she can hear sobbing below.

Will they ever escape? You'll have to read this to find out.

This is an incredibly dark book and I couldn't help but to root for Thanh. Her resolve and determination were admirable and I just wanted her and her baby brought to safety. Filled with tension from start to finish and I'd say this is worth taking a look at if you can handle the depraved subject matter. 3.5 stars rounding up!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for my digital copy.

Such an intense, heartbreaking, horrifying read, and I loved every bit of it! I was sucked in from chapter one and had a hard time putting this one down. Great writing and characters. Definitely a book to remember and I highly recommend!

This is a story of slavery and human trafficking at it's very worst. A book I couldn't put down although the subject matter was harrowing at times. This book had me hooked from the gripping first chapter to the final page.

Prepare to hardly stop for breath. Thanh Dao is imprisoned by her captor Lenn in a desolate fenland farmhouse. For years she is repeatedly raped, then becomes pregnant and gives birth. Can she plot their escape?

Dean builds the sense of menace. The tension is sustained from the opening page and I was racing through this into the small hours. That said, this is a bleak book with little to counterbalance the grotesque.

The thought-provoking storyline’s clearly inspired by the rise in young Vietnamese people trafficked into the UK. It’s a reminder of the importance of acting if you suspect someone’s in need of support.

Absolutely impossible to put down, this is an incredibly compelling, beautifully told story driven by a strong female protagonist with a unique voice. It's been a while since I've read anything that's made me feel such extremes of emotion - sympathy, anger, hope and terror - all within the simple setting of one building and the spare cast of three characters. It's beautifully done and I could not recommend it more highly.

The tension and claustrophobia of this slow burning story, gets under your skin, and seeps into your bones, like the cold and damp of Lenn’s Fenland farmhouse.
Thanh and Kim-ly leave Vietnam, willingly get into a shipping container, safe in the knowledge that they have each other, and will have better lives in the UK, being able to support their parents back at home. Their realities are, sadly and horrifically, different. We find Thanh enslaved by a cruel, cold farmer, living as his wife. The knowledge that Kim-ly has a better life working in a nail bar, though still enslaved, helps to give Thanh strength.
I was reading this book, sitting comfortably in my warm, happy home. What I felt, due to the author’s impressive building of tension and atmosphere, was a weight upon my chest, fear and desperation. I also felt Thanh’s strength, love and fierce determination that she was doing all she could to protect her loved ones. Her strength and resolve to withstand everything meted out to her, is both heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time.
This book won’t be for everyone, it is a very hard, traumatic read. There were times I had to stop reading, to escape the cruelty and continuous pressure.
Only at the end, did I truly understand the meaning of the title. This book, and the desperation of every person who willingly sets foot in a shipping container, or sets off in a perilously small dinghy, dreaming of a better life, will stay with me for a very long time. An extraordinary read, easily 5*.

The Last Thing to Burn is a haunting, creepy and nail-bittingly intense story about a woman called Jane. Only her name is really not Jane. She came from Vietnam, in a container packed with people, she and her little sister were sold to a man running a beauty parlor. But Lenn, a man living alone on an isolated farm, had different plans for her. Jane became his wife his captive, his slave. Cooking for him, cleaning for him, bathing for him, seating under his chair in the evenings. Being druged, raped and manipulated, she is slowly losing her memory, her past, her own identity. Him watching her every move, dismantling her foot, making her a cripple. She came to United Kingdom with 17 posessions, after 7 years she was left with only one. He burned them all, one by one, punishing her for disobeying his rules. His mother´s rules. But she can´t kill him, or herself, or her little sister will be deported back to Vietnam. She is trapped, she has nowhere to go, no one to run to, no reason to live. Until she meets little Huong. Her baby, the one she hated in the start, but after 9 months of growing inside her, she knows she is destined to save her little girl from this monster of a man.

I don´t think I have ever read a book with my eyes so wide, I was shocked by the story, by the sick things Lenn did, but also by the genius writing style and an amazing flow the book has. I just loved how the author describes every little detail of the cottage and the surroundings, and Jane´s thoughts, her dark and mudded thoughts. And I don´t know how the author did it, because he is a man, but the bond between Jane and her child is so perfectly described, this really is the way most mothers feel about their babies.
The Last Thing to Burn just got me hooked from the very start and could hardly put it down. I anticipated the ending, but it was impeccable nonetheless. And the goose bumps in the end are a proof this book really deserves more than 5 star rating.
Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very intense and difficult read. But I flew through this book. It broke my heart, and though it had some repetitive parts, I would highly recommend this important read. There are tons of trigger warnings and heavy content, but I'm a big fan of the darker the better. Especially here were I learned a lot more about human trafficking and identity.

It was gritty and suspenseful and the descriptions were detailed (quite graphic at times) and the writing style was easy to follow and get lost in

This finally got me out of the reading slump I've been in and stayed up late to read it.

I do however wish I could to know more about the captor, but overall a great read. This subject matter isn't for everyone but if you can stomach the more horrific and sad things, you should read this one. It's a gut punch that'll keep you informed and thinking.

