OK this was one book that keep me engaged till I finished, I did like all the characters minus one hahah and that actually come to bite me in the end because it is a book true to life, and like life we don’t all get to have happy endings… but without spoilers, some things you’ll learn as you go, and in the end all makes sense like a well-oiled machine, for me I did like the world building, it make sense, almost a bit too real, had a bit of magic (the rainmaker bloodline), misunderstandings yeah.. Some things we can only learn through our own mistakes… some love was lost, and maybe redeemed…

I highly recommend this book to fans of dystopian, post-apocalyptical stories, I really thing if you give this book a chance you’ll love it.

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

Global warming has happened and rainmaker Jesse no longer makes rain since his powers have changed so that beside rain he brings down scorpions, snakes and spiders. Searching for his daughter Ash, Jesse and his wife venture out through deadly storms to find her. Well written post apocalyptic fiction!

The future has nothing to offer the population except for a lack of water causing a prolonged deadly drought. Society’s need for this precious liquid has developed into an outlaw style of living. Rumors of those who possess a gift handed down from generation to generation begin to surface. These are known as Rainmakers, people who have the power to create rain and who are heavily sought after for profit as well as personal gain. However this talent can be saddled with unexplained horrific results. A family bloodline of Rainmakers adheres to their own powers and discovers a gift can be a cruel reality.

The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon focuses on ecological horror, a global warming crisis that forces desert dwellers to search for a better way of living. Soakers, Rainmakers and others are the direct result of this catastrophic plague that grips the country. Armed with apparatuses composed of circuit boards and mechanical components, with the rain comes a meteorological horror of blood, snakes, scorpions and spiders.

Lebbon brings to life a landscape of tension, fear and unrelenting savagery in his novel. Having this unnatural danger looming over the reader, creates a despairing emotional state of apprehension that slowly rises from each and every page. These psychological experiences range from the cruelty of mankind to the unsettling strangeness of a manipulated Mother Nature. It’s the calm before the storm, so seek your oasis of sanctuary and experience now what everyone will be talking about later. The Last Storm is proof Lebbon remains a master at horror storytelling. A five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Horror Bookworm Recommendation.

As a first introduction to Tim Lebbon's work, this near future, cli - fi horror took my breath away in it's brilliance.

The story is a multi - pov story set in a near future where the world and its environment is in turmoil. The world is besieged by lands that are steadily turning into a dichotomous landscape of arid desert and tumultuous flash flooding that destroys anything in front of the deluge. In addition to this wild fires rage, slowly eating the landscape in its horrifying wake.

The Last Storm starts with Jesse,.a rainmaker, attempting to call forth blessed precipitation in order to water the lands of a dangerous drug baron. You see, Jesse is a 'rainmaker', who has the mysterious powers of being able to call forth rain. However, things go disastrously wrong, and instead of bringing rain, he opens the door to a plague of scorpions.

Cut to many years later, we see Jesse as he is now, living in isolation, alone after his family has fractured. His daughter is dead, and his wife has gone. He lives off the grid, and has withdrawn from life, until out of the blue, his wife arrives on his doorstep proclaiming that his daughter is not dead and is attempting to use her powers.

Throughout the book the story revolves around the differing perspectives of the main protagonists. We have Jesse, his wife, Karina, Ash, the supposedly dead daughter, the antagonist Jimi and Cee, who becomes important to the story as Ash's lover/carer.

Now one of the things that I love about this book is the fact that it has a blend of genres, but the central edict revolves around the family unit, even though it is fractured through most of the book, with Ash's parents attempting to get to her before she uses her power

The characters in The Last Storm are all richly brought to life with backstorys that give depth and complexityto their character. All the main characters add to the story except Ash, who seems to be feverishly aloof from the events that are happening around her, and she seems to need caring for. This plays well throughout the story as it shows us how the raninmakers operate and the difficulties that they encounter. She is obsessed with her power and it is the driving force of her travelling throughout the lands of The Last Storm.

