Yup- this time the blurb is correct- this is profoundly original. It's also very well written. Every year people around the alternate universe celebrate the coming of the last day- May 28. It hasn't actually come yet so every year people have to figure out what to celebrate, what to atone for, and what to let go of. There are lots of characters here and you might finding skipping from person to person a little confusing but go with it. My favorites were the astronauts but you might find another than speaks to you. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a hard one to review but it's worth your time- and if it takes a bit to settle in, keep at it because you'll enjoy the ride.

When I finished this novel, my reaction was "What the fvck did I just read?"

It's not a story so much as a series of incidents, from different characters' point(s)-of-view. The author's depiction of Jehovah's Witnesses is totally wrong and offensive. Every character is awful. What happens on the Last Day on Earth is not explained, you don't know what actually caused the extinguishing of life or why it happened.

Not recommended.

On the night of May 27-May 28 on an alternate earth, people around the world celebrate Last Night. The holiday has ancient roots. On this night, people try to make amends to people they’ve wrong; make sacrifices; or just light bonfires, drink, and have a good time. Domenica Ruta’s Last Day jumps from character to character on one Last Night in an unknown year. All of the characters are isolated from their friends and families for a variety of reasons. All are seeking something—a sense of connection, most of all—and all of them struggle to relate to the people around them. In addition to all this is the lingering question: what if this Last Night is the Last Night?

Last Day follows Sarah, a disaffected teenager; Kurt, a sad sack tattoo artist; Bear, a lonely astronaut on the International Space Station; and Karen, a mentally ill woman who is on her last chances at her job and half-way house home. Of these, my favorite is Karen. Karen recognizes that she has mental issues but continues to follow her own logic, no matter how out of sync with reality it is. She has unusual insights and fixations; I found her strangely endearing even though I know that if I met her in real life she would annoy the hell out of me. But something about her makes me want to reach out to her and help her. She means well, even if she often ends up causing mayhem. Bear is similarly sympathetic. He’s a good man, but no one seems to really see and appreciate him. I really felt for him as he had to put up with a dismissive Russian cosmonaut and an incredibly irritating, over-privileged space tourist from Japan.

Sarah and Kurt, the characters in the other half of the book, are harder to sympathize with, though I think I understand their place in the book. Sarah is one of those teenagers who seems utterly determined not to enjoy anything. She affects cynicism and pretentiousness. And yet, she is the only one in the book who seems to take Last Day as a warning that life on earth could come to an end. Kurt, the other character who takes Last Day seriously, doesn’t see the day as a warning. Instead, Kurt sees the day as a chance to address the biggest wrong in his life, the thing that threw him off track. In comparison to Karen, Bear, and even Sarah, Kurt is the least developed character.

Now that I’ve finished reading Last Day, I feel like I’ve experienced a bait-and-switch. The bulk of the novel, until the very end, distracts us with human problems, history, and mythology. All of this draws our attention away from the ultimate meaning of Last Day. This bait-and-switch feels like a slap in the face. Once I recovered, however, I had an epiphany. In this age of climate change and the very real extinctions going on around us, we could use a lot less distraction with things that don’t matter when there’s a chance that life as we know it actually is coming to an end unless we as a species make substantial changes now.

How clever to have publication of this book take place on what in this dystopian world is known as "last day." May 28. So will this be the final day on earth? The world depicted here, the people, are recognizable in today's reality, except that every year there is a worldwide "celebration" anticipating the end of the world on a certain date, and butterfly-effect like, Ruta lays out the interconnectivity of us all. Absorbing and readable.

This is a novel based upon the premise of facing the last day of life, a practice that is celebrated in this world of the near future annually. It revolves around specific characters, diverse in their individual lives and attitudes but sharing the one familiar trait of wondering will this be the year it finally happens. The characters are interesting and the reader becomes involved in wondering with them and watching their behaviors. The prose is poetic at times; the tone varies from heavy to light. However, I found it a bit confusing and my interest in the plot waned at times. Had I been a fan of this genre, I’m sure my experience would have been different.

