The story is set in Jacknife, a small town Louisiana.
The story is told in great detail and very atmospherically, you can almost breath in the swamps, hear the mosquitoes, feel the tension in the air as the swamp is home to alligators.
Cutter Labasque has been found dead, face down in the muddy swamp. Cutter knew the swamps well as her family are alligator hunters, she worked the swamps with her two brothers, barely scraping a living together.
Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal, has recently returned to Jacknife, she is a reporter, she wants to know what happened to Cutter and begins her own investigation.
This is a dark read, there are many secrets in the small town, and few unsavoury characters.
The story cover family bonds, drug addiction, poverty, loyalty, murder, love and survival.
I thoroughly enjoyed this extremely atmospheric read, my first book by this author, definitely keen to read more.
Many thanks to Net Galley and Random House UK for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one! I was incredibly sad throughout the entire story.

I would say this is mostly scene setting, explaining behaviour and attitudes, rather than heavily plot focused. This isn’t a bad thing - I’ve maybe described this badly…

I felt like I knew everyone and the town, and almost forgot there was a murder being investigated. I really enjoyed how immersed I was, and I thought it all came together so so well.

Overall, I think I liked this, I’m just so sad!

My thanks to Netgalley and Transworld, Penguin Random House for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars.
I enjoyed the slow burning, suspenseful read of ‘Our last wild days’ by Anna Bailey. The success of her writing certainly lies in the effective setting, the claustrophobic atmospheric of the swampy, alligator infested small Louisiana town. The acute sense of place held all the strings of the plot together nicely.

The messy Labasque family’s character development and revelations were most intriguing, but I did feel the main protagonist, Loyal May, wasn’t quite as well sketched as she could have been; she was a little faceless. All in all, a decent read, and I don’t want to add any spoilers, but for me, I was a little disappointed the it didn’t reach a little further.

This was a very atmospheric story, set in the swamp lands of Louisana with a disociated family and alligator hunting..Loyal returns home as her mother needs to be looked after and discovers very quickly that her childhood best friend has been found dead. The police say that it was ana ccident but Loyal sets out to resolve what she believes to be a murder and a cover up by the corrupt local police.It is a very well written book but I had difficulty coming to get to grips with all the characters as none seemed real to me.

Our Last Wild Days is a hauntingly atmospheric novel set in the swampy backwaters of Louisiana. The story follows Loyal May, a journalist who returns to her hometown of Jacknife to care for her ailing mother. Upon her return, she learns of the death of her estranged childhood friend, Cutter Labasque, whose body was found in the swamp. While the sheriff deems it a suicide, Loyal suspects foul play and embarks on a quest to uncover the truth, seeking redemption for past wrongs.
This book masterfully captures the essence of the bayou, making the setting a character in its own right. The oppressive heat, the ever-present danger of alligators and the claustrophobic atmosphere of the swamp are vividly portrayed. There are themes of loyalty, redemption and the complexities of small-town life, where secrets run deep and appearances can be deceiving.
The character development is exceptional, with each individual portrayed in shades of grey. Loyal's journey is both personal and investigative, as she confronts her past and seeks justice for her friend. The supporting characters, including Cutter's family and the residents of Jacknife, add depth and nuance to the narrative.​
The pacing is deliberate, allowing tension to build gradually. The plot is intricately woven, with twists and revelations that keep you engaged until the final page.
Our Last Wild Days is a compelling and evocative tale that explores the darkness lurking beneath the surface of a seemingly idyllic community. This novel is both a gripping mystery and a poignant exploration of human nature. The prose is lyrical and captures the beauty and brutality of the setting and its inhabitants. Highly recommended! (I also enjoyed and recommend Tall Bones).
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my review.

”We’re living in our last wild days, boy.”

“Our last wild days” says the story of Loyal May, who comes back home in Jacknife, Louisiana. A few days later, her childhood friend, Cutter Labasque is found dead in the swamps. At first, everyone says that it was suicide, but Loyal wants to find the truth. How did Cutter really died?

The story takes place in the swamp and I love that setting. It’s very eerie and beautiful, especially in mystery books, with alligators and creepy forest and haunted waters. So of course, “Our last wild days” was the same. Throughout the whole story I had the feeling that I was there, in the swamp, hearing the sound that surrounded it.

