What happens when the world descends into nuclear war? Travel is impossible. Families are separated. There is no way to know whether your loved ones have even survived. Facing the grim realities of this new life, a group of survivors moves forward with the business of living, until the day they discover the body of a girl in the water supply. Who killed her? Does it even matter any more? One man believes it does.

An interesting premise. A world wide catastrophe leaves a few people secure in a remote hotel. How will they survive ? The story also has a second layer story of a murder at the hotel. Well developed in the beginning but a somewhat abrupt ending.

Jon Keller, is just one of twenty survivors when the world goes to hell. Nuclear bombs have taken out major cities across the world. The internet is down and no one can get in touch with loved ones or find out about the rest of the state of the world. Holed up in a Swiss hotel, L’Hotel ­Sixième, Jon, an American Historian, decides to record his experience in a form of journal entries chronicling the first few months after a nuclear apocalypse. Despair slowly starts to set in as the group realize no one is coming to rescue them. In the midst of all this, a body of a little girl is found dead in their water tank, leading Jon on a quest to find the murderer. Secrets abound and Jon is determined to uncover them along with the murderer. Will Jon succeed or will he be silenced for good?

I am a huge fan of apocalypse/post apocalypse books, so I really had high hopes for The Last by Hanna Jameson. While I did enjoy the story for the most part, there were quite a few instances where it also fell flat. I do love how atmospheric this book is. At times, I could feel the the terror and the dread especially when people were committing suicide. I mean just imagine giving up all hope and killing yourself is the only answer. Hanna Jameson really paints a vivid picture of the horrors people faced, the desperation, the need for some control even if the outcome was suicide. The haunting nature of the story really shines through page after page. It is almost like I can see the orange clouds, the sun never shining, the leaves dying, I can picture everything and it really is quite frightening. But, on the other end of the spectrum, I just could not get into the mystery at all and I never felt like it ever got resolved after all of the work up leading to the big reveal. I just felt disappointed. I will say that the paranoia associated with the mystery was very well done. Also, I can see why there was a bit of politics thrown in especially with today’s climate, but in all honesty, I felt like it was shoved down my throat. I was really annoyed reading it and feel that if I wanted a political standpoint I can watch the news for that.

The story is told through Jon’s POV and he is not always likable character. In fact, I don’t see any redeeming qualities that would make him likable. He is also an unreliable Historian as I felt his ego got in the way of the truth somehow. Although in his eyes, he was trying to do the right thing, but the situation just became to personal and his thoughts and opinions were skewed somewhere within the truth. At times, I thought Jon was about to crack and quite frankly I was hoping for it. Jon is probably one of the least liked characters of any book I have read.

While The Last by Hanna Jameson is quite atmospheric and harrowing, the story never really hit that crescendo for me. Just when I think the story is going to take off, the adrenaline getting there slowly started to come down. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the book, I just wish there was more to it.

The Last was a very well written, plausible and end of the world mystery that threw together a diverse group of people staying in a remote Switzerland hotel. It worked for me, but I found it a little hard to follow the character development due to the vast number of people in the hotel. It seemed like just when I found out about a character it was only because the author wanted to kill them off. I still enjoyed it though. I found it a believable post-apocalyptic story.

The Last was a fantastic thriller of a book. I was hooked from page 1.
The characters were so complex and there were so many twists
and turns I could hardly keep up.

I really enjoyed the picture that the author created, I felt as if I was right there.

A real page turner that won't leave you disappointed.

This is a really atmospheric book, that was hard to put down after I started getting into the story. Well written with intriguing characters. I'll keep and eye on this author!

“Existence is not enough.”

So, that’s a quote from the book and, I think, ends up being the overall theme. Unfortunately, it becomes a bit ironic for me. As I read the book, I kept wondering: What’s the point? Does our character have a goal? What’s the endgame here? Existence of the book…is not enough.

