A really fast paced post-nuclear war novel that I read in one day.. The end of the world and you find yourself at a hotel in the country with 20 strangers. A cool premise and the story is told as Jon, a historian who was there for a conference, writes a living history of the days after the event. The format leads to a one-sided view of the events although Jon interviews each person, Jon and the reader, only learns what each person wants to share. It is past dystopian and part murder mystery. It reminded me of Station Eleven a bit.

**Netgalley provided this ARC copy to me at no charge. My opinions & words are my own.

In terms of dystopian books - of which there are currently so very many - it wasn't terrible.
I think the main storyline was decent; I do like the fact that it's a written record of "real time" happening. However, there was so much extraneous bits of this and that (like the serial killer thing - was that supposed to go somewhere? It could've been left out because it added zero impact to the story).
I feel like it was fairly 2 dimensional as far as the "telling" of the story and the majority of the characters. The threads of the story were not woven together very smoothly or efficiently - many chunks were pretty confusing and muddled and somewhat ridiculous.
I applaud the effort and if you can check this out at your library for free, go for it. I wouldn't pay full price for it as-is - it needs a good hard edit to make it buy-worthy, sorry.

Though I thought this would be mostly about the murder discovered in the days after a global nuclear attack, this turned out to be a quieter apocalyptic story with the murder mystery receding into the background at times and ultimately being secondary to something that seemed totally unrelated at the outset.

There's plenty of humanity on display and of course, it's not always pretty. Jon Keller, our narrator has highs and lows but remains a narrator that can be trusted for the most part. He did do things that grated on my nerves (being sworn to secrecy & completely outing the secret numerous times without thinking about the consequences and often on his on whims of how he felt about the person he either told or was telling on). He seemed fickle to me but I afforded him a bit of leeway because the apocalypse makes people do strange things and his sins such as they were, were minor in comparison to others.

The brief moments of political resentment & assessing of blame to Americans, in particular, felt real but ultimately futile. With all the politicians effectively dead or neutered and the world's interconnectedness broken up in such a way that it really didn't matter anymore, I appreciated the recognition of how people would act but also was glad that the story didn't dwell because the survivors really had more important things to deal with and honestly, enough time, energy and breath had been used on and by all those folks before The Fall.

I very much enjoyed the parts that showed how people felt about the loss of life as it had been from having television, internet and social media access to what it's like to face the apocalypse without your family or even in your home country. The feeling of being unmoored and untethered was shown well as was the decision to either make a go of the life you have as it is or opt out. There was no judgment either way and handled well, I think. I was glad to highlight some very well written passages I'd like to remember and look up again and that's always welcome.

A bit like Station Eleven with the quiet literary vibe, but also with elements of The Stand with some characters bringing in their brand of mysticism and that whole rebuilding and factions thing and a sprinkling of World War Z with the telling as a first-hand historical account. It comes together well but I do think the book blurb needs a rework. I'd definitely read another by Jameson.

An isolated hotel in Switzerland after multiple nuclear bombs are detonated is the setting of The Last.

Jon, an American historian at the hotel for a conference is the book’s narrator. After the bombs drop, the Internet soon fails. Most of the hotel’s guests drive or walk to the city and its airport. By the tenth day, only five staff and fifteen guests remain in the hotel. They are waiting for help that never arrives.

When Jon and two of the staff find a body in the water tank on the roof of the hotel, Jon decides to find the murderer. As their food supplies dwindle and the weather turns colder, the survivors turn on one another. The group must decide how to administer justice and how to run their government.

I was so excited to read this book. The Shining and Agatha Christie in a Walking Dead setting? Yes, please! Those are some of my favorite books. Of course here comes the however, heavy sigh. However, The Last is much closer to The Road.

The Last is a slow-burning philosophical trip into the meaning of life and how a worldwide disaster would force or allow us to act. Would we still care about anything other than our own survival? Would we still have our humanity or would we devolve back into animals? Would we be more religious or fully convinced God had forsaken us?

If you are a thriller or mystery fan, look elsewhere. The mystery here is an afterthought at best. Even with its slow pacing, I felt compelled to read it in one day. I would recommend it only for literary fiction fans. I took one star off for the ending, which I don’t want to spoil, leaving it at 3 stars.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Last by Hanna Jameson is full of mystery, suspense, and psychological thriller elements all wrapped up with a post-apocalyptic spin.

