Unfortunately, this isn't working for me.

I see the words "summer camp massacre" and I have certain expectations. I expect campfires and I expect someone getting beaten with a canoe paddle. I mean, I can roll with the punches, but what I definitely didn't expect was a toxic relationship between two girls as they obsessively looked up news articles of the tragedy that they went through.

Sloan's highly suspicious of Cherry. They met a few days prior to this massacre and the injuries that she sustained don't seem to align with the story that Cherry is telling. I've never survived a murder spree, but it feels like sticking closer with a person you think is suspicious is an illogical choice to make?

I think that this book could have benefited with more visceral flashbacks of the trauma, a walk-through of what happened as Sloan tries to piece her memory back together. Instead, the very slow start delivers us color commentary about her varying levels of sadness through each funeral. I don't know.

The writing didn't work for me and I think had my expectations been different, maybe I'd have enjoyed this more.

DNF @45%; I am so sorry but I genuinely disliked this title. I hated the characters, and specifically the relationship between Sloan and Cherry. Even horror novels can have healthy depictions of relationships!! But this is not one of them. And honestly the plot was subpar. I really enjoyed "Some Girls Do" by Dugan but I'm starting to worry that maybe this author is not for me. I may try more in the future but I cannot force myself to finish this one.

I feel bad giving this book a one-star rating-- those are usually reserved for books I DNF. That being said, this book was not for me. You can probably tell by the fact that I started it at the very end of May and finished it half-way through July.

<i>The Last Girls Standing</i> follows two lone survivors of a summer camp massacre, Sloan and Cherry, who trauma bond and date. Sloan doesn't really remember what happened during the massacre-- but Cherry does. And Sloan doubts Cherry is telling her the full story. Desperate to find out what really happened, Sloan does some sleuthing on her own.

It has a fascinating premise, but here's the thing: it was done poorly.

Showing the effects of trauma wasn't done well-- I've been skimming other reviews and I think there's a general consensus that the representation was poor. I felt very disconnected to the characters and they weren't even likeable, which, if you've read any other review of mine, you'd know is the most important to me.

The book's not long, and miraculously, that screwed with the pacing. Nothing happens for the first half of the book, and the second half is just me side-eyeing everyone in the book. The books not long enough for me to see any literary justification for the extremely rushed ending.

I didn't like this book. I don't really DNF books anymore, but I was very close to doing that. The only reason I didn't was because by the time I read a third of the book, there wasn't much really left, so I just kind of went "why not?"

I'm sure that this book has it's own audience, but I wasn't a part of the demographic that would enjoy this.

I received an e-ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great book, terrible ending.

I thought this was so well thought out. Sloane is one of two girls who survived a horrific mass murder at the summer camp they were counselors at. With a debilitating codependency, the two seek solace in one another because they are the only ones who know how to exist around each other. But, as Sloane goes deeper and deeper down a rabbit hole of searching for answers as to why them and who the killers really were, she begins to lose grip on reality. She doesn’t know who to trust and what is real.

If the point of this book was to just feel an overall unease, Dugan definitely succeeded. I was questioning every single thing the whole time. Unfortunately, the end made me furious!

You could not imagine a better summer sapphic slasher than Last Girls Standing, Jennifer Dugan creates a world that transports the reader back to the 90s era of horror films with a twist. Cherry and Sloan as protagonists are so interesting to follow as early on the reader can see that their romance where it is sweet and romantic has a dark side to it the trauma bond they share due to the summer before. I cannot recommend it enough for fans of Scream or Yellow Jackets

This book was excellent. I was nervous about the YA aspect of it(I didn’t realize when I put in for it that it was YA) but I truly enjoyed this one!!

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest rating and review.

2.5/5

CW: mass murder, cult, blood, gore, suicide, abusive relationship, conspiracy theories, closed adoption (there’s probably a lot more, but these are the ones that come to mind.

