Comparable to Where the Crawdads Sing, I feel as though I was Not the ideal reader for this story. The characters felt very stereotypically hillbilly like and the pacing was very slow, to the point I just didn’t care to pick it up. Wish I liked It more. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

I am still thinking about how I feel about this book. I love books with swamps and best friends but it just was not relatable for me. It is kind of a weird little book. It is good but also just maybe off for me.

Our Last Wild Days is about a woman who searches for answers after her friend who has been distant ends up dead in their hometown in the bayou of Louisiana. This was a mystery that kept me turning pages and guessing until the very end. I was captivated with this read and liked the setting of this book a lot. It was written well and all of the characters in this were interesting. The author was new to me and I am so glad to have discovered this author. I highly enjoyed this one and would recommend to any reader who likes mystery or thriller books. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this read in exchange of my honest review of Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey.

From the moment I cracked open Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey, I was transported—mosquito-bitten, sweat-drenched, and haunted—into the thick, oppressive swamps of Jacknife, Louisiana. This isn’t just a mystery; it’s a moody, Southern Gothic slow-burn that seeps into your bones and lingers like swamp heat. 🌿🐊

When Loyal May returns to her crumbling hometown to care for her mother, she’s barely unpacked before her childhood friend Cutter Labasque is found face-down in the bayou. The town shrugs it off as suicide—but Loyal knows better. What unravels is a taut, lyrical journey into the murky waters of corruption, grief, and long-buried secrets.

The Labasques—rough, reclusive gator hunters—have always been the town’s outcasts. But as Loyal digs deeper, questioning her own past and the fragile web of loyalty she left behind, she uncovers something far more dangerous than wild animals: the truth.

Bailey’s writing is rich and cinematic. You feel the heat, smell the decay, and sense the danger slithering beneath the surface. While the mystery takes its time, the emotional payoff is worth every slow-building page. By the explosive ending, I was breathless.

🌿🖤 Themes: rural poverty, addiction, betrayal, redemption, and the ghosts we carry
✨ Vibe: lyrical, atmospheric, tense

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing an advanced copy for an honest review.

I just wrapped up Our Last Wild Days, and it really stuck with me. The story is set deep in the Louisiana swamps, where Loyal May comes back home to care for her sick mom. But things get complicated fast when her old friend Cutter Labasque turns up dead, and everyone around says it was suicide. Loyal doesn’t buy it, though, and starts poking around to figure out what really happened.

The book does a great job of making you feel the thick, humid atmosphere of the bayou—it’s almost like another character in the story. The town itself is full of secrets, and the people you meet are far from perfect. Loyal’s search for answers feels personal and raw, which makes the mystery hit harder.

Final thoughts: If you like mysteries that are moody, full of twists, and set in a place that feels alive with its own stories, this one’s a solid choice. It’s gripping and emotional without feeling over the top. Definitely worth diving into.

I really enjoyed this book all the way through. Loyal was such a good main character that wanted to do right by her former friend, and did everything that she could in order to find out what happened to her. The side characters had so much depth, which added so many layers to this story and so much more enjoyment. I will absolutely be checking out more books from this author if they are anything like this one.

Thank you to Atria Books, Anna Bailey, and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. This is my honest review.

Loyal May heads back to her hometown in Louisiana to help her mother, only to learn her childhood friend Cutter has died under suspicious circumstances. The locals call it suicide. Loyal isn’t convinced with this. Hit by grief and doubt, she starts digging and uncovers small town secrets, and unsettling truths hidden in the swamp.
I absolutely loved the setting and atmosphere with this book. It’s a slow burn with each new detail you get pulled in deeper.
If you enjoy southern suspense with tension, complex relationships and beautiful writing be sure to pick this one up.

With evocative Southern gothic atmosphere and rich descriptions of swamp life, Our Last Wild Days has a lot going for it—but its slow pacing and uneven character development hold it back. Loyal May's quest for redemption and justice offers moments of intrigue, and the setting is a standout character in itself. Still, the mystery surrounding Cutter’s death unfolds in fits and starts, and some emotional beats don’t land as powerfully as they could. Worth the read for the mood and setting, but the payoff feels just a bit too tame.

Dark, atmospheric, with tension lurking just below the surface, Our Last Wild Days sucked me in and never let go. This book began as a bit of a slow burn for me and I do struggle with them, but the author won me over with her wonderful writing, vivid descriptions, and the mystery surrounding Cutter Labasques's death. I could almost feel the humidity of the swamp, as the family of alligator hunters in Jacknife, Louisiana, went about their business. When Cutter is found face down in the swamp, it is not her brothers but her childhood friend, Loyal May questions Cutter's death.

If you are looking for a book that is heavy on emotion with a fantastic southern setting, Our Last Wild Days may be the book for you! You could cut the tension with a knife as this gritty southern book gets closer to the reveal. The story slowly builds and readers soon get to meet several of the key characters who are flawed, damaged, and beaten down.

Loyal is struggling. She has left her job and moved back home to help take care of her mother. But her past is determined to haunt her. When her best friend from her childhood, Cutter is found facedown in the swamp, she is determined to find the truth. Loyal owes Cutter a big apology and she never gets to say the words.

I enjoyed Loyal. She is a complex character. She is resolved to find out what happened to Cutter. She knows she did not kill herself. So, she looks to Cutter’s brothers. And trust me…they definitely could have done it!

I fluctuated between 3 and 4 stars on this one. This tale is a bit long and slowed down in the middle. But, I loved the twist at the end and the setting of the Louisiana swamp…nothing is creepier! And talk about ominous characters and alligators…this book has them in abundance.

