I enjoyed this book. The premise was great. Climate change is a relevant and hot topic currently, yet acid rain was a new take on it. I loved that the refuge for all survivors was a bookstore and books/stories represented humanity. However, the story seemed to drag on. Maybe it was the pacing or perhaps a couple side stories could have been editted out. Overall, I enjoyed the novel.

'The Last Bookstore on Earth' is a dystopian look at the remnants of living after a catastrophic storm brings the kind of Storm that leaves death in its wake to the tune of a post-apocalyptic setting.

Written primarily from the POV of the main character, there are occasional entries from others she has met along the timeline. Just brief glimpses at who they were. The narrative shifts between current day for Liz as she goes about her days inside the bookstore where she worked prior to the cataclysmic event and flashbacks of her life before the Storm arrived.

Only seventeen, she's a bookish girl who's set up a trading post.. using the books she has and her unique ability to maintain a sort of pre-disaster feeling of some normalcy for her customers in exchange for much needed supplies she might not otherwise have access to.

After a break-in brings Maeve into her life, there's immediate distrust between the two girls. But having learned another Storm is on the way, the pair end up combining their efforts in hopes of surviving. There are repairs desperately needed for the bookstore if it's ever to ride out the second Storm. Yet amidst the anxiety and danger the two face as they attempt to ready themselves for another oncoming disaster, something lovely begins to grow.

To be honest, this book started out a little rough for me. It was just failing to hook me I guess.. between Liz's narrative voice and some overly simple phrasing that had me worried the rest of the book was going to be that way.

Though I struggled through the first twenty percent of the book, once the pair started really interacting.. it was much more engaging. I realize in hindsight, the main character just simply seems to lack the charisma to carry the entire story alone.. and that's fine. She's a normal girl in a terrible situation and it makes sense that from her perspective, she conveys the vitality of those in her orbit much more vibrantly than herself.

The story is billed as perfect for fans of Station Eleven and The Last of Us.. and while I don't disagree with that generalization.. know that the biggest difference is it's not as cerebral. It's a YA story with some grit and a couple of really brutally visual scenes. In fact, if you're squeamish.. this might not be the book for you.. but I really ended up enjoying it.

There are a couple of decisions made toward the end of the book that I felt were a little bit of a stretch, but 'suspension of disbelief' and all that. I definitely got plenty of drama and worry, a clear sense of urgency, and an investment in the pair as they found themselves fighting for their lives.

I'm not crying, you are.

This book was a beautiful tale of healing, of learning to trust, and the importance of not always being unforgiving to yourself. I loved how all the characters and their motivations makes sense, but at the same time we can be frustrated with their thought processes. I appreciated that it took time for them to trust, and it wasn't a overnight thing. I also appreciate that it wasn't unnecessarily gorey like the Walking Dead.

The Last Bookstore on Earth, Lily Braun-Arnold’s debut YA novel, is a post-apocalyptic love and survival story– all set in a suburban bookstore.

Liz is mostly fine on her own. Sure, she thinks about what future alien overlord archaeologists will say when they discover the remains of this world, and sometimes they even get a little judgy over her choices, but for a seventeen year old surviving after the end of the world, she’s really not doing too poorly. Then she gets the news that a second Storm is coming. More acid rain, leading to acidic floodwaters, high winds, debris thrown about– none of this is good, especially since Liz has spent more time reading than repairing since the first world-ending Storm arrived almost a year ago.

Then Maeve tumbles into her life, changing everything. Unlike Liz, who has mostly stayed at the bookstore since the end of the world, Maeve has been on the move. But her tent is busted, and she needs a place to stay while repairing it. Luckily for Liz, Maeve has some DIY repair knowledge.

The Last Bookstore blends a love story and a survival story into one while building a fascinating setting. Liz’s emotional connection the bookstore could very well be her undoing, a topic this novel tackles while exploring themes of prioritizing physical versus mental health.

The climate disaster as an apocalypse serves as the foundation for worldbuilding and invites some of the more gruesome descriptions. Resource scarcity combines with Liz’s knowledge gaps to make survival especially tenuous.

Primarily character-driven with some high-action, high-stakes moments, this YA novel is sure to delight climate disaster fans as well as those who love a YA sapphic romance.

Thank you to the author, Random House Children’s, and NetGalley for a digital ARC such that I could share my honest opinion.