Loyal wants not only to discover the truth, but to redeem herself, feeling almost guilty for Cutter’s death, even if she didn’t take part in it. But because she left Cutter and Jacknife, moving to the big city. Leaving Cutter alone with her two brothers, Beau and Dewall, and the rest of the village.

The pacing is satisfying, the author does not hurry in solving the murder, but shows us everyone’s different life and tries to keep us engaged in the story. The writing is easy to read, the chapters are short and the gothic atmosphere is present.

It’s a book about injustice, family, friendship, regret and loyalty. It’s a book about small villages where everyone knows everyone, where no one can hide and no one can runaway from it. It’s about struggling with what you have and knowing that even if you want more from life and from yourself, sometimes you won’t have it.

”I think if you leave a place, it just gets worse and worse in your head, until you hate to think about, and I don’t ever want to hate all this.”

My only complaint is that I couldn’t care enough about the murder. I wanted to find what actually happened, but when everything is discovered, I couldn’t care a lot. I struggled with the pacing, because the author tended to show us more about Loyal’s life than the murder or the people in the village.

Overall, it was good. I enjoyed it a lot and I wish the authors would write more stories with the swamp setting. I recommend it to everyone, especially in the summer.

I want to thank NetGalley and Random House for the e-arc.

A young woman returns to her home town in Louisiana, a small backwoods town of swamps and alligators and regrets. She fell out with a friend years ago over an article she wrote in the heat of anger. Before she has a chance to make amends a body turns up in the swamp, and she will get embroiled in its consequences. A good read, and it feels atmospheric in all its heat and heated exchanges with corrupt police and ‘low life’s’.

I thoroughly enjoyed this new novel from Anna Bailey. Set in the swamps of Louisiana it tells the tale of Loyal who has returned to her home town to care for her mother after years away. The characters were excellently drawn and the heat and smells of the environment were so brilliantly depicted that I felt I was there. This book is not only a murder mystery but is an intimate depiction of the folks living in the area

Solid read.
When the blurb promises to deliver an atmospheric story set in the swamps of Louisiana, where people live somehow isolated, it makes me cautious. Too many times, I have taken that promise for granted. This time—bull's eye! The author has a delicate, almost lyrical writing style, so everything becomes almost real when she describes the swamps, sets the mood, and talks about emotions. You can see the nature, the characters, and the town. This is a rare ability among modern writers.
Also, because it is a mystery/thriller novel, one can expect violence and gore. Once again, kudos to the author for not making it too slashy. This could have easily spun out of control, but thankfully, the author doesn't turn the story into a bloody massacre. Instead, she keeps it to a minimum and shifts the focus to the characters.
This is a book about "dead end kids", as the author describes her characters. People are somehow isolated, desperate, with no prospects for the future. After devastating hurricane Katrina, they know it's only a matter of time before the next one happens, and it will be just as deadly. These people have no support from their state. If they can`t rely on their own police force, then what do they have left?
This book touches on many issues: environmental destruction, economy, stigmatization of LGBT (subtly), corrupt and violent police force, suicide, child abuse and its consequences, social isolation, dementia, and many more. And again, this could have easily turned into a massive mess, but no. It does not feel like too much. The author doesn't explore any of the issues in depth; she rather tells us that a small community has a lot to deal with. It's as if the tries to tell the public that we cannot and should not turn our backs on small communities. Thank you for that.

BEAUTIFULLY written. The Labasques are flawed but I rooted for them all the way. Deep, dark, suffocating and addictive. I did need to take a few deep breaths whilst reading. The descriptive passages of the swamps, the weather and the lifestyles are beyond immersive. This feels like a Sunday afternoon novel that you can devour over several hours. I will definitely be searching out more writing from this author.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This gritty, compelling novel, laced with danger and menacing characters is set in the town of Jacknife in the Louisiana swamps, an area which time forgot. Loyal had escaped this town where she grew up, to work as a journalist in a city, but has to return to look after her ailing mother. She signs up to work with the local newspaper and becomes embroiled in a murder and all the school characters she used to know. In this lawless area where the cops are as bad as the wild swamp inhabitants, she becomes entangled in doing the work that the police should be doing to avenge her old friend.
With gritty, vivid characters who each tell chapters in their own voices in the present tense, this was hard to put down and an exciting read.