**2.5 Stars** This is now the second book I've read that has been compared to 'Station Eleven', and it's the second book I've read that is NOTHING LIKE 'STATION ELEVEN'. I really wish publishers would STOP comparing their mediocre dystopian-esq novels to the beautiful story that is 'Station Eleven'. It just pisses readers off and sets them up for disappointment. Also, this story is NOT dystopian. At all.

Anyway...

I'll start this review by telling readers what they REALLY want to know while reading this book.

Yes...the world comes to an end at the end.

No, I will not go into how or when, or anything explaining it, but that's all I really wanted to know while reading this. In fact, it's the main reason I KEPT reading it. To see if and how the world would end (it's actually kind of terrifying in how absolute it is).

None of the characters drew me in. I didn't care for any of them...Karen's a broken, crazy woman who is incredibly depressing to read about. Sarah (with an 'H'!) is a sixteen year old girl trying WAAAAAY too hard to be what she perceives as deep and mature, but comes off as bratty and selfish. And Kurt is a creepy guy in his 40's preying upon the aforementioned sixteen year old girl (it's really skeevy and gross).

The three astronauts, Bear, Svec and Yui were my favorite to read about. Well, Bear and Svec. Yui is kind of...weird. I really liked having the perspective of three people so completely removed from Earth itself.

As for the writing? Well....this is a little harder for me to review. Much of it is written very well, but in many places (especially the ending), it comes off as trying to hard to be flowery and poetic. I don't know...I know how I want to describe it in my head, but I can't really explain it. Some sections are written in a way where you have to go back and re-read them to really understand what's happening. Nothing is really CLEAR, and that frustrates me. There's a lot of pointless descriptions and side-stories sprinkled throughout that have no meaning to the overall story. Like the dolphins at the end, or the kid with the rabbits, or Mary's psycho sister, Sarah. So many characters are thrown at you (especially near the end) that they mean nothing because you can't keep them all straight.

Overall, I don't know that I would recommend this to anyone I know. I CERTAINLY wouldn't recommend it to fans of 'Station Eleven', because they'll be in for a major disappointment. It's by no means a terrible book, but it's definitely a slow, slow burn, with a mild payout in the end.

*** I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

This was definitely a thought provoking and entertaining read. The first, maybe, 3/4 of it had this really powerful slow cast build up that reminded me of the early days of The Walking Dead where you're invested in everyone. The last quarter or so was disappointing.... since I didn't have any time to care about the new cast of characters. If I was rating the first 3/4 on it's own, it would be a firm 4.5 (instead of a solid 3).

This novel is a stellar exploration of a motley crew of memorable characters and an examination of the importance of rituals and traditions in the face of the potential end of the world. But perhaps most obviously, it's an amazing illustration on the unlikely connections very disparate people forge and the necessity of this connection to sustain our hearts and sanity. The author writes so lyrically that I found myself highlighting passages to review later because I found them so affecting. There is a richness and depth to the characters that's often missing in apocalyptic fiction. This is a truly unique book; I can honestly say I have never read anything like it. I would whole-heartedly recommend it to readers who enjoy complicated characters, unique plotting, and wild rides.

While the comparisons to Station Eleven aren't accurate, this is a unique, intriguing novel. The writing is skilled, full of feeling and vivid imagery. We meet a series of flawed humans who we follow throughout the course of one day. These characters are deep, complicated, and despite their mistakes, worth rooting for. I enjoyed the story and the connections the characters make. As a whole, though I found it unsatisfying. Perhaps it went over my head, or I haven't had enough time to throughly process the whole thing. While the story is pretty bleak, it's also thought provoking and the writing alone is worth reading. I say definitely give it a try!

Every year at the end of May all around the world people get together to celebrate Last Day, a tradition dating back centuries. Last Day is the possibility of the end of the world, and rebirth if the world is still there in the morning (which it is every year). The book starts abruptly on May 27th of a year that cannot be too far away from where we are now, with the introduction of several characters in the middle of their day. Some of these characters are linked, others aren’t, or only by the fact that they are human. Sarah is a teenager, intent on finding the man she fell in love with on Last Day the year before, Kurt is that man, a tattoo artist and an alcoholic; Karen is a woman with a traumatic past and mental health issues, Bear is an astronaut hovering around earth in a space station with a Russian astronaut and a Japanese artist as companions.