The idea of the Rainmakers are really innovative and something that captured my imagination. The magic lies wholly with one family and with each successive generation, it has become increasingly tainted, finally ending with Ash. For the first part of book we follow Ash as she assembles the machine that she needs to access her powers and I found that this is one of the exceptional aspects to Tim Lebbon's writing as he makes the unbelievable believable.

I really connected with the undertones of cosmic horror that runs through the book, threatening to spill over into the world. As this is one of my favourite genres I loved to see how this was uncovered layer by layer.

One of the things that makes horror particularly scary is that it is based on tangible themes that may be distorted but not outside the realms of possibility, and Tim Lebbon successfully taps into this ethos which translates to a serious and incontrovertible possibility. When we look at the changes that the climate has wrought on the environment, they are not beyond the what we see everyday, for instance, the devastation caused by raging bush fires. The absolute destruction of flash floods and the havoc they wreak.Im addition to that, we have the arid dustbowls that have arisen due to prolonged droughts.

This is a taut and tense book, but it seems to mainly centre on family and forgiveness. I have come late to Tim Lebbon, but with this book, he showcases the power of his writing and shows that like the nature that he describes he is a force to be reckoned with.

Even as I type this the UK is about to get another heat wave with temperatures in some parts expected to be 30 degrees plus. The frequency and length of such events is increasing. The old joke that the British summer is long and wet is now a thing of the past. WE are all seeing the effects of climate change. It is in our future. Science Fiction has long pondered its impact but less so a thriller or a horror tale. In Tim Lebbon’s great The Last Storm we get a powerful tale combining these genres to give us a memorable tale of loss and a search for hope in a very dangerous world.

In the mid-21st Century climate change has turned most of the American Greta Plains into a Desert. Water is scarce even in the big cities and so too is food. Life is hard and cheap. Dangerous gangs who love the heat roam the world; water is more expensive than gasoline and for many each day is a battle for survival. Jesse though has a family gift – Rainmaking. Through an unusual ability to create strange devices and seek water his family has used their gift sparingly but for reward. Until the days it goes horribly wrong inflicting death and destruction. Jesse decided to try and give this up but was shocked when his daughter Ash showed an even greater and more powerful gift. He argued and it appeared she ran away and may have died. But many years later Jesse’s estranged wife Karina says she has located Ash and the two cross the nightmarish land of the USA to find her. But Ash is now attracting a lot more attention and her own internal Storm is also preparing for its release that could destroy the world.

This is a skilful genre-bending tale that I really really enjoyed mixing a post-apocalyptic future with strange magic and a deadly game of cat and mouse. Summer is the perfect time to read this tale because the whole atmosphere Lebbon creates is of a stifling dry heat that bleaches away colour and life from the world and even the people who live in it. It’s a future of scarcity where water is recycled and expensive and everyone is usually watching out for themselves. You sense a world getting closer to its end and although there are electric vehicles its more akin to a Western-style world of small towns, dangerous bandits and merchants known as Soakers travelling around selling water for cash or bartering. Lebbon gives this tale a sense of depth and history without excessive infodumps but instead through character’s conversations but backstories we see how this world got here and also how it works (or in many ways stutters along). Its very impressive scene setting.

Into this land we meet a broken family. Starting with Jesse is a middle-aged man who has ran away from the world and hidden himself in a forest living off the land. It is Karina’s arrival that finally spurs him out. He first chapter shows us Jesse’s biggest failure as a Rainmaker – one that will have a big impact on this search, and this is where Lebbon weaves the horror element in – in a mix of a biblical like miracle we see rain arrive in a land where water has not been seen but then almost equally biblical it leads to a plague of deadly strange creatures appearing with devastating effect. A very stark warning of what Ash may bring soon herself. My only issue is I’d had liked a little bit more time to know these Jesse and Karina a bit more but the pace of the novel allows little time for backstory to be fleshed out too long without draining the tension of the search and what happens when they all meet.

