3.75 ⭐

The writing style and the "Penny Dreadful"- inspired atmosphere of "The Last Immortal" make it a perfect choice for an October read. This book places a resilient female protagonist at its heart, crafting a compelling survivor narrative that I genuinely adored and found skillfully executed. The book also presents a refreshing approach to mental health representation, seamlessly integrating it into character development and the broader story.

Despite these good points, I couldn't quite give this book a 4-star rating due to a few issues. First and foremost, the magic system introduced in the story was difficult for me to understand. The quick and somewhat underdeveloped presentation of this supernatural aspect left me somewhat bewildered, making it a missed opportunity for deeper engagement.

Furthermore, the ending felt overly abrupt and left me with a sense of inconclusiveness. It left me wanting closure but I’m guessing this is possibly to tease a second book?

But perhaps most importantly, I felt the need for improved trigger warnings in the book. While some warnings were present, I believe that, given the book's content, providing more detailed and explicit trigger warnings would have been immensely valuable. This would help readers navigate sensitive subjects more comfortably and potentially avert negative reactions.

“The Last Immortal”, with its captivating writing style, October-appropriate atmosphere, and a strong focus on a resilient female lead, does offer a compelling reading experience and showcases the author’s talent.

This book was the wildest of wild rides and I can’t believe how insanely wild it got. This one will stay with me, probably forever!!

I have to say that this was a heavy read for me.
I feel some kind of mixed love and hate for it.

The trigger warnings are there for a reason, and I truly appreciated reading these before heading right into the book, although I thought it was a little to heafty at times even though I knew these things were coming.

I loved the writing style and that it was made like a memoire, and I’d definitely recommend it to those who love some dark gothic with horror elements.

A special thanks to NetGalley and BHC Press for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC!

DNF at 38%

This book is really hard to review. I liked parts of it a lot, but ultimately it was just way too long. I would usually give a summary of the plot but… I have no idea what’s going on!

The writing style is unique - it felt like I was constantly tumbling through the story, and given how bizarre and at points wild the story is it fits the plot. It’s very graphic, and trigger warnings should be considered. And I really enjoyed the first part of the book. But then chunk 2 starts and it’s equally as wild and full on and it just becomes a bit much.

Ultimately, if the book ended after the first section and it was separated out into multiple books, I would give the first chunk a 3.75. But because I feel like I have been reading it for months and I’m not even half way, I’d give it a 2 overall.

It’s worth checking out if you want to try a new style of horror / immortal / feminist (?) book.

Holy f*ck! This book was the wildest of wild rides and I can’t believe how insanely wild it got. This one will stay with me, probably forever!!

This book DEFINITELY needs a very long list of trigger warnings and it’s lack of one did make it harder to get through the book as I had no idea what to expect as I read.

"The Last Immortal" has taken me almost 2 weeks to get through because of its density. It is actually 3 books combined into 1, albeit 3 different parts.
The details the author packs into her novel leave next-to-nothing to the imagination. The vocabulary was strong throughout (for better or for worse) and at times I felt that the story was dragging along and I needed to push myself through it. I'm glad I persevered, however, because this story is one that is going to stick with me for awhile.
The idea of Carriers versus Incolas is a completely original one, and to follow the story of Ramillia throughout different periods of time was awesome.

There have been many reviews that give it a poor rating because of it's lack of TWs - HOWEVER - each and every TW is clearly listed in the beginning of the story, within the "from the author" section. So for that I am thankful!

Can't wait to watch a bigger audience react to this book! Special thanks to NetGalley & BHC Press for the ARC!

This is not a book for everyone; it is heavy on the trigger warning and when they say this is a dark fantasy, boy do they really mean it. However, despite all of that I absolutely loved this book between the heroine and the prose (so cool that this is written like a memoir) and the plot. As a librarian, I usually get people asking me to recommend books that might make them uneasy or have some horror elements to it; this is definitely the book that I would recommend to them!

This book is a wild ride, and while my first instinct is to call it an almost coming-of-age story, that would be still fairly inaccurate. The novel – split into three books - detail different periods of the main character, Ramillia's, life as she grows into her own, stomaching revelation after revelation while going through one life-altering event after another.
It was honestly quite hard to stomach some of what she goes through, to say nothing of what her company endures, and I would encourage anyone who would like to read the book to pay attention to the list of trigger warnings included. I will not be including any of that content here, but be warned that there are moments that warrant warning and they occur repeatedly throughout the story.
On a lighter note, my favorite part of this book had to be the evolution of Ramillia as a character – this feels kind of like a cop-out as it’s what the story centers on, but it really is done in such a way as to make you feel as if you were watching a sort of metamorphosis of a young woman. Seeing her interactions with familiar – to an extent – characters as both she and the reader learned new things about them – and her! – was especially satisfying.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. It’s one of those stories that I can tell will be sticking with me for a while, and I don’t doubt that I will pick it up again closer to its release so I can hopefully pick up on some details or foreshadowing that I may have otherwise overlooked.

I have never had such mixed feelings about a book.

