Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of Last House by Jessica Shattuck!

A family saga with some twist and turns. Two generations and the obvious way they see things differently, it is written so well you know all the family and grieve and celebrate with them.

Last Houst by Jessica Shattuck
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This story follows two generations of a family who own a house nicknamed Last House. Nick Taylor is a WWII veteran who now works for the oil business. He buys last house to have a safe place for his growing family. Later we follow his daughter, Katherine, who has a whole different set of values from her parents.
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This was a tough one for me. I love family dramas normally. But I prefer more everyday drama and this leaned strongly on the main differences between the parents and kids being more politically driven. Those types of stories aren’t as entertaining to me and tend to get me more riled up or bored.

Also Katherine was exceptionally annoying.

Often when there are strong political themes in a book it is somewhat obvious what political views the author holds dear as they make the opposite side look like idiots and extremely unlikeable characters. Last House didn’t seem like that type of book to me because at the end I still didn’t know what type of political message was trying to be said.

2⭐️⭐️ Not for me. This was a sad book that felt a little lost.

This is a family story that spans three generations from the 50's to the near future. I liked the earlier years covered more than the later years. Climate change its one of the themes in the novel, and how it is handled can be heavy handed at times.

Unfortunately, I did not finish. I tried several times and it just wasn’t a book I could get into.
I did love the cover, but I just wasn’t interested in the story.

I found this story interesting initially, but about half way through, it became an arduous task to finish. I'm not sure I like how everything gets wrapped up quite neatly in the last couple of chapters.

I am really sorry to be direct, but this might be the most boring book I read this year. I can see what the author's intent was, but the execution is horribly poor. The book lacks a thread or something that really entices the reader. I love intergenerational stories, but the way we follow primarily Katherine and we never get a resolution is so annoying. She acknowledges to us the reader that she underestimated her mother, but she never talks about it to her mother. She sees her own parents racism, but they never address it, they acknowledge the influence of oil in Iran but again this never goes anywhere. Basically this book explores important issues but keeps it at a surface level. It sounds like a wannabe woke literature.

I am more annoyed at the description of this book as "an ambitious historical epic", I was expecting a great tale following a family through 3 generations, but it's not that!

Last House was described as a multi generational sort of epic story (at least that’s what I got from the description) and it did cover 2 generations with a couple more rushed through at the end. But that’s the only thing “rushed” about this book. Otherwise, it was just almost painfully slow. The storyline was boring and the characters underdeveloped. Why didn’t we learn more about Bet in the years before she met Nick? I imagine her as an interesting and strong woman but who knows? I guess the reader knowing her as a housewife and mother is realistic for the 1950s and maybe that’s the point. The author did a good job of portraying the events and conflicts in the 1960s and Katherine’s character was developed pretty well. Overall, the book was slow and plodding and what kept me reading was the foreshadowing about Harry. His role added the only interest to the book even though we never really got good insight into his character. The book fell flat.

Last House was a thought-provoking, multi-generational story that explored trauma, family, and social justice. I thought it did an excellent job of exploring the themes and providing excellent characterization. I gave this book a four out of five star rating because I enjoyed it and would recommend it to a friend, but wouldn't read it again.

🌅🗝️ LAST HOUSE by Jessica Shattuck filled that reading void for me this month in this 5 ⭐️ read.

📖 Thank you @williammorrowbooks for the complimentary book!

read this book if you love—
🛶 books with a strong sense of place
✍🏼 beautiful writing with a lot of quotable lines
🪨 books about geo-politics and social justice
🏡 books about siblings and parent/child relationships
🕰️ books that span a lot of time
🗣️ multiple character POVs

thoughts —This is literary historical fiction BUT really what I mean is that this book is slow, sprawling, layered, and very character driven - so I want folks to know that going in! It took me a while to even remember that we had a plot that we were circling around - and we DO end up getting back to the plot, or “the point” by the end of the novel, which I thought was done brilliantly, but you have to love family sagas and character driven books to get to that end goal and enjoy the overall process. This book is very political as well which I really enjoyed! There is deep level of geo-politics, social politics and a really interesting dichotomy between the parents and the children. The son, Harry, who is a quiet character that has this through line throughout the narrative, but you don’t really know what role he is going to play, but his character was my favorite 🥹🩵🫶🏻 If you couldn’t tell, I really loved this one. I think if you love multi-generational family sagas with a robust historical setting and plot, then you could really love this. A 5 star read for me!

