Solid post-apocalypse title meets acid rain and the horrors that humanity turns into. I liked that the author didn't depict all humans as cretins, too, but rather showed some of humanity as being kind, generous, and just trying to live life as they used to do. Fun to read but won't keep a copy.

I finished this one in a few hours. I liked it, but I think my students will like it more. The writing was good, the plot moved along nocely, and I liked the element of darkness that lurked just below the words.

The aptly titled The Last Bookstore on Earth is about the end of the world, or at least what should have been. With a few survivors and a bookstore left, we see the effects of "the storm" on our planet. Liz remains alone in the bookstore. Eva, her co-worker, has left months earlier to "see the world"-or what's left of it. Liz exists day to day meeting a few "customers" and collecting their stories. She also serves as an apocalyptic post office, carefully preserving messages left for loved ones.
All of this changes when Maeve arrives, with her knife. Slowly the girls learn to work and survive together. The bond they form is slow but powerful. As the world continues to disintigrate around them, Liz and Maeve try to rebuild a new world for themselves.

Ever since the first storm wreaked havoc and changed the world as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been surviving in her old job, the bookstore in the New Jersey suburb she grew up in, trading books and letters for supplies. It’s her safe space. Until she heard about the next storm coming soon.

Then she meets Maeve, someone who breaks into the bookstore one night looking for shelter. Maeve and Liz butt heads, but Maeve has the skills Liz lacks that are needed to fix the dilapidated store before the next storm hits. Liz agrees to let her stay.

As the girls grow closer and feelings start to appear, they realize there are more threats than just the storm and they find themselves fighting to stay alive.

Though this book is post-apocalyptic, I will say it does focus more on Liz and Maeve’s relationship than it does the world around them. Which ended up being a little disappointing to me because I would have loved to read more about it - especially how Liz handled the days following the event and making it into the bookstore.

I didn’t think realistically that Liz would have even lasted the amount of time that she did last before Maeve showed up. Maeve came in and showed a lot more of what it was like in the “new world”, but we never got into detail about Liz’s. <spoiler> and then what she did with her hand and the generator as a whole was crazy </spoiler>.

Overall, this was a cute sapphic post-apocalyptic young adult novel set in a bookstore where people still exchanged goods for a book.

*Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Nice way break is exactly what I needed after a thick fantasy book. I love post apocalyptic dystopian stories and this one delivered. A queer bookstore owner in the setting just made sense. It was a quick Y read and I’m glad I picked it up..

This dystopic thriller/queer romance/survival adventure story is marketed as YA but has crossover appeal for adult readers, as the protagonists are in their late teens/early twenties. The apocalyptic trope is not new (acid rain destroys civilization) but the setting and the reflective tone bring a different twist to this survival story about a young woman taking refuge in the bookstore where she used to work before the end of life as we know it. Acid rainstorms destroyed her town and most living things, except a handful of survivors. Now Liz has an established routine with occasional human interaction, a decent supply of food and a safe place to live. In fact, she never leaves the bookstore, and is unaware of the state of the surrounding world. Her seemingly placid way of life is interrupted by the arrival of an outsider who brings a hard dose of reality, the threat of violence, and the love and strength Liz needs to survive the next killer storm. Recommended for readers age 12+ who enjoy detailed character- and action-driven books with a slow build. Mild violence and occasional mature language and relationships appropriate for YA readers.

Unfortunately, this book missed the mark for me and I DNFed at 30%.

The premise sounded fascinating — dystopian, sapphic, set in a bookstore. And while this was accurate, the dystopian and bookstore setting remained incredibly surface level. The story or characters did not grip me and I found myself too frustrated with certain plot points to continue on.

Thank you for the opportunity of reviewing an eARC!

I found this a little slow to start and the world-building a bit lacking, but I was eventually drawn into the story and couldn’t wait to see how it ended. It could have used multiple character perspectives, rather than just Liz. I liked the excerpts from other survivors.

The Last Bookstore stands out among other post-apocalypse fiction I've read because it seems focused on the characters' inner life more than the outer one. While I got a sense of the impending doom and the fragile nature of Liz's life in the bookstore, the text wasn't focused on day to day survival and prepping. I found this a relief to read. The bookstore is Liz's safe space, and begins to feel cozy, even to the reader, with various well known titles thrown in to show familiarity with the place. There is also little focus on the exact mechanics of the damaging storms in the book, and I do not think it's needed. What's important is the people who are left, not how they got to this place. The connections between Liz and the other main characters are well drawn and interesting, and it's obvious that their pasts are left mysterious on purpose. However I feel like Maeve and Eva both should have had a bit more backstory to make them more real characters. The antagonists could also be fleshed out a bit more. The ending, while satisfying for our main character, feels like it needs more resolution.

