This one is a tough one for me. While I did enjoy the act of reading it & I was genuinely intrigued by the first 2/3 of the book… the last bit fell short for me. I found myself with more questions than answers and the pacing felt a bit rushed at the end. I do think it was perfect for spooky season but it just wasn’t my favorite overall.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I love Jennifer Dugan but this one fell flat for me. It wasn't what I expected. I was hoping for more of a teen slasher with romance. I wanted it to be more about the massacre at the camp but it was more about the trauma after the fact. That was interesting but not what I expected. The book also didn't end the way I had expected it to, which I guess is a good thing because I didn't see it coming. There were moments I enjoyed but a lot that I just didn't feel a connection towards. That being said, I'm still glad I read it. Just wish it had been more of the horror.

content warning: death/murder, violence, suicidal thoughts, toxic relationship

I haven't read many queer YA books but I was intrigued by the summer camp setting as well as the book being a psychological thriller. I enjoyed the premise of this book but since I have read a few others that are similar (the murder mystery camp setting has been done quite a bit, my favorite was Sager's The Last Time I Lied) this book struggled to hold my full attention. I understand that I am probably not the targeted audience but I still enjoyed being able to read this one!

I love final girl books, so I really wanted to like this one but I didn’t from the beginning. I found both Sloan and Cherry very annoying. I was interested in the cult aspect, but it wasn’t used in a good way at all. The ending was also awful! You could’ve just made Sloan go crazy without killing Cherry too! There were way too many questions that didn’t get answered.

amazing premise—wish it was executed better! 😕

the premise of this book is just TOO good. I really wish there were more flashbacks throughout and the reveals were spread out a little differently. Cherry and Sloan were soooo toxic but I actually found their dynamic refreshing for a YA book. The ending to me felt super rushed and wanted more of a resolution. I will say this book had be guessing until the very end and kept me engaged throughout.

I would probably give this about 3⭐️ still. I think Jennifer is an amazing/talented writer who I am hoping continues in this genre because there is so much potential!!

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I am a huge final girls trope fan! I always request any books that fall into this category. I loved how this one did but also had its own spin to it. It was a little slow to start but it picked up and I didn’t want to put it down!

The last girls standing by Jennifer Dugan is a queer Ya thriller and it was one of my most anticpaited reads for the month of August but in November I just now got to it! Sorry Penguin Teen! But before I give u my full thoughts I want to say thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me a e-arc & physical arc, all thoughts and opions are my own!

Let's begin the review shall we?? So this is a ya thriller debut and I was really looking forward to reading it but tbh it was kind of a let down for me! I still enjoyed it so don't get me wrong but I gave it a 3.5/5 stars and I think it might've been the audiobook fault because it wasn't adding in the creepy factor that I wanted.
What I did enjoyed was the queer rep we had and our two main characters, also there was a shocking twist that I didn't see coming! So we follow our two main characters Solan & Cherry and they are complete strangers until they both go to this summer camp out in the woods. What could go wrong?? So this is also a slasher story with a killer on the loose and so solan lost her memory and cherry is with her to help her gain her memories back, there was some intense scene between the two ladies because if u didn't know they are a couple in this book!

The ending was problaly my favorite part of the book because I wasn't excpeting a character to die in this even though its a ya thriller! I overall gave it 3.5/5 stars. Sad this is my lowest rating by this author but looking forward to reading more from Jennifer Dugan! Once again thank u to penguin teen for sending me an e-arc and a physical arc and I can't wait to contiune working with you guys! Happy reading!!(:

I absolutely loved this book. It's the first book I've read with an unreliable narrator, and it was a very fun ride. I was questioning and theorizing right up to the very end. It was not what I expected, but in the best way.

At first, I was into this book. I was intrigued by the idea and the direction it was taking. It seemed like a standard murder plot but we're looking into motivations, maybe conspiracy. That narrative shift though, is a bit tiring. And the characters have little depth which makes it hard to keep reading. And the final turn complete unravels the plot.

I started mentally checking out when the author decided we needed to spend precious reading time even 10% of the way in to the story watching the main character unpack her toiletries--her SECRET brand deodorant and her NIKE outfits, no less--and discuss the importance of serums and sunblock, but then the cringey Gen Z conversations (or, LBR, probably a fellow Millennial trying to write Gen Z style conversations) had me losing all interest in continuing. A mixture of It's Not For Me as an Old reading YA and also just not very snappy writing. I also skimmed to see the end and confirmed that this is an unreliable narrator type story, which...isn't my personal jam. Oh well, I tried!

Though I recognized the titles of some of her previous works—Hot Dog Girl and Some Girls Do, as well as her graphic novel Coven—this was the first book I’ve actually read by author Jennifer Dugan, and I was instantly surprised by how real, how genuine her young protagonists felt. I also admired how she weaved a taut narrative throughout the book’s 300ish pages that kept me guessing until the very end.

Described as a “queer YA psychological thriller,” The Last Girls Standing takes elements from the slasher film genre—both the final girl and the masked killer—and mixes in a heaping helping of conspiracy horror for a fresh new take.

It tells the story of Sloan and Cherry, two survivors of a summer camp massacre that left all their fellow counselors dead. Picking up well after the chilling event itself, the girls are now bonded in love and trauma, even as they try to sort out their complicated, conflicting feelings of survivor’s guilt.

As our heroines comb news sites and Reddit communities trying and make sense of the slaughter, a solitary revelation threatens to tear them apart. At its heart is a sinister eco-cult with an apocalyptic vision, and the further Sloan digs, the more it begins to seem like Cherry and her mother (and perhaps even Sloan’s own birth parents) may be involved.

