This book had every opportunity to be the book that I so wanted it to be. Sloan and Cherry survived masked killers as Summer Camp Counselors. Now, they're working through the survivors' guilt of being the last two left. Sloan has a harder time because her mind has shut out the memory. In search of her memory and the truth, we watch Sloan's rapid mental decline, which honestly just broke my heart.

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan is a gripping and atmospheric YA psychological thriller that kept me hooked from start to finish. The story follows a close-knit group of friends on a camping trip that quickly turns dark and suspenseful after a shocking death. What I really appreciated was the way the book delves into each character’s inner struggles and secrets through multiple viewpoints, which makes the mystery more complex and layered. It’s not just about figuring out who’s responsible for what happened, but also about how trauma and guilt affect relationships and trust.

The characters feel authentic and diverse, especially with the thoughtful inclusion of queer identities that enrich the story without feeling tokenized. This representation adds an important emotional depth and makes the narrative stand out in the genre. The suspense builds steadily, with twists that surprised me more than once, making it hard to put the book down.

That said, there were moments when the pacing slowed down, particularly in the middle, where the focus on character backstories occasionally interrupted the tension. A few secondary characters could have been fleshed out more fully, but overall, the development of the main cast was solid and emotionally engaging.

In conclusion, The Last Girls Standing is a well-crafted thriller that balances emotional complexity with an intriguing mystery. It’s a great choice for readers who enjoy stories about friendship, secrets, and survival, especially those looking for strong LGBTQ+ representation in their suspense novels. I definitely recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers who want more than just a whodunit.

The cover and synopsis absolutely reeled me in with promises of slasher fun and final girl plotlines. This ended up being much more character and emotion driven rather than present day action, and the themes of trauma and loss felt much heavier than I was anticipating going in. If the themes had been handled well, it would not have affected my rating. However, I'm not convinced the depiction of trauma or the way it was handled was correct and honestly just went downhill very quickly. Not for me.

The Last Girls Standing offers a poignant and suspenseful narrative that challenges perceptions and delves into the darker aspects of human psychology. It’s a thought-provoking read that resonates with themes of survival, trust, and the search for truth.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback

Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Last Girls Standing in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a wild, suspenseful ride from start to finish. Jennifer Dugan delivers a haunting, character-driven psychological thriller centered on Sloan and Cherry—the only two survivors of a brutal summer camp massacre. The book explores grief, trauma, memory loss, and the thin line between love and obsession with a narrative structure that keeps you guessing until the final pages.

I loved how the story played with the idea of the unreliable narrator. Watching Sloan spiral as she tried to remember what happened and whether she could really trust Cherry had me hooked. The queerness is front and center and authentic, and I appreciated how it was treated as integral to the characters rather than as a plot twist or add-on.

The story doesn’t give you all the answers, and that ambiguity might not work for every reader—but I found it compelling. It reflects the real-life messiness of trauma and memory. The pacing dragged slightly in the middle, and I sometimes wanted just a bit more clarity, but overall, this was a gripping, emotional read that I’d definitely recommend to fans of Sadie by Courtney Summers or We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

I enjoyed the plot and characters all the way until the end. A good mystery too but a let down of an ending. I wished for more about the cult. Oh well.

While I appreciated the homage to 80s slashers, the pacing of this book just didn't work for me. It was a very slow start and I just did not find myself invested in the characters.

I love Jennifer Dugan's contemporary work, but this was ultimately a miss. It was difficult to connect with the characters, especially the main one, and I was bored throughout. I really expected a summer camp slasher, and just did not get that. That's probably my fault for not reading more into this, but this may have to do with the marketing as well. It's more of a psychological thriller than anything else and follows a girl who realizes the girlfriend she fell for fairly quickly may be hiding something. I get trauma bonding, but I still found elements of the relationship frustrating if authentic to real teenagers. Also, I am not someone who struggles with PTSD but I have found that many readers who do have noted their issues with how its represented in this novel, and that cannot be ignored. Ultimately, I will keep reading and recommending Jennifer Dugan's work in other genres, but this really did not work, and I would rather recommend other YA mysteries with queer rep that I truly loved.

The Last Girls Standing was a slow burn for me. It’s not that the book is bad or boring—it just takes a while to really find its momentum. Once the story picks up, though, it’s an engaging ride, with moments of tension and intrigue that kept me curious about what would happen next. While I appreciated the concept and the twists, I wish the pacing had been a bit tighter to hook me earlier. It’s a decent read if you’re patient and enjoy stories that take their time to unfold.

This book was absolutely WILD. I was on the edge of my seat from the very beginning and truly never knew what was going to happen next.

I really liked the premise of this book. You say summer camp and slasher or summer camp and mystery I am going to pick it up. I think what really took me out of this story was that this was more of a healing story from the trauma of being a survivor at the summer camp and we got very little about what and how everything that happened at camp happened. Which is what made the relationship between Sloan and Cherry so unbelievable. All this being said I was still a good book, but it has its flaws.

I didn’t love this book but I think my HS kiddos will love it.

It’s got all the aspects YA readers are looking for in a book. It will be a frequent check out and I know exactly the kiddos who will be looking for it. It makes me so happy when I read a book and I can see exactly who I need to recommend it to.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

I want to praise this novel for bringing us a sapphic-centric horror novel. The Last Girls Standing has an intriguing core mystery. Still, when reading this book, Dugan presents a contemporary novel wrapped in a horror premise but rarely delivers on the horror. In the end, you get a rather dull and repetitive novel that falls flat.

I really enjoyed the last girls standing! I have been a sucker for summer camp stories since I was young and saw Friday the thirteenth, so that was an added bonus. The writing was great and the characters were phenomenal.

Summer camp stories 10/10

However the characters weren’t likable nor did they make me feel like I needed to finish. I wasn’t interested in finishing this..

Loved the idea of the storyline

Absolutely riveting! I was so compelled by this story and what was going to happen next! I loved the characters. I loved the way it was written. I am slowly becoming obsessed with this author's work!

I love summer camp stories so much, they are my favorite. Cherry and Sloan had some what of a toxic relationship at times and this was a little slow but I enjoyed the plot.

The premise of this book immediately intrigued me. Two girls reeling in the aftermath of a Friday the 13th style summer camp massacre. Yes, please. Being unfamiliar with Dugan's work, I didn't initially realize this was a LGBTQIA+ novel, but I jumped in with an open mind as I regularly read novels featuring queer relationships. That being said, the relationship in this book is so so so off putting. Regardless of the final outcome of the story, Cherry is a walking red-flag and Slone is clearly in need of some serious psychological help and some time away from Cherry. Trauma bonding is one thing, but the amount of obsession and possessiveness these girls display was honestly hard to sit through. When the characters are this off-putting, it's hard to form a connection with the story. Don't get me wrong, there are other issues with the story. The pacing is off with the beginning going so slow that the book almost became a DNF for me. Also, without giving too much of the ending away, it felt like such a letdown. There was this huge buildup to what should have been this grand reveal and then...we got what we got.

Ultimately, the book was fine. Not great. But fine.

I will be honest I DNF'ed this book about 30 pages in. I couldn't get into the characters and I found them annoying. I also think when I tried reading it I was entering a reading slump I will try to read again later in life.