A family saga reminiscent of Ann Patchett novels like The Dutch House. I enjoyed this story woven through the centuries. I did not connect well with the characters, so the story was not as powerful for me.

This was a very dry read for me. I had to stop it and read something else them try to read this book again. It seemed to drag on and on. It took me forever to read this book.

The characters were drawn and the scenes were well developed. Just not my type of book I guess.

2.5 — an ambitious, disjoined story that ultimately fell a little flat for me. I neither like nor dislike this book strongly enough.

Originally, I gave this book three stars because I felt it bogged down in the beginning of the book and was missing some elements of Harry's back story and thoughts that would have enriched the book, but I revised the rating because two weeks after I read it - I am still thinking about it!

What I liked:
1. The richness of the story and the characters - we see them over the span of 70 years and the generational impact of family that we don't even meet is evident and really fascinating.
2. The setting - "Last House" - a strong anchor in the book representing so much for each of the members of the family.
3. The messaging - each character has a different one for us and yet in the end is it really one message?

What I wished was different:
1. Short beginning - it was a very, very slow start!
2. Harry - we get his insights from others but would love to have had his voice be stronger.


Many thanks to William Morrow for the digital review copy via NetGalley.

This book is a multigenerational family saga. I was a bit unsure about this one from the start, but it actually hooked me very early on. I really liked Bet's chapters, but as the book went on, I started having a hard time staying interested. I found myself skimming although I wanted to know what happened. I just couldn't invest my full attention to the book. The pacing was uneven for me, and I think (as I enjoy faster paced books) that was the main struggle.

I think this book will find it's readers, but I don't think it's for everyone.

I will say that this was very well written, and the author is talented.

This novel is not plot-driven or character-driven but ideas-driven, and while I found the ideas expressed through its characters very compelling, it lacked an emotional connection to them that for me created a reading experience I'm not sure I'd say I enjoyed. I'd absolutely read something else by her though.

This family saga covers three generations over 70 years.
Last house was built in Vermont and after WWII, Nick Taylor, a lawyer for American Oil, buys a second home in a Vermont enclave near one of his buddy's home. Carter, his friend is a Yale grad, who probably works for the CIA. Elizabeth (Bet), Nick's wife, is a Vassar grad who worked as a codebreaker during WWII. They have 2 children -Catherine and Harry.
The story follows the family though the Cold War, when Nick and Carter go to Iran to broker a deal for oil imports and later when the Shah has a lavish party. Meanwhile Bet stays home, and edits a women's magazine for the local women's club. The author pays homage to The Greatest Generation with all of the accomplishments.
Moving onto the Vietnam era and 1968 when Catherine writes for a radical newspaper, lives in a rundown apartment in NYC and protests at anti-Vietnam rallies.
Their son, Harry focuses on the environment, pollution, and climate change amid the background of school shootings, smoke and fires. .
The takeaway from this book is that the different generations have different crises to avert, different values that are important, and different ways to go about changing. Last House is a refuge from the end of the world as it is in an isolated in a corner of the country.
I thought that the book was more of a character study than historical fiction although I can certainly remember TV images of most of the events mentioned in the book.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher and the opinions expressed are my own. Rating is 3.5+ rounded up to 4

A very well written book. However, I didn’t love it. I didn’t read it past 58%. I just couldn’t connect with the characters. The storyline seemed to meander. I was intrigued about the build up of big oil after WW2. I probably would’ve preferred for the story to stay there. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this as an ARC.

Interesting intergenerational family story spanning World War II to the present day. It is particularly poignant for Baby Boomers who grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s as the children of parents who grew up during the Depression and served in World War II. The vastly different life experiences which determined the values of each generation are sharply contrasted. Most importantly, it eloquently shows however perfect we want our children’s lives to be, our children must find their own way.

Last House was a wonderful read. I love historical fiction that uses a place/home as a character in itself. I would read more from this author.