The Quiet Tenant was a 5-star read for me so I'm so bummed that Our Last Resort didn't work for me. All the ingredients are there - escaping a cult, family secrets, a shocking murder - but they never added up. Most of the book was slow-going with little forward momentum and Frida was just not compelling as a narrator. Sadly, a letdown for me.

Frida and Gabriel, who grew up in a cult, are on vacation reconnecting after years of estrangement. Within days, a body is discovered in the early hours of the morning, bringing upon an investigation and the unneeded attention on the past lives of Gabriel and Frida. Told in past and present timelines, we are thrown into the events of the past that should have stayed hidden.

This author has a unique style of writing, and whether the reader likes it or not, you can't deny the talent that lies in their words. While it is written in a completely different style than The Quiet Tenant, it is still distinct. This was a slow-paced story, not just of murder but of past trauma and the effects it can have. It was more an exploration of the lives of two individuals who have survived the horrors of a cult and, to this day, are still attempting to come to terms with it. Do not go into this one expecting the likeness of this author's previous work. This one is its own story and a great one at that. Four stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this ARC.

Did he or didn't he? That is Frida's predicament when her brother Gabriel is accused of murder,again! History seems to be repeating itself and she needs to uncover what really happened 15 years ago and how it relates to what's going on now.

Frida and Gabriel arrive at the luxurious Ara Hotel in the secluded desert of Escalante, Utah, looking for a fresh start after surviving a cult growing up. They're hoping some time away at the luxe resort will bring them back together like they used to be, finishing each others sentences, and in tune with each others thoughts. That is, until a beautiful young woman who was there with her much older, powerful husband turns up dead.

When the local police put the resort on lockdown while they investigate, Gabriel and Frida are reminded of their upbringing in a secluded cult in upstate New York — not to mention their dramatic escape from the charismatic leader's clutches 15 years earlier that they had always thought bonded them for life. As Frida and Gabriel revisit their past, suspicion mounts, secrets unravel, and the past echoes ominously into the present.

The author does a good job creating a isolated vibe with the luxury hotel in the middle of the desert as all the guests are kept on lockdown until the police solve the case. This gives Frida more time to think about what really happened 15 years ago. She always thought her brother was innocent, but now as the evidence mounts against him, she's not so sure.

The pace of the book starts out slow, then picks up once you hit the halfway mark. It does focus more on the trauma the siblings experienced in the cult, rather than the murder case, then gets back to the events at hand. There's lots of interesting details about how cults operate and the whole culture behind it.

Did not read. Have way too many books on my shelf - need to cut back. Hoping to get to it in the future though.

Rate: 3.5/5 Stars
Pub Date: 7/8
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I am an odd man out when it comes to Clemence Michallon books. The Quiet Tenant was interesting for me, but it wasn't anything that blew me away. So when I saw that this one was coming out, I knew I needed to give Michallon another go.
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I didn't hate this book, but it also was not something that knocked me off my feet... I think that this was a slow burn to the max, it took me a while to really get into the story and to really piece the characters and the situation together. Once I managed to get the flow of the story, I began to like it more. This is told in a dual timeline, and I personally enjoyed the mystery of who Frida and Gabriel are / were and their past rather than the death that occurred in their present. I loved the cult aspect, though I would have loved a bit more detail into that whole situation.
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While this is supposed to be a thriller. I feel like this is a deep dive into trauma; into these two main characters bond from childhood trauma and their connection to one another to want to help each other in any way possible.
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Overall, I may be throwing in the towel with this author, but let's be real, I would probably continue to torture myself. I feel like the author creates atmospheric reads but nothing truly groundbreaking sooooo I don't think that she is for me, which is totally okay. I am most definitely an outlier, I liked it, I didn't love it, but i know that there are going to be some amazing reviews on this one!

NO SPOILERS
Our Last Resort
By Clémence Michallon
Pub Date: Jul 08 2025
Archive Date: Aug 07 2025
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This book was gripping and intense and has a great storyline, different from what I’ve read. It alternates between two different time periods and two different locations.

Gabriel and Frida grew up living in a cult in upstate NY. They had no experience of the real world outside their cult's compound. They were both kids who were being raised by "mothers"; not knowing who their biological mother was. They weren't biologically brother and sister, but that's how they viewed one another.

Growing up in a cult can shape many things about your life.. The brainwashing that must go on is mind-boggling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion/review.

This one took me a minute to get into but once I got used to the author’s writing style I was hooked. The pace picked up and I couldn’t put it down. Intriguing characters and unexpected twists kept me turning the pages. Highly recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advanced reader copy.

Our Last Resort by Clémence Michallon was a pretty gripping read. The story pulled me in with its mix of suspense and emotional depth. What I really liked was how the characters felt real and layered. You could tell there was more going on beneath the surface, which kept me hooked.

The pacing was just right, not too fast but enough to keep the tension alive. Michallon does a good job of balancing the mystery with the personal struggles of the characters, which made the whole thing feel grounded. I found myself caring about what happened next and the choices they had to make.

Interesting thriller about a woman who grew up in a cult and her "brother" who grew up along side her. We get flashbacks from their cult days as we also get glimpses of current day, when the resort where her and her brother are reuniting at had a guest die in mysterious circumstances. As the attention gets shined on her brother as a suspect, we get more of their backstory. It was a fun thriller, and the writing is great, which makes it an easy read. It only suffers in comparison to the author's last book for me.

3.5 stars rounded up. This was a fun, easy to read thriller with a unique added cult storyline. Some of it felt a little predictable but overall it was a fun ride and would make a great pool read this summer.

I wanted to read this after reading this author's last book and it was a total surprise when the writing style is totally different. It felt sloggish and the characters were not as complex. Maybe it was me but it seemed like a completely different author.

