This felt like a book I should have enjoyed but I could not connect to the characters to care enough about what was happening.

Read if you like: dystopian, end of the world, queer rep, a bookstore as the main location, survival

If you've read some dystopian novels you know what you're getting into with this. It's well written, it has a main character who may be neurodivergent (though this is never said outright, so keep that in mind) who stays in a bookstore after an event kills off most of humanity. There was a moment that I thought it was going to go a different direction than the standard expectation, but this is for the most part your standard story of world's end and now time to survive. If you enjoy that, you'll enjoy this.

Great premise but I just did not like this book. It had some funny bits but it didn't do much with its excellent concept. No chemistry between the leads. The bookstore could have been any shop - the story had nothing to do with reading or books. A lot of stuff didn't make sense. You can't get sucked into a generator - it's not a jet engine. Liz's injury should have had consequences, especially in the setting, but it was forgotten about. Liz was helpless and annoying. The book was overall a big disappointment.

Thank you for the ebook arc. This book had huge potential but it just didn’t hit the mark for me. The Mfc just seem whiney and wants everything her way and argues with everyone she comes across that she needs to stay in the crumbling bookstore instead of heading to safer places. The story follows MFC after an apocalyptic storm wipes out a huge group of humanity and as she bunkers down with a friend at the bookstore after the friend leaves she is left alone taking care of the bookstore. Mauve comes along and tries helping her take care of the bookstore. Also the little blurbs about the alien overboard got annoying first time was funny but to mention it every time she goes on a poor me rant

The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold has a very interesting premise that did not execute. The story takes place in a bookstore after an apocalyptic storm that kills a large amount of people and that is predicted to occur again shortly. Liz is living in the bookstore that is starting to fall apart, with little supplies, when Maeve appears and changes Liz's life.
The story is so slow that you wonder if anything is ever going to happen. The event that occurred that destroyed the town is slowly meted out in memories so it's impact is minimal. There is very little conflict or struggle for people living in a post-apocalyptically time. It's more about the romance between the characters and that is even minimal and vague. It just did not live up to what I expected it would be. It seemed almost like a shell of a story that wasn't fully formed but perhaps you will see something in the story that I didn't and enjoy it more.
Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Delacorte Press for the advanced copy.

Solid YA post-apocalyptic story with a slow burn sapphic romance.
Could have used more wold-building and depth. The switch between pre and post-apocalyptic event added to the mystery but was frustrating at times to lack important information. Appreciated the morally grey characters and realistic take on humanity - from half of Liz's family blatantly ignoring all the warning signs leading up to the toxic rains to Maeve's actions in present day to Liz's complete lack of survival skills.

There is no plot or character development. There isn't any world building and few characters. Alot of receptiveness. The story didn't really make alot of sense.

I really enjoyed this book - it was slightly out of my genre but I fell in love with it anyway !! This had a great storyline and characters that I instantly connected with.

The Last Bookstore on Earth sounds like quite the escape after the end of the world. This was a quick and easy YA read set in a realistic dystopian Earth with characters at that point in life where you were supposed to be deciding on where to go after high school but instead have to figure out how to go on without anyone or anything from their life before... except for the bookstore that Liz used to work in. She has set herself up with a safe haven of sorts, greeting and trading books with those who choose to visit her store. She sort of avoids actually living and her emotions regarding the past until she meets Maeve.

I am definitely too old to love either of these characters and their immaturity, but I remember having similar feelings at that stage of life and I wasn't even dealing with the actual end of the world. I loved the simple world building, the challenges the characters went through and the emotional growth toward the end of the book that really brought everything back together.

📓 LGBTQIA+
📓 Dystopia
📓 Survival
📓 Opposites Attract
📓 Bookstore

Solid post-apocalypse title meets acid rain and the horrors that humanity turns into. I liked that the author didn't depict all humans as cretins, too, but rather showed some of humanity as being kind, generous, and just trying to live life as they used to do. Fun to read but won't keep a copy.

I finished this one in a few hours. I liked it, but I think my students will like it more. The writing was good, the plot moved along nocely, and I liked the element of darkness that lurked just below the words.

The aptly titled The Last Bookstore on Earth is about the end of the world, or at least what should have been. With a few survivors and a bookstore left, we see the effects of "the storm" on our planet. Liz remains alone in the bookstore. Eva, her co-worker, has left months earlier to "see the world"-or what's left of it. Liz exists day to day meeting a few "customers" and collecting their stories. She also serves as an apocalyptic post office, carefully preserving messages left for loved ones.
All of this changes when Maeve arrives, with her knife. Slowly the girls learn to work and survive together. The bond they form is slow but powerful. As the world continues to disintigrate around them, Liz and Maeve try to rebuild a new world for themselves.