THOUGHTS

I adored this book! It's the perfect bookish apocalypse, ideal for anyone who has ever thought a bookstore would be the best place to hunker down through an apocalyptic storm. It's surprisingly warm and cozy for an apocalyptic story, and I really liked that shake-up of the usual genre conventions.


PROS
New Energy: I loved Liz as a protagonist because she's so different from the usual apocalyptic lead. She's not particularly efficient, talented, or knowledgeable. She's got no special skills. And she's been doing this survival thing for a while now (so she's not just someone waiting to be whipped into shape by a new apocalyptic reality). This new type of main character gives an entirely different energy to an apocalyptic world that I absolutely love!

Bookish Apocalypse: This bookstore might have seen better days, but that doesn't make it any less of an excellent setting. There's just something about a bookstore when the lights have gone off (in this case, permanently). It's spooky but also comforting and familiar to any bookish people out there. And as a bookseller, I can't tell you how many times I've had to shelter in place just like this (though for tornados, not world-ending environmental catastrophe). Overall, a great cozy setting for hunkering down and surviving through this apocalypse.

Human Goodness: Apocalyptic lit really has a dearth of human decency. Decency seems to be the first thing to go out the window when things get really bad. But that's not the case here. That isn't to say there aren't some bad actors here. There absolutely are. But it was nice to see in this quieter apocalypse a general sort of humanity peeking through. Liz isn't the usual apocalyptic protagonist, and the network that has sprung up around her isn't chaotic and dangerous. It's just ordinary people surviving however they can, and that's nice to see. Not everything human has to go away when the end of the world is nigh.


CONS
A Bit... Useless: As much as I liked the shake-up of character conventions that was Liz, she was a bit... useless. And to a point, that's acceptable. Why would she know all this stuff? She's not a survivalist by any means. But she has been surviving for a while on her own now, and she was making some pretty unfortunate choices in this book that did have me wondering how she had made it this far relatively unscathed. It's a give-and-take, I guess.

Insta-Love, 2025 Edition: Hey, I get it. There aren't a lot of people around anymore. The options aren't great, and people are lonely. So I didn't hate how fast these girls fell for each other. But it still is a bit of a sticky point in YA, and a lot of readers won't like how quick the l-word gets tossed out here. It worked for me, but others might not feel the same.

Quick to Anger: It's the end times. Tension is high, and not everybody's as laidback as Liz. I get that. But boy does this book escalate quickly right at the end. It felt a little too quick. It didn't quite match the tone of the book. I don't know that it was unrealistic, necessarily, but it did culminate so quickly and so violently that I was a little bit underwhelmed.


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9/10
Those who enjoyed the long-haul of Stephen King's The Stand will like dipping into this world of scraping-by survivors. Those who enjoyed the quieter apocalypse of Jessie Greengrass's The High House will like sheltering in place in this ramshackle bookstore.

|| ARC REVIEW ||

{ The Last Bookstore on Earth }
by Lily Braun-Arnold

★ ★ ★ ★

𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩:
📓 ya sapphic dystopian
📓 science fiction elements
📓 survival
📓 acid rain

Length: 320
Source: ARC - TBR & Beyond, NetGalley, Delacorte Press
Release Date: January 7, 2025

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𝘼 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣-𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙙𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙖 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙢 𝙬𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙤𝙘 𝙤𝙣 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮. 𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙣𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙩, 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨. 𝙐𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝙖 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙪𝙥 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙇𝙞𝙯 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚.

I adored both Liz and Maeve. I loved how as the story progressed so did the stories Liz gathered from all the people who stopped by the bookstore. The way it was interwoven throughout the book was so neat!

The plot was tense and believable and thought/provoking. Liz’s fear and guilt was tangible. Her sweet romance with Maeve was realistic and truly a sign of hope in the world. And I LOVED how the storm destroyed everything. Major dystopian vibes that were *chefs kiss.*

There were some tough parts throughout this story. Some gruesome parts. Some heart-pounding, realistic parts. We’ve all seen the movies or read the stories. The worst of humanity always comes out, but Liz and Maeve’s story of resilience is a cool balm against the destruction.

Absolutely FANTASTIC debut. Lily Braun-Arnold has set the standards high with her first novel and I can’t wait to see what else she writes!

