DNF @25%. The book flowed well, the prose was fine -- I was just frustrated the MC didn't do anything. I liked the idea that she ran the last bookstore in the US, but I wanted her to venture out and show me some of the landscape instead of having all the stories come to her. I wasn't engaging with her, this is not a comment on the author's ability to write or the book itself.

I absolutely LOVED this book! The writing was wonderful and well written! I loved the story line and Maeve was my favorite character. The descriptions were great and really helped me envision what Lily was projecting as she was writing. Definitely a 5 star read for me! If you enjoy post apocalyptic reading I'd definitely recommend this book!

The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold offers a story that’s haunting, heartwarming, and irresistibly immersive. The premise alone—two girls taking shelter in a dusty, abandoned bookstore while facing the brink of a second apocalypse—captivates from the start, especially if you’ve ever loved the quiet refuge of a library or bookstore.

Liz Flannery, the main character, resonates with readers who understand the solace of books and the security they bring in times of uncertainty. As she hides out, trading books for essentials, the once-familiar bookstore becomes a lifeline, a reminder of the world that once was. But it’s when Maeve, a stranger with survival skills and secrets, enters her life that the story blossoms into a tale of trust, hope, and unexpected love. Their cautious connection—layered with tension and warmth—feels real and personal, making the stakes of their survival that much higher.

LGBTQ+ rep: sapphic relationship

Summary: After the world ends with a Storm, Liz Flannery is running a bookstore via trade - people come in and leave letters for loved ones or take books in exchange for food and goods. One night, Liz wakes up to a a girl breaking in, and they become tentative allies. Liz and the girl, Maeve, work on shoring up the bookstore in preparation for the next Storm, becoming maybe more than friends all while dealing with outside threats and inside secrets...

Pros:
- I loved the apocalypse building - I thought the acid rain Storm was very plausible and also very likely
- I liked the hope of the set up, that people would be kind enough that a trade system of books for goods would be enough for Liz (and Maeve) to be able to survive

Cons:
- I found Liz to be a little too self-pitying for my tastes at times - she never wanted anything except to stay right where she was at, both before and after the apocalypse happened. She was also slightly past the point of being understandably naive: things were dangerous cuz she said so not because of any sort of logic, to the point where I was getting frustrated with her insistence that the bookstore was the only safe place on the entire planet.

Overall I thought this was an apocalypse book that managed the feat of being realistic about the tragedy that is inherent in the end of the world without totally losing hope!

This book is very unusual. It deals with First Storm. It was a acid rain storm that killed everyone that was outside. Liz survived the First Storm because she went inside just as it started. Her family did not survive. Liz worked at a bookstore before the storm and it is there where she spends all of time because it feels safe. One night she hears noise at the bookstore and goes to find out what it is. It is a woman who she does not know looking to steal. That woman is Maeve. Liz convinces her to stay and help her repair the roof and other things. All is going well until they know another Storm is coming and those who are looking for shelter.
I would recommend.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting book for me as I am not usually into the post-apocalyptic world (I lie, I do love Fallout, SO MUCH) and truly thinking about it more there are some others that I liked too. So maybe I should take it back, but too late! Train is rolling. This was an interesting book for me, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but that was good. You want to be surprised. You want to not entirely know what you are heading into. The main characters were fantastic. And I would love to read more of Lily's work. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read the ARC of this book. I highly recommend it!

I loved this book. A heartfelt and engaging post-apocalyptic love story that I couldn’t put down. Following Liz’s journey in her refuge of the bookstore and finding out what happens to her and Maeve made the entire book a joy to read. It had a structure almost like a one-room play with characters coming in and out of the bookstore and I appreciated the depth the author was able to achieve with her material even giving nods to other post-apocalyptic books and movies with a subtle wink. A first novel that hits it out of the park!

This book takes places in a bookstore in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Love the premise straight away! The characters were well defined and I loved the LGBTQ+ romance. I’m a big fan of YA, but this book felt really YA and I felt a little too old to read it.

Short chapters made for a quick read. It was pretty good for a debut novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who doesn’t typically read post apocalyptic books, this definitely made me more interested in this genre. I enjoyed it. I was never bored during the book, it was well written and it certainly made me want to check out more books from this author!

I absolutely loved this story!
In a world where 99% of the population has been destroyed in a weather event. Liz finds her whole fault fine, but the local bookstore where she worked prior makes her feel safest. Until Maeve shows up and changes everything she found as her safe haven.
The writing was beautiful and I was completely engulfed into the story and in there journey together trying to survive in a world where there not enough water, food or resources.

There is so much to unpack!
Loss - how do you grieve when you must survive? Will you ever rebuild? Move on?
The complexity of building community while surviving - people who take vs those who share and support.
Liz has built an amazing source of support and community after The Storm - her family didn't make it, so add in some survivor's guilt to the day to day isolation, stress, and any form of recovery. Her bookstore provides a place for people to leave messages for their loved ones, desperately hoping they survived and can be reunited. Trade for her books - hope, any sense of normalcy.
But Liz cannot leave - even when Peacoat tells her of a new, potentially worse Storm.
Mauve, another young girl, breaks in desperate for safety and shelter. And together they begin to plan - and heal.

