Historian Jon Keller is on a work trip to Switzerland when the unimaginable happens – nuclear bombs start dropping on the major global cities, signifying the end of the world. Holed up in a hotel with other survivors, Jon has no way of knowing whether his family back in the United States are still alive. Then, the body of a young girl is found at the hotel – one of the residents is a killer. As he investigates, paranoia begins to surface – just who, if anyone, can he trust and is he putting his own life in danger by trying to uncover the truth in a strange new world?

I had heard so many good things about this book so was ecstatic to be given the opportunity to read it as part of the blog tour and was equally pleased to find that it certainly lives up to the hype. I admit that dystopian novels have never been something that have interested me, but I loved the premise of the book and was so glad that I decided to expand my horizons (even if it was the crime element that pulled me towards it!).

One of my favourite books is Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, where a group of people being murdered one-by-one realise that the killer is one of their number. It was for this reason that I wanted to read The Last, as there seemed to be echoes of this plot. This was not the case, however, and although there are certainly deaths in the book, I would not say that this is the main focus. Instead what we have is a thought-provoking tale of ‘what ifs’ – especially scary given the instability in the world at the moment. In an age where we are so heavily reliant upon the internet and other media sources, it was easy to imagine the panic of the people at the hotel, not knowing what was happening or whether their loved ones had made it to safety.

I liked the mix of characters and felt that the slow pace of the book gave the author chance to develop them fully. It was fascinating to read how personalities changed and that, faced with such extreme circumstances, some people stepped up to take control whilst others were keen to survive at all costs, no matter who they hurt in the process. There were some genuinely tense moments when they left the confinement of the hotel in search of supplies, not knowing if there were other survivors out there and whether they would make it back alive.

The Last is a very tense, claustrophobic read and one that certainly makes you question what you would do should you be faced with that situation. It is a very clever book that grabs your attention and holds onto it until the very last page. This looks like being one of the books of the year and one that could be easily be imagined as a TV mini-series. Highly recommended.

Our narrator, Jon Keller, an American academic, is attending a conference in Switzerland.  There was previously a change of hotel and he ends up staying at L'Hotel Sixieme, a large, remote hotel surrounded by forest.

Whilst having breakfast a fellow guest shrieks after seeing something on her phone. 'They've bombed Washington!'  Jon frantically starts scrolling through news items on his phone.  It's true! Washington, London, Berlin. Nuclear explosions!

Many guest flee immediately, heading for airports trying to get home to family and friends, but Jon decides to stay, feeling it's safer to await rescue.

A week later he's still there....

'This is the third day and the internet is down.  I've been sitting in my hotel room watching what I can see of the horizon from my window.  If anything happens, I'll do my best to describe it...... I can't believe I didn't reply to Nadia's text.  I can't believe I thought I had time......

Told in diary format Jon decides to keep notes on each day.  He's used to records, to documenting life so this is what feels like the natural thing to do, a comfort, and if anyone ever finds it they will at least know what happened to everyone left at L'Hotel Sixiene.

They story introduces us to the remaining guest, now 20 in total, and explores how characters have established, or not, roles they can play within the group.  On day 50 they notice the water has turned cloudy and tastes a little off, so Jon and 2 others head to the roof to inspect the massive water tanks.  In one of them they find the body of a young girl, clearly no accident, and dead before the explosions started.  Most show little concern.  Why bother given the circumstances.  But Jon is determined to find out what happened to her and if the killer is still here in the hotel!

I loved the opening chapter.  How the author sets the 'end of the world' on such an ordinary morning, and it is details like this that make the story so believable.  This is primarily a character driven book and explores how each one reacts in this extreme situation.  Who is useful? Who can be trusted?  Blended in with the mystery of the girls death, the remoteness of the hotel with everyone trapped inside it makes for an extremely claustrophobic, chilling read.  I particularly enjoyed the parts where they began to realise that they would have to venture outside.  The description of the weather and vegetation effected by the poisoned atmosphere and the amazingly terrifying bits were they fear if and whom they may meet outside.

This genre was a departure from the norm for me but I thoroughly enjoyed it.



I received a digital copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review, and would like to thank Emily Burns for the invite onto the blog tour.