With Ash the only character who we experience a first person viewpoint we meet someone who knows she is not always aware of her own world; being driven by something to do things she does not fully understand but she knows a Strom must be summoned. She is an enigmatic yet likeable charver you want to be safe and found but their decreasing episodes of lucidity mean that often she is easy prey for others. Into which we get a strange ex-addict named Cee who becomes Ash’s Guardian and a mysterious and dangerous man named Jimi who has a score to settle with Rainmakers. Again, the whole feeling is very Western-like in a family travelling great distances in a desert to find a missing family member mixed with strange travellers they encounter who may be good or evil. Overlaying the whole story and pushing it towards the fantastical is a nightmarish sense of something else using all these events for its own aims and ambitions leading toa devastating finale of bloodshed with an added twist of cosmic horror apocalypse.

The Last Storm is a smart mix of entertaining horror and a subtle reminder that our world is changing fast and we don’t know where it is going. It manages to be human and yet also a dark and dangerous world we treat carefully around in. Perfect for a hot summer read as it may give you a much needed shiver but necessarily a reassuring one. Definitely well worth your time!

Through Net Galley, I read an advance copy of The Last Storm by Tim Leddon. A dystopian look at the future of the US, global warming has caused the middle of e country to become a huge desert. Jessie and Ash are the last of a family of rainmakers, able to draw rain from the skies though unable to fully control their gifts.

Both a cautionary tail of a potential future if society doesn’t adapt to address global warming and a character study of family/redemption. The Last Storm is at its best while following the main character as they head towards the ultimate conflict. Gritty and dark, this was a worthy read. 4 stars.

My thanks to Net Galley, Titan Books and Mr. Leddon for the opportunity to read/review The Last Storm in exchange for an honest review.

The world has become everything we were warned about. Natural disasters have multiplied and are tearing all of life as we know it apart.

A small group of people, who possess a supernatural ability walk the land though. One family with the chance to make a difference. All that’s left of the line is a father and daughter, Jesse and Ash. What they can do can save lives, but it’s not without danger, and is almost impossible to control.

Watching their family story weave through the failing of our world was captivating, heartbreaking, and terrifying. The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon is a solid five star book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Absolutely gripping! Loved this book, very apocalyptic, the author really sets the scene, there no mistaking the state of the world that we are in.

The characters are excellent, and it’s a great mix of friendship, and pure horror! If this was a film I would be straight to the cinema!

My thanks to Netgalley and Titan Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

I really loved The Last Storm. I loved the premise of Ash and Jesse being able to connect their bodies to an apparatus that let them summon rain. The author does a brilliant job of bringing the dry, parched and dying world to life. It easy to imagine how a talent like Ash and Jesse’s would be coveted in such a world. I loved the way the story unfolds gradually revealing why Jesse fears his daughter’s ability as her storm rages and darkness tries to use her gift to come into our world. This is a mesmerising book.

A story of the human soul and family strength. All the while packing the sting of a scorpion's strike!
The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon is the first novel of his that I have read and it certainly won’t be the last. I am a huge fan of apocalyptic stories and this one is so likely to happen (the climate change part, maybe not the rainmaker part) that it makes it all the more terrifying.

The story approaches from multiple angles due to each chapter being focused on a different character. I found that this keeps the story fresh and keeps you thinking about how these characters could all eventually link up. Tim Lebbon has a masterful ability to create intensely suspenseful scenes which would not be out of place on the big screen. Tim is a true thriller/horror master. Lacing the story with exceptionally interesting characters who each have their own story to tell. Each of them have such incredible depth to them that there is no ‘main character’ in this book.