{I received a complimentary copy of this book. All reviews are my own.}
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This was just a little too much on the YA side for my taste (also confusion over how it was Liz and Thea's 17th birthday, but they were also going to college the week after). At times the vibes were great, though the dichotomy of cozy bookstore apocalypse vibes versus the body horror apocalypse vibes was jarring. I think I was expecting more on the cozy and introspective side of disaster fiction, and the parts where they were living side by side in the bookstore were my favorites. It felt like a lot of what Liz had built (or really just had fall into her lap) was pushed aside, especially the postal/trade system, and the fact that she hadn't had to leave the bookstore in a year! That felt really big and was kind of just shrugged off. It then made the escalation when Liz and Maeve run afoul of the group in the woods to the point of murder feel out of nowhere, since up until that point, no one had really cared and now they were willing to murder two teenagers for a place that was also going to be destroyed anyway?

Honestly, my actual favorite parts were the stories Liz collected in her journal, the glimpses of everyone's transitions, and I wish more of that energy had been present in the main plot.

First, can we all step back to admire and appreciate this GORGEOUS cover?!?
Second, I devoured this book in a day! This story grabbed ahold of me and didn't let go until the last page. We have a book with a scarily realistic dystopian premise, relatable (albeit annoying and frustrating) main characters, and world-building that is believable.
I liked how all of the cards weren't put on the table at the beginning. I enjoyed the bread crumbs strewn throughout the story so that the reader could put the puzzle pieces together themselves.
Our main character, Liz, obviously has some issues to work through and possibly some mental health concerns. She is naive and somewhat immature in her late teen years given the circumstances but it works with the progression of the story.
I do feel this was slightly mismarketed as LGBTQ, as this is such a side note to the actual story. It is barely covered, with the exception of a few ill-timed kisses between two of our female main characters. Yes, I suppose it explains some of Liz's trepidation and naivete, but it is still not very relevant to the story.
I was so excited that this took place in a bookstore! However, I expected that to have more purpose. I thought our MC would be more of a "nerd" and that the setting would hold more significance than a sentimental attachment. I was still glad for the few book references that were made.
Overall, given that I was able to start and finish this in a day, I award this 4 stars. We had a believable story that flowed at a nice pace, credible characters, and was fairly well-written. Bravo for (what I believe) is Lily Braun-Arnold's debut novel.

The Last Bookstore on Earth is a fantastic perspective of post-apocalyptic life. While the plot definitely meandered a bit, I couldn't help but be drawn to the enduring necessity for books and how even after the world has ended, they will remain relevant. At once a story of hope and love and loss, this is definitely a strong entry to the genre.

Post-apocalyptic story about a teenage girl named Liz who is living on her own in a bookstore in suburban New Jersey after her former co-worker/friend abandons her to find out what else is left in the world. Liz stubbornly refuses to leave even when she finds out that another apocalyptic storm is coming and knowing that the bookstore isn't in good enough repair to weather the storm. She meets a girl named Maeve and the two quickly (within a matter of days) fall in love and debate on whether they should move on or hunker down.

The situation was compelling and I enjoyed the first quarter of the book until
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SPOILER
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Liz gets hurt. Liz and Maeve discover a generator which is rusty and may or may not work. Liz decides to stick her hand inside of it despite not knowing if it works or how to fix it if it is broken. Unsurprisingly, her hand gets chewed up by the generator. Badly. For example some of the descriptions of this injury: "A log, jagged gash runs down the top of my forearm, still bleeding... My hand is in even worse shape, knuckles shaved down to what looks like bone. Fingers hang limply off, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get them to move. I can't get my hand to move.... I look down at the gaping slit in my arm, running like a ribbon across my skin and up my hand, like the crevasse in the middle of a geode. The edges of the wound are ragged like that, too, bits of stray flesh tapering off in triangles around the congealed crimson. Beneath it, in deeper sections, there are patches of pale pink, small hints of the muscle and bone that like beneath. I look at my skinless hand and and admire the tendons stretching from my knuckles to my wrist." Liz and Maeve then go on to cauterize the wound with a hot knife (how did they heat it? they never mention having a fire, there's no electricity??). THE NEXT DAY she walks what I assume is at least a mile to an abandoned Target where she gets in a Nerf fight with Maeve, gets tackled by her, walks part way back before coming upon a trail and HIKES for a mile, gets into a scuffle, hikes back and goes back home where she says: "My arm is healing, I can feel it." No, your degloved, broken hand is not healing. Three days after the injury, she seems to unwrap it to check on it for the first time. No bandages are changed and she wraps it back up with what I assume are dirty bandages. They have no access to antibiotics or any pain relievers (even Tylenol or Advil) but somehow she can more or less function as normal and doesn't get an infection. Sorry to spend so much time on this part of the story but it makes me irrationally angry.
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The rest of the story is relatively predictable, but the setting is intriguing. None of the main characters are particularly likable, though I think they're meant to be. They're also all very shallow and, maybe understandably, have attachment issues. I really wanted to love this one and it was a great idea, just not particularly well executed. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. It was presented as a snarky dystopian novel, but I did not find much funny. much less enjoyable. The world makes no sense to me. Did we really need the generator scene? I am not sure I would recommend it on that alone.