This story takes place immediately following a nuclear explosion that has wiped out the majority of the population of the world. The diary format is engaging as it gives insight into the emotions the survivors are feeling.

This is not the typical type of book I would read, but I enjoyed it very much.

The Last by author Hanna Jameson is a brilliant, shockingly creepy mystery/thriller! The book pulls you into the many turns and twists and doesn’t let up until the very last page. A highly recommended book of 2019!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of The Last in exchange for an honest review.

Wow... this was a very unique thriller! This was a mix of dystopian, mystery, and some psychological suspense.

This was a very frightening premise in the fact that there is a nuclear war going on. Twenty survivors are trapped in a large hotel in Switzerland as the nuclear attack is going on. The story is told from Jon's perspective who is one of the survivors from the hotel. I loved how the story was told from his journal entries!!

Of course to add more hype to this story... there is a murder that takes place in the hotel. The story really takes off once the hunt for the killer begins.

I was super excited to get my hands on this one... but had mixed reviews/feelings on this one. It fell a tad bit flat for me.. and was hoping for more action/mystery. I also was wanting more from the creepiness factor of the hotel... thought the story would take a turn there but was disappointed in wanting more.

I could definitely see this as being an excellent series or movie! :)

I'm glad I took a chance on reading this.. since its' not my usual genre.

Huge thank you to Atria for providing the arc via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

3 stars!

Publication date: 4/9/19
Published to GR: 11/12/18

Jon is a history professor is staying at a rural Swiss hotel for a conference when news of nuclear bombs attacking major cities is received. Questions are raised. Should the hotel guests stay or go? Where is a safe place? Can they go home? Is this the end of the world? Are they the last people left on earth?

Jon and a handful of guests opt to stay. The hotel has shelter, a limited supply of food and companionship. Jon keeps a diary of his days and helps with the maintenance of the hotel. He is shaken when the body of a young girl is found in a water tank. She's been murdered but who is the killer? Is the murderer still in the hotel? Why have there been so many unexplained deaths in the hotel over the years?

Jon begins investigating the girl's death while the survivors try to build a community.

I really enjoyed this book although I found the ending a little disappointing. I was hoping for a bang but the book ended with more of a whimper.

Still it was a good read and I would recommend it to people who liked Station Eleven or who read The Walking Dead comic books or watch the series.

Jon is staying at a hotel in Switzerland when nuclear war breaks out. The hotel is in a remote enough location that the employees and guests of the hotel are safe from the bombs, but cut off from society. Some people from the hotel decide to leave and find their way home, but Jon and 20 or so others remain at the hotel. After a couple of months in the hotel, the water pressure starts to disappear. While investigating the cause, the body of a young girl is found. Jon takes it upon himself to find out what happened to the girl, and he becomes obsessed with identifying the killer. Meanwhile, supplies decrease and tensions between the hotel residents increase.

Jon is an American visiting Switzerland for an academic conference. The novel is told from his point of view using a diary/journal style. Jon and his wife have a troubled marriage, and he feels guilty for how he left things with her. Part of his behavior is a result of his guilt, and his need to make things right.

We never know much about the attacks, just that various cities in the United States and Europe have been bombed. After the attacks, communication (i.e., internet access) is mostly lost. The hotel has resources, so they have basics like food, water, and shelter. It would have been nice to know a little more about the attacks, but that is not the primary focus of the story. The relationships between the survivors is the focus, and is very realistic. The hotel residents are varied in their nationalities, backgrounds, beliefs, and personalities. This seems accurate, and creates a lot of conflict.

This novel is more of a character study, and not a lot of action takes place. Based on the book description, I was expecting more mystery than is delivered. Still, the characters and their interactions were believable and interesting.

Fantastic setting. Interesting characters. Slow paced. Good for fans of apocalyptic stories with a little mystery.

I really enjoyed this story. It was sort of an apocalypse meets murder mystery book in the form of a diary. Strong interesting characters have the reader invested in the outcome of each. Would definitely recommend this to science fiction lovers.

I loved this novel which is a mixture of post-apocalypse survivor story, suspense, and literary fiction.

The story begins just as the world comes to an end. Jon, a history professor, is at a conference located in a remote hotel in Switzerland. He is at breakfast when notifications start sounding on other guests phones. Then, events become a panicked blur.

A few survivors remain at the hotel, even as tensions mount and rations dwindle. They have no idea what awaits them outside the woods around the large hotel.

The discovery of a body leads Jon to decide to solve the murder, partially because it is concerning to be trapped in a hotel with a killer, and partially to hold on to his own sanity.

