Wow. How have I not read other books by this author? Last House is one of the best books I have read in years and I will remember it for years to come. A story about several generations of a family, with the primary plot based on growing up in the 1970s with Vietnam protests and unrest in the U.S. I was generally surprised that I did not learn in my history classes about Weather Underground and the 2,500 domestic bombings that took place. Part of the book also highlights the Iranian domestic issues at the time, fueled by the American oil industry (this book had me researching so much of American history that I should have known at a much deeper level- I always love a novel that teaches me something new). And through all of that, we are hooked by the amazing characters that we learn to love and intense plot lines that make this an introspective, colorful, and thought-provoking story. I would give this more than 5 stars if I could.
Thank you Netgally for a ARC.

"Last House" follows the Taylor family saga from the 1950s to 2026, focusing on Nick and Bet navigating marriage and parenthood amidst Nick's work in the Middle East. They purchase Last House, a retreat in Vermont, which becomes central to their lives during the Cold War. The narrative alternates between generations, leading to a tragic event that shapes the family. While the build-up is engaging, the conclusion feels rushed, especially with the leap to 2026. Despite this, the book offers compelling characters and subplots. Special thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the electronic ARC. This wasn’t a genre I typically read but I really enjoyed it.

Jessica Shattuck’s newest historical fiction, Last House, examines the political shift of the country from the 1950s to the 1970s through the lens of the Taylor family. Nick and Bet marry as soon as he returns from WWII, and they soon find themselves living the American dream in the suburbs on Nick’s job with a large oil company. Their two children, Katherine and Harry, enter the 1970s filled with protests — some even aimed at their own father’s business. Readers who enjoy historical fiction will find an emotional book about generational change at a complicated time in US history, and the intricacies of family legacy.

Thank you Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read the Advanced Copy of Last House by Jessica Shattuck.
The author vividly creates a family during the 1950’s. Nick and Bet Taylor have two children and their lives seem good. They purchase a home called Last House which is off the grid in Vermont to serve as a safe place for the family to retreat to.
This story follows Nick’s career in oil and Bet’s who previously helped in WWII with code breaking.
It takes us through the turbulent era of the 60’s which we see their daughter protesting the Vietnam War.
It kept my interest throughout this story. This is a novel that I can relate to since growing up in the 60’s. Well written!

Last House is a family-based saga, starting in the early 1950s as Nick Taylor and his wife Bet navigate their marriage and early parenthood while Nick is a lawyer for a Big Oil company, spending most of his time in the Middle East negotiating contracts. Bet is an unsatisfied mother to Katherine and Harry, giving up on her own ambitions to fulfill her role as a wife and mother. Nick and Bet eventually purchase Last House from Nick's friend Carter, a man who works for the CIA with dealings in the Middle East as well. Last House is off the grid in Vermont and gives them a retreat from the real world and the threats therein during the "peak" years of the Cold War and thereafter.
The book is told in alternating chapters from different perspectives, jumping from Nick and Bet in the 1950s to Katherin and Bet in the 1960s, eventually building up to a discussion about a tragic incident that has a huge impact on their lives as a family. The build up to this event was drawn out but also got me invested in the story quite quickly. There are side characters and stories that don't necessarily further the plot, but still contribute to the overall interest of the book. Once this tragedy happens though, the book is quickly concluded. We jump forward in time to 2026, and the book is just wrapped up. I almost felt like that jump forward in time wasn't necessary and didn't really add much to my overall enjoyment of the novel.
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

this book blew my mind!!!!! completely unlike anything else i've ever read before. go into this book without knowing anything and you will be so drawn in

This is a five. The words are powerful. It feels like the book transcends time so that we can once again experience the past and sort out opinions on where we’re headed in our country.

The reader learns all about one family. Nick Taylor, a veteran of the war, and graduate of Yale, is married to Bet, graduate of Vassar. It starts in 1953 with their two young children, Katherine and Harry. They are comfortable with their lives in a small town of Connecticut and they bought a vacation place called: Last House in Vermont. It’s surrounded by beautiful trees, trails, creeks for fishing and it’s an ideal getaway from the big city. They were thinking that it would be a great place to escape -- just in case -- the world falls apart.

While Nick’s career involved meeting with powerful Middle East leaders to discuss oil and government support, his adult daughter Kat has taken another direction in protesting the Vietnam war and big oil. Overtime, their lives changed but Last House was there as a stabilizing structure and retreat for the family.

There’s a lot to take in with this book. Jessica Shattuck’s last book, “The Women in the Castle” made such an lasting impression with the development of her characters. This book does the same with a plot closer to home. It makes you feel immersed with the family’s achievements and shortcomings.

From the start, it’s engaging and makes you remember all sorts of music and news from the 60s. Yes, I remember drive-ins, hippies and Nixon as president. It feels like you could be in the kitchen discussing mundane or world news with them. It’s very well written and the story stays with you especially at the end. It gives you a lot to ponder and is a great book for a discussion.

My thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of May 14, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced readers copy in return for an honest review.

In Last House, we follow the Taylor family during America’s post war years. I think that the author did an excellent job with the story in regards to the background research she had done. I especially liked how Bet’s background showed how extremely bright women were recruited during the war efforts as code breakers- this is something that did go on in America during WW2.

The author did an excellent job of taking a period in America, and diving deep into many topics. I didn’t see them as rushed but rather contributing to the bigger picture.


I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys novels of family sagas, history and the golden years of America.

