2 ★ stars.

❝Violence is only horrifying when it is done to those who don’t deserve it.❞

➽ DNF at 70%

First of all, thanks to Netgalley and BHC Press for providing me an ARC of this book.

I have never been so conflicted over a book. I'm even conficted whether it's in a good way or a bad way. It was the toughest read I had in a while. My thoughts are so messed up right now, I'll try my best to sum it all up.

[spoiler free]

Before reading this, I strongly request you to check the content warnings so you have an idea what you're getting into. The author wasn't joking with the content warnings; it it serious. If you're skipping that part, be prepared to greet the unexpected, it won't be pretty.

➽ Vibes of this book:

Shatter me meets A Dowry of Blood in the world of the Bridgertons and gets rained on, only leaving behind the darker and twisted parts.

↳ Haven't read those books? I've got you.
Imagine a heavy mixture of science fiction with blood, gore and horror in a Victorian setting. Imagine putting on pretty ballgowns, twirling around scandalous social seasons; just blink and all the lights get sucked out of the room, the daze of glee is gone and the pretty gowns get stained with blood as the pitchblack darkness kicks in.

➽ Theme & Plot:

↳ Saying this book is dark would be an understatement. You can't blame a dark book for being too dark. I don't read books of this genre often, so I'm not sure I can compare it's levels of darkness. It deals with a lot of problematic issues I thought I could handle but ended up feeling terribly uncomfortable half the time. Other than that, I really liked the gothic atmosphere Natalie Gibson created here. I played some dark academia soft piano playlists from yt while reading this and it was amazing. It's the kind of slow-paced, gothic-horror read that'd be perfect for gloomy days.

↳ In this book, we are taken back to the dark age of the Victorian period. In the midst of evolution, creatures of nightmares and evil powers are taking root, infesting darkness within the land. Ramillia Winmoore, a child locked in an asylum far away from civilization for the murders she doesn't remember committing, is well on her way to becoming the monster that lives inside her. She doesn't understand the lethal power that hums beneath her skin and the endless voids in her head.

'They fear her so they lock her up. They loathe her so they inflict pain. They don't understand her so they destroy her.'

Until her noble betrothed, Sir Julian Lawrence, the man she only knows in letters, comes to claim her, promising her great things she never dared dream of. Soon she realizes she escaped one hell for another as she learns more about her husband and the evil that is his kind and comes to terms with her own powers she spent all her life afraid of.

➽ Characters & Writing:

↳ The characters of 'The Last Immortal' were twisted in their own ways while still maintaining individuality. It felt like they were eerie, empty and hollow from inside out and as we go further into the storyline along with the details we learned, they turn into more than words on paper and we slowly get a grasp on their personalities.

No moral. No judgement. No remorse. No redemption.
It took me a long time to sync with their thought process and understand what they were working towards; even then, I couldn't connect with them, couldn't feel anything for them. They were just another fictional character stuck in books who couldn't reach out to me. Honestly, Remillia was the only one with real developments here, though it was one of those that didn't feel like a development at all.

↳ The writing was beautiful, don't get me wrong. It was just difficult to get through. I didn't like the narrative, especially Ramillia's point of view. You need to be partially fond of a character to be invested in their thoughts, while I found Ramillia interesting, I wasn't fond of her; she actually made it super hard to be. I don't know if it's just me but I would read through a page, reach the ending and realize my mind went completely blank and I didn't catch a single detail. I had to go back and read that page again, that's why it took me much longer to reach the 70% mark than I thought it would. The story was intriguing but the writing style and pace couldn't keep my attention grounded for more than a few minutes.

➽ What I liked:

• The overall atmosphere of this book.
• FMC pushed her love interests in the backseat and was a force of nature all on her own.
• She made the right choices most of the time.
• The original idea of Carriers and Incolas, it was refreshing to read about.
• FMC knew where to project her rage and not being cautious of it.
• She embraced her deadly powers and violent nature.
• Despite being morally corrupt, she protected the ones who needed her protection.

➽What I didn't like:

• More intrigue than explanation.
If you're going to put together a bunch of complex things, you need to back it up with sufficient explanation. I loved the idea of genetic disorders/ genetic superpowers that make a human invincible, immortal; the idea of Carriers and Incolas, carefully choosing and breeding to create more of their own. A lot was lacking in the build up, it could've been laid out a lot better.

• Character development or more like Ramillia's development.
I was completely thrown off guard by the huge leaps her personality was taking when it should've been a rather slow process. I know the book is already slow-paced, but it should've slowed down with the things that actually come first and foremost. Besides, I didn't get the chance to get to know the other characters better; they didn't get enough spotlight or much-needed details.