This was a pretty run-of-the-mill YA dystopian novel but it definitely had its moments of glory. It did a good job of world-building and had a few new, interesting angles. I really liked that it was interspersed with personal stories from her customers, that was definitely a nice touch.

This is like if Ellie never met Joel, and if she wasn't The One. It's more of a What-If scenario with Ellie attempting to settle down and find normalcy with her girlfriend.

This is definitely an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic story for the younger set. It's not very technical on the hows and whys, so don't come in expecting in-depth worldbuilding. There's a couple of horror/thriller scenes to whet your appetite, but this novel leans more heavily on the interpersonal relationships between the characters, and the FMC reminiscing about her past life.

Maybe I'm too old for this, or I was expecting a little too much out of it, but I didn't find this novel all too exciting. It was a little too cozy than what I like in this type of setting. I liked the concept of the acid rain, and the bookstore/postal service of sorts, but I wasn't really a huge fan of how the setting was 99% isolated to the bookstore.

The bookstore was a main character of sorts, but I didn't find it all too compelling to stand on its own. Liz didn't work there long enough for me to feel like there was some kind of deep-seated history intertwined between them. She just happened to be a former employee who ended up squatting there for the apocalypse.

Liz and Maeve's relationship was cute, but at the end of the day, it felt like they fell in love with each other due to proximity and convenience.

This was a quick read, and I'd recommend it for preteens who might want to read something that's a lot less gruesome than The Last of Us.

Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this arc.

There are too many times that authors create a dystopian world that is hard to see actually taking place. That is one of the reasons I really like The Last Bookstore on Earth. This is a world you can actually see taking place. We have actually heard of Acid Rain, it has actually been a problem - not to this level, but it has been something we have faced. As such, it a makes the story more believable. I think the characters are the highlight of this book. I am always looking for more LGBTQ novels for my students who identify as such. For those students, and any others, looking for a post apocalyptic setting that does not feature flesh eaters, this is a fine book.

Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
In this dystopian young adult book, The Storm has decimated mankind. Seventeen-year-old Liz is holed up in the New Jersey bookstore where she used to work. It has become a trading post of sorts, survivors trading food, batteries, etc., for books or to post messages for loved ones passing through. Liz feels relatively safe and secure, that is, until another teen girl, Maeve, breaks in seeking shelter. The girls butt heads but Maeve has some useful skills that Liz does not. Liz needs Maeve’s help to fix the bookstore before the next predicted Storm comes through. Both girls are keeping secrets that threaten to destroy what they are trying to save.
This was a quick read for me – I enjoy dystopian novels and it was relatively short for a YA book. I could see elements of The Walking Dead and The Last of Us, minus the zombies, in the behavior of the survivors. I liked the way the author told of Liz’s life before the Storm in flashbacks leading up to the disaster. I would definitely recommend this title for ages 14 and up.
#TheLastBookstoreOnEarth #NetGalley #LGBTQ
This title will be available January 7, 2025.

I'm always a sucker for apocalyptic fiction and quite enjoy the depressing nature of the situation faced. I think our teen readers will also really connect with it and will be begging for more books by this author. Will purchase for the collection.

This book captivated me. Made my heart happy. The YA authors are booming this year!!!!This plot was perfect.Characters strongly developed and easy to identify with.

I enjoyed this book, but it definitely could have been better. I did really like the characters, they were done well, and I enjoyed reading from Liz's perspective. I really wanted to know what would happen next, but I was disappointed that a few things weren't explained more. I wanted to know why the storms were happening, and what the science behind them was. I wanted to know more about Liz's relationship with Eva, cause it wasn't shown that much, so I didn't really care. I would have liked to explore Liz's loneliness more, too.

But, if you're looking for a post-apocalyptic novel that isn't about zombies, has cute queer representation, and will keep you wanting to know what happens next, The Last Bookstore on Earth might be for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children's for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure: I do love an end-of-the-world book.

The Last Bookstore on Earth is one of those end-of-the-world books that I ultimately find comforting. Despite all the hell and strife and confusion, people can still do good. And their stories will live on.

Braun-Arnold takes the ideas of stories living on literally by situating her novel in a bookstore. Our main character Liz was an employee there when the massive Storm hit. After all the tragedy, she relocates from her home to live in the apartment above the bookshop. She still runs the bookshop as well, but ends up become a post office as well. She is sort of at the crossroads of humanity. A bulletin board holds messages for passersby in a way that I might imagine the postal service was in the frontier. Liz is dealing with her own trauma when she gets word that another deadly storm is coming. But her bookshop needs repairs. Enter (quite literally) a thief named Maeve who Liz caught breaking in. They soon forge a bond and Maeve is working to repair the shop.

This story looks at survival on both a corporeal and psychic level. What does it take to survive? Soup cans? Connection? Shelter? Dealing with past trauma?

It is absolutely lovely, but not free of violence--after all this is the end of the world and people are trying to survive. But there is a hope that glimmers thoughout the piece that I found just wonderful.

Definitely buying for my library.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

I absolutely loved this book! It was a fantastic read. Highly recommend.

Everything about it was perfection.

Five stars!