What a talented writer the author is. This book is filled with descriptive passages which transported me right into the swamps of Louisiana. The plotting was excellent, family relationships, loyalty, drugs and alligator hunting. I loved the characterisation, especially the Labasque family with all their flaws and complexities. This is an easy 5* read from me and I am sure readers will love it as much as I did. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

This is my first book I’ve read by Bailey, but it certainly won’t be my last. What a phenomenal read! The first chapter had me hooked, her descriptions of the backwater country lagoons and bayous instantly transported me to another world. I could hear the boat engines, smell the salt water and feel the mud beneath my fingernails with such vivid writing. And the descriptions of the gators! So so cool.

Also, the characters were crafted with so much care and dedication. Loyal was my favourite but I also had a sweet spot for Beau and Dewall, I could have read an entire book on their journey and characteristics. There were layers to every interaction and conversation, I really felt that not a single scene or description was wasted. By the end I felt at home in the sweltering atmosphere of Jacknife, I didn’t want to leave these characters. Claustrophobic and dangerous, but full of real human heart and emotion.

An atmospheric story set in the swamps of Louisiana where people make a living in any way they can. The backwood of Jacknife is home to those who have been there for generations and have either had no desire or the means to change their lives. Loyal is one of the success stories in that she has is a journalist in Houston. However, when her mother shows worrying signs of dementia Loyal returns home. Her childhood friend Cutter lives with her brothers Dewall and Beau who are alligator hunters. Before she has time to seek out her friend, Cutter is found dead. Loyal doesn’t believe the explanation that she drowned and sets about searching for answers with her new colleague Sasha from the local paper. The story meanders through the gloom and reveals its unpleasant secrets amid danger and violence. The despair and poverty are brought to the fore with imaginative and vivid descriptions and the threat of lurking wildlife is not far away. The real fear however, comes from humans rather than animals. A sad story of desperation, hatred and greed but also of a community and friendship. Beautifully written and I was amazed to discover the author came from Gloucestershire rather than the Deep South.

I chose to read a free eARC of Our Last Wild Days but that has in no way influenced my review.

I have been waiting nearly four years for Our Last Wild Days to be published. No exaggeration. Our Last Wild Days is the second book by super-talented author, Anna Bailey. Anna Bailey of Tall Bones fame. Anna Bailey who wrote one of my all-time favourite books (and if that wasn't enough, Tall Bones was their debut!). The excitement is real! I could not wait to see what Bailey had in store for us readers next. Would it be as epic as Tall Bones? Would I love it as much? Yes, and most definitely yes!

The Labasque family make a meagre living hunting alligators out in the Southern Louisiana swamps. They're outcasts in Jacknife and the locals will go out of their way to avoid them. They have a reputation for a reason. Particularly Dewall, the older sibling. When a body turns up in the swamp, the fact it belongs to Dewall's sister, Cutter, doesn't seem to really worry anyone. And that includes her two brothers. However, Cutter's teenage best friend, Loyal, is devastated. Having returned to Jacknife to care for her ailing mother, and having parted on bad terms with Cutter all those years ago, Loyal now realises that she will never be able to make amends for what she did. Loyal immediately dismisses the official verdict of suicide. There's more to Cutter's death than meets the eye and Loyal is going to discover exactly what...