Need an atmospheric tale with disturbing characters…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Loyal May is a journalist who returns to her rural Louisiana hometown to investigate the death of her childhood friend Marianne “Cutter” Labasque. Our Last Wild Days is atmospheric to the nth degreeeee. I could feel Loyal trekking through the thick hot air of the wild swamp desperately searching for answers. The pacing lingered in a way that added to that feeling. Anna Bailey’s writing style is lyrical and gorgeous. This was a vivid and heartbreaking story about the family, friendship, and forgiveness (for other and for yourself) that I could not put down.

Thank you Atria for the opportunity to read this ARC!

**Our Last Wild Days** by Anna Bailey is such a beautifully written, haunting read. It’s about friendship, secrets, and the wild, messy ways we try to hold on to each other — and to ourselves — when life starts to unravel. The writing is lyrical and atmospheric, and I felt completely swept up in the characters’ emotions and the raw, rugged setting. Heart-wrenching but so worth it!

Set in the deep back country of Louisiana, we are introduced to a small town and a collection of imperfect people. The main character, Loyal May, has returned home to help her ailing mother, and finds out her ex-best friend is dead. True to her name, Loyal May just can’t settle until she find out to her friend, and faces the hard truths that come with facing our previously decisions and how they affect others.

This book immediately reminded me of Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens, except I found this book much more tolerant, the characters still rugged and wild but more believable.

This is a great summer read, and I would also encourage for anyone who likes a mystery or a book where the setting feels like a character on its own.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and Atria Books for the exchange of a copy of this book for my honest review.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Anna Bailey’s Our Last Wild Days is a novel that doesn’t whisper—it howls. It’s a raw, lyrical, and unflinching portrait of a world on the brink, where the wildness of nature mirrors the wildness within us. Set against the backdrop of ecological collapse and personal reckoning, Bailey’s latest work is a love letter and a lament—for the forests we’re losing, the people we fail to understand, and the selves we bury to survive.

Bailey’s prose is elemental—wind-lashed, rain-soaked, and fire-scorched. The novel is set in a remote, unnamed wilderness that feels both mythic and terrifyingly real. It’s a place where the trees seem to listen, where silence is never empty, and where the land itself becomes a character—wounded, watchful, and sacred.

The environmental themes are not just backdrops—they’re the novel’s pulse. Bailey doesn’t preach; she evokes. The slow violence of deforestation, the ache of extinction, the quiet desperation of those who remain to witness it—all are rendered with aching clarity. This is climate fiction at its most intimate and most urgent.

At the heart of the novel is the protagonist, Loyal, seeing the reason for her friend Cutter's (Marianne"s) murder.

Bailey excels at writing characters who are fractured but not broken. Loyal, in particular, is a standout—fierce, haunted, and deeply human. Her relationship with the land is visceral, almost spiritual, and her journey toward reconciliation—both with her brother and with herself—is as compelling as any thriller.

🔥 What makes Our Last Wild Days so powerful is its refusal to offer easy answers. The novel is steeped in ambiguity—about what happened in the past, about what’s worth saving, about whether redemption is even possible. Bailey weaves in elements of folklore and memory, blurring the line between reality and myth. The result is a narrative that feels timeless and timely, grounded yet dreamlike.

The title itself is a quiet heartbreak. These are the last wild days—not just of the forest, but of the people who once belonged to it. And Bailey captures that sense of ending with devastating grace.


Our Last Wild Days is a novel that lingers like smoke in the lungs. It’s a story about grief—personal, ecological, generational—and about the fragile, feral hope that something wild might still survive in us. Anna Bailey has written a book that is both elegy and invocation, a call to remember what we’re losing and to fight, however we can, to hold on.

If you’re drawn to novels that blend emotional depth with environmental urgency—think Charlotte McConaghy’s Migrations or Richard Powers’ The Overstory—this book will speak to you in a voice that is quiet, fierce, and unforgettable.

A very interesting story about a woman names Loyal and the mystery surrounding the death of her childhood friend Marianne aka Cutter. I found the book to be enjoyable, though I thought it was a little too long.

This is one of those books that really gets your mind working and thoughts turning. This was so much more than just a mystery. It tells the story of a family that really didn’t stand a chance to turn out any different than how they did.

This book had my heart breaking at times and other times I wanted to throw it against the wall because I was feeling so many emotions. This was a very powerful read.

Thank you to Atria Books for my copy of OUR LAST WILD DAYS.

I had a hard time with this book. The characters all really got on my nerves and also there were so many of them! That many characters to keep up with and the only thing you remember is how much you hate them makes reading a chore. I did not enjoy and do not recommend this one.

I really enjoyed this novel. This was a perfect southern gothic book. It was slow paced in a good way and very thought out. It gave you a punch with the ending. I would definitely recommend for fans of this genre. Can’t wait to read more by this author

I read this a few weeks back and can't remember much about it. I gave it three/five stars, so I must not have loved it. I liked this author's last work much better.

I thought I was going to love this book but this book fell short for me.
I’m happy to see such positive reviews on it.

Cutter ends up being found dead face down. Her own brothers don’t even care about Cutter. It’s been suggested that Cutter committed suicide but an old friend doesn’t think that’s true. They’ve had their differences but she doesn’t think cutter committed suicide.

This book held my attention enough to finish to see what really happened to Cutter and why.

Thanks netgalley and publisher for a chance to read this book for free in return for my honest opinion.