The setting of the book surrounds an apocalyptic wasteland of deserts, wildfires and very…very little rain. So little that most rain came from a family of rainmakers. Each location is given ample description, cementing each scene in your mind, providing a superb base for the story to take place. I really enjoyed the emotional way that Hillside was described. I had a vivid image in my mind of what the area looked like but also the emotional attachments to the area which gave me a deeper connection to the story. The destitute locations are the result of a very real potential future in which we totally lose control of our environmental destruction and essentially kill the world. We all complain about the rain but imagine a world without it. Imagine the worldwide devastation and loss. It’s nightmarishly scary. You know what’s scariest? It’s right around the corner. We have to start healing the world today, right now, with no hesitation.

A stunning apocalyptic adventure which plays on real world fears. Partnered with immensely interesting characters and a storyline that could be a streaming series, you are in for a treat with The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon.

"This is a gentle read...", "Ooh, this is weird...", "What the actual f...". These are snippets of what you would have heard if you'd been around while I was reading "The Last Storm". It's brilliant! Written superbly, the characters are solid, the plot is awesome, and the setting is one I wouldn't want to visit. I see a movie on the horizon for this one...

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Lebbon has been an autobuy author for me since reading The Silence and he never disappoints.
The Last Storm takes place in a near future where the earth is drying out, a scarily feasible concept.

Long estranged couple Jesse and Karina traverse the American desert in search of their missing daughter Ash, the last in the family line of 'Rainmakers'. Believed by most to be an urban legend, Jesse's lineage inherit the ability to bring rain to the area they inhabit. But there's something more than just water falling from the skies and Jesse couldn't control it.. but can Ash?

I didn't connect emotionally with the family but still became invested in the parents determination to overcome their past in a race to save their daughter. It's hard not to be impressed by the strength and willing sacrifices people make for their children and Lebbon depicted this well.


I'm a big fan of Lebbon's creature creations and The Last Storm has plenty in store alongside the very real threat of an uncontrollable climate.

Told in third from the perspectives of Ash, Jesse, Karina and nemesis Jimi, we switch between current and past time lines discovering the shocking truth of how the family became estranged.

The Last Storm is a fast-paced, apocalyptic revenge ride with a brutal finale. Perfect for fans of Mad Max.

The Last Storm was not the typical apocalyptic story, one void of civilization, power and life as we know it. This apocalypse felt like we just slid in to it, in small incremental events. One filled with famine, drought and the struggle to survive. Large portions of the country have become a desert and fires are consuming more and more. While many other areas of the country are unaffected. There is still power, cell phones, etc. and in this near future an abundance of electric cars. Is this how the apocalypse will start, with wildfires and areas of our country living with water shortages?
In desperate times there are desperate measures. Ash, thought to be the last rainmaker, wants to help any way she can. But her inexperience with her family’s talent leads to unexpected consequences, and rain isn’t the only thing she conjures. The rainmaker lore created by Tim Lebbon didn’t fully work for me for a majority of the book. Much of it felt half constructed and undefined, until Jesse and Ash combined their talent. I loved that, even in the worst of times, people came together to fight the fires and help one another. Even in the apocalypse humanity continues to thrive, for the most part. Except, our protagonist, Jimi who is on a lifelong path of revenge after his father is killed. He was a great character and he caused his share of destruction and death. In the end, I’m not sure if he won or lost. The Last Storm wasn’t my favorite apocalyptic story, but it was a good one. This is my favorite corner of the horror genre and I’ll always dive in when I can.

My first exposure to author Tim Lebbon was his 2020 eco-horror novel Eden.

Having been one of my reads of the first year of the pandemic, I was quietly confident about his latest effort The Last Storm.

Here Lebbon goes for a post-apocalyptic theme as the world is ravaged and changed forever following the devastating effects of climate change.

Famine and deserts are the norm across swathes of North America, with rain considered a premium or some kind of devine intervention.

We follow a young woman who has a special gift, but it comes with a price. Separated from her family, we follow Jesse and her estranged parents as they look to reunite and figure out her gift and if it could save humanity.

