SOMEONE MAKE THIS ONE INTO A MOVIE!

What a story! I could not turn the pages fast enough. I just had to know what would happen next.
I think as others have said before the less you know about this one the better. Just go with the flow!

Caroline (Caz) and her boyfriend Pete are travelling on an ocean liner across the Atlantic. The first night of the cruise after dinner and drinks they head off to bed. The next day Caz wakes up alone in bed. Pete is nowhere to be found. She soon realizes no one is left on the ship. She is frantic and so this crazy but good story begins!

I just loved that ending! Really fitting! I'll be sure to pick-up another book by Will Dean. I really enjoyed his storytelling.

I still don't know what to think about the ending. My mind is truly reeling and I love that for me. The middle dragged but overall this was a great read. I would love to hear why the author ended this the way he did.

Entertaining book with a crazy story. It keeps you questioning what is happening until the very end. I enjoyed this book. Thank you netgalley for the ARC.

This book has SO much potential. At the beginning I was definitely getting Ghost Ship vibes. Did I love the reality TV twist? I’m honestly not sure. I enjoyed the Death Race vibes. I go back and forth between loving and hating the actors playing unknowing passengers. I HATED her boyfriend. What a lousy POS he was! I also go back and forth between loving and hating the ending. I am conflicted even after days of sitting with this one!

This one is really hard to rate due to the fact that I loved the first half of the book but was really disappointed with the big twist and the second half. The setting was a luxury cruise ship. We meet Caz and Pete, a young couple who are on vacation. Suddenly, Caz is alone. Pete is gone as are all the other passengers and crew. Is Caz really alone? And what happened to all the people? I cannot give anything away though the real story is pretty out there. And the very end was just too bizarre. I was actually traveling on a cruise ship as I was reading this one which made it a little more interesting!

Caz and Pete are middle aged, and have been dating for a while. They are going on a cruise - Caz is very excited about this, since she has worked hard for years in her own business, and a vacation with Pete, especially, makes her very happy. She and Pete meet an unpleasant woman at dinner but otherwise all is marvelous on their first day aboard.

Then Caz wakes up the next day, and Pete is gone. She leaves her cabin and there is no one around. It's a huge ship, and she is panicking as she searches her deck, the dining area, other decks, and finds no one. No passengers. No staff.

Eventually she finds a handful of other people, mostly passengers, with one staff member. None of them have any explanation. They soon find, however, that they are in great danger.

This is a locked room mystery with a lot of twists and turns. It's a brilliant book but horrifying also. I've never wanted to go on a cruise, and now have another reason to avoid them.

I received an e-ARC of this book from the publisher Atria Books via NetGalley, and voluntarily read and reviewed it.

Tense, impossible, nail-biting, dramatic… and certainly unpredictable. From the moment I read those first few chapters I knew I wouldn’t be stopping – I needed to know how this would play out. How does an entire cruise ship of passengers and crew just disappear into thin air? Well… read this book and you’ll find out exactly how.

The storyline is complex, for a book that has so little characters (no spoilers, a whole cruise ship of passengers LITERALLY disappears) it is incredibly full. Of what? Well, secrets, lies, challenges, darkness and so much more. It’s also a book that will have you craving the isolation…but only for a short while. Then, the lights go out.
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I went into The Last One completely blind and I thought that was the perfect way to dive into it. So, just stop reading now if you enjoy fast-paced unique thriller/suspense plots and just add to your TBR. This is the first book I’ve read by Will Dean, though I have his earlier novel, First Born, on my physical TBR shelf, and will be getting to that one sooner rather than later!

This book has total 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘳 vibes— but with a cruise ship setting— so this will be right up your alley if you’re into that show or ones like it. It sucked me in from the very beginning and I just had to keep going to find out what in the world was happening. I planned on sharing more about the main character Caz and her struggles on this ship, but I honestly feel you should just jump right in. The full synopsis is short for a reason. There are some big twists and turns that are pretty shocking and I don’t want to ruin the element of surprise! Oh and that ending… woah. That’s all I’ll say about that.

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
🕰️ Short chapters
📺 Reality TV
🤯 Mind games
🔒 Locked room mystery
📄 Fast paced, page turning thrillers

A huge thank you to @netgalley and @atriabooks for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars. I liked the premise of this book, and some parts of this book were good, but overall it didnt work for me. Caz and Pete were taking a much needed vacation and Caz wakes up the next morning and everyone is gone and she’s trying to figure out what happened. This book started off good, but the ending just wasn’t for me.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

I went into The Last One expecting a book similar to The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. While it definitely started with similar vibes it quickly took a very different direction. This book had me questioning everything and everyone. I could not have guessed these plot twists. And the ending left me with my jaw on the floor. It was a very entertaining read, though, I do think it was a little longer than it needed to be.