This is a tough book to review. I was so invested in it that I read it in a day. It was fast paced with some twists and turns. However, I didn’t really like either of the main characters or most of the supporting characters. It was an interesting concept for a book, but I didn’t like a lot of the choices that were made. And the ending, quite frankly, sucked. As I was midway through, I was thinking about different possible endings and couldn’t come up with one I would’ve liked though. So even though I didn’t care for most everything about the book, it was still an exciting page-turner.

This book was utterly insane, I'm actually at a loss for words yet I kind of loved it? Most definitely will need to reread this because I'm baffled, I love a sapphic thriller but this one was so unique I started questioning Cherry along with Sloane and honestly started to feel like I was being gaslit I couldn't tell reality from delusions and that made it where i could not put this damn book down.

This is such a unique sapphic thriller just in time for pre-spooky season, thank you penguin teen for the e-arc! all opinions are my own

This book really had me at a solid 3, almost 4 star rating until the last 1/4 of the book. It really fell apart at the end. I am unsure if the ending was what the author went into the story wanting but it felt wrong. The rest of the story did not seem to fit, it was winding along and then at some point it went completely off the rails.

The plot of this book started predictable and became wildly confusing by the end. I felt that Sloan’s unraveling was there in an attempt to subvert stereotypical tropes of the genre, but instead it felt sudden and out of place. The author didn’t give us a reason to trust Cherry from the beginning, so the push and pull of whether or not she was innocent didn’t work. The character development was nonexistent, and I felt a bit uncomfortable with the portrayal of the traumatized characters. Yes, trauma is messy, and it doesn’t make sense, and it makes you act irrationally, but by the end, Cherry is still portrayed as overbearing and controlling, and Sloan is portrayed as crazy. Camp horror is having a renaissance as of late, but I feel this was not a necessary addition.

I really loved "Some Girls Do." In fact, it's one of my top Sapphic stories. And most of that is because Jennifer Dugan's prose is tight, her dialogue is believable, and characters are full, rich little universes. All of this to say, I was excited to get this ARC.

In a plot similar to kind of different storylines in Netflix's <i>Fear Street</i> trilogy, we have teen/young adult lesbian couple Cherry and Sloan as the only survivors of a <spoiler>potentially ritualistic</spoiler> killing spree at a summer camp. The story follows as Sloan tries to find the memories missing of that night, and figure out the motives of the killers <spoiler>(cult)</spoiler>.

For me, I enjoyed the experience of reading it. It's closer probably to a 2.5 stars for me than a 2, but I'm not going to split those hairs. I love the established relationship and the exploration of anxiety, depression, grief, and co-dependency as a result of trauma. It's always fun to be aware that you have an unreliable narrator you're focused on as a reader.

I think the twists and turns, purposefully misleading or not, felt very telegraphed. Like I said, I'm not a big thriller reader, but I've watched enough slashers to see the seams of this. However the story was propulsive and enjoyable. I don't regret spending time with them and the feelings of thrill and terror were there. I love that Jennifer Dugan wakes up and decides to write a genre. It's genuinely cool to see her skills at play. I'm lukewarm on this book, but can't wait to see what else comes up.

The Last Girls Standing was a queer young adult mysterious/horror read. Two girls survive a massacre at the summer camp they’re working at and become inseparable. One of the girls is really struggling to process what they’ve been through and is seeing all sorts of outlandish theories at every turn. Can she find her way past it?

I think people who like more horror-ish mysteries would like this story. That’s not really my vibe, so as the story progressed, I kind of lost interest because it seemed like it was going off the rails a bit. It wasn’t bad and could be a good, quick beach read for someone who enjoys this genre.