Dugan ably walks a narrative tightrope between supernatural prophecy and simple self-delusion, between banal coincidence and malicious gaslighting, right up to the book’s abrupt and startling conclusion, but along the way, she also paints a picture of a hungry, tragic young love and of two very different families dealing with the same great tragedy.

Does Cherry’s free-spirited, bohemian mom understand more than she lets own? Does Sloan’s comparatively milquetoast adoptive family object to her shared obsession with a cadre of animal-masked, machete-wielding killers, or is it Sloan’s queer identity that truly makes them so uncomfortable?

These questions and more bubble over in the third act and, to her credit, the author leaves the bulk of their answers up to the reader to decide. This makes for a brutal, ambivalent ending that certainly won’t please everyone, but I found it to be a satisfying big swing—especially in a literary landscape where publishers seem to want either A) a tidy resolution or B) an obvious setup for a sequel.

The Last Girls Standing offers neither, and I feel the book is all the better for it.

I had a lot of fun with The Last Girls Standing, but by no means is it Jennifer Dugan's best work. I am excited to see how she develops further as a writer in the genre.

I am a really big fan of Jennifer Dugan's YA romcoms. This however did not work for me. It felt like a 300 page psychotic break. Even if that's what Dugan was going for, I don't think she did it well. Also, the MC's relationship with her girlfriend was so codependent and toxic but I never felt like that was addressed.

I would not recommend this one, but I will continue to read her other works.

I loved the beginning and the premise, but the third act seemed very rushed and unsatisfying. I don't think it's a writing issue because I liked the build up very much and there was mystery and loneliness and a spooky air in every page, but the third act was utterly unsatisfying and I think it's an editing issue.

The unreliable narrator trope is a hard, but deserving trope to pull off. However, this book did not do that. It took me over the course of weeks to finally finish this book, and I still have no recollection of what happened. The characters were annoying, and only half built, and the plot was severely lacking. I am always look for good books with LGBTQIA+ representation, so it is a shame that this book could not be one of those.

✨ 5 STARS ✨

i genuinely loved this book a lot. it had a slower start for me but once it picked up, i was obsessed. the story follows cherry and sloan, a set of girlfriends who survive a mass murder together at their summer camp. sloan is numb, lost with no memories with only cherry to guide her with hers. as they try to go back to being normal people, sloan spirals trying to gain her own memories back and trying to find all the answers to their victimization, always needing more. after all, they were the last girls standing.

i loved seeing queer teens in a thriller book. all of the characters had enough depth to them to make you question the massacre and want answers yourself, following along with sloan as she was trying to piece her world back together. the twist at the end was amazing and as i understand why it ended the way it did, i definitely wished there was more.

overall, it was a great book for being the author’s first thriller and it is one of those books that would be a great movie or tv show, which i always seem to enjoy.

Small spoilers:
Having read all of Jennifer Dugan's YA romances, I was really excited to see something new from the author and holy hell is this something different. The only two survivors of a summer camp killing spree by a doomsday cult, Sloan and Cherry are just trying to recover. This is easier said than done for Sloan who is left with so many questions after she blacked out her memories of the night. In a desperate hunt to find answers, Sloan begins to fall down a tangled web of the cult's making and unfortunately, Cherry must be involved somehow.

This book was so different from anything Dugan's released in the past. With YA thrillers growing in popularity, it is no surprise an established teen author would try her hand at the genre, but I will say, this is something different than I've seen from the genre. While I knew this book was going to lean to psychological thriller, I did not see Sloan's descent into madness coming. I thought I knew where it was going from the very beginning, but I was not prepared for how far she would fall. Dugan's ability to keep the reader questioning until the very end is a marvel and I cannot wait to see what more the author has in store.

I feel like most of my frustration with the new Jennifer Dugan novel stems from the way it was marketed.

I was under the impression that we were in for a gory horror thrill ride in the vein of “Final Girls Support Group.” But “The Last Girls Standing” is not your typical slasher.

In fact, the book starts weeks after Sloan and her girlfriend Cherry emerge as the sole survivors of a ruthless sleepaway camp massacre.

“The Last Girls Standing” is more of a character study than a psychological thriller, focusing primarily on Sloan’s recovery after trauma, and the setbacks she experiences as a result of her selective memory loss and paranoia.

The writing was strong, as to be expected from this author, but there were definitely some cringy moments throughout, especially surrounding mental health professionals.

And the end is just bonkers.

3.5/5⭐️

I’m very conflicted in how I feel about this book. On the one hand, it’s a sapphic horror thriller about a summer camp massacre - what’s not to love? Also, I did NOT see the ending coming at all. That being said, the ending left me feeling unsatisfied in a way and whether that’s by design or not, I wish there was a more resolute and satisfying ending. It just gave more of a commentary on trauma and recovery than psychological thriller twist ending, which is fine but not what it was marketed as nor what I was expecting.

In summary, this was an enjoyable YA mystery with a queer storyline but an unsatisfying ending that leaves readers (or at least me) wishing it was more psychological slasher and less mental trauma focused.

If you’re looking for queer Friday the 13th (which I ALWAYS am), this unfortunately is not quite it but still a good read!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jennifer Dugan's previous YA queer romance novels, including "Hot Dog Girl" and "Some Girls Do." When I discovered that she had ventured into the thriller genre, drawing inspiration from 80s teen slashers like Friday the 13th while incorporating queer/LGBTQ representation, I was instantly intrigued. Without reading any comments or reviews, I eagerly embarked on this chilling ride, ready to be captivated.

Throughout the narrative, Dugan skillfully pays homage to the classic 80s slashers, weaving in references and nods that will delight horror aficionados. As a fan of those iconic movies myself, I relished in the familiar tropes and atmosphere that she expertly recreated. It's evident that Dugan has a deep appreciation for the genre, and her homage to the era shines through.