The Last Storm while masquerading as a post-apocalyptic thriller is very much about family and Lebbon is clearly a wordsmith when it comes to crafting interesting and engaging characters.

Much like the best horror writers, Lebbon can make seemingly everyday activities into horrific scenarios, filled with tension.

Once you get your teeth into The Last Storm, you won't want to put it down.

One of the things that I've come to enjoy about Tim Lebbon's work is that his books will feature strange horrors, dark mysteries, and warring alien creatures, but at the heart of everything it comes down to love, family, and connections. This is never more apparent than in The Last Storm, which sees a family broken by tragedy and betrayal, fighting to come back together to avert death and disaster on an epic scale.

The Last Storm transports readers to a near future, where global warming and environmental changes have ravaged parts of the world. A huge sprawl of dry and arid land, simply known as The Desert, takes up most of North America, with once rich, green land reduced to harsh environment where humans struggle to survive. Despite this, most people are still doing what they do today, pretending it's not that bad and carrying on with their life, going to the office, grabbing coffee, and scrolling social media on their phones.

There is one family who see things a little differently, however. Rainmakers. A family who has been able to summon huge rainstorms for several generations. Building a strange device, being called to each individual component, a Rainmaker will attach themselves to their apparatus, calling forth the rain from some strange realm only they can access. For generations this allowed them to do some good for the world, but when Jesse experiences a strange incident where blood begins to rain from the sky, and venomous snakes and insects fall to earth, he swears to never use his abilities again. Years later, when his daughter, Ash, experiences the same, it ends in tragedy; with Ash believed dead.

Living alone, isolated from the rest of the world, Jesse is approached by his estranged wife, Karina. Karina has been searching The Desert for sign of her daughter for years, believing her to still be alive, and she's heard stories about a young woman making it rain. Believing that it could be her only chance to see her daughter again, Karina reaches out to Jesse to help. Knowing that if it is Ash, and she is using her abilities, that it could lead to tragedy, Jesse sets out with Karina to try and save his daughter from a terrible fate.

This isn't the first time that Lebbon has given readers an eco-horror tale, he did it wonderfully with Eden in 2020, and in a lot of ways this book feels like the other side to that coin. Where Eden was filled with lush forests and wonderful vistas, The Last Storm is a barren wasteland of the dead and dying. The horror of Eden seems to be nature fighting back against humanity, and The Last Storm seems to have humanity unleashing further horrors onto the world. There's nothing to say that they're not happening in the same world, however, as I can see them taking place in the same ecologically wrecked Earth. I enjoyed how the two books had a number of similarities, yet The Last Storm approached eco-horror in such a different way, and felt more cosmic horror a lot of the time too.

The main focus of The Last Storm are the family of Rainmakers, Jesse, Karina, and Ash. Several other characters are involved in this narrative, and even end up playing major parts, but the focus is this one family. By the time we meet the three of them all of their lives have effectively been ruined. Ash has been surviving alone in The Desert for years, having believed that her father tried to kill her, and that her gift was some kind of dark curse. Karina lost her daughter, possibly for good, left her husband for what she saw as the worst betrayal, and has had to go through some awful things alone in The Desert searching for Ash. And Jesse saw his beloved gift change into an awful power, saw it kill people, and has believed that he caused the death of his daughter. To say that they're all dealing with trauma is something of an understatement.

Despite this, there are some moments of genuine joy to be found in The Last Storm, especially with Ash. She has begun to experience parts of her gifts again, with pieces of a new apparatus calling out to her. The feeling gives her hope, it allows her to hope that perhaps what happened before was down to her father, and that she might be able to do some good in a world that desperately needs it. The relationship she forms with Cee, another young woman travelling The Desert, is lovely too. A genuine friendship begins to form between them, and as their bond grows it evolves into what could be the seeds of a romantic relationship too. In a world where people have so little, where most struggle just to get by, it's lovely to see small glimmers of hope and kindness throughout the story.