This book had everything for me to like (end of days style apocalypse, weird characters who most people won’t like), and for me not to like (predictable, rushed, lacking in depth). It’s compulsively readable, and very well written, and the first half kept me engrossed in the plot. And then for some reason I lost interest, and started to plough through the pages to make sure my ending predictions were going to come true. Suddenly a whole slew of new characters were introduced, and the development of the other characters just collapses, and you start to wonder what on earth happened to the storyline. Did the author get bored and feel like she had to rush to fill 100 more pages? I have no idea, but I was a bit disappointed.

This is not dystopia, or a post-apocalyptic story, more an overview on humanity on the verge of something that they have already predicted, and are compulsively hurling themselves towards. It’s dire and pretty hopeless (which I enjoyed), and wouldn’t have minded the predictability of the ending so much if there had been more focus on the characters introduced in the first half during the second half of the book. I wanted more of Karen, of Kurt, of Sarah, of Bear, and less of the random pictures of random people that appeared out of nowhere nearer the end of the book.

I didn’t dislike the book, there were actually quite a few things I enjoyed, but I wish the author had spent more time developing it into something longer and less rushed. The author does mention having written the story in a state of postpartum fugue in the Acknowledgments section, something that I have been known to do and understand completely, and it does account for the “rushed” and somewhat unfinished feeling.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

DNF.... After reading about 25%, I determined that this tome was not for me. I could not connect with the characters.

Last Day by Domenica Ruta describes how different people "celebrate" the Last Day, a yearly holiday in anticipating of the end of the world. Focusing on several characters, including a team on an international space station, a tattoo artist, a teen girl, Ruta depicts existential dread in various forms and flavors. I really liked the different characters, and the ending definitely stuck with me. It's very bleak and dark with unlikable characters, which worked for me in this book (though I don't always enjoy it in other contexts). Unlike other reviewers, I somehow missed the comparison to Station Eleven, which is probably for the best.


Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book description is intriguing and several of the characters and their stories are interesting. The organizing idea of an annual holiday celebrating the end of the world is fertile ground for exploration. The idea, in fact, is the best developed thread with chapters detailing the history and sociology of the event interspersed among the stories of multiple characters. There are so many characters with more or less appeal to this reader, that my interest waxed and waned and was ultimately not rewarded. I'm sure this book will find its audience among those who connect better with them.

I found this book to be too packed with characters and information, making it difficult to follow. Given the amount of activity the book should have been much longer than it was.

I enjoyed Domenica Ruta's memoir, so I was excited to read her debut novel, "Last Day." The novel follows 7 characters (who are ultimately connected) during the lead up to and celebration of "Last Day," a holiday to celebrate the end of the world -- although the world never ends on this day. Her characters are vivid and interesting -- especially Karen, a woman who appears to have some sort of mental illness and suffered abuse as a young child. I wanted to know more about these characters and wished that there were less characters so that they could be developed further. There was a bit too much going on in the book for it to be under 300 pages.

Described as an apocalyptic tale and compared to Station 11, Heartbreaker, and other novels I loved, I was sure Last Day by Domenica Ruta was right up my alley and was thrilled to receive an ARC from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review. Rita’s novel follows the stories of a host of characters throughout the Last Day holiday as all converge on one increasingly ominous-seeming event.

I don’t think the comparison to Station 11 is accurate, as this isn’t a post-apocalyptic or dystopian novel, but it is an interesting and unique concept all its own. Unfortunately I had a lot of trouble connecting with many of the characters; I found myself most interested in Karen’s story, and least interested in Sarah and Kurt’s (I also thought the author got the characterization of tattooers/tattoo shops/tattooing way wrong which took me out of that story line completely). Karen however was one of the most unique characters I’ve encountered in a long time and my heart aches for her. I wasn’t particularly interested in Bear, however his cosmonaut counterpart, Svec, was the most endearing character in the novel and by the end I found myself feeling the most compassion and interest for the storyline on the ISS.