• The first half of the book was super slow, nothing important happening and a bunch of detail dumps on the world building that made little to no sense. The main plot and explanations came in later in the book but it was kind of too late; the first half was almost spent in confusion.

I'm so sorry, I really wanted to like it but it was way too confusing and a letdown in so many ways. There were interesting bits, yes, but it's dark elements overcrossed it many times. The level of darkness just goes up and up until it turns straight out horrifying. This book had no romance and no scope for romanticizing anything even. I didn't get the justification I needed and I'm thoroughly disappointed.

I dnf’d it cause it was great at the beginning but quickly turned very weird very fast without anything being explained what was going on

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was gruesome, heavy and dark as hell. I wish I was able to write a more intelectual, long review but the most I’m able to say about this book is that I’m gonna be thinking about it for a while. Not sure if in a bad or good way.

3.5 stars for now.

thank you to NetGalley and BHC Press for the advanced reader copy!
*spoiler free review*

wow, this book was really something. it was truly unlike anything I've ever read. it was very dark, and contained a lot of triggers, so read with caution! the whole book made my skin crawl (in a good way) and definitely lived up to its tag as a gothic. I loved the style that it was told in, with the sort of "unreliable narration" and it being told as a story from the future MC. does that make sense? fans of horror and the paranormal would be all over this.

it is definitely a heavy read so it required some breaks, but i was sucked in immediately and needed to know what happened, so it was easy to keep turning the page. i might not recommend this for the beginners of this genre, but those established and familiar with the triggers and vibe will burn through this book. thank you again!!

This book proved to be quite a challenging read for me, evoking a complex blend of affection and aversion. The trigger warnings, while beneficial, felt a bit overwhelming at times, despite my anticipation of the content. The narrative's memoir-like structure and captivating writing style were highlights for me, making it a compelling recommendation for enthusiasts of dark gothic literature with a touch of horror.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc of this book!

As a warning to all who would read this book, this book deals with heavy, HEAVY subject matter. I believe there was an incident where all of the appropriate trigger warnings were noted. I believe this has been corrected; however, there are still issues of racism, sexism, abuse, and gore contained in this book. As the reader, you know your triggers and limits, and if this feels like something that may trigger you, I highly suggest reading something else.

Now, that being said, I did truly enjoy this book. It was delightfully dark, witty, and had some spice in it too. It definitely felt on an Anne Rice level for the gothic and sensual themes that it held.

Ramillia is an orphan, a tragedy of which she cannot remember, and is currently imprisoned in an old, European mental asylum. While there, she learns that she is to be bethroed to a gentleman named Julian. After he manages to secure her freedom, she and Julian begin a whirlwind courtship with each other and he lets her know his secrets, secrets which then change the course of her young life.

I enjoyed how Gibson made the book so exhilarating and almost a whirlwind with how fast the pacing is. Despite this being a fairly long book, I found myself devouring it. Gibson's habit of placing the most shocking part of the next part at the very beginning and leading the reader up to it was very exciting to me. I found myself trying to follow the mystery and the plight of The Last Immortal.

However, as much as I did enjoy this book, I did feel that some of the gore could have been toned down, as well as some clarification of the ending parts and characters. I'm not pleased with how one of the signature characters that Ramillia gains, is just abruptly ended. I felt that that could have been more fleshed out for me. I also would have liked the ending to be fleshed out a bit more than it was. I felt that there was so much more that could have happened in the last third of the story than what did occur.

Overall, this was a good book and if you're not someone easily squicked, I would highly suggest it. It's a pretty good one!

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book. I stopped at only 16%, and by 16% I mean 1249 or 7660 pages. I made it twelve chapters. And my Kindle was telling me I still had over nine hours to go. I've read some 800-900+ page books before, and they never felt as long as this. Twelve chapters is too long to still not have have any idea what's going on, or who anyone is. I don't even certain I know how old this poor girl is. I got bored very quickly, or not very quickly because it felt like it took forever to get where I go, and just interest. I appreciate the opportunity to read this ARC.

The Last Immortal by Natalie Gibson is a gothic horror/ historical fiction that follows a young girl Ramillia Winmoore through her life as an immortal. She is one of the few female Incola that is highly sought ater due to her ablility to breed other carriers like herself. Ramillia finds herself soon married to Jullian, a very powerful Incola who has lived for thousands of years and wants to have as many children he can with her to build his empire of carriers. This premise of this book is very interesting as they are not vampires and can still live forever. I felt that the book could have been cut down some since the author repeated some of the same facts in previous chapters. Other than that I thought it was good a read. Read a likes I would recommend would be The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas and House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

The archive date for this book says its in Jan, but my app says my time has run out to read it so sadly I didnt finish. What I did read was a REALLY dark gothic thriller with a great voice. I preordered the book on amazon so I could complete it.