I was very excited after reading the synopsis but this ended up being a DNF for me at 80% through.

The synopsis describes the book as dark and gothic and the author's introduction warns that the book isn't for the faint of heart. However, it lacks all trigger warnings. Which there are many and of very dark nature. Some of it includes SA of both adults and children. And it just keeps happening. This is something I'd like to know before going into a book. As a fan of dark romance I'm not completely new to morally questionable characters but even then I have my limits of how fucking unhinged and dark I can tolerate. And keep in mind, this is not romance, it's just dark as hell.

I appreciated the original idea of Carriers and Incolas but I felt like it was lacking a bit. I feel there's a lot that could've been explained in more detail but it never made it on page. There's also something missing from in between the different parts. The book begins as if Ramillia is going to live up to the modern day (and maybe she does, I wouldn't know since I didn't finish this) but it seems to me that the author lost that thread a couple of times while reading. I would've hoped for more discussion on immortality but it seemed more like an afterthought or a curious thing to make the story and the characters more interesting.

The book started to get boring at times. Mostly because the story never seemed to go anywhere. Things happened but what was supposed to be the end goal? You lost me there. Ramillia and Sally seemed to have plans at time but they were only explained to the reader afterwards. And sometimes it got really confusing. The storyline about Theodore is still a mystery to me.

I would've liked a little bit more of female rage.

All in all, I'm quite annoyed and disappointed with this book. It needs a better synopsis and better trigger warnings.

The trigger warnings did not line up properly and I could not continue reading about children sexual abuse. Definitely not for me.

The book was too dark for me. Incest, torture, sadomasochism and more. It was not my cup of tea. The setting starts in Victorian time.

This book has a lot of trigger warnings and violence as well as gore. When you get past all those things, the gothic elements and overall dark theme of the story is very well crafted and I enjoyed reading the adventures of the main characters. It was a wild and twisted ride, but interesting.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and author for the free copy of this book!

Once you get past the graphic depictions of mental, physical, and sexual violence, "The Last Immortal" is a story of power and redemption. Or that is to say feminine power and redemption. Gibson explores the many facets of the female psyche; the mother, the child, the ruthless survivor, and raw sexuality. Each of these personalities enables the protagonist to overcome many obstacles even death. Throughout the novel it is evident that we are dealing with an anti-hero. As the books states nothing is black and white or gray it just is. As the book comes to a close, we are forced to watch and cringe at the final corruption of our heroine. The genius of this book is unique and lives with you long after the final page.

This is a very Victorian gothic type book but this is incredibly dark and absolutely should have a longer trigger list. It was truly horrifying to find that it had SA of a child that wasn't included in the list. SA of a child is a huge trigger of mine and I wouldn't have read this if I knew that.

JFC, FIX THIS

Triggers not included at the start of the book which I was totally blind sided by. I think allowing readers to know about certain things is so important. And this book failed to do just that. The story itself was a mess of conversation and I hated all the characters. The cover was amazing but the story itself was just a no for me.

Lady Ramillia takes you on a wild ride through her life Victorian gothic horror style. My jaw was dropped the entire time, and my head was spinning with Lady Ramillia. You are given mere breadcrumbs to piece together before you’re hit with a bunch of dark turns and crazy twists you didn’t expect! Be forewarned going in that there are a lot of triggers, and as Lady Ramillia warns, "not for the faint of heart"— she means it. ⚠️ If you have any child-related triggers, step away from the book; it doesn’t deserve 1 star. It’s definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. I on the other hand, will shelve this with my classics. Thank you NetGalley and BHC Press for the opportunity to read this ARC for free.

Some of the triggers include:
Assault/Murder
Animal cruelty
Blood/Gore
Cannibalism
Child SA
Child birth
Child death
BDSM
Drug use
Forced Abortion
Human Skin wearing
Incest
Mental health issues
Pedophilia
Reanimated corpse
SA
Self Harm

DNF.... Trigger warnings were completely off and did not depict CSA...

I tried to read as much as I could, but could not get past this.

This book was very hard to read. The storyline itself was quite disturbing as was the excessive violence and vulgarity which was written with a lot of graphic detail. I found it distasteful and unsettling.

Lady Ramillia Winmoore recounts in memoir form her life as one of the few immortal women, the search for her own identity and the struggle for her freedom.
I have to say that the book is not suitable for everyone because of the amount of trigger warnings it contains, including sexual abuse (both adult and child), incest, rape, sadomasochism, violence and I'm sure I've left some out.
That said, from the first moment I was captivated by its engaging and original plot, I felt immersed in the story of Victorian gothic horror and I empathized with characters that keep you intrigued. Of course if you do not have problems with the above mentioned TW, I recommend it to lovers of gothic horror with a touch of eroticism.

The book was really interesting at first: the gothic and horror vibes were really chef kiss, and even tho I didn’t really connected with the main character I thought this was a 3/4 star reading.
Unless I read a scene of a child SA that was not in the trigger warning page. This is a topic that upset me a lot, so I will not continue the book, even if I was liking it.
I really recommend putting this trigger warnging in the tw section