I absolutely loved the horror elements in the book too, and we get small hints across the narrative of the dark powers lurking just beyond our understanding. At the climax of the book we get to see and experience some truly frightening things, and it does leave you with a few questions as to what power Ash and her father were tapping into, and what things were lurking in that other place. Because we never get given solid answers (a big part of the horror for me), and because of the nature of it I'd say that The Last Storm felt a lot more like cosmic horror for me, just one set in an awful ecological disaster of a future.

The Last Storm is a solid story, one that moves at a fast pace, shifting between several characters as the universe draws them all together for an explosive finale that will leave you shocked and reeling. There are some truly frightening moments to be found in this book, but I also think that a lot of people will find most horror in the frighteningly realistic future that Lebbon has created here.

Tim Lebbon delivers one hell of a read with his new environmental horror/thriller, The Last Storm.
Where his previous foray into the genre explored a world overrun by greenery (Eden, 2020), this latest novel takes place in a harsh dystopian future where years of drought and famine have ravaged the lands - and the only hope for rain falls to a talented few who risk all to bring watery relief to the parched townships.
It's a white-knuckle mash up of a dystopian supernatural epic and road trip thriller, with helpings of Lovecraftian interdimensional horror.
But it's also a moving story about family, destiny and finding one's self.
Lebbon explains in the introduction that this was written during the COVID lockdown, and the fear and uncertainly about our own future really seeps into this fictional world.
Fantastic in so many ways - this really is one of the must reads of the summer (or winter depending on where you are based in the world).

I've often wondered of late whether or not we'll recognize the apocalypse whenever it finally occurs. Will it be an obvious statement that the end of all that was has arrived, or merely a subtle continuation of events that have inured us and is only visible in hindsight? Tim Lebbon's The Last Storm falls into this second camp, I believe. It's arguably post-apocalyptic - a massive ecological calamity has turned much of America into the Desert with a capital D - but the apocalyptic event itself was decades upon decades in the making, and so much of life as it currently is continues apace. There's a massive drought, food scarcity, dying, withering towns, and murder aplenty - but there's also the internet and electric cars and small pockets of hope for those wandering the desolate land.

In many ways, The Last Storm reads more like a post-modern western than a straight-up post-apocalyptic horror, albeit one tinged with flashes of cosmic horror. Jesse and his daughter Ash are Rainmakers - a pair of mythical folk-legend types with the power to draw forth storms across the draught-blighted land. In order to do so, they must connect themselves to their custom-built apparatus and enter an alternate dimension. Each time they do so, rain is not the only thing they bring forth. When Jesse performs his last miracle, he draws forth alien scorpions and snakes. Ash, just beginning to discover her own powers, is an even stronger Rainmaker, a fact that scares Jesse, who is intent on stopping her -- if he can find her.

Lebbon's latest has a lot of strong elements, each centered around a fractured family coming together in the most hellacious experiences imaginable. When his ex-wife, Karina, appears on Jesse's doorstep to enlist his help in finding Ash, he's a broken man who has worked hard to rebuild a new life for himself far away from society. Ash is lost in the thrall of her growing powers, her memory fractured from the time spent in the eye of the storm. There's parallels to power and addiction (it's telling that our two Rainmakers have to connect to their apparatuses by pushing needles into their veins as they seek a fix for the world around them, and each time they use things get worse and worse for them), and the ways in which the people around you can pull you away from the its dregs or push you deeper into using. And, of course, there's revenge, in the form of Jimi, a murderous water-dealer who poisons entire communities and kills without remorse.

The altered landscape of America as a Desert presents some pitch-perfect world-building, too. Lebbon does a fantastic job imagining a 21st Century Dust Bowl, a repercussion, and natural outgrowth, of man-made climate change. While there's plenty of electric vehicles on the road, their presence was too little too late to save humanity from the ecological catastrophe it has wrought upon the world. America is a country perpetually at war with itself and with others, launching strikes against Rio de Janeiro while food riots dominate Omaha, and wildfires engulf what little else remains. It's a hard, harsh, and perpetually violent landscape that feels like the last gasp of a dying world.