Beautiful and heartwarming. Excellent writing! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This will be good for book clubs.

Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy ebook.

Unfortunately, this one was not for me. I spent the majority of the book wondering what the point was. There were interesting parts here and there, but the majority of the book was a bit slow paced for me. I thought it became the most interesting by the last part, but the ending seemed rushed to me and I wish there was more of the book dedicated to that instead of parts in the middle. 2⭐️.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher William Morrow for an advance copy of this generational novel, that charts the changes in American politics and thinking through a small nuclear family and they country home they all love.

Most people like to look back at the 1950's as the good old days for America. College for veterans, good homes in the suburbs, a car in every garage, and a tv in every living room. Everything was grand, except for minorities, women and specter of nuclear holocaust that was duck and covered in every school room and broadcasted on almost all mediums. Even the President of the United States before the decade ended and the 1960's truly began warned of the vast military complex that was arising and was a danger to the republic. Add in the pressures of keeping up with the Joneses, the undiagnosed PTSD of many veterans, civil rights, and numerous other problems, there are reasons why the 1960's were so tumultuous. People think of this time as halcyon days for America, but a majority of the population were on pills similar to halcion, and that is problem with not knowing history. In the novel Last House, Jessica Shattuck looks at the time in American history when the post-war craze led to a Vietnam haze and the facade that so many thought was real began to collapse.

Nick Taylor is living the American Dream. A beautiful wife he loves, a son and a daughter, a good job as lawyer for an oil company, and a house in the suburbs. Nick's life can't be more apple pie than that. Nick is doing so well he can afford a house deep in the Vermont mountains, the Last House it is called, an oasis of calm in fast moving world. Bet, Nick's wife was a codebreaker in the war, something that still bothers her. Being more aware than Nick about things, Bet fears the bomb destroying everything she has strived for, and thinks of the Last House as a bastion for the end of the world. As time goes on Nick is faced with different challenges in his job, that test his morals against the lifestyle he thinks he needs. Their children are changing too, seeing more things wrong than right, especially their daughter Katherine who wants to force change, no matter what her parents want.

Last House is a look at a what seems the perfect nuclear 2.5 children, family, and how easy it is to lose sight of what is important. Shattuck balances what is happening in America with what is happening among the Taylors. The fear of being blown up, the rising feeling that the company might be doing what is best for the company, and not the world. The environmental cost, and many other themes. Shattuck never loses sight of the characters, and is quite skillful in showing the slow changes among them, the ethical decisions and lapses, the slow acceptance of what is asked of us, and what we have to surrender. Shattuck really has a very good sense of place, and makes everything seem like stories a family might share sometime in the future. That's how much readers identify with the characters. A wonderful read, about family, change and acceptance.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. Unfortunately, I was unable to get into the story and found it slow paced without much to pull me in. There were certainly interesting pieces of history I was unfamiliar with and side plots would have enjoyed following.

I'm happy to say I seem to be in the minority here but, I was not a big fan of this book. While there were definitely interesting points, overall it felt very slow paced and not much story there. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

"Last House" is a gripping novel that covers decades, beginning with the father working as a consultant for the oil fields in the Middle East during the 50's, then watching the parents of a son and daughter maneuver their lives as their father is abroad on secrets missions, while they remain in Connecticut, eventually immersed into the 60's and 70's, and visiting their summer house, the last house, as their get away. At one point, while the son and daughter are now young adults, they stay at the Last House while their parents are traveling, and the siblings start to see each other differently.. More time passes, and readers learn about that gap, when the older sister narrates the final portion of the book, which brings us back to the beginning of the novel, detailing a lengthy list of products made from oil. I don't want to give away spoilers, but this family epic isn't that long (as many "epics" are, and it's a gripping read.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC. I was particularly interested in this book given that the time period represented a very turbulent time, in the late 60's, when I was a teenager and I still remember the multiple protests that were carried out, regarding the Vietnam War and racism. Reliving these historical events was of particular interest to me. I do enjoy the multi-generational story and how the members in the Taylor family evolved.

I felt this one had excellent family drama with bits of history mixed in that kept you engaged. It tends to more literary fiction genre . I found the plot a bit slow but overall a good book

Historical fiction meets multi generational family drama. Told through multiple points of view in a family dad Nicky, mom Bet, daughter Katherine and brother Harry. This books spans decades from 1960’s all the way to 2026 and explores American politics, the oil industry and Vietnam from each persons unique point of view based on their life experiences. Beautiful writing, a literary masterpiece. The family has Last House in the Vermont woods where they can escape the turbulent times and be together in nature.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read Last House by Jessica Shattuck. An important book. More gold stars needed!
No one could sum it all up any better than this -
"An ambitious historical epic that doubles as an intimate family saga. Jessica Shattuck captures and connects it all—the imperial ambitions of the postwar generation, the rebellion of their offspring in the Sixties, and the fallout we’re still sifting through today. . . . This is a wide-ranging novel to savor.” — TOM PERROTTA

Great Book about family dynamics and American history that make us examine our decisions and why we our driven to do the things we do. Loved the setting and the character development.

Loved this story about a family’s triumphs, tragedies and survival during the turbulent 1960’s, 1970’s and beyond. It was a refresher in US History and the complicated international problems of the time. Had forgotten about the Weather Underground bombings, demonstrations and counter culture that boldly thought to change the US. After the passage of fifty plus y ears those influences were muted and the family at the heart of the novel is what mattered.