The thing I most enjoy about dystopian fiction is the chance to explore the author’s great imagination through the world they have created . The Last was a very well imagined and frightening story made all the more so by how realistic it seemed. The nuclear weapon is detonated because a politician makes a mistake, which is seeming increasingly likely in today’s political climate. I found myself instantly drawn into this world, trying to work out how I’d fit into it which is always a sign that I’m enjoying a book.

The characters or residents of the hotel are all very varied and well developed. It was fascinating to read about how much they change over the course of the book. The fear and uncertainty that the characters feel are almost palpable at times and I found myself feeling very sorry for them.

This is quite a character driven novel though it is still quite gripping as the more I got to know the characters, the more involved in their story I became. I wanted to keep reading to find out not only who the murder was but also what would happen to everyone.

The murder mystery side of the story was very intriguing and I enjoyed watching it develop. The evidence is tantalisingly revealed and I found myself changing my mind frequently as to who the murder could be.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I’ll definitely be going back to read her previous novels soon. The Last manages to be both a dystopian and a murder mystery which I felt was an interesting mix that worked very well!

Huge thanks to Emily Burns from BrandHive for inviting me onto the tour and to Viking for my copy of this book which I received in exchange for an honest review.

The Last takes place at a hotel with some sinister goings on after what seems to be the end of the world. Various world powers seem to have all bombed eachother quite thoroughly and some survivors in a countryside hotel decide to stay there and see what they can make of the situation.
Not a massive amount happens over the course of the book, it's more an exploration of how the situation impacts the hotel residents and what they are hiding from eachother. 
This was an easy read but didn't feel as though it had a particular point to make. Written ostensibly in diary entries, the writing feels unrealistic for actual diary entries as it includes long detailed narrative and conversations, it would probably have worked better just told from the diarists point of view without trying to use diary entries to tell the story.

If you’re looking for something a little different, The Last is the book for you. It’s the end of the world, and twenty survivors are holed up in a hotel – and if things weren’t bad enough already, there’s a killer among them. And Then There Were None meets Station Eleven in this high-concept dystopian page turner, inspired by a terrifyingly real unsolved mystery.

I had high hopes for this book. The blurb describes it as a tense mystery set in the midst of a post-apocalyptic world, but there was no tension in this book whatsoever. Most of the characters are unlikeable (which I understand because you know, the world's ending), but the main character (Jon) was just so bland and boring. Also, I didn't think the mystery had enough presence in the book. It's often pushed to the background, while the characters squabble and talk about nothing. Towards the end of the book, I just didn't care.

Historian Jon is attending a conference in Sweden in a lovely old hotel. Whilst there his world catastrophically implodes. One morning the news breaks that a nuclear bomb has been detonated in Washington. Fearing for his family back in the US he desperately tries to contact them (especially considering he ignored the last message he had from his wife Nadia). Then the 2nd nuclear bomb hits in Munich...then Scotland is obliterated and the world goes to hell in a hand basket...

Most people flee the hotel. Twenty stay. They try and club together to make some sort of hash at survival. Then one morning whilst checking the water tanks the body of a small girl is found...very clearly murdered. Meaning someone in the group is a killer. But how do you perform a murder investigation amongst people who you are bound so closely together to given the apocalypse, or more to the point how the heck would you deliver justice to a murderer in your midst?

I absolutely devoured this book. I stayed up until midnight to finish it. It's fast paced, not only is it one of my favourite genres (apocalyptic) but it's also very character driven. The personality clashes within a group dynamic, the power plays by several characters and the ever ending terror of radiation poisoning. Put in a dash of murder mystery, it made one heady cocktail that I became intoxicated with.

The Last really  made me think about how I would act in a similar scenario. Would I flee to try and find my loved ones? Or would I stay. If I stayed what type of person would I be in a group dynamic under extreme conditions? It's so easy to say that you would be the same person as you are now, but when under constant terror would you? Could your morals remain the same when the world is no longer what you recognise? It's this type of story that really engrosses me and Jameson has done is very well.

The atmosphere of the secluded hotel and it's grounds is almost a character in itself. Whilst it offered protection from the violence of the surrounding towns, it also gave a slightly claustrophobic feel to the plot which built up the tension even more.

