*3.5 Stars*

Last One to Die is a fast read with a combination of supernatural and murder mystery with a little bit of romance thrown in. When 16-year-old Niamh arrives in London for a summer drama program, she is excited for a fun-filled summer. However, she quickly discovers that there are girls being attacked that have been strikingly similar to her. Her refuge from the attacks is her summer work at the Victorian Museum where she meets Tommy. As the attacks continue, Niamh must find out who is behind these attacks before she is next.

This was a fun book to read. I enjoyed the Victorian Museum and the history behind it. If this place was a real museum, I would visit it in a heartbeat. The investigation into the attacks was interesting and I enjoyed trying to figure how the attacks were related to Niamh. However, I felt that the ending was lackluster and somewhat predictable. Overall, this book had fun characters with some paranormal elements that I enjoyed.

Last One to Die comes out March 5th, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's Publishing for the opportunity to review Last One to Die.

I love young adult mystery thrillers. This one had a lot of twists and turns I didn’t see coming, and I loved the mysterious aspect.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me the ability to read a review copy early. I enjoyed Last One to Die, and the supernatural twist on it. The main character was an unreliable narrator, which is actually one of my favorite parts of a thriller. I would certainly recommend this to my friends.

Niamh has just arrived in London for a six-week theater course. She's a quirky Irish kid who's excited to be on her own for the first time and ready to dig her heels into some serious acting. And then the murders begin. And the murdered girls look a lot like Niamh.

Niamh is a very likable character. As an American, I got to explore London right along with her as she marveled at the sights of a new an unfamiliar city. And, ya know, dodged a killer. The setting has a very cool old-school London vibe, as the past blends into the present while Niamh works as a guide in the Victorian Museum.

This book is still a fun whodunit and I enjoyed Niamh's detective work as she tried to solve the murders while staying out of their crosshairs.

I thought this was a fun and spooky supernatural thriller. Throughout the story, as Niamh is being stalked and all the poor people she is trying to make friends with are attacked, and some killed, you could feel the unease. I loved the supernatural angle, and how all that and the ending played out. I liked Niamh, even though she didn't always make the smart decision, and while I did see some things coming it still kept me engaged and entertained. I loved the twists and turns it took, I flew through this in just a few hours, and will definitely read whatever this author comes out with.

Last one to die is a YA thriller with a bit of paranormal horror as well. Niamh is a teen from Ireland who gets the opportunity to go to London for a drama course. While she’s there, there’s a serial killer on the loose and all of the victims look just like Niamh. Niamh must team up with her friends and figure out the truth before she is the next victim.

This was a fun YA book. It was definitely predictable but it didn’t take away from my experience. I find a lot of YA predictable but I still enjoy reading it. It was a quick read that I enjoyed. The characters made some bad choices but seeing as they’re teenagers, I feel like it made sense. London was described in a great scenic way and I enjoyed the historical aspects sprinkled in. We had some connection to Jack the Ripper as well which I thought was an interesting plot point.

I do wish the horror parts were a bit more scary. I do realize it is YA though so it wasn’t a huge complaint from me. If would suggest this for people who like YA. Non YA readers probably won’t enjoy this one as much since you have to suspend disbelief for a lot of it.

I had a fun time reading it! Thanks so much to netgalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I had read a previous book by this author so I was very excited to read this one. But honestly it was very hard to care about the character. The other people died way too fast for me to get into it.

16 year old Niahm leaves Ireland for a London-based drama camp. Having left without parental support, cash-strapped Niahm soon encounters violent acts that seem to occur to anyone around her.

The London setting was my favorite part--grounding the story in the history of the city. All the characters seemed a bit "convenient", the librarian's daughter who has TONS of history and medical knowledge, the front desk guy acting in loco parentis, the oh-so-cute yet mysterious guy working with Niahm, the overtly creepy librarian assistant who stares through windows and befriends Miss Popular. Plus, Niahm's family! Her parents just let her stay in a foreign country? Her (younger) sister does what she wants? It's just all too neatly aligned just to make the plot work.