Ever since the first storm wreaked havoc and changed the world as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been surviving in her old job, the bookstore in the New Jersey suburb she grew up in, trading books and letters for supplies. It’s her safe space. Until she heard about the next storm coming soon.

Then she meets Maeve, someone who breaks into the bookstore one night looking for shelter. Maeve and Liz butt heads, but Maeve has the skills Liz lacks that are needed to fix the dilapidated store before the next storm hits. Liz agrees to let her stay.

As the girls grow closer and feelings start to appear, they realize there are more threats than just the storm and they find themselves fighting to stay alive.

Though this book is post-apocalyptic, I will say it does focus more on Liz and Maeve’s relationship than it does the world around them. Which ended up being a little disappointing to me because I would have loved to read more about it - especially how Liz handled the days following the event and making it into the bookstore.

I didn’t think realistically that Liz would have even lasted the amount of time that she did last before Maeve showed up. Maeve came in and showed a lot more of what it was like in the “new world”, but we never got into detail about Liz’s. <spoiler> and then what she did with her hand and the generator as a whole was crazy </spoiler>.

Overall, this was a cute sapphic post-apocalyptic young adult novel set in a bookstore where people still exchanged goods for a book.

*Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Nice way break is exactly what I needed after a thick fantasy book. I love post apocalyptic dystopian stories and this one delivered. A queer bookstore owner in the setting just made sense. It was a quick Y read and I’m glad I picked it up..

This dystopic thriller/queer romance/survival adventure story is marketed as YA but has crossover appeal for adult readers, as the protagonists are in their late teens/early twenties. The apocalyptic trope is not new (acid rain destroys civilization) but the setting and the reflective tone bring a different twist to this survival story about a young woman taking refuge in the bookstore where she used to work before the end of life as we know it. Acid rainstorms destroyed her town and most living things, except a handful of survivors. Now Liz has an established routine with occasional human interaction, a decent supply of food and a safe place to live. In fact, she never leaves the bookstore, and is unaware of the state of the surrounding world. Her seemingly placid way of life is interrupted by the arrival of an outsider who brings a hard dose of reality, the threat of violence, and the love and strength Liz needs to survive the next killer storm. Recommended for readers age 12+ who enjoy detailed character- and action-driven books with a slow build. Mild violence and occasional mature language and relationships appropriate for YA readers.

Unfortunately, this book missed the mark for me and I DNFed at 30%.

The premise sounded fascinating — dystopian, sapphic, set in a bookstore. And while this was accurate, the dystopian and bookstore setting remained incredibly surface level. The story or characters did not grip me and I found myself too frustrated with certain plot points to continue on.

Thank you for the opportunity of reviewing an eARC!

I found this a little slow to start and the world-building a bit lacking, but I was eventually drawn into the story and couldn’t wait to see how it ended. It could have used multiple character perspectives, rather than just Liz. I liked the excerpts from other survivors.

The Last Bookstore stands out among other post-apocalypse fiction I've read because it seems focused on the characters' inner life more than the outer one. While I got a sense of the impending doom and the fragile nature of Liz's life in the bookstore, the text wasn't focused on day to day survival and prepping. I found this a relief to read. The bookstore is Liz's safe space, and begins to feel cozy, even to the reader, with various well known titles thrown in to show familiarity with the place. There is also little focus on the exact mechanics of the damaging storms in the book, and I do not think it's needed. What's important is the people who are left, not how they got to this place. The connections between Liz and the other main characters are well drawn and interesting, and it's obvious that their pasts are left mysterious on purpose. However I feel like Maeve and Eva both should have had a bit more backstory to make them more real characters. The antagonists could also be fleshed out a bit more. The ending, while satisfying for our main character, feels like it needs more resolution.

This wasn't for me. I was excited about the concept and the characters, but it just didn't feel fluid. The story felt a little choppy and I didn't really want to finish it. There are definitely some people who will love this one, but it just wasn't for me.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars!

I really enjoyed this read! While it wasn't my typical pick for a book, I thought that the premise seemed relatively interesting (and new), and decided to give it a shot. I have absolutely no regrets about the time spent reading. Fighting for survival! Girlies falling in love! What more could I ask for?

My only complaint was that the story felt slightly rushed at times. When this happened it wasn't a huge deal, but it did shake me out of the immersion and make it slightly difficult to follow the pacing of the book. I think that this is a common trend among newer authors, and I think that this is something that Lily Braun-Arnold will improve with in time.

As always, all my thanks to both the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this ARC.