It started out well. These days end of the world stories start with a whisper or a pandemic or an EMP. It’s rare to have one start with a nuclear war anymore. And it’s just as grim and horrifying as you might expect.

However, we end up with a number of characters who just exist. Or don’t.

Those who don’t think existence is enough tend to kill themselves or run away.

Our main character decides to investigate a murder. It feels a bit odd, but he’s sort of trying to make living still worth something, so I kind of got it. Unfortunately, placing an amateur sleuth into the grim end of days didn’t really work for me. And the conclusion to the murder mystery was kind of out there.

I’m ambivalent here. It’s an acceptable read and I finished it, but I spent a lot of time wondering what the point of it all was.

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

The Last: A Novel
by Hanna Jameson
due 4-9-2019
Atria Books/ Simon and Schuster

When nuclear world war erupts, wiping out most major cities, it leaves 24 people stranded at the L´Hotel Sixième in Switzerland. Some guests committed suicide. Some left the hotel in search of families, pets or other living people. Among the 24 that stay are an American academic student, a French Dentist, an Australian bartender, and American historian, a journalist and a Doctor.
From different cultures, backgrounds, traditions as well as different religious beliefs/non-belief and personal convictions, they are forced to confront each others feelings and agree on sensitive issues..
...when a young girls lifeless body is found in a water tank, they must weigh the importance of finding the reasons for her death, when the rest of the world has been eliminated by a nuclear war......what do we do with her corpse......the values we give life and death are discussed.
...when one of the people at the hotel is accused of a serious crime, we look at how we each judge those accused and how we deal with criminals. Do criminals deserve the same rights and considerations as non-criminals? Is it just to keep criminals alive, forcing non-criminals to share a fast depleting food and water supply? Would it be ethical to withhold food and starve him to death...or is it more ethical to institute the death penalty? And if it decided he deserves to die, who will be responsible for the killing? Is death in any form ethical?
What kind of person would you be at the end of the world and what role do we play in the lives of those around us?

This is more than a dystopian psychological thriller, itś a story of mystery, imagination and intrigue that explores life, personal ethics and personal choice.
Recommended, thought-provoking read.
Thanks to Atria Books for the e-book ARC.
**as per publishers request, this review will not be posted on other sites until mid-March**
#netgalley #TheLast

I was really excited to get this book, because I had heard such good things about it, but in my opinion, it just wasn’t my favorite. I think it had too much going on, to fully enjoy and submerse myself into it.
I will let Chapter Chatter Pub members know about it and it’s upcoming release, as well as use in a challenge.

I wanted to like this so much more than I did. I love the concept and the writing style, but there were too many sub-plots and sub-sub-plots that were distracting and ultimately unresolved.

Just finished what is sure to be on my top ten list this year. I was constantly finding myself asking what I would do in the same situation, and not sure I liked my answer.
The Last focuses on Jon Keller, an American who is at a conference in Switzerland when nuclear attacks occur throughout the world. With no internet or way to get news, he and his fellow hotel guests are left to wonder if this is the end of the world.
Thrown into the apparent apocalypse is a murder mystery, and how people react to it when there is no longer law and order.
The premise is frightening given today’s current events, and i found myself stopping after each chapter to reflect on what my own decisions would be.
Will 100% be recommending this book for the library, and especially book clubs. So many thought provoking scenarios that deserve to be discussed.

Review by 2shay..........

When a book description indicates a story following or during an apocalyptic event, I grab that sucker and devour it. I love this genre, or sub-genre...whichever. I get so involved in the different ways authors find to kill off a large portion of the earth’s population while following a hand full of survivors as they learn to cope with the new reality. The imagination of talented authors is limitless.

Hanna Jameson is no exception. She nuked the US and most of Europe, leaving a band of survivors stranded in a hotel on top of a mountain in Switzerland. They’re in fairly cushy conditions compared to other books in the genre, having a secure location with rooms and beds and, although preserving as much as possible of their generator’s fuel, occasional electricity. They have food and a well stocked bar, the bar being well used by her protagonist, Jon.

