Hunger Games meets Truman Show meets the Leftovers. it's all about survival for the four passengers. It's gripping, disturbing and a whole new level of "no, this is not ok".

That ending though. I'm 100% perplexed. Did it all start over again? And HOW?

Dean is a great writer, no matter how preposterous the plot you get hooked.

3.5 stars.

I DEVOURED this read. So good this is definitely my new favorite over First born. If you have the chance grab it!

Loved this! The premise of this book made it impossible to not read. A woman and her partner board a luxury cruise ship, but when she wakes up that first morning, she’s the only one remaining on the ship 😱 This book obviously could have gone in a hundred different directions, and I was worried that it would either be too easy or too far fetched. But the direction that Will Dean took it was absolute PERFECTION and something I never would have thought of yet still super believable!! I loved this so much. High rec!!!

What did I just read!? I cannot get over this book! I canno recall a book ever making me panic like this one did. My heart was seriously racing during some parts. The ending I am not a fan of and I’m questioning some things because of it? But this one will have you reeling!

oh boy, go into this one only knowing the vague synopsis because the reveals start revealing immediately and knowing any of them ruins the fun!

this is a survival thriller and be warned, this definitely gets darker than i expected from a mainstream thriller (some of its descriptions borderline horror), it’s very tense and definitely fast paced. really surprised by how much I liked this one since I was lukewarm on this author’s previous stuff.

After years of hard work in her cafe and heartbreak over her father's suicide over his gambling addiction, Caz decides she deserves a holiday. Her boyfriend, Pete, suggests they get tickets for the Atlantica, a luxury ship destined for New York City.

One morning during the transatlantic voyage, she wakes up and realizes she's alone on the ship. Everyone else has vanished, seemingly into thin air. She manages to find a few other people who have also been left behind, and they band together to try and figure out what happened.

I don't want to say too much as I don't want to spoil any of the book, but trust me, it's worth it to go in completely blind.

This book started a little slow for me, but WOW I'm glad I stuck with it. It had so many twists and turns that I truly didn't see coming, and at the last page I almost screamed out loud. Definitely one of the best endings of any book I've read so far this year!

I think my students will enjoy this one, and it raises lots of questions, ethical questions that would make for good discussions with the class. How we are manipulated by the media. How we decide what is fair and what we need to survive and intense curiosity about other lives

I loved his other books so my expectations were high and unfortunately this one didn't work for me. It was interesting but also went too far, I think a lot of the points could have been made without it being so over the top. And an ending of how she coped after the level of trauma would have been more interesting. Hard to talk about without spoilers, but it didnt have the depth i was hoping for , so if i read it as a light thriller, it was interesting 3.5

The Last One
By Will Dean
Pub Date: August 8, 2023
Atria
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
* thriller, suspense, crime
triggers- if you want to go on a cruise you may never want to again after reading this book
The characters in this book are very well written. These four characters soon discover they have to work together to survive. There are things in our society have gone wrong, I believe this book would make a great movie too.
I recommend this book - but not for the faint.
4 stars

This was such a unique and wild ride of a story!

At the start, I thought it was setting up for something that resembled LOST and I was eager to see the character growth and how they all worked together. But as the story progressed and we reached our first handful of plot twists, I found myself engrossed in something much more unique and entertaining to read.

The characters felt genuine and well flushed out, and I really found myself rooting for them along the way. The prose and writing style was also very digestible and made for a fast-paced thriller.

The only aspect I didn’t love was the length of the book. Not because it felt like some parts dragged on by any means, but for the genre, it seemed longer than necessary.

Overall, I’ll be raving about this unique thriller on Bookstagram and Goodreads leading up to the publication date and I’m excited to read more works by Will Dean in the future!

Holy Sh*t. This book puts the thrill in thriller. It's a wild ride that you just gotta experience for yourself. Oh and I'm never taking a cruise. Ever. Get this one on your must read list!!!

I always love a good thriller and I appreciate the crazy twists and turns. I can truly say that I was caught off-guard by some of the revelations. However, I can also say that I felt some of the content was a bit bizarre. I get perturbed by things that are simply ridiculous added in for shock factor. The ending fell a bit flat but tied things up nonetheless.

Enjoyed reading this. The twists were cleverly plotted and for 99% of the book made perverse sense. My biggest problem is with the ending which is too cute and in the context of a plane doesn’t work. The characters were believable and helped make the bizarre situation work. All in all a very satisfying read, up to the last page.

Um, I’m not even sure what I just read. It’s a bizarre locked room mystery that suffers from poor writing, ridiculous characters and unbelievable twists. This book was not for me!

Mild spoilers below:

It certainly is thought provoking though, in this age of reality TV, YouTube and entertainment.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced digital
ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is the kind of book that's going to stick with you. Just the pure terror and helplessness of being stuck in the middle of the ocean while a truly bananas thing is happening to you is imagery that will stick with me for a long time. While you have to suspend A LOT of disbelief to get through this one, I could not read it fast enough.

Wow! Books set on boats are like catnip to me. I love the slight uneasiness this setting provides mixed with the opulence and glamour of big ships. This story was full of unpredictability and raised tons of moral questions throughout. I was turning pages as fast as I could and was left with my jaw on the floor. I highly recommend that the reader goes into the story knowing as little as possible and allows themselves to be swept away on this amazing adventure. I would give this one 20 stars if I could. Highly recommended!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I do not know how to properly review this one. On the one hand, it was extremely readable (not to be confused with well written though, because this really was not). I powered through this in a day & a half because I absolutely had to know what new crazy thing would happen on the next page.
On the other hand-- this had the silliest plot probably in the history of literature? Without even touching on what actually happened, none of the characters were particularly interesting and it kept taking me right out of the story that Frannie, a 21 year old (?) kept talking like she was quoting psychology textbooks verbatim. People in this story all the time were spouting off random facts in a way that humans just don't speak and it was weird. The call out against ~the dark web~ felt very Crichton-y, which was fun.
Anyway, this book was weird. I'd recommend it as a pretty solid beach read.

So much thankful to Atria Books, Atria/Emily Bestler Books and Netgalley.com for the arc. And thank you my greatest buddy readers to read it together.
The book is quite long but the beauty of it was the fast reading we did. We flew on the pages like crazy and wanted to have answers. I did not like everything in the book but I like anyway how it took our attention. I forgive even the ending couse I felt everything the main chatacter did like I was there on this lets call it adventure. At somepoint I really was sreaming and asking me why?!? How?! But I like I was so involved and was really something much on high level.

Wow, where do I start with The Last One???

This book is the first book in so long that has actually kept me up all night reading. Once everything had kicked off there was no way I was putting it down until I knew what on earth was going on and how it would end! What I loved about it was the fact that it kept switching up the narrative - I thought the story was going one way, then a few chapters later it was heading somewhere else and by the end I still think that there are several ways you could interpret what was happening to Caz. Personally, I think there was a moral message coming through about the pressures and mental toll that certain situations and roles cause for the people involved, but I loved the way this was dealt with under the guise of a horror story. I will certainly not be booking a cruise holiday any time soon!

✨ ℝ𝔼𝕍𝕀𝔼𝕎 ✨
The Last One
•Author: Will Dean
•Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰
•Genre: Thriller

I literally have not stopped thinking about this book since I finished it last night. It was so freaking good and the plot was wild as hell! I super recommend this to anyone who wants a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC!!

𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙨𝙮𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨: Caz and her boyfriend Pete decide to take a much needed vacation. They enjoy night one of the cruise together but when Caz wakes up the next morning there is no one else left on the ship. No crew. No passengers. No one.