As for the violence killer story, it's ok. Niahm continuing to traverse a new city on her own is a bit shocking, and her lack of funds/food adds to her unreliability as a narrator who's being toyed with. Pacing was decent enough, but character development could definitely be improved. Still, it was a quick, easy read that fits a YA world without being too dark.

Overall: 3 stars (I liked it)

I'll tell my students about: language, drugs, alcohol, violence/gore/death, supernatural

**Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

Niamh, an Irish high school student, comes to London to attend a drama course she's been extremely excited for. Not long after she arrives, she learns there's a scholarship she can apply for and once she graduates, she can return to attend a full course. Things definitely seem to be looking up - that is until it appears that any girl she befriends is killed or injured in a gruesome fashion. Other students at the drama school begin to react negatively to this, accusing Niamh of being responsible for the events, perhaps even placing a 'curse' on anyone who wants to be her friend.

Niamh is glad when her work study comes up and she's assigned to a place called The Victorian Street Museum - a completely preserved Victorian street, right down to timers on the lights that bring on dawn, dusk, and night time. Niamh is assigned to dress up as a Victorian heiress named Jane who she resembles in an almost uncanny fashion. Dressed up in her new finery, she meets another performer named Tommy who is extremely taken with her. It seems she's found her fairy tale prince. At the same time, a creepy guy starts following her around campus and she has a sneaking suspicion that he has something to do with the attacks happening to all the other girls - girls who seem to bear a resemblance to her. Will Niamh be next, or can she solve the mystery and stop the attacks?

This book was interesting and had a good premise. I was attached to Niamh very soon after being introduced to her and felt for her when bad things began to happen around her. I also liked Tommy and felt for him and his tragic story. I do wish there'd been some indication that Will was anything other than a creepy stalker - his last act 180 felt a little forced. I think I would have bought it more if it had been someone we hadn't even been introduced to, someone who'd been watching from the shadows.

Other than that, I know there were supernatural elements advertised, but there are things I prefer never to meddle with. Ouija boards fall under that heading. I also feel like unfortunately, this is something that's becoming a bit common these days as an element in stories - as if the whole thing is benign. I don't think that's accurate, and the author in me feels like it's a convenient plot contrivance. 'Oh this existed in this time, and it exists now so I can use it to tell the character things they shouldn't know otherwise.' I feel like there were enough things in this story to make it interesting without something like this being present. I also wish that the book had leaned more heavily into the Spring-Heeled Jack connection. There is all kinds of interesting lore surrounding this character - but ultimately the author seemed to settle for telling us that most of it was made up and only using one element of it. This disappointed me. I felt like all of the Victorian connections and a scary urban legend were right there - so many connections to be taken advantage of, but the author didn't. It feels like a huge missed opportunity.

Ultimately, this book was 3 stars out of five for me. It was okay, but I can't help thinking that it could have been great. Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for the advanced reader's copy. This is a voluntary review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

This book is marketed as 'One of Us is Lying" meets "This Lie Will Kill You" but with a chilling supernatural twist that will keep you guessing until the very end, so I had high hopes for it. The problem is, it didn't live up to the hype. I don't know what exactly got on my nerves about it, but there was something that made it hard to finish. I just felt like there was something missing throughout the book - maybe it needed to be longer to flesh out the story a little more. I didn't love it, but I've got some kids that will, so I'm planning on purchasing it for my library collection.

Niamh is a sixteen-year-old girl away from home for the first time at a summer theater program in London. She’s excited to make new friends and explore the city, except her new friends keep getting murdered, which is kind of a buzzkill, especially when she realizes they all kind of look like her and that maybe that’s not a coincidence. To distract herself, Niamh throws herself into a flirtation with the handsome Tommy, who she meets volunteering at the Victorian Street Museum, where they dress up like 1800s people and do in-character tours. But her job becomes a different kind of distraction when Niamh sees a portrait of the Victorian girl she’s acting as and realizes they could be twins.