This story is told through Jon’s journal entries, a countdown of days, starting with “day one”, when the world went haywire. Jon’s a likable guy. As he meets and gets to know his fellow survivors, he writes about them and we get to know them too. It’s a great cast of characters, some as important as Jon himself. This was a new approach, I enjoyed it.

Ms. Jameson hit a home run. I enjoyed every page of this book, from the mystery of the dead young girl to the bigger mystery of the missing owner. I especially enjoyed the irony of the last few pages. OMG! You just never know. Kudos Ms. Jameson.

Grab your copy and...

Enjoy! ARC graciously provided by Atria Books and NetGalley for an honest and voluntary review.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review. I read about up to page 100 and had to throw in the towel. I just wasn't interested, and there was just too much going on. I think this book would be good for people who are fans of Dystopian. The writing was good but the plot just wasn't for me. This was a case of "It's me, not you".

Thank you to Atria Book and Net Galley for providing me with a e-copy of this book.


The Last is a story about a small group of isolated survivors after a global nuclear war, with a murder at the hotel twist. There were many things I liked about this book -- mainly I thought the survivalist and group governing aspects were very interesting. When faced with the world's end, the characters start to adapt to new life, form bonds with people who otherwise would have been strangers and start to alter their normal decision making in terms of with whom they align themselves, who they assign to be leaders and how they govern themselves as a group. The characters felt like normal people and I enjoyed following the group working together to survive and making morally ambiguous decisions based on a set of complicated options, given that it is the end of the world...

As much as I enjoyed the group dynamic of the book, there were a few elements that fell short for me.

First off, I love dystopian novels and I love murder mysteries, I didn't love the two together. The post-nuclear dystopia very much overshadowed the murder mystery aspect of the story for me. It honestly really only felt like it was there to pose an additional moral question of does it matter who the murder is if half the world just died in a nuclear fallout? Ultimately, I could have done without it and was not satisfied with the conclusion of this part of the story.

Secondly, while I can appreciate unlikable characters I found myself struggling to empathize with the characters or relish in their unlikeableness. I found that the narrator Jon seemed to be self-centered and self-righteous, with few redeeming qualities. This made the diary aspect of the book tough for me because I interpreted him as a winey dude, which was not appealing to me. I did appreciate the storyline about how Jon was across the globe from his family, it was full of nuance and felt like a very plausible heartfelt story. However, Jon also seemed to be the villian in his own story--perhaps that was the point.

Last but not least the political element of the story--Tomi was probably my favorite character in the story, she was a bit unlikable in a way that was fun to read. One thing that bugged me was the discussion over her voting record and how she may be responsible for the nuclear war because she voted for a non-specific "HIM." To me, this felt like a roundabout way to talk about a Trump-like figure and just blanket blaming the nuclear apocalypse on the results of a bad election. And while that is a scary and all too real scenario, I felt that the story needed to name the political "HIM" whether it ended up being a fictional or real character. Keeping this character in the abstract allowed the story to depend too much on real-world experience to fill in the details and gaps as to why a nuclear war happened to begin with. I would have enjoyed more details in this storyline and would have preferred to rely less on my existing understanding of the 2016 election.

Overall I would recommend reading the book as there are several through provoking aspects. It really got me thinking and offers a very chilling depiction of humanity when it comes to the end of the world as we know it.

**4 Stars**

"The giant slate of the world was clean. Consequences no longer existed."

If I had to choose one word to describe Hanna Jameson's The Lost, it would be "haunting." The Lost is a brilliant piece of work that is a satisfying mix of old school Agatha Christie who-dun-it murder mystery and dystopian apocalyptic world gone to hell in a handbasket thriller. It will be a pleasant treat for fans of both dystopian literature and classic murder mystery.