While I don't read much dystopian fiction, this one was well worth the gamble. I loved it!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2542264072

Hanna Jameson managed to pull off a very realistic post-apocalyptic novel with THE LAST. The plot and characters are engaging and compelling while remaining entirely realistic and believable.

Imagine you are stuck in a remote, foreign hotel when nuclear war occurs: what do you do? There is no internet, telephone, television, or radio. The people who want to leave have left. Suicides are occurring daily. Your family is on another continent, and you may never see them again.

But one day, there is relief from the quotidian anxiety in the form of a mystery. Which leads you, a historian, to learning about the people around you and how they came to be in the same hotel.

This is how The Last begins, and while there are not always easy answers and some threads are left hanging I enjoyed my time spent with the survivors at the L'Hotel Sixieme.

I was definitely interested in this story based on the summary, but was hoping for the creepy history of the hotel to play into the story more. There were several times where it seemed like something sinister was in the hotel, but nothing actually came of it. In fact, there were several storylines that were touched on, and then never taken any further, which was incredibly frustrating for me as a reader. I also didn't love the ending. It just seemed too unexplained and felt like it came out of nowhere. Overall, it was definitely a page-turner and I was a fun read, but I felt it needed more fleshing out in the end.

This was a quite frightening premise. Nuclear attack in Washington, then London, and continuing. Just the fact that it is actually possible was enough to bring chills over me.

Twenty survivors are hold up in a large hotel in Switzerland when all communication is lost. The story is told through one of the twenty, Jon. He is an American who was traveling. He felt the need to document his experience for future generations. The format of the story told through his daily journal entries worked well.

There is also a murder that occurs at the hotel and now ther search for the murderer among them begins....

I really wanted to enjoy this one, but I really didn't feel like I was the right reader. Recommend to those who like creepier, but realistic dystopian world "what if" type scenarios.

Thanks to the publisher and Melisa for this early copy. Comes out in April 2019

i was offered an e-ARC of this book and encouraged to go in blind. i read the synopsis, obviously, to make sure it was within my (admittedly very broad) reading tastes, and from that, i gathered that it was a locked-room mystery with a twist: a young girl’s body is found on the premises of a swiss hotel that is still standing in the aftermath of a nuclear war that has destroyed most of the world, leaving twenty people struggling to make sense of this altered global landscape and now also a murrrrderrrrrr.

the blurbs name-dropped [author:Stephen King|3389], [author:Agatha Christie|123715], [book:The Girl With All the Gifts|17235026], [book:Annihilation|17934530], calling it “nightmarish,” a”dystopian psychological thriller,” “haunting;” a combination that made me think this was going to be <i>Clue</i> + [book:The Shining|11588] + [book:The Road|6288], and that’s a big old ball of YES PLEASE for karen.

do those blurbs accurately convey the tone and content of this book? weeeeellllll… again, i was encouraged to go in blind, and i don’t want to make decisions for anyone else, but mother nature gave us spoiler tags, so imma use them. not to talk about any *actual* plot spoilers, but to share more broadly what this book feels like to read; which expectations were met by the readalikes and which were not. so, it will be tonal spoilers only.

to click or not to click? think of it this way: say you saw the trailer for <i>The Cabin in the Woods</i> and thought - ooh - a horror movie! and then you watched <i>The Cabin in the Woods</i> and realized it was just pretending to be a horror movie. did you feel:

A) misled and cranky
B) delighted
C) what's <i>The Cabin in the Woods</i>?

if A, view spoiler. if B, do not view spoiler. if C, put down that book, ya nerd!

<img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/92/87/7b/92877b89b1754ab95695b658c8a2fcae.gif"/>

so.

<spoiler>1) this book is not scary. not even a little bit. i’m not sure why it tries to set up a spooky vibe early on, and why the blurbs perpetuate this fallacy with their Stephen King & co. shenanigans. it does take place in a hotel, like [book:The Shining|11588] (or like [book:Security|25810610], for that matter), and the stress of isolation and the END OF THE WORLD does make some people behave erratically or act out of desperation, but it's not ghost twinsies and shriveled bathtub ladies, it's ordinary human panic. because the end of the world is <i>scary</i>, especially when you're far from home: you’re stuck in a hotel with a bunch of strangers who don't even share a common language, you don't know who can be trusted, you can’t contact your loved ones so you fear the worst, you have no idea what fresh hells are still to come...layering on a supernatural stressor on top of that would have been some excellent intense icing, and the seeds of mayyyyybe haaaauuunnted were certainly planted:

<blockquote>"What interested you about the history of the hotel?”