I highly recommend The Last! A 5 star read for me.

I would like to thank Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I found this a really interesting novel.  It kept me engaged throughout, and I was never quite set on where the story was going to go next.

Claustrophobic and unsettling, The Last reminds us that the end of the world could happen at any time. I like the fact it wasn't just about survival from the end of the world scenario but also added the murder mystery elements that made the hotel seem even smaller. It is though provoking as to what you would do if your last safe place was not safe at all.

Historian Jon Keller, was attending a conference in Switzerland having breakfast in the hotel when news broke  that there have been nuclear attacks on numerous cities across the world.  Keller and a number of his fellow guests and some of the hotel staff decide to stay put in the hotel whilst others decide to ‘make a run for it’. Keller and his companions have been surviving for nearly two months on the supplies left in the hotel when a young girl’s body turns up in a drinking water tank and Keller alarmingly realises that the killer may still be among them. 

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced read copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

This was a compelling story and I found myself wondering what I would do in these circumstances, scary. Excellent storyline and a believable concept. Well described characters that made the story seem real. Rather abrupt ending.

I’m a little late on reviewing this ARC even though I did read it before the release date.

Why am I late in reviewing? Life, mainly. It gets in the way sometimes. The second reason was because I struggled to think of what to say about The Last.

I know I enjoyed it. I know that I couldn’t wait to see how it would end because I genuinely couldn’t work out where the author was going with the story. But I also think I enjoyed it more for the sum of its parts rather than as a whole and it’s hard to put into words as to why.

The majority of the characters are awful. I don’t mean that they are awful characters, but they are awful people. The circumstances in which they find themselves bring out the worst in the them, the protagonist included. This I don’t mind. I don’t necessarily like wholesome characters. If you don’t either then you’re good with this one because I wouldn’t say anyone here is wholesome.

Our main character Jon is trying to work out who murdered a young girl in post Apocalyptic Zurich but his reasons aren’t exactly noble. He’s not driven by a sense of justice for the child but more a sense of boredom and desperation for him to be relevant amongst the group of survivors. If justice is a side order of his amateur investigation then great, but the main dish is his validation.

The path he takes as self assigned ‘detective’ means he has access to the range of characters and they are a varied bunch. Via his questioning of them Jon manages to obtain a sense of who they are and establishes a bond with those he connects with.

Again, not all are wholesome. If you don’t like self-centred and self-serving characters (either as a main character or secondary) than the people here are going to piss you off.

But it wasn’t the characters that felt a little lacking to me or the setting (a creepy hotel surrounding by forest in isolated Zurich) or even the plot because like I said, I was gripped for the most part.

So what was lacking? 

This is a book that doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Is it an introspective look at human nature when we are at our very worst? A social commentary on the political climate of the times we live in and the repercussions of governmental and voting decisions? A post apocalyptic horror that wants to be The Walking Dead without the zombies? Or is it a crime thriller?

I actually thought it would be more the latter and if you are also thinking this and are going into The Last hoping that’s the case then I think you’ll be disappointed. I liked the introspective look at what humanity might be like after it all goes wrong but aside from the dead girl acting as a plot device for Jon and to be included in a dubious ending then it’s really not about the murder at all.

For me, The Last painted a situation that felt real in the event of a nuclear apocalypse. Medical supplies dwindling, toxic rain, extreme paranoia, and characters who feel that they get to determine how their new society is constructed. Guy worried about the amount of ‘breeding females’ there are and whether he’ll get access to them? Creepy. But I feel worryingly realistic.

The book took a strange turn a third of the way towards the end with the introduction of a plot more akin to something you would find in The Walking Dead and the weirdest resolution to the murder that just felt like an anti-climax. If you skimmed past any of the stories that the characters tell Jon about their pasts (like me) then your first reaction to the ending will be confusion.

The seed of the resolution is planted in an obscure story told by one of the other characters which was so obscure you wouldn’t think it would have any connection. But it did. So there’s that.

If you want a genre confused book with asshole characters that is somehow surprisingly gripping, this is your book. If you want a straight up murder crime thriller then this isn’t your book.

I liked it and I liked what it was trying to do but sometimes I wondered if it was trying too hard and so as a whole it didn’t quite stick together.