This wasn't for me. I was excited about the concept and the characters, but it just didn't feel fluid. The story felt a little choppy and I didn't really want to finish it. There are definitely some people who will love this one, but it just wasn't for me.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars!

I really enjoyed this read! While it wasn't my typical pick for a book, I thought that the premise seemed relatively interesting (and new), and decided to give it a shot. I have absolutely no regrets about the time spent reading. Fighting for survival! Girlies falling in love! What more could I ask for?

My only complaint was that the story felt slightly rushed at times. When this happened it wasn't a huge deal, but it did shake me out of the immersion and make it slightly difficult to follow the pacing of the book. I think that this is a common trend among newer authors, and I think that this is something that Lily Braun-Arnold will improve with in time.

As always, all my thanks to both the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this ARC.

I really liked this concept. The backdrop of being both post and pre-apocalypse add an interesting level of stakes. Society has already broken down and survivors are barely holding on when another world threatening event is expected. The weary partnership and evolution into romance of Liz and Maeve was extremely well done. You understand why both girls respond to each other the way that they do, and having an outsider come into Liz's isolated space added a level of uncertainty and tension. As the girls start to fight against outside threats, the book ups the suspense a lot!

This YA dystopian novel is pretty short and sweet, but the world is fascinating--I always appreciate a dystopian novel that explains what went wrong. I haven't read a great dystopian novel in a while, so I really enjoyed this one.

This is a post-apocalyptic/dystopian YA- I enjoyed the book…mostly. The pacing on the front end was a bit of a slog for me. It picked up roughly a quarter of the way through. I really enjoyed Maeve’s character. She was curious, intelligent, and gutsy. She was a “do what needs to be done” kind of girl. Liz was, let’s say, less so. She made a really stupid decision and paid a price for it. Her character development was next to none. I did appreciate that this gives LGBTQ+ representation and I do believe that the YA population will quite enjoy it.

The Last Bookstore on Earth is a warm dystopian novel about a girl living in a bookstore after a world-ending storm. The protagonist's voice is clear, well-developed, and kind, and the author does a great job establishing tone almost immediately. The reader feels the urgency of the coming storm while still lingering in the nostalgia for life before and finding hope in the humanity that remains. Fans of All the Water in the World and the softer parts of the Last of Us will enjoy this sharp prose and tragic, yet beautiful, world.

This was a good start on a post apocalyptic take on what the world could be like if acid rain wiped out a large portion of the population. But for someone who loves dystopian fiction, this didn't hit the mark for me. Many of the struggles you would imagine in a world that has crumbled were glossed over - like how to actually stay alive and feed yourself, care for yourself, deal with emergencies. Liz is living in a bookstore since she no longer has her family, and instead of learning anything from the crisis that wiped everyone out, she chooses to ignore the issues the building has and do NOTHING to keep herself safe. She doesn't even have a door that locks. WHAT? She is literally living amidst books that I imagine could help her do things like fix the holes in the walls and roof. So then it takes Maeve to come along and do it all for her, which almost felt like Maeve was written as the female "white knight" coming to save the princess. The love story between the two of them felt like it was just thrown in there to make this book sapphic, and didn't really serve an actual purpose to the storyline.

I was certainly looking for more, but I will say that this was a very quick read and had a good basis of ideas that just need more detail. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read an ARC of this book.

Meh! I expected a little more action for a post apocalyptic book. Liz frustrated me so much reading this. I understand people cope in different ways but she expected the people she met to risk their lives because she’s too scared to move on. Okay read but not at the top of my list for 2025.

Ebook received for free through NetGalley

I found a put the book aside several times but I’m glad I came across this book. Thanks for the read.

Readers follow Liz Flannery, as she is etching out what’s left of her life after a post apocalyptic Storm that has obliterated the world as she and everyone else has known. Living in abandoned bookstore that she used to work at in post-Storm New Jersey. She trades books for supplies, and people stop by to post letters for loved ones. She journals the coming and going of the people who pass by. As another horrific storm is approaching she finds herself in desperate need of more supplies, also the bookstore needs repairs fast. Her situation changes when the book store is broken in by another teen named Maeve. Liz gives shelter to Maeve and realizes that Maeve just might be what she has needed.
This moving human element storyline completely surprised me. Set to a futuristic post cataclysmic storm, the tender romance was perfectly executed. Through Lily Braun-Arnold narrative I fell in love with the engaging character and the detailed setting.

Great book with good representation for YA readers. I enjoyed it. Thank you netgalley for this copy.