I am broken, shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. This book will stay with me forever. I have no fancy dan words to say, nothing intellectual or thought provoking. I’m not sure I’ve even got any words that can adequately do justice to this work of genius.
I can’t remember the last time my heart hurt so much, it ached as I read and towards the end I thought it would burst right out of my chest.
As I read, I became Jane; I crawled inside of her body and could no more escape than she could. Through the power of his writing, Will Dean, forced me to experience the erosion of her identity, of her self and I felt myself curl up into a small ball of nothingness and I stayed there with her throughout, feeling every emotion that she felt, growing increasingly angry and full of rage for the situation she was in and towards those who had put her there. By the end, I was consumed with rage for all the Jane’s in the world.
The menace drips from the page, the sense of unease winds its way into your very being; it is both claustrophobic and intimate; it is a harrowing, horrifying and brutal character led tale of abuse, control and power.
A dark and emotive read that will stay with me forever. It’s not even 2021 and already I feel this is THE read of the year. Will Dean’s finest yet.

Will be shared on my blog nearer publication day.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ great book!

It’s a difficult story but so well written, it hooked me in from the start.

It hovered around the 4.5 star mark as I wasn’t sure about the end - the twist/reveal I found a little hard to believe but do you know what, I upped it to 5 stars because I couldn’t stop reading it - I stayed up till 1am to finish it.

There have been so few 5 star books for me this year so a great way to end 2020. I will definitely read more by the author.

This book is a harrowing, disturbing story of one woman's fight to maintain her sense of self in the darkest of abusive worlds. "Jane" as she is called by her captor and "husband" has been trafficked from her homeland and sold to a famer who holds her against her will in his little cottage. Here, he repeatedly abuses her and takes everything from her, all her possessions, one by one whenever she tries to escape. The land around his farm is cold and vast and foreign to "Jane." She survives solely by the few possessions he holds over her, a book, her ID and some letters from her dear sister, who she hopes is living a better life than her.
This is a tough story to read, straight from the vein of "Room" or "Dear Child" it is a descriptive tale of how a controlling abuser toys with his victims. When Jane falls pregnant, she has more to live for than her earthly possessions. This is her story of perseverence, victimization, call to motherhood and attempt at escape. Another woman enters the fold and becomes his other victim but Jane has already become stronger in motherhood and loss- the two women together strive to save themselves against this cruelest of monsters.
What a story! Atmospheric and brutally clear writing. I was pulled in and could not come out until the end. Thank you to Will Dean, the publisher and Netgalley for this gripping read!

My deepest gratitude to Atria Books and NetGalley for relieving me from my anxious anticipation and providing me with the advanced copy of this literary gem.

I don't remember the last book that had such a profound impact on me.
This is a tense and dark tale of a woman held captive in a house with no locks, imprisoned purely by the vastness of the surrounding Fenlands and the domestic terror inflicted by her “husband”.

I absolutely adore Will Dean’s prose. In this standalone his writing style is slightly different than in Tuva Moodyson series, and I honestly can’t tell which one I prefer; in each case it serves its purpose perfectly.
In The Last Thing to Burn, you can find lots of phrases that gets repeated frantically throughout the novel, thus creating an amazingly eerie atmosphere. A bit like in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. A first-person point of view gives the reader a good grasp of the victim’s horror and conflicted feelings. At the same time, the narrator is reliable enough to provide a full picture of her captor – a truly multilayered villain. All characters are complex and believable, and, although the story does not exactly report your typical everyday life, it somehow seems absolutely credible.

I also have to give my praise to the title. Before reading the novel, I found it vague and hard to remember, but shortly into the plot it gained such a powerful meaning that now it keeps lingering in my head.

This is a very claustrophobic story, maybe not gory, not even that much violent. But it slowly builds up the pressure and terror that kept me at the edge of my sit throughout the whole book. What scares me most is how many traits and deeds of the abuser are somewhat lyrically magnified cases of physical and psychological domestic violence that you could easily find in many real-life households.

If I were forced to point out one tiny little thing about this book that I could question, it’s the somewhat irrational actions of the protagonist near the conclusion of the story. Although, with everything she's been through, who am I to judge her behaviour?

The echo of The Last Thing to Burn will definitely stay with me for a long while. This reading might be a challenging experience for the faint of heart, but I recommend it with all the persuasion I can muster as a beginning reviewer.

<i>The Last Thing to Burn </i> is a horrific mystery novel about kidnapping and abuse.
Thanh Dao is a Vietnamese lady who has been kidnapped and held captive on an isolated farm for the last nine years!! <i>The Last Thing to Burn</i> is the fourth novel written by the bestselling author Will Dean

The novel begins with Thanh Dao (or “Jane” as the kidnapper calls her) trying to escape from captivity. Her captor, who comes home too soon, finds her, and easily returns her into confinement. It turns out Jane has been confined to the farmhouse for has tried to escape numerous times. Once the kidnapper mangles one of her ankles so that she can no longer run. Jane’s perspective changes when she becomes pregnant and she must stay to care for the baby. The situation gets even worse when her captor brings home a new woman who Jane feels she must help escape. Will any of them make it out alive?

The story is very well written and very descriptive which makes it so horrific that it is very difficult to read at times. The story also has a few twists which raises the horror level and makes the chance of escape even less probable. It is an odd thing that this story is so well written and the kidnapper is described as so deluded that you are almost moved to feel sorry for him, which of course is absolutely ridiculous.

This story strongly brings into light how abused some woman can be and how society really needs to do something about it. It is a difficult but necessary education for all of us. The call to action at the end of the novel is appropriate. The end of the story is a disappointment because it is expected and maybe a little happier than realistically probable.

The story is a must read for all people who need to know more about the sad and horrific circumstances abused women face in society today. I reluctantly give it a three on five because I can barely stomach the story. I want to thank of NetGalley and Atria books for providing me with a digital copy of the book out for in exchange for an honest review