“Well, you know this hotel has a pattern of suicides and unexplained deaths. Even a couple of murders in the eighties and nineties. The most recent owners are pretty shady, hard to pin down. The place has been sold and resold a lot due to bad press. Also because a famous serial killer stayed once. My work, well…what I was planning to spend my time in the hotel doing was. mostly write biographies of the people who died here.”</blockquote>

and

<i>I sometimes feel that there might be more people in the hotel than we know about. It is such a huge place. It plays on my mind. And it’s a very noisy building, a lot of bangs and bumps in the night.</i>

i’m not saying i begrudge the attempt - ambiguity is always welcome here; for a while i was enjoying the shiverylicious [book:The Silent Land|8719737]/[book:House of Leaves|24800] vibes from this, and the sheer number of times characters voiced the "maybe we're all already dead" idea was like a siren's song, but when nothing spooky ever actually developed, it was clutter without consequence.

2) this book is not a mystery. not really. there is a dead body, there are suspicious people, there are secrets and red herrings and misdirection. the protagonist investigates, in his own way, who killed the girl, but this is not the novel’s primary concern, and the thread is dropped for a large chunk around the book's midsection.

so what is this book? thematically, it is more like [book:Station Eleven|20170404] than anything mentioned above. its focus is largely upon establishing connections and retaining humanity, or not, in the wake of a cataclysmic event. it is very much about people. not people-as-murder-suspects, but what people feel and how they interact; it's about regret, forgiveness, kindness, society, law, responsibility, making peace with the past, overcoming the barriers of language and culture, political ideologies, what we owe each other as members of the same species, etc, but also what happens when desperation incites violence.

for me, the horror/mystery detours didn’t contribute anything except confusion once the book settled into its more sociological track. a book with this line:

<i>The only meaning we might have left as a species - indeed the only thing left that might matter, that might keep us motivated to get up in the morning - is in the small acts of human kindness we show each other, and in my compulsion to be helpful, useful, to keep things moving forward, I’ve mostly forgotten to be kind.</i>

ain’t never going to be a horror novel.

there's violence, yes - many different kinds of it, but anything remotely supernatural-feeling is redirected. if anything, it's humanist horror, as one character claims: <i>An absence of meaning: that would be the scariest of all things</i>. it also quotes [author:Graham Greene|2533], muses on individual freedoms and community responsibilities and argues whether suicide is an option. for many it is, but not for our guide through this situation:

<blockquote>The thought had occurred to me once or twice: would killing myself really be that bad, considering? Did I want to see where we - and humanity as a whole - ended up? Did I want to see how much worse things got before they - if they - ever got better?

But the idea always repelled me. As long as I could continue to be useful, I’d stay. I wouldn’t voluntarily throw my life away. I’d never think badly of those who decided it was too much, because it was. It is too much. But I could have been in San Francisco when those bombs fell, I could have been in Mississippi with my parents, and I was in neither. I had ended up in one of the few places that escaped total devastation, and the idea of creating more by giving in to despair seemed ungrateful somehow.</blockquote>

the thing is, the end of the world doesn’t need additional bells and whistles to keep a reader’s interest. the aftermath is <i>enough</i>. the mystery plot resolves in a fine-but-too-coincidental and certainly not "fair play" manner, but the spooky atmosphere was not needed, sez me</spoiler>

so, that's what the book is and is not. did i like it? i did. mostly. it meanders a bit, as i've mentioned to those of you who went to spoilertown, but for the most part, it achieves its goals of what-iffing the apocalypse and showing how miscommunication, paranoia and sectional alliances can be pretty darn destructive. and nukes. also destructive.

the only other thing i struggled with is a completely personal gripe that i'm mentioning strictly as a self-reminder should i ever need to catalog my own aversions.

the world we live in is fucked. and it’s an especially embarrassing time to be an american. but i have a personal squicky discomfort when contemporary political elements creep into my escapist entertainment.

there’s something off-putting to me about reading this book, whose end-of-world scenario was clearly brought about by our great orange shame, where a character who voted for him is berated by others as complicit to this end-of-world scenario and it basically turns into any day on twitter - vitriolic, divisive, unproductive, issue-laden. it’s completely me and my problem - i had the same reaction to <i>American Horror Story: Cult</i>, and even <i>The Good Fight</i>, although it was used in a much more organic n' humorous way there.

i think my problem is when what's already bad is made worse for entertainment; an alarmist spear poking me in the place i'm turning to as an escape.

we know it's bad. trust me, we are all fully alarmed. the news already feels like a horror movie, i don’t want my horror to feel like the news.

but that's just me being feeling overwhelmed by how everything is falling apart. quick - raccoons!

