Not my normal genre but I really liked it. The story maintains a steady, page turning pace that makes it hard for readers to put down.
Many thanks to Mockingbird Lane Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

House of the Last Man on Earth by Robert B. Marcus Jr & Ryan B Marcus

Richard is having a really crappy Wednesday. He wakes up late, which makes him late for his college class (taught by a TA this he is more than a little infatuated with), and he has his bike stolen. Things only go downhill from there when he discovers a plot that is in the works, masterminded by his creepy dorm neighbor, to get rid of the entire human population. This sends Richard, along with his hot TA and her brother, on an adventure that takes them traveling through time and space to save all of humanity.

Despite a great-sounding plot, House of the Last Man on Earth falls far short of the mark. I was so disappointed. I really wanted to like this book. The title alone is such a fascinating concept. I mean, how would the last member of the human race live when everyone else is gone? How lonely would that be? And how would they react if someone came from a different time and you were suddenly no longer alone. This is the expectation that was set up, based on the book’s title and description. What was actually delivered, unfortunately, is a poorly written book that is based on erroneous scientific principles that showed the author is either completely ignorant of their lack of scientific facts that could be quite easily looked up, or or just simply doesn’t care. Either way, it is abundantly clear that no research was done in preparation for the writing of this book. Even if this was not the case and it was all factually correct, this book has an abundance of other problems. It feels like the author had an idea for a story but didn’t really know what they were doing. The characters are incredibly one-dimensional, for example.

There are many times when ridiculous conclusions are leapt to by the characters, conclusions that don’t feel like stupid characters making flawed decisions; it felt like poor storytelling. The conclusions the characters jump to make absolutely no sense, but at the same time ends up always being right. The character would have something happen and thinks “well, obviously it is such-and-such.” To which I constantly thought ‘Why would that be the the ‘obvious’ answer you jump to?!?’

There are also times when it feels like the author wants to have something new happen but doesn’t really know how to ease his characters in the right direction so we suddenly make a sharp left turn. For example, about a third of the way into the book he wants to add another character to the mix, one we only met briefly as of yet. Rather than having things happen organically, one character suddenly announces, in the middle of an impromptu road trip, that they need to “pull over here” because he “told [his] sister [he] would visit her.” Um…what? It completely came out of left field.

Honestly, I could go on-and-on about the multitude of flaws in this book, but the point is that this book is quite terrible. Not only can I not recommend it, I kind of wish I could get back the time I spent reading it. I would give it 0 stars if that were possible.