Fantastic book.

A young woman is held captive by an old farmer. He treats her as his slave and she is mistreated abhorrently. Shocking but fantastic read that had my heart racing more than once.

I really enjoyed this one, couldn’t put it down, real page turner,

I, unfortunately, ended up DNFing this book, but only because the topic was a little too brutal for me. If you are into thrillers then I would recommend this book! Will Dean is a brilliant writer and the story was interesting and well written, I just personally couldn't handle the topic.

I feel the wind knocked out of me. Sad bc I know this is the plight of millions of young women around the globe but hopeful bc of the strength that women possess. This is a quick, suspenseful and fulfilling read.

Hoo boy, this one hit me hard. Couldn't put it down and the twist had be screaming at 2 am. Must read for thriller fans!

I will rate The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean a solid 5/5 Stars. Wow... All I can say about this book is wow! It was a total page turner from the very first page and I honestly did not want to put it down. This book singlehandedly brought me out of my reading funk. I haven't had a great book to read since January of this year and this book has totally set the bar for my next read. Thanh Dao was sold a dream by men who stated that if she left her home country of Vietnam and came to Europe she would be able to find work, earn money and help pay off family debts. She and her sister, Kim-Ly, were taken to Europe under the guise of employment but were entered into human trafficking and a literal hell on earth. The sisters were separated and told lies about one another. Thanh was given the new name of "Jane" by her captor, Lenn, and forced to live as a slave preforming both manual and sexual favors for him. She came to him possessing seventeen items and each time she tried to run away or defy him, he would burn one of her earthly possessions as well as cause her bodily harm. When Thanh becomes pregnant, she decides to do whatever it is in her power to protect her child from living a future life of abuse.

What I enjoyed about this book:
Everything. I enjoyed the POV of Thanh's story. It was full of emotion, detail and portrayed her strength and determination. I admired her loyalty to her sister and her courage to fight for her life.
*Trigger Warning* Sexual, mental, emotional and physical abuse is displayed in this book. This book focuses on human trafficking.

What I did not enjoy about this book:
I really despised Lenn. He was such a horrible man. He almost allowed his child to die due to his selfishness. Whew, I wanted to reach into the book and hurt him.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in the exchange of an honest review. I highly recommend it.

Started reading the first chapter to see what it was like intending though to read it in a few days as I was already reading a book.
I literally was incapable of putting it down and stayed up till 4am to finish it.

Brilliantly told from the victim's point of view, it just kept me turning the pages faster and faster as I felt her pain and claustrophobic living. Parts seriously creeped me out.

You've outdone yourself Mr. Dean.

Will Dean moves into rather different territory from his deaf journalist series to a more chillingly harrowing, dark and disturbing world, the evils and horrors of human trafficking and enslavement. This claustrophobic and atmospheric storytelling has Vietnamese Thanh Dao and her sister, Kym-Ly, arrive in the UK only to find they have been conned. Thanh finds herself named 'jane' after the mother and first wife of Lenn, a nasty, controlling, cruel and abusive man, living in a isolated, dilapidated and cold farm amidst the bleak landscape of the Fens. Jane reveals her life and story in this character driven, hard to read and stomach, tale, with its ever creeping menacing sense of dread, the everyday repetitious routines, the cooking, cleaning, the sex, there is no way out, and no escape, or is there?

She is threatened with what will happen to her sister, of being under constant surveillance, feeling despair, punished for her 'transgressions' by having her possessions burnt, Jane is now left with so few, including her sister's letters, and a well read copy of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men that gives her hope. She watches and observes Lenn carefully, finding herself pregnant and giving birth. Dean has certainly done his research in the harsh realities of human trafficking and his characterisation is incredible and so emotionally heartbreaking. There is tension and suspense as I turned the pages of this rage inducing thriller, finding it compulsive and riveting fare, one that I think will appeal to many crime and thrillers fans, despite the unsettling and traumatic themes. I feel like I desperately need some lighter reading material after this. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

A part of me would like to say the events in "The Last Thing To Burn" are impossible and completely over the top. But a larger part of me knows that human trafficking; domestic abuse; and evil do exist - and that it's incredibly important that we tell such stories to raise awareness.