The book had a bit too much going on for being under 300 pages; I think the goal was to invoke the increasing chaos of Last Day but instead it just lost my interest repeatedly. Overall, a great concept, but I don’t know if the impact was really there in the end.

Review posted on 2/26/19 at the following places:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2715529258

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuWUfTUH1t8/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=8k7g67tq66ks

3.5 stars rounding up to 4. To begin, the whole Station Eleven comparison/blurb should be removed. It sets expectations that this book sadly for me, did not reach. I LOVE dystopian fiction. I read nearly every mainstream dystopian novel that gets published. To me, dystopia it is more about the survivors, finding a way of coming together and moving forward after a devastation, and striking a new balance.

This book was not that. This book takes place on an annual holiday sometime in the alternate/near future called "Last Day". It's about celebrating the end of the world, but then the world is somewhat reborn the next day and life goes on. It brings together three separate character stories and attempts to weave them together, albeit loosely and not until the final 20% or so of the novel (and then still pretty loosely). It did keep me reading, except for some of the lengthier narratives when Karen was doing a retelling of a Last Day story to some children in an apartment. I found myself skimming towards the end of that ramble.

The characters of both Sarah and Karen were unlikeable to me. Karen had some tragic but humorous moments, Sarah was basically just a bitter teen misanthrope. I did like Svec and Bear (astronauts) though. Towards the end there are all kinds of new people being introduced and tossed after several lengthy paragraphs, I found myself wanting to skim.

I don't want to say any more because of spoilers, but if you're really into dystopian fiction, you might give it a read, but it was not my favorite in a well-loved category.

Domenica Ruta's Last Day is a book that shouldn't work, but it does and does beautifully. The premise is that humanity comes together on May 3rd every year in anticipation of the end of the world. (It made me think of Y2K just a smidge.) The characters are diverse and should not work together, but there's an intersectionality, which is fascinating. Stunning writing!

I loved the unique concept of Last Day when I read the synopsis. Every year in May people celebrate the end of the world or not. Imagine being happy about the apocalypse! It's odd yet fascinating. During this day, Last Day, the story follows numerous characters. Somehow, all of these characters intersect with one another in their lives. There are too many characters to keep track of here, but I think it's supposed to be that way. It's a busy day, a lot of people, noise, activity, drama, happiness, grief and on it goes. It's a blur with no single person understanding how they might have affected someone else's life. The story reads like a blur with too much happening. I liked it because it's fascinating how one person affects another, and we never know about it. Weaving all of these seemingly random strangers together is a great premise. I recommend for anyone who can read without getting overwhelmed. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Are you thinking…oh great, another female author another female centered end of the world? Well, don’t, this isn’t like that at all. Yes, it is a story of the last day on Earth, but it’s set in a world very much like our own with the major distinction being that Last Day is thing celebrated every May every year. It’s a day of atonement, amendments, forgiveness and so on. It’s actually fraught with meaning the way few celebratory occasions are anymore. But then again it also in a way trivializes the apocalypse, by presuming it to be a real or metaphorical possibility on such regular basis. And so this on Last Day the readers get to follow different characters through interconnected narratives as they navigate their lives. It’s a lovely story and it’s very well written, but there is a sort of dreamy quality to it that makes it something of an aloof read. The author says in her afterword the novel was written in a postpartum fugue state and that’s sort of what it reads like, not postpartum per se (I’m not sure that enters the equation), but certainly fugue like. And also, and this is despite the fact that the plots are interwoven, it sort of reads like a collection of short stories. At any rate, it engages and reads well, but it does maintain a certain emotional distance. And then it ends, like a Last Day would. If this was a bookclub read, everyone would probably discuss what they would do on their last day on Earth. That’s just a gimme. I’m not in love, but it’s a lovely book. Thanks Netgalley.