I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Prepare for a non-stop, heart-pounding, action-packed thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This was a wild ride! The anxiety-inducing plot and short chapters will leave you craving more, making it impossible to put this book down. It's definitely a binge-worthy experience, and I'm genuinely sad that it's over.

One of the best thrillers I've read in a long time, but be prepared for a truly criminal ending. What was that? How could you do that to us, Will Dean?

3.5⭐
Genre ~ thriller
Setting ~ The Atlantic Ocean
Publication date ~ August 8, 2023
Page Count ~ 445 (133 chapters)
Audio length ~ 12 hours 48 minutes
Narrator ~ Jenny Funnell
POV ~ single 1st, present tense
Featuring ~ locked room, being stranded, short chapters

Loved that there was a picture of the RMS Atlantica showing us where everything is located that we'll read about.

Caroline's/Caz's boyfriend, Pete, has booked them on a cruise. How exciting! But when she wakes up the first morning she seems to be the only passenger. She starts to freak out and frantically goes deck to deck and room to room to find any signs of life. Is she really stuck out here in the middle of the ocean all alone? Where could everyone have vanished to in the night?! Luckily she finds 3 out of the 1,000 passengers, so she's not alone.

This one started out great for me and the tension was high. I expected to be on the edge of my deck chair throughout and I liked this one well enough, but I wasn't as thrilled about where the plot takes us as I hoped I would be. It was really long, but the chapters were short, so that helped me stay interested. The cover is eye catching. The last chapter did make me intrigued to see what this author writes next.

I started out reading this one, then saw it was available on Libby, so I listened to some of it while I scrubbed my bathroom grout with a toothbrush.
Narration notes:
Jenny did fine for Caz, but her other characters were meh. I especially could not stand when she spoke for the 60 year old man, Smith, oof.

I have enjoyed the story that Will Dean crafts and creates. I'm about halfway through this book and I still have no idea what will happen which is a quality of his thrillers that I love! Once finishing this one I plan on reading First Born (his first novel) and have no doubt it will be a big hit for me as well.

A great summer thriller- atmospheric, claustrophobic, whodunit that had me on the edge of my seat. Well written and richly developed- with an intense build and a satisfying ending I didn't see coming. I love it when a thriller can suprise me or suspend my disbelief. Entertaining read overall

I thought this book's concept was very intriguing but it was a little too slow for me. The ending though. I mean, what the heck! I am interested in reading more from this author.

When I skim to the end of a book, I don't often post about it.
However, my experience with The Last One lends to listing pros and cons.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for my eARC for review.
Caz and her new-ish bf Pete board a cruise ship and when she wakes up the next morning, absolutely nothing is as it was the day before.
Pros:
- short chapters usually ending on a cliffhanger.
- unique take on a locked-room (ship) mystery.
- a big twist happens very early on to set the stage for what's to come, then another about 1/3 in.
- the ending - yikes!
Cons:
- after the first few chapters, the action wasn't sustained for me.
- I really enjoyed the author's previous The Last Thing To Burn, but this didn't work for me like that one did.
- much longer than I anticipated, with characters I never really connected with.
- a lot of ruminating from Caz about her family life that bogged the story down for me.
But don't go by my opinions. There are many a mixed review on this one, so check it out for something different!
Released on Aug. 8.

My first Will Dean! This concept was pure insanity but I had to keep reading to see what happened next. The middle dragged a bit but once I hit the last quarter I could not put it down. The characters were unique and the ending was enraging yet satisfying. Would definitely read anything else by this author!

This was a gripping, suspenseful, anxiety inducing thriller and I loved every moment of it!!! After reading this I have no intention of boarding a cruise ship ever. The twist kept me up ant night turning the pages and the ending jaw dropping good. Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my review.

Loved this book! The premise was insane. A woman wakes up on her vacation on a cruise to find that she’s alone. What the hell is going on!! My only issue with this book was the slow start. I considered not finishing because I was bored for a while. But I’m glad I didn’t because I loved it. The ending was absolutely perfect for me but I can see how a lot people might not love it