<img src="https://78.media.tumblr.com/cef585750ce95338f0179fad71d41b85/tumblr_mxe1k2pRH91qbyxr0o1_400.gif"/>

three and a half stars, rounded up.

I really enjoyed this novel of post-apocalyptic suspense which takes place immediately following a nuclear explosion which wipes out majority of the population of the world. A few survivors have to make do at a hotel, tensions are high, rations are low and fear is soaring. Told in a diary like format that tracks each day, we learn more about the current conditions at hand and the emotions that the survivors are feeling, and throw in a murder for good measure and you will have some serious unrest and unease amongst the living! I enjoyed reading this for both the mystery and the survival aspect and was glad it was less Fantasy than most in this genre, which is often not my thing. I would definitely recommend this and if you are leery due to the post-apocalypse aspect like I was, do not be dissuaded!

The Last by Hanna Jameson was my first time reading a dystopian novel and I really enjoyed it!

What it's about: American historian Jon is at a conference at a hotel in Switzerland when nuclear bombs are dropped all over the world and the internet goes dark. Before everything goes down he is able to conclude that the US government is gone and millions are dead around the world, possibly including his wife and daughters. Two months later amidst suicides and people leaving, there is a small group of people still staying at the hotel trying to maintain what little civilization they have left. Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of a young girl who they find in the hotel's water tanks to keep a grasp on his humanity. But as tensions in the hotel rise and supplies are used up, Jon must face if he can stand to stay in the hotel any longer or take his chances in the outside.

The Last was written in a very unique style that I loved. It is all written from Jon's POV and he is recording everything that happens so it can be documented if anyone should happen to find it and they aren't there anymore. I love this because it feels like he is speaking right to you and it could be something that actually happened. This novel is so fitting with the current political climate as well, but you don't have to know too much to make the connection.

The freakiest part about this book for me was that it seems like something that could actually happen. It isn't overdone in any way and Jameson did an amazing job of capturing what could happen if we were involved in a nuclear warfare that destroys the world as we know it. If all dystopian novels are as good as this one then I can't wait to read more of them.

Final Thought: Loved the pacing, the dystopian world created was realistic and atmospheric, and it was so well written. I am a big fan of this novel even though I didn't necessarily love the ending. I liked how everything came together, but there was one thing that was a tad disappointing to me. That being said, I still definitely recommend The Last if you are a fan of dystopian fiction and want something that isn't overdone and seems plausible.

The Last is a short story written in diary format by a guest stranded at a remote, foreign hotel after a global cataclysmic event. Written in first person, the narrator fleshes out his companions by recalling joint survival planning and by attempting to solve a mysterious murder at the hotel. Characters are well-developed and the pacing was taut, which enhanced tension. A few contrived plot points conveniently move the story along, but overall, I found the book entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Several guests at a European hotel are cut off from the rest of the world following a nuclear event. What transpires is a look into human nature during an apoclyptic event. The Last's protagonist, Jon, an historian, records the events for record. Very quickly into the story, things take a wrong turn and the characters are faced to make tough decisions.

The events that unfold are thought provoking; however, I felt the murder mystery as described in the book's summary was really a minor part of the plot. At times, the story felt a little disjointed and for me, the conclusion was somewhat anti-climatic. That being said, the interaction between characters and the scenarios in which they are placed certainly kept me reading. I just don't think the murder plays as much a role as it is presented in the summary.

I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

This novel started out with great potential, but approximately two-thirds of the way in the story began to splinter off in random directions. At times the novel struggles to be [book:The Shining|11588], [book:Station Eleven|20170404], and [book:The Mysterious Affair at Styles|16343] but ultimately fails at all. The premise of the novel--an apocalyptic event with a sub story of an unsolved murder in a creepy resort--is a solid one and highly intrigued. It is just a shame that the author was unable to deliver on this idea and allowed herself to be pulled off target with a variety of ridiculous side plots. The ending feels rushed and unsatisfying with many loose ends unresolved. A frustrating read.