It also feels like a fair warning about the possible ecological calamities to come if we don't get our act together about the realities of climate change and soon, while we still can...

The Last Storm, by author Tim Lebbon, is a beautifully brutal collision of horror, science fiction, fantasy and environmental awareness. The characters are rich and complex, the plot is unique, and the structure is engaging.

In the Last Storm, the reader is first introduced to Jesse—a man who, through genetics and a hand-made apparatus, is able to conjure rain. His power is a reflection of the world at large, so unlike his mother and grandmother (who were able to produce gentle showers in a kinder world), Jesse’s creations are fraught with scorpions and spiders that accompany a rain of water and blood. The world is succumbing to climate change, and the power of the rainmaker has become destructive and angry. Jess realizes he can no longer allow himself the luxury of practicing his craft, but his daughter, Ash, has inherited the ability. In a time that is increasingly dangerous, when earth is warming on a global scale, Ash’s belief that she can control the rain and save those in peril leads her into a storm that threatens to envelope her and the world at large.

Lebbon’s characters are well developed, with rich backstories that bring them to life. Jesse and Ash are believable even in the throes of something as far-fetched as making the heavens cry. Jesse’s almost hermit existence and the touch of madness that inhabits the mind of Ash, are revealed through the consistent integrity of their behaviors. Jesse reacts to life and those around him in ways that remain constant; Ash moves through life growing in her self-awareness. Neither ever offer any dialogue or actions that betray who Lebbon has groomed them to be. It is in this consistency that the reader loses a sense of needing to suspend disbelief and falls into the story with a conviction that yes, there ARE rainmakers. Of course there are. It’s a brilliant technique that garners and maintains reader investment.

As a reader of post-apocalyptic lit, Lebbon’s approach is a refreshing change. This isn’t an EMP taking out the grid, or a nuclear blast poisoning the earth. It’s a gorgeous, almost poetic retelling of a time in the future when death is a casual occurrence that strikes increasingly more often and with utter disregard for the sanctity of life. The devolution happens so slowly that it’s accepted as the new normal—a sobering look at a terrifying scenario resulting from global warming. The single distraction, for me, was the narrative that led to the construction of Ash’s rainmaking apparatus. It felt forced and was the only point in the book where a fourth wall came down and removed me from the action. On the other hand, the horror Lebbon unleashes through the conduit of Ash is absolutely numbing in its grotesque depiction. I actually had goosebumps and felt the need to look over my shoulder on more than one occasion.

Finally, the structure here is built in chapters that rotate between perspectives of various characters. When their stories finally intersect, the tension is positively palpable. It’s always a risk when an author attempts to build a number of storylines that eventually come together. Readers can find it difficult to follow and keep track of the changing narrative. Lebbon doesn’t suffer in his approach, as it is meticulously built in a way that makes the transitions seamless.

This is a definite must-read for those looking for something innovative, frightening and fantastical. Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing me with an ARC for review. Publication is slated for July 19, 2022.

That was intense and thrilling all the way through. Had to continually stop just to catch my breath. Great characters and the story was quite unique.

I was SO EXCITED to see that this author wrote a few of my favourites:
-The Cabin in the Woods
-Alien Trilogy
-Kong: Skull Island (the novelisation)

But sadly, I just couldn't get into it even after sticking through 1/3. I would say that this book is perfect for architects and engineers, of which I’m neither. So it didn’t entirely grip me. Literally the entire first 1/4 of the book is spent just talking about the MC building this fictional box out of random objects she found that "called" to her, which I found really boring.

I'm sorry, I really wanted to like it! Perhaps give more weight to other reviews by readers who were able to finish this one.