As an academic who travels for work, the premise of the book is terrifying to me. The lead of the book, Jon Keller, is attending an academic conference abroad in Switzerland at a hauntingly beautiful historic mansion turned hotel. Mind-numbingly horrific life-altering news shatters the serenity of his trip: nuclear bombs have been detonated over the US and the UK. Jon is ripped from his family - his wife Nadia and two young daughters who are in the US - as all television and Internet communications go down, leaving a vast geographical space between him and all that he loves.

To cope with the terror around him, he does what any academic would do: meticulously documents and details the events that transpire after the nuclear blast:

"I need to write about day one, before too much time passes and my memories of it become too repressed. That's what the mind does with trauma; it erases it, making you relive it occasionally in flashbacks and dreams, sensations of vertigo, hyperventilation and panic. But the memory itself becomes a work of fiction."

In the process of creating this historiography of a world amid nuclear fallout, Jon immediately realizes the limitations of modern society. All his resources are no longer available, as so much of them have been digitized:  

"I had no journals, no library, no resources. The era of instant information was over."

As if this wasn't enough to deal with, Jon and his colleagues discover the body of a young child in the water tank of the hotel. This places a curtain of suspension over the entire hotel and its guests, leaving Jon wondering who he can trust. Is the murderer hiding in plain sight, or did they leave the hotel when the first exodus of guests occurred immediately after the fallout? 

As Jon tries to piece together this mystery and make sense of what his life will look like in this brave new world, secrets are revealed about his past that also call into question his motivations for telling us his story and essentially writing the history of this post-apocalyptic world. Who can we believe if the storyteller isn't honest with his readers?

The ending left open the possibility of a sequel, which I would definitely be up for reading. I hope to read more from Hanna Jameson and appreciate the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy of The Last! Thank you to Hanna Jameson, Atria Books, and NetGalley for a copy of the book!

Detective novels and apocalypse novels are my cup of tea, so a mashup of these two genres was right up my alley. This is a perfectly decent take on the end of the world - narrator Jon is at a conference at a hotel in Switzerland when he gets the news that the nukes have started to fall, cuing some panicked fleeing and a disconcerting lack of twitter access. The body of a small child is found in one of the hotel's water tanks and since she didn't get there on her own, Jon decides to do some sleuthing to figure out who put her there, even though he has no idea what to do should he find the killer. I found this to be overtly political in a way that I appreciated - Jameson does not make any bones about which "president" has brought to world to nuclear ruin, the European guests who stay at the hotel after the catastrophe become resentful and distrustful of the Americans because, hey, some of them were stupid enough to vote for him, and one of the main characters seems to be modeled after Ann Coulter/Tomi Lahren, even sharing a name with the latter. This took a while to get going for my taste, but the situation escalates admirably in ways readers of apocalyptic fiction should expect and the latter third of the book was engrossing - that is, up until some missed opportunities such as a gross plot wrinkle that doesn't really get explored and a confusing, abrupt ending.

There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about this book: the narrative style of journal-type entries, listing the number of days that had passed since "the end of the world," the interaction of the main characters with each other; and it is thought-provoking to think about how one would handle this very scenario, while hoping to our core that it never happens. Because there is only one POV, we are not privy to the thoughts of other characters, so the story only goes in one direction, so to speak. The pace was slower than I expected for a "locked-room" mystery, as it is advertised, and I guess I expected a bit more action. It has more of a contemplative feel, and I am sure the author was challenged in bringing the two elements together: the apocalypse and an Agatha Christie type tale. I wasn't completely satisfied with the end, but how could one be, really, in this particular setting? The political editorializing made it less enjoyable for me. I just have to turn on the news to get enough of that. The narrative structure and post-apocalyptic setting reminded me somewhat of WHEN THE ENGLISH FALL by David Williams, and I will recommend to those who I know enjoyed that book.

Jon had a fight with his wife and left for a conference in Switzerland, frustrated and angry. He thought he had all the time in the world to fix his relationship with his kids and his wife. But, widespread nuclear attacks destroy modern society and he's left stranded with a small group of survivors at a remote Swiss hotel. Not only do they have to worry about radiation, dwindling food and supplies, and other survivors....but they find a child's body floating in one of the hotel's water tanks. It's the end of the world as they know it....20 people holed up in a deserted hotel.....possibly with a murderer. And Jon has no idea if his wife and kids are even still alive.