This was a particularly difficult read; as much as I wanted to love it, the violence often got to me in extreme ways and made me set the book aside and come back to it when I was ready to again. It is a harrowing tale of feminine rage, sexuality, and the brutality of being a woman. You definitely need to go in prepared to read this book. All in all, I did enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
Dnf'd at 36%

Due to all the negative reviews over the amount of trigger warning this book needed, I went into it expecting something dark and graphic, American Psycho or Off Season level of graphic. Sadly, it was quite average and not nearly as bad as it was made out to be. I have read worse on Wikipedia.
Most of the sexual abuse (both child and adult) happens off the page, it is hinted at, or shown in vague descriptions. But if you are someone that gets easily triggered or hasn't gotten desensitised to horror, blood and gore, definitely check the trigger warnings.

Granted, i only got 36% in, maybe it gets more brutal later on.
Sadly, this ended up as another dnf for me. It's well written, but the story itself didn't manage to grip me. i kept putting it down and do other things and one day I put it down and haven't taken it back up, so it's time to throw in the towel.

This sadly ended up being a DNF for me, I gave it about 100 pages before I realized I had no investment in the characters or story. Maybe it was the setting or maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but I was bored. I also just found some of the writing hard to follow and overly "flowery"- things just jumped around a lot and I didn't want to continue.

First of all the trigger warning were off completely. I pushed through and continued to read and I was just disappointed I've been reading this book for a month if not longer and finally pushed myself to finish it.

I don’t feel like the content warnings were inclusive enough. There were some things in this book that were hard to read and there was no prior indication that I would come across these topics.

I feel like the book was nothing like the synopsis led me to believe it would be. It was extremely dark but gothic? Why? Because of the item period? That wasn’t enough for me. The story was full of violence and assaults that seemed to happen over and over. We were given bits of information about Carriers and Incolas but not nearly enough to make them relatable to the story in any substantial way. There were so many opportunities for back story and development that were missed. And, the title leads me to believe that I would be reading at length, about immortality but that just wasn’t the case.

I was truly disappointed in this read.

Thank you to Netgalley and BHC Press for giving me ARC.

This is a really dark book. It has a lot of trigger warnings listed but I think it needs a lot more. The author did warn us that it is not for the faint heart and it is 100% true.

It is wild. I enjoyed the twist and turns of this book. It is very intriguing. Please be prepared of the TW.

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, Violence, basically all the TW you could think of.

This was interesting! I can't say I liked the narrative voice but I think it was an intentional authorial choice and well done. I did really enjoy all the surprise twists and turns the narrative took and was shocked by several. It felt a little too long for me and I did stop several times when I lost steam.

Sorry, I will not willingly read something that has child abuse in it as a mother of young girls. Thank you for the opportunity.

I did not know this had child abuse in it until after I had requested and downloaded the arc. I try to be careful in what I request so that I don’t have to leave a star review with no real review of the material.

Oh, holy fuck. Can I curse on these reviews? Never done it before. Sorry if it's not allowed. But seriously, holy fuck. This book is DARK in terms of its contents, and has just about every trigger warning you could imagine. I did not fully know what I was getting myself into when starting this book, and I'm someone typically okay with darker themes.

That being said, I also had a hard time with the plot in the way that it felt like stuff was going so fast, but also that the book was sooo long. So with that being said, and my unsure feelings, I'm just going to rate this at the middle of the road with a 2.5 rating, and be on my way.

This books needs every trigger warning under the sun. Every one. CSA, rape, incest, graphic violence-- the list goes on. For the first 60%-ish, I had to find fun, easy things to read inbetween chapters because it was just dark and made me feel bad inside!
All this aside, it was... intriguing. I don't know if "enjoyed" is the correct word here. I read it! I finished it! I was intrigued by what would happen next! But, my God, was this book just a slew of on awful thing happening after another. And it never got better! There was no point where it got better! It was sad and miserable the whole way through! But I sorta like it! I think about it a lot!
Anyway, be warned if you choose to read this! It's heavy and very awful things happen! But it's well written and well-plotted, so it's an enjoyable(?) read.

Wow, this was a dark, twisted road of a book. Other reviews have painted this in a very negative light, especially towards the trigger warnings, or lack-thereof. I definitely found a lot of the material dark, but I suppose that's the point. Some of the plot did meander, and I wasn't a huge fan of all the character's decisions. Overall, I don't think I could recommend this.