I really enjoy both post-apocalyptic fiction and murder mysteries, so this mash-up should’ve been right up my alley, and I did sort of enjoy it, but it did take me a lot longer to read than usual and I feel deeply disappointed by the ending. The premise was intriguing - a group of survivors wait out the end of the world in an isolated hotel, but it’s like the author couldn’t work out how to wrap it up so just stopped.

Jon Keller is an American historian who has travelled to Switzerland for a convention, and is just about to leave the hotel to return home to his family, whom he left on bad terms, when news comes through that many major cities have been nuked, and then the Internet goes down. Unsure whether he will be able to get anywhere, he and about 30 others decide to stay in the hotel, since they at least have food and power, but as the days pass and no help arrives, despair sets in for many. When the body of a child is found in a water tank, Jon, who is already chronicling their lives in his diary, decides to solve her murder, but someone seems determined to stop him.

This was an unusual take on the EOTWAWKI as a diverse group of people from different countries are forced to co-exist while not knowing how long they can survive, cut off from the news and all other people. Having most of the characters, including the narrator, be quite unpleasant and unreliable made it actually more interesting, but I felt frustrated not finding out what actually caused the war or who the aggressors were, as there were hints that it didn’t occur completely out of the blue. There were plot lines that didn’t go anywhere and an “is that it?” ending, so I can only give this 3 stars despite wanting to rate it higher for originality.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Last is available now.

Jon Keller is at a conference in Switzerland at L’Hotel Sixième when the world ends. He is just trying to survive in this strange land but he comes across the body of a young girl, he’s convinced someone in the hotel is the killer.

So I have mixed feelings about this book, which is making writing this review quite hard but I’ll try my best!

The characterisation is really strong, with each character different and unique, if not all that likeable. 

We see the whole story through Jon’s diary. He claims that he’s writing it down for historical purposes but like when he starts investigating the little girls death it’s more about keeping his sanity than anything else. 

The hotel is almost like a character itself. A blood soaked history, with murders, suicides, even a serial killer stayed there once! I feel that this could have been played with a little more, really amping up the horror factor.

I have to be honest as a piece of dystopian fiction it’s great, as a mystery, which is what I expected it to be from the blurb...not so much. I almost DNF at 40%, but I kept on just because I really wanted to find out what happened to the little girl, yet in the ending for me, felt a little lacklustre.

I’d recommend this to people who love a realistic dystopian novel with complex and intriguing characters.

The Last is just way too believable, from start to finish.

The story is told in the diary-style narrative of Jon Keller as he attempts to impartially record the end of the world (as we know it).

Jon is a bit of an odd character, adapting to everyone around him; swallowing his emotions; and volunteering for everything, in a manner that suggests his narrative may be more self-serving than reliable in places, or that he is seriously overcompensating for something.

All of the characters introduced here are complex and feel ‘real’ to the reader, whether likeable or not.  Actions and motives are not always clear because the reasoning behind them is as convoluted or obscure as in reality, and no one is bad or good, just motivated differently and acting from different interests.  Hanna Jameson’s exploration of the different reactions that such a severe stress situation could have on individuals felt thorough and thoroughly believable, and had me analysing where my own character would fall in the survival spectrum (I don’t think I would have lasted past Day 1, for the record!).

Whilst the story does feature post-apocalyptic survival, that is not where the plot focus lies, with resource-finding taking a back seat to the emotional pressures and food/water/medicine never seeming quite as important to survival as finding the right personal motivation and your own mental stability.  Thus Jon’s focus on finding out who the unknown girl is, and who murdered her, seems much more vital to his continued existence as a human being than mere physical necessities.  I found this a fascinating and compelling viewpoint and it really made me ponder exactly what would be important to me in the end days.  Most stories assume that survival instincts would take the steering wheel, but the urge to behave in human ways can be a strong one…

I went into The Last expecting it to be a kind of post-apocalyptic And Then There Were None, but this is not that story.  Instead it is a pressure-cooker of a psychological thriller, slowly simmering towards its boiling point, and also a deeply thoughtful look into human values and priorities under pressure.  I found it impossible to stop reading, and after the last page I almost wanted to search for the ‘survivors’ on social media to see what happened next, as I was so invested in their stories!