This normally wouldn’t be a book I would like, yet the description had me curious. I really enjoyed the love story and the survival angle as it felt genuine and not forced. It was a quick read I enjoyed every page of it, and I will be following this author’s next work.

Following a devastating Storm brought on by climate change that absolutely everyone saw coming, Liz must confront her fears, demons, and the crumbling bookstore she’s taken shelter in. While she collects the stories of her occasional customers she keeps the people she meets at arms length.

I really felt a connection with Liz, with her love of books, her loneliness and awkwardness, her absolute inability to do anything physically demanding (cough) and I definitely think I would have holed myself up in a bookstore to cope with the apocalypse. I think you’ll enjoy the dry humor, the morally gray decisions, and the tenuous moments of hope.

Thank you to NetGalley and TBR&Beyond Tours for my copy. These opinions are my own.

loved how the story balanced the intensity of survival with the practical challenges of life after an apocalypse, all while diving into deeper themes like survivor’s guilt and learning to trust again. The writing was so charming and relatable, and the characters felt real, making this a perfect read for anyone who enjoys YA dystopian stories.

Honestly, everything about this book sounded great. But the reality was that I hated the characters, all of them. I did not root for them. I side with The Storm, acid rain that dissolves the bodies of those it kills.

Liz lives in what she considers to be the last bookstore on Earth, the place where she worked before The Storm. When another young woman breaks in, she decides to trust her and enlist her help in fixing up the store before the next Storm. So on and so forth. Sapphic romance that felt like it was only based on being around each other and forced fight with “enemies”.

In the end, I just did not enjoy it. At all. I rage read it as I seethed over the fact that I was using my Friday night to do this instead or enjoy a book, watch a movie, or stick bamboo shoots under my fingernails.

The thing is, there is an audience for this book. It is a book about fear, guilt, and an unwillingness to work to survive. This will appeal to some but not me.

Thank you to Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press, and Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

This book did nothing wrong, and in fact has so many wonderful things going for it including being a queer sci fi book set in a bookstore during an apocalypse. I enjoyed reading about this main character's job not only running a bookstore (tough to sustain during aforementioned apocalypse) but also holding and delivering letters to travelers' loved ones as a way to do good and also provide for herself in a time when food and currency are scarce. Unfortunately I'm learning about myself that I don't love apocalyptic survival stories as much as I thought, so the character-centered nature of this book felt a little slow and the action sequences a little boring. If those elements sound up your alley, though, I would recommend this to you!

The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold is an intriguing YA debut with a fascinating premise and a sapphic romance subplot, set against the backdrop of an apocalyptic world. While the book delivered on its promise of "The Last of Us"-style vibes, albeit in a much milder form, its execution left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.

The idea of Liz holing up in an abandoned bookstore, living off bartering and using books as currency in a post-apocalyptic world, is incredibly compelling. The setting itself is unique, and the prose was well done, making it easy to visualize this desolate, storm-ravaged version of suburban New Jersey. The pacing was quick, which kept the story moving and made it an easy read.

However, where the book fell short for me was in its emotional resonance and character motivations. Liz’s adamant refusal to leave the bookstore felt underdeveloped, lacking a strong, emotionally compelling reason to stay. As much as I appreciated the sapphic romance subplot, it didn’t fully land for me. The relationship between Liz and Maeve felt too forced and progressed too quickly to be believable. While the circumstances of the end of the world might justify rushing into a connection, their chemistry didn’t feel organic or earned, which made the romance less impactful.