Our Last Wild Days is a gorgeous, dark, evocative literary mystery. Full of emotion, full of regret and overflowing with beautifully written suspense. Gosh, I loved this book! The small-town setting comes to life on the page. Bailey's descriptions of Jacknife and the swampland are exquisite. The setting becomes as much a part of the story as any of the characters are. And those characters are sublime. The Labasques are secretive, brimming with aggression and drowning in poverty. Scraping a living from farming alligators and risking life and limb on a daily basis to do it! Beau, a drug addict and the younger brother, is clearly traumatised by his sister's death but isn't prepared, or willing, to show it. Especially not in front of his brother, Dewall. Dewall's reputation precedes him. Self-appointed head of the household after the horrific death of his parents years before. Could Dewall have killed his sister in a fit of rage? Loyal May is a journalist and was once, due to her friendship with Cutter, partially accepted by the family. She ended that though the moment she wrote a scathing piece on the Labasques in the 'Bayou Leader'. Turning her back on Jacknife ten years ago for Houston, and only returning to see for herself how badly her mother's health is declining, Loyal is immediately distracted by Cutter's sudden, brutal death.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. Our Last Wild Days is a beautifully drawn, atmospheric mystery from an author to watch. Everything about this book worked for me. I loved the pace of the book, the slow unveiling of whodunit and why. I loved the complex, multi-layered characters, their interactions with each other and how the multiple plot threads all come together in the end. The author's descriptions of the setting transported me to Southern Louisiana, the heat, the humidity, the claustrophobia of a small-town and the ever-present threat, particularly from the primordial inhabitants of the swamp! I loved it. Every little detail. A highly immersive, hugely compelling tale. Gorgeously dark and totally unforgettable. Highly recommended.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of Our Last Wild Days. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

[Review will be published on 24th April 2025]

Anna Bailey’s Our Last Wild Days is an immersive and atmospheric novel that transports readers into the heart of the Louisiana swamps, where the Labasque siblings struggle to survive.

Bailey’s incredibly descriptive writing brings the setting vividly to life - I could almost feel the oppressive heat, hear the rustling of the reeds, and see the murky waters where the alligator hunters risk everything.

The story follows the Labasque family, three orphaned siblings who eke out a meagre living from hunting and selling alligators.

When their sister, Cutter Labasque, is found dead, her old friend Loyal, a journalist returning to Jacknife to deal with her own family troubles, feels compelled to investigate, particularly as the local authorities show little interest.

As Loyal digs deeper, long-buried secrets emerge, and the indifference of the town towards the Labasques becomes increasingly unsettling.

Bailey masterfully explores themes of family, loyalty, regret, and addiction, all set against the bleak yet compelling backdrop of a dying town poisoned by a nearby chemical plant.

The sense of injustice and decay runs deep, adding another layer to an already absorbing storyline. From the first page, I was hooked, drawn into the characters’ struggles and the dark mysteries lurking beneath the surface.

This is a gripping and beautifully written novel that lingers long after the final page.

Bailey’s storytelling is raw, evocative, and utterly compelling - highly recommended for those who enjoy atmospheric, character-driven fiction.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A hugely enjoyable book. Genuinely intriguing and addictive, this a superbly formed mystery. It reads incredibly authentically, this is style of writing to appreciate.
Full of interesting characters with gritty and believable histories, this a book that gives nothing away until the end and you can't stop reading until that last page.
Very grateful to be allowed to read this early, I hope this book and author achieves every success.

While the place was beautifully written and it felt real, the characters and why one of them dies made me feel like I lost all compassion and didn't care about them anymore. Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. Maybe. some other people will enjoy it more than I did.

Our Last Wild Days is a haunting and atmospheric book set in the rural Louisiana town of Jacknife. The story follows Loyal May, a woman returning home to care for her ailing mother, who is thrust back into the web of her troubled past when her childhood friend, Cutter Labasque, is found dead in the swamps. The Labasque family, long considered outcasts in the tight-knit community, has always been a source of suspicion. Cutter’s death is initially deemed a suicide, but Loyal, driven by guilt and unresolved issues, becomes determined to uncover the truth.

As Loyal works with a small group of local reporters to investigate, the layers of deceit, corruption, and violence in the town begin to surface. The novel delves into the complexities of grief, loss, and the cycles of trauma that affect individuals and communities. Bailey expertly explores themes of reproductive health, substance abuse, and the darker impulses that shape the lives of the town’s residents.

Our Last Wild Days is an intense, suspenseful read that examines how the dead affect the living, how communities hide secrets, and the consequences of the choices we make. It is a compelling and poignant exploration of human nature, forgiveness, and the pursuit of justice.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

A really unique and memorable story, this family will and mysterious story with live with me for a long time, recommended xx