This young adult novel is about the aftermath of an alien invasion. I'm afraid to say I'm tapped out on the young adult end-of-the-world/dystopian genre, and the writing wasn't enough to hold me past 25%. A DNF for me, but I do know I'm in the minority when it comes to exhaustion with this ya subgenre.

Perfect for young adult readers (and those of us who just enjoy YA lit), this book has action and science fiction adventure in well-written form.  A text I would gladly share with my students or sit back and delve into myself.

**3.5 but rounding up for the moment at the end that actually made me gasp**

A fast paced sci-fi adventure that pushes the survivors of an alien invasion to the brink and forces them to become the brave heroes they were always destined to be. 

“The Last 8” begins at a crossroads where our main character Clover has her feet on the ground but wishes to spend her days in the sky and following her dream to work at NASA when an alien invasion occurs throwing everything she wants out the window. When she hears news of other survivors she quickly makes her way to the infamous Area 51 and learns that things aren’t exactly what she hoped they would be and again finds herself having to decide if she wants to live out her days waiting for death to come or to seek it out and embrace it if it offers even the slightest chance at succeeding. 

It’s obvious the author of this book is a huge sci fi fan as told through the many references to pop culture classics from ‘Back to the Future’ to ‘Independence Day”, that being said there were many moments in this book that were very similar to plot points in most of those movies making it almost a mash up of your favorite alien encounters. 

Those parallels aside I do have to give credit to something I thought was either a plot hole or just the characters being very lucky with all of the skills and resources at their disposal that turned out to be foreshadowing to a much larger point which was a nice touch seeing as it was something obvious enough to notice and to bug you as a reader until you get that pay off. 

This isn’t a bad read and as far as the sub genre of alien invasion plots go it’s up there as one of my favorites because it doesn’t waste time jumping into the meat of the plot while still giving time for emotional character moments and having it come full circle with humanity being their greatest strength. 

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**