And Will Dean does an amazing job at this in this book. His writing kept me on the edge of my seat!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me have the chance to enjoy this rollarcoaster of a story!

This book will push your limits.

There are two types of readers during the pandemic: those looking for light reads let in remote vacationey places, and those looking for absolutely claustrophobic, dark, terrifying, murderous, horror reads. If you're in the latter club, welcome, take a seat because you're in for quite a ride.

The Last Thing to Burn is not for the faint-hearted. There sure are many triggers, including violence, kidnapping, sex trafficking, rape, human slavery. It is really horrifying, so a warning is due.

But if you're going to stick with it, this is a very well-written yet truly haunting thriller or horror story. It tells the story of "Jane," which is a name given to our main character Thanh Dao by her "husband" - or rather her brutal kidnapped. Sever years prior, the woman came to the UK and was sold into sex slavery. This novel describes how she is treated by her monstrous captor, and how she tries to break free when she finds out that she is pregnant.

I can't stop thinking about this book, and it's going to stay with me for a long time. It's the most terrifying kind of a horror story because it could actually happen, and really happens to countless women, in real life.

*Thank you tot he Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Not so long ago The Room, first book and then the movie, became the it thing, banking on of all these terrifying real life stories of abduction and imprisonment, but really going for it all the way, a deep dive into the victim’s/survivor’s mentality. So the very opposite of light reading, in fact about as heavy as it gets. And then Will Dean must have thought why not take it to a new level, turn up the horror and all that and at the same time take on sex trafficking and then this book was born. The harrowing story of a young South Asian woman brought to UK and sold to essentially sex slavery to a brutal man. A seven year long nightmare. Dynamic as it is, this book is about as difficult to read as you might imagine. The relentless abuse, both physical and psychological, the claustrophobia of wide open spaces with nowhere to go, the helplessness, the desperation…and yet somehow an impressive determination to survive against all odds. The things women will do for their children, even children born out of hate and rape. It’s really like a superpower. It’s a lean book and smartly so, not the sort of thing you’d want to be with for a long time, but it definitely grabs attention immediately, doesn’t let go and uses the readers as emotional punching bags in the process. I’ve read Will Dean’s Dark Pines, which I enjoyed, though a lot of that was due to the Scandinavian setting, and I’ve not been able to find the sequel yet, but this was on Netgalley and a standalone, so a pretty easy choice…for such difficult reading. Bleak doesn’t quite cover it, but it’s certainly affective and effective or it’s effectively affective. Intense, nearly impossible to put down, as it winds up to an inevitably violent resolution until there’s nothing left to burn. One of this book’s greatest successes is actually the character of the farmer, a man so profoundly shaped by an isolated upbringing by what sounds like a strict tyrannical mother that he doesn’t actually think of his actions as wrong, in fact he has completely rationalized his behavior to himself and normalized this very abnormal arrangement into something resembling a marriage of sorts. And so the evil here is the plain spoken, torpid ogre of a man with old fashioned ideas and values (really old fashioned, another era altogether) who labors away on his unprofitable land, likes his things just so and is also completely comfortable with systematic horrific abuse of women. Just a good ole’ boy who is all wrong on the inside. Very scary indeed. So yeah, despite the ending, it’s a gut punch of a book, not one you might enjoy, not even easy to recommend (how does one even…hey, remember The Room? Did you like it but thought it was pretty mild overall? Well, try this one.), but fans of dark psychological fiction would find it riveting, certainly. It’s good, very good, and takes on a very important subject, since sex trafficking is still very much a thing in frightening numbers. Thanks Nergalley.