Fans of psychological mysteries and realistic survival stories will enjoy this thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking book.

 

 

   A strange noise erupted from one of the tables, a shrill exclamation.  The woman didn’t say anything, just cried out.
I looked up, and she was sitting with her partner – I assume – and staring at her phone.
Like everyone else in the room, I thought she had just become overexcited by a message or a photo, and returned to my book, but within seconds she’s added, ‘They’ve bombed Washington!’
I hadn’t even wanted to go to this damn convention.

– Hanna Jameson, The Last

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Well, don’t you just hate it when you are staying in a nice hotel and nuclear war breaks out?

First impressions can count for a lot.  But gosh, this book starts slowly with a prologue and then changes down a gear when the ‘novel proper’ starts.  This is arguably the most dramatic event that could possibly occur on our planet yet following near total nuclear devastation the main character, Jon, spends much of his time navel gazing, drinking and taking drugs including crystal meth which he describes as ‘surprisingly nice’!

There are a lot of drug references in this book which at first I just put down to rules and concerns being reconsidered in an apocalyptic vision.  But narratively the drugs had to be available from somewhere in advance of the ‘surprise’ of the apocalypse as these wouldn’t be commonly stocked in a hotel.  Drug references don’t generally bother me in the right context and I can consider them speaking to the situation of a novel but when the drug being referenced is crystal meth, its virtues are being extolled and it is spoken of as being ‘surprisingly nice’ I think we are overstepping the mark and possibly straying into the territory of agenda.  This section concerned me somewhat.  

There are also a few too many under-researched parts to this novel that took me straight out of the narrative – if a story contains elements that are obviously and immediately factually incorrect or simply unbelievable I find it very difficult to remain immersed in the constructed reality of the novel, which after all is the point of a novel.  An example of this is an odd section where two characters, one a medical doctor, talk about getting high on children’s paracetamol!?  The doctor then states that she is not sure if it is possible to overdose on this.  That is not a doctor I would want to put my trust in.

However, the description of the events of apocalypse and its effects on individuals are handled well, particularly when related to the internet and social media and Western cultures reliance on technology.  This is how we get our news and how we relate to each other and so this section of the book was very believable.  
But when the apocalyptic narrative starts to run out of steam, a murder mystery strand of the novel is instigated where our hero Jon sets himself up as the detective.  This is what had piqued my interest initially and made me choose to read this book, but it surprisingly adds less to the story than should have been the case and simply allows further opportunity for Jon to wander aimlessly between rooms and between hotel ‘guests’ asking rather inane questions.  
This genre crossing element should have been the crux of the book; the reason required for the lead protagonist to ask difficult questions and record the answers given and so find an ultimate answer.  Unfortunately the idea that should have set this book aside from other similar novels instead feels tacked on, an afterthought, and excuse to make sense of the journal form of the novel.

Without giving away the full plot of the novel, in the end most of the storylines are drawn together to give some form of resolution but this is done through a number of quite implausible and out-of-place scenes which feel as though they are included for the sole purpose of concluding unresolved storylines rather than developing the story.  Ultimately and disappointingly, the book finishes with a ‘that’ll do’ conclusion.

I know I am probably being overly harsh with my criticisms but I was very much looking forward to this novel and so feel more disappointed as a result.  There are some new ideas in this novel and some humour in here as well and it is obviously a heart-felt book but to be honest, reads quite like a high school student has been given the task of coming up with a story about a nuclear apocalypse.  It is not fair to compare this to McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ (not exactly a fast-paced action adventure itself) but it is hard not to make that comparison and The Last doesn’t come out of that comparison well.

I’m sorry – this promised so much but left me unfulfilled and frustrated.

Hanna Jameson's The Last is an interesting one. The plot follows a group of strangers isolated in a remote Swiss hotel when nuclear bombs destroy the world. Few of the guests have little chance of ever going home -airports were destroyed and society rapidly disintegrates - so they make the most of a bad situation and turn the hotel into a new home for the new world order.

The writing was clean, characters varied and interesting, and most of the cliches of the post-apocalyptic genre were nimbly avoided.