Yikes!

I enjoyed this story. The plot has a lot going on....a murder investigation, the fight to survive, personality conflicts. It definitely kept my attention from start to finish. The ending was a little bit strange....but after I thought about it, I think it is a fitting and realistic end. I like books that make me think about how I would react to similar circumstances. Jon and the other survivors had to make some rough life and death decisions. I'm not sure I would make the same ones, but I can understand their reactions to things like a rapist, going on supply runs and how to handle a murder investigation in the middle of extreme chaos. I'm not sure what I would do if I were away from my family when a society-ending event occurred. Would I try to get back home and hope they survived? Would I stay where I was and always wonder what happened to them? I hope I never have to face anything like Jon went through in this book.

All in all, a great book. I've read a lot of end-of-the-world disaster stories, but this one was different and creative. It didn't just focus on the disaster and the struggle to survive, but also touched on how the situation would change everything -- relationships, acceptable behavior, morals, etc. The story really got me thinking about how a world-level cataclysmic event would change life as I know it completely. I love it when a book gets me thinking big thoughts. This one definitely did! Full stars from me!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Atria Books via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

THE LAST: A NOVEL by Hanna Jameson is an intriguing look at how people might deal with the end of the world. In this case, starting with a nuclear bomb and a cell phone notification!

Jon Keller and and a group of plucky survivors find themselves stranded in a resort hotel in Switzerland when nuclear bombs are dropped on bigger cities around the world. He and everyone else there are stuck with no access to the outside world-the internet goes down and cell phones no longer work. With no ability to communicate Jon has no idea how his family is faring back in the U.S. On top of all that, the group discovers the dead body of a young girl in the water tank atop the hotel. When was this girl killed and why was her body tossed into the water tank? Will Jon and the others survive, and if so-what will they have to do to do so? You'll have to read this to find out!

I was impressed with the writing style as it was so relatable and it flowed easily throughout. Most of the main characters were fleshed out beautifully, however there were a few more that we never learned much about. I think that was a wise decision-because focusing any more on the lesser members of the group would have detracted too much from the story.

As the characters came to know each other, we came to know them as well. Of course, conflicts between them arose-some more important than others. Political views become involved and depending on where YOU stand on the political spectrum you may or may not enjoy that turn of events. (But isn't it just like people to argue over politics when it's possible that "politics" no longer even exist? Humanity just has to have someone to blame, doesn't it?)

Jon styles himself the journalist of the group and as such collects everyone's stories while he also becomes rather obsessed with the murdered girl. As such, he also becomes a detective of sorts, interrogating people and trying to get justice of any kind for the victim.

There were interesting threads that cropped up during this story-some followed through, some not so much. There was also the constant fear of being attacked by other survivors as well as the very real fears of running out of food and water.

My only issues with this tale were the leads that ended up going nowhere and the fact that the ending seemed to wind up too quickly. I would have liked to have learned more about the possible supernatural aspects, (as in did they exist or not?), and also, a little more about the denouement, which I can't get further into here without spoilers. These items are a bit picayune, but hey, that's how I felt.

Hanna Jameson has a hit on her hands with THE LAST: A NOVEL. It was intriguing and mysterious, while at the same time entertaining and engaging. I hit a certain point during reading when I knew there was no longer any way to put this book down without knowing what happened. I HAD to know and I bet you will need to as well, if you give this book a chance. I highly recommend that you do!

*Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*

There is definitely a creep factor to this story. I like that it's told through journal entries, but I would've like a bit of insight into some of the other characters. The pace did stall at times. The murder almost seemed like an afterthought. I wasn't crazy about the ending, but perhaps there will be a sequel. The premise was intriguing, but it didn't quite live up to it.