Reminiscent of classic sleep away camp summer slasher films. Exciting, fast paced. Reading this story is a great way to spend the end of summer. Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review

I did not have a good time with this one. The characters were really...not great (irritating, is a better word probably). Being so annoyed by the characters really prevented me from getting into the story (along with the pacing of the story being so slow). I nearly put this down a few times, but I only pushed myself to finish it so that it would be over. I also could have done entirely without the sort-of half baked romance that was thrown in--it really didn't add anything to an already not very compelling story. The ending was okay, but that didn't really make up for the rest of the story. The premise for this one was really interesting, that's why I was so excited to get to read it early, but the execution felt like a rough first draft: the characters needed some umph, the plot was so slow, the romance was not developed enough to make me care at all. I do absolutely love the cover, but the meat of the story was not for me.

Sloan and Cherry are inseparable. Turns out you form pretty close bonds when you’re the only two survivors of a massacre at your summer camp. On that horrific night, 8 others were brutally murdered, but somehow Sloan and Cherry survived.

Months later, the two have become like a single entity. They are always together because they understand each other better than anyone else. Sloan trusts Cherry completely– especially since Sloan has no memory of the traumatic events and relies on Cherry’s account of what happened that night. But as new evidence emerges, Sloan starts to question what really happened. Is Cherry telling the truth? Or is she hiding something? Could this person Sloan loves with all her heart have played a part in the murders?

Whatever direction you think this book is going to go, I guarantee it will surprise you. There were multiple times I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong every time. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending, but I appreciated that it diverted from my expectations. I also liked that this book was less slasher and more psychological thriller. There are so many summer camp slasher books, it was interesting to read about how the characters cope (or try to) after the fact.

Sloan’s inner dialogue was exhausting at times, as she kept debating whether she could trust Cherry or not. It got a bit repetitive, but it was also realistic inner dialogue, so it’s hard to critique that. I would say I didn’t like the characters, but this is a book filled with unreliable characters, so that’s kind of the point. This is all to say I was frustrated with the characters as I was reading, but that also made me read more because I wanted to know what they were going to do. So while it sounds like negative criticism, it’s actually not.

I have so much more I want to say, but it’s all spoilers, so I will just say that the more I think on it, the more I think I like this book? I can tell I will be going back and forth a lot. But either way, I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

This book has everything: lesbians, slasher sleep away camp, survivors guilt, cults, ritualistic killings, soulmates, annoying little brothers, shitty therapists, and Reddit crime fighters.

Great story for any horror fan. I highly recommend this book! I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for my Ark copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review. Sloan is absolutely enthralled with her girlfriend Cherry they are both survivors of a massacre that happened while training to be counselors at the money Springs summer camp although Sloan has missing memories from that night what she does remember is a man in a screwed up Fawkes mask killing her peers and coming for her. Her mom is forcing her to see a hip note therapist named Beth to recall her missing memories that night has greatly affected Sloan say stop talking to her best friends prior to the event but will soon learn maybe those she is trusting now cannot be trusted. While helping her girlfriend cherry and her mom Magda moved to a new apartment in her town she open the box and sees a rabbit mask that is similar to the fox mesk she saw the night of the massacre. when she asked her girlfriend about it she says it’s too hurtful to talk about. Which totally flies in the face of their mantra never to keep secrets. Until now Sloan has been very codependent on Cherry, but she counters the inner strength to investigate and find out what is going on. Especially after the latest visit to Beth. There is so much more to this year thriller/horror and although I really was getting tired of Sloans inner dialogue the ultimate story was a really good one with Colts conspiracy theories back stabbers Sloan will learn to rely on herself and she will also find out those she thought we’re over her we’re really just waiting on her to depend on them. This was such a great book so much so I wish I could tell you the whole story because she’s also adopted and yeah there’s a whole story along with that this is a

90% of this book is just filler, it should have just been a short story. At least then it wouldn't have taken long to get to that horrible ending. The relationship is toxic and only exists because of trauma bonding.

great psychological thriller that i couldn't put down

thank you to netgalley and to the publisher for this review copy.

Was hoping for so much more with this book. The characters were annoying, the plot was fine but I didn't really care at all about what was happening to the people we followed throughout it at all.