On the positive side, the prose was engaging, and the book delivered enough intrigue to keep me reading to the end. The "Station Eleven meets The Last of Us" vibe is present, though less intense than I expected, making it a decent introduction to dystopian fiction for younger readers.

Final Thoughts:
The Last Bookstore on Earth is an enjoyable but flawed read with a strong premise and solid writing. While the romance and character motivations didn’t fully work for me, it’s still a decent YA dystopian novel with unique elements and a sapphic love story that many readers may appreciate.

The Last Bookstore On Earth is an amazing read - I loved it just from reading the blurb, and actually reading it has only reinforced that feeling. Here are my 5 reasons you should read:

1. How often do you get to be in on the ground floor of a whole new genre? Following on from cosy fantasy and cosy sci fi, this is cosy apocalypse, and not in the snide way people talk about John Wyndham. Liz and Maeve have both suffered, but the focus of the book is on a small area and their concerns are mostly (but not solely!) everyday, smaller items.

2. But that doesn't mean this doesn't have the usual trappings of post apoc - there are marauders and people out for themselves. There's just far more of the other kind, the decent people who even now just want to help each other get by. It's a far gentler apocalypse than any I've read before.

3. The girls. Liz has a backstory straight out of The Rain by Virginia Bergin, and it's made her gentle and nice. Maeve has a much more typical post apoc backstory, and it's made her spiky and hard. Together they are far more than the sum of their parts.

4. Those amazing covers. Both US (top image above) and UK (lower image above) have knocked it out of the park; the US is moody but still has signs of brightness, and the UK has so many little details that make sense once you've read it. Whichever you get, it will look amazing.

5. The found family and sense of hope that threads through this story. I adore a good found family story and this one scratched that itch really well. I'd love to read more in this world, but if this is what we get, I'll be happy - it's a wonderful ending for our brilliant characters.


I hope this has piqued your interest and might lead you to check out the book! If you enjoy it, you might want to check out All that's left in the World by Eric Brown and its sequel, The Only Light Left Burning. If you enjoy the found family aspect of the apocalypse, keep an eye out for The Last of Us on TV!

I am a big fan of dystopia novels and this one really worked for me. I really liked that it was a realistic type of dystopia – an apocalypse brought on by climate change which if anything feels a little too real! The conversations that Liz and her family had in the past really made it feel real and added to the back story, especially as her mum and sister didn’t believe anything was going to happen and she and her Dad wanted to prepare but were almost ridiculed about it.
I also loved the setting of the bookstore and think this would definitely be one of my favourite places to be for the end of the world! The bookstore acts like so much more than a safe place for Liz, it holds lots of memories and has become a useful place for passers-by acting as a makeshift postal service. Of course Liz doesn’t want to let go of it and the connection it still provides for people, no matter how dangerous and unsafe it gets.
95% of the book is set in the bookstore and I think this perfectly showed how isolating and lonely the apocalypse is if you don’t have anyone still around to care for. That is what it was like for Liz for months after Eva left her until Maeve arrived. I loved the developing relationship between Liz and Maeve and I just wish that we got more of them together! It obviously takes them a bit of time to begin to trust each other but I loved the little moments that showed how much they cared the further into the story I got.
Liz’s past is also quite an important part of the novel with some chapters offering flashbacks to before the storm which lets the reader see what she was like and her family dynamics before everything turned upside down. This is an integral part of why she feels the way she does and it makes her character that much more interesting.
Along with the setting of the bookstore which was just perfect, the characters really made this story. There are lots of emotional moments, mistakes are made and they all have flaws which made them feel real and you can really connect to them, especially Liz. Liz also collected the stories of people who travelled past her home and these are placed throughout the novel to show how the apocalypse affected all types of people and it was a really lovely addition to the story.
There is of course some drama as some enemies appear and Liz refuses to leave the one place she feels safe even as it starts falling apart around them but this just adds to the tension in the novel and I really didn’t know how it was all going to end. This is really good addition to the dystopian genre and is perfect for readers who like the sound of a YA Sapphic apocalypse story.

Dear god no. I literally thought this book would be so much better but it was so repetitive and boring and nothing happens for the first 100 pages and it barely has the horror that we see in the last of us. By the time I got to the end, I wanted to burn the book truly.