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.

This was OK. The author has talent, and the main characters were fully formed, although there was a large cast. The lack of chapter names was a little jarring, since I didn't know what character was the focus before starting. The ending wasn't satisfying for me. The book didn't hold my interest consistently, which is why I rated it as average.

I found this unreadable--too many characters thrown at me too quickly, with no hooks or coherence. I gave up without finishing it.