This is marketed as being a retro slasher vibe similar to “Scream”, “Urban Legend”, and “One Of Us is Lying” (all of which I love) but with a supernatural twist. Unfortunately, the twist was extremely obvious even from the blurb. I had assumed that was a decoy and was excited to see the reveal, only to be like “oh.” So I guess that’s on me for reading and watching too many things similar to this, but what a bummer. I had fun reading this but I think having it just be either a traditional slasher or lean more into the supernatural than it did would’ve worked better for me. I had a lot of questions about the logistics and details that didn’t make sense to me still after reading, which took me out of the story some. I think this would make a better movie than book, actually, because I can see the visuals being fun enough to distract from some of the blurrier plot areas.

This is a fun, quick read that could be a good distraction for a flight if you like cheesy horror movies and thrillers, but if you’re an avid reader of the genre you won’t find anything surprising here. Now I’m off to re-watch Urban Legend again. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I'm not usually big on thrillers but I liked this one and it did a good job at creating a constant sense of unease. The plot was at times predictable in terms of characters but there was a surprise once or twice.

I really enjoyed this book! Niamh just wants to live her life in London and not be worried about the series of murders going around. But when all the victims look like her, it's hard to ignore it. I really liked the plot of this book and the characters! It was a great read.

Thank you to netgalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for allowing me to read this book. Overall, this book was okay.

I really wanted to like this book. The cover is quite deceiving and seems more modern than necessary given the actual plot and setting. The first half moved very quickly and we never really get to know any of the characters. The main character, Niamh didn’t really connect with me and we don’t really get a lot of information to want to support her. The deaths just happen so quickly. I did like the descriptions of the library and museums, where most of the story takes place. The plot twist didn’t really work and it felt a little forced. And the end was really abrupt. The potential love interests seemed to lead the entire plot. The supernatural elements were also a little convenient and didn’t seem as if they were a natural part of the world. I love Victorian literature, especially Wilkie Collin’s and Charles Dickens, but this take on a historical thriller just needed a bit more.

I'm giving this more stars than it deserves probably because it was easy to read, but this was so disappointing. I know it was YA but the characters were still really juvenile. The plot was also basically a trope that has been done a million times before, and better. Most of the characters were stereotypes and none of them were smart and none of them had a sense of self-preservation. The ending didn't make sense because the lead-up didn't support it.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

I have mixed feelings about this one. There are things that I really loved and some that didn’t work so well for me. The concepts of this story are so good. I love the supernatural elements and the lore behind the mystery. I enjoyed the setting, especially the Victorian museum. There are some really terrifying scenes that I wish had more page time to really ramp up the creep factor. I like a fast-paced story, but there were some elements that went by at break-neck speed and needed more time to develop, more time for us to really engage and experience what was happening. I even really liked the characters. But overall it lacked a certain amount of depth that I would have liked. I wanted things to be more fleshed out, like the relationships and some of the explanations for things. Without giving any spoilers, I found the concepts and the way things progressed/ended to be so intriguing. I’m still torn on how to feel about it. I think it was in the delivery that I got disconnected from the story. It is a YA, so I won’t fault it for feeling juvenile at times. But even if I was in the age-range for its intended audience, I still think that I would have found it kinda cheesy sometimes. I think this story had a lot of potential, but didn’t necessarily come through in the execution of it. Personally, I think it would have been a fantastic adult thriller instead. There were a couple twists I wasn’t expecting, but for the most part it was relatively predictable. Overall, it’s a solid three-star for me. I’m not sure if I would read something from this author again. I probably would if it wasn't a young adult, or if it had a premise that just really grabbed my attention.

Oh, goodness! This incredibly eerie and unsettling book was a wild ride.

A perfect blend of historical intrigue, supernatural elements, and brilliant storytelling.

The characters are incredible, the writing is superb, and the story is just fantastic. I adored Naimh, and Derek is truly something. This ticks all the right boxes for me, and I'm craving more stories like this!

When I first picked up this book I was thinking thriller murder mystery. But it is all that, with a touch of supernatural. Niamh is a young lady who goes to London for an acting course. The minute she arrives her life is turned upside down and brought into the supernatural story of a tragic love story gone wrong. This was a quick and easy read.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.