Tense, atmospheric, and emotionally layered, Our Last Resort masterfully blends psychological suspense with a slow-burning mystery. Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Utah desert, the story follows Frida and Gabriel as they attempt to rebuild their fractured relationship at a luxurious but eerie resort. When a fellow guest is found dead and suspicion falls on Gabriel, Frida is forced to confront their haunting past in a cult and question everything she thought she knew about the man she loves. With its dual timelines and chilling secrets, this novel is a haunting exploration of love, loyalty, and the shadows that never truly stay buried. A gripping read from start to finish!

It is so pleasing when you pick up an author’s work and you can’t believe it’s a debut. It’s even more exciting when you read their second book and find it to be just as good. This is definitely an author that will become an auto buy on all future releases. Dual timelines aren’t always my thing, but it works so well here. The storylines are equally interesting and keep you involved in the story, and the background is needed to show that strong bond between Gabriel and Frida. That bond is so important to understanding how the events unfold in the later timeline. I’ll admit I was thrown for a loop on part of the ending, I was NOT expecting the explanation of Annie’s death. I gave this four stars instead of five because of the explanation of Sabrina’s death- sometimes the simple and obvious answer to a crime is correct, but it felt a little rushed and phoned in.

Thanks so much to Clémence Michallon and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor Publishing for the free advance readers copy!

Our Last Resort is a quietly devastating novel about survival, trauma, and the fragile structures we build in order to keep going. Told in dual timelines, the story follows two adults shaped by a horrific childhood who find themselves entangled in a tenuous, makeshift family built more out of necessity than trust. What unfolds is a study in resilience and the moral gray areas we inhabit when simply making it through the day is a feat in itself.

Michallon's prose is clear and emotionally restrained, allowing the depth of feeling to simmer just beneath the surface. The novel wrestles with difficult questions: How much of our past can we use to explain, if not excuse, our actions? What does it mean to belong, especially when our first experiences of family were fractured or violent?

Though I struggled with the sheer sadness of the story and found the central twist predictable, the novel lingers in a meaningful way. Its exploration of found family, class disparities, and moral complexity is timely and affecting. The characters make choices that are hard to watch and even harder to justify. And yet Michallon never lets us look away.

This is not a comforting book, but it is a worthwhile one. Our Last Resort offers no easy answers, only the haunting question of how far we’ll go to protect the fragile bonds we’ve fought to build.

I would recommend this to fans of The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, And Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell, and the upcoming Such Good People by Amy Blumenfeld.

Frida and Gabriel were raised in a cult. They consider each other siblings, although they are not blood relatives. There are two timelines. The first being a vivid picture of them being raised in a cult. The second takes place years later at a 5-star resort when they are reunited after Gabriel's wife dies. While there, a murder is committed. I found this murder mystery intriguing, and it kept me guessing every step of the way.

Our Last Resort follows, a current timeline of ‘siblings’ Frida and Gabriel as they are thrown into a murder investigation while on vacation at a secluded resort in Utah. Its other timeline follows the siblings’ journey, as they grew up and escaped form a cult fifteen years prior.
Each chapter is a view into a different timeline, as it travels back and forth to reveal how the siblings came to be involved in this investigation, which is not their first time dealing with a murder.

With that being said, I did not like it as much as her debut novel, The Quiet Tenant, now do I feel like it will stick with me very long. However, this novel definitely held my attention. This novel is less thriller and more mystery. The cult aspect was very entertaining, and its dual timeline viewpoints made it fast paced. It definitely kept me turning the pages quickly until I finished it!

Thank you to Net Galley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor publishing for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

I'm a sucker for a book about a cult. And I also always prefer a book with alternating timelines, though in this case, it felt like I was reading two different stories at times. I'm not sure how the two alternating timelines really relate to each other all that much, other than allowing the author to reunite the two main characters.

This book is a quick read and kept my interest. I did want to find out what would happen next so it kept me turning the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!


(Closer to a 3.5 but I'd rather round up than down)

The premise of this book is great - who doesn't love a plot centered around escaping from a cult? The execution, however, was disappointing. I had a hard time connecting with the main character, her emotions felt closed off to me. The side characters felt like caricatures: the wealthy thrice married man, the young and unhappy bride, the brooding brother. The writing style was choppy, with lots of declarative sentences which created yet another barrier to really connecting in any genuine way. The highlights for me were the portions of the book that took place in the past and talked about the cult, I think more focus on that would have made for a more interesting story arc.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 ⭐️ Fast paced thriller that kept me guessing til the end.

Frida and Gabriel grew up in a cult and always considered themselves siblings. When they came of age they escaped after the truth was discovered about their leader Emile.

When Gabriel’s wife disappears and is found dead he is suspect but nothing is proven. Frida and Gabriel meet up at a desert resort to rekindle their connection and another murder points his way. Told from Frida’s POV it has multi timelines, from the past when the two were young, to present day at the desert resort.

While the story is interesting, the main characters fell flat. I wish their time in the cult would have been fleshed out a bit with more of the workings of their commune and more in depth portrayal of Emile the leader.


Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review

The Quiet Tenant was a such a hit for me that I couldn't wait to dive into the latest from Michallon. Our Last Resort alternates between the past and the present. In the past, Frida and Gabriel are living in a cult in upstate New York. In the present, they are at a high end resort in Utah where the wife of a wealthy and powerful man has just been found dead. The police quickly begin to suspect Gabriel of the young woman's murder.

I really enjoyed the backstory of Frida and Gabriel's time in the cult and felt it painted a picture for their current situation. There were some completely jaw dropping twists that I never saw coming. Michallon has done it again with another 5 star read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.