My main issue is with the whodunit mystery aspect - it seemed shoehorned in to give the plot a focus, then didn't go anywhere, and ended with a very contrived conclusion. Also, the theory that the world could be destroyed by nuclear bombs seemed overplayed - yep, long-term damage would be brutal in an all out exchange, but I'm pretty sure few bombs would land in the southern hemisphere meaning large parts of the world would still be inhabitable. At one point in the novel it's reported Scotland has been destroyed: no-one would level Scotland - the highlands are so sparsely populated you'd only be killing a handful of people with each bomb!

That said, I did enjoy it, a solid 4 stars, just don't think about the realities too hard or it'll break your suspension of disbelief.

This was so gripping from the start and so different from anything I've read before. I really hope there will be a sequel as I need to know what happens next.

A few things drew me to this book - first, Emily St. John Mandel's quoted glowing review because I LOVED 'Station Eleven' and this looked to be in the same vein, and secondly, the fact that the synopsis pointed towards a post-apocalyptic murder mystery. That's certainly an interesting way to combine genres and I'm all for it! It had been a long while since I'd read a dystopian novel so I was excited by this one.

I did like Jameson's writing style - told in the form of a historical journal, Jon Keller gives his account of the seventy or so days that follow after Nuclear war ravages most of the world and he is left, with a small band of survivors, stranded in a hotel in Switzerland. Of course, different cultures and personalities clash and ally throughout this novel and it certainly is powerful in the political and ideological reflection it provokes. This would make a great read for a book club, accompanied by discussion as the group face many challenges and controversial decisions throughout the novel. I liked the way that it built up to it's climax, though the pacing was slow. 

I think my main issue with the book came from the fact that I did not like ANY of the characters. At all. Jon spent most of the time pitying himself and his situation, mulling over all of the mistakes that he made in his family life prior to the explosion. The people he meets were also extremely unlikeable - Tomi, the 'tough-girl' who had an attitude and opinion on everything and everyone, Peter who was awful for no reason whatsoever, Dylan who seemed to think it was a great idea to keep everything from everyone but of course had nothing to hide, and - you get the idea. Everyone seemed unnecessarily rude and seemed to accept their situation a bit too quickly, and Jon spent the whole book basically saying 'I didn't like what they said, but I saw their point of view'. Also, and this is the important one, I was mostly turned off by the solution to the murder mystery. It was weak and random after so much build towards it.

Although this is a fictional novel, it's a very relevant story. A nuclear bomb goes off in Washington after a controversial election, and a lot of protesting from some Americans and the rest of the world. The president is killed. Jon is away at a conference, staying at a hotel in Europe in the middle of nowhere. He is alone and away from his family. More bombs go off, but it is hard to tell what is happening in the rest of the world when the internet connection and any link to the outside is quickly lost.

Many people staying in the hotel leave immediately, but a few stay. These people start trying to live together, at what they assume is the end of the world. Jon is a historian, so he tries to keep a diary of what is happening day by day. He speaks to other people in the hotel and they tell him stories about themselves and their lives, hoping that they won't be forgotten and perhaps needing to let some things go.

This is a really well written book. It isn't complicated or pretentious, but it is very thoughtful. It is quite slow moving, but so is the pace of life in the hotel. Things do happen, however, and the tension, fear and suspicion builds to various points of climax as things progress. The characters are all quite unknown because the story is told from Jon's point of view, and he doesn't know anyone well. He only knows what he learns from watching and speaking to the other people in the hotel. This is a big part of the story really, because a lot of strangers being thrown together are always going to have secrets, and they are never all going to get along.

This is mainly a story about what happens to Jon and the other survivors in the hotel. But it is also a provocative piece about current politics and more generally our modern lives. Living without phones, internet or social media, or even music is explored. Jon and the other guests have many thoughts about their lives and what they have done, as you obviously would in this scenario. It is quite philosophical at times, but not overwhelmingly so, and not too intellectual so as to detract from the story.

I enjoyed this book. As I said before, it is quite slow-paced, but it is an interesting take on the end of days, when compared to your usual zombie or testosterone-filled tales of action and danger. This is more about fear, suspicion, and what it means to be at the end of modern society. I also really loved the ending - no spoilers! But the last page or so really made this book complete for me.