"Our Last Wild Days" is an atmospheric and suspenseful Southern Gothic novel. Set in the swamps of Louisiana, this book reminded me a lot of "Where the Crawdads Sing," but darker and grittier. Like its bayou setting, the story was slow-moving. Although it was quite a slow-burn, the murder mystery kept me intrigued enough to keep reading. The author's descriptive writing made me feel like I was right there in the small town of Jackknife. The characters were deeply flawed, and many of them were quite unlikeable, but I did like the main character, Loyal. Overall, I found the mystery compelling, but I did struggle with the book's slow pace.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This southern gothic mystery is set in the small town of Jacknife, LA, where people lead a pretty hardscrabble existence in the swamps and bayous. Loyal May escaped to Houston for the past ten years but recently returned to care of her mother. As a reporter, she took a job with the local paper and her first story is the death of her BFF, Marianne Labasque, nicknamed Cutter, someone Loyal hurt badly before she left. She had hoped to make amends but it's too late for that now. Unable to accept the Sheriff's cause of death of suicide or accident, Loyal decides to investigate Cutter's death herself.

This is a slow-burn of a mystery, with a strong atmospheric dread through the dismal setting and eccentric characters. The pacing is slow but it works with the story and the ending is incredible. I really enjoyed this story! Highly recommend!!

Swampy, sinister and slow burning in all the right ways.

Our Last Wild Days is southern gothic at its finest—thick with atmosphere, secrets, and that sticky tension only small-town Louisiana can deliver. Anna Bailey drops you right into the swamp, where the air’s heavy and the corruption runs deep.

It’s a slow burn, but once it gets going, you’re strapped in for a wild ride—complete with a mysterious death, dark undercurrents, and enough small-town secrets to sink a boat. Eerie, emotional, and beautifully written.

Highly recommend if you like your mysteries with a side of humidity and heartache.

Anna Bailey’s Our Last Wild Days had me hooked from page one. When Loyal returns to her Louisiana hometown, she can’t help but think about her former best friend, Cutter, and all the things that went wrong at the end of their relationship. It’s too late for apologies, however, when Cutter’s dead body shows up in the hot, Louisiana bayou.

Told through several 3rd person POVs, Bailey brings a magnifying glass to this small community and life within it. I’ve read few books set in the bayou and I loved how the setting acted as its own character. Each character, no matter how many pages they occupied, was incredibly life-like and brought so much depth to the story.

I have a new love for Southern Gothic stories and the incredible characters within them. I absolutely recommend this book to everybody and cannot wait to read more of Bailey’s work.

Thank you to Atria Books, Anna Bailey and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review!

our last wild days promised to be an atmospheric, swampy thriller featuring gators and southerners, which are some of my favorite things.

i wasn't able to get into the story as i decided to dnf at 12% in due to the egregious unchallenged fatphobic content. and i find that less palatable knowing that this book was written by a straight-sized person. no thank you.

The Labasques have lived out in a shack in the swamps all their lives. Having lost both parents, Marianne, aka Cutter, and Beau were raised by their older brute of a brother, Dewall. They get by in life by raising and hunting alligators and are mostly treated as outcasts even in their rural surroundings. When Cutter is found facedown in the swamp, no one seems to bat an eye or care whether her death might be suspicious. But her estranged childhood friend, Loyal May, has arrived back in town after a decade away, and between her investigative instincts and needs to make amends to her friend, Loyal will stop at nothing to find out what really happened.

As a mood reader, I would have loved to have saved this one for a late summer read, given the heavy atmosphere and swamp setting. This was a slow burn. The family dynamics, corrupt police, and drug epidemic all added to the simmering tension. I loved the bits of Louisiana folklore weaved into the story; it aided in creating the unsettling, eerie vibes as the mystery of what happened to Cutter and what was going on in those backwoods at night unfurled. There were just enough red herrings to keep you guessing along the way. This was my first book by Anna Bailey, and her writing is so vivid and captivating. I would definitely pick up another read by her again.

OUR LAST WILD DAYS is a slow-burn atmospheric crime novel set in rural Louisiana. I loved the setting, the immersion into the culture, and the way the story unfolded. The characters were all interesting, and the plot felt realistic.

Kate Handford did a fantastic job with the narration. I felt like I was there, living the story alongside the characters.

*Thanks to Atria Books for the free ebooks, and to Simon Audio for the free audiobook download!*

4 years! I have been waiting 4 years for author Anna Bailey to release her next novel. Ever since I had the honor of feasting my eyes on her debut, "Where The Truth Lies", back in summer 2021 I have been impatiently waiting. It was a a dark, heavy, physiological thriller that was filled with emotions and left a lasting impact. I gave it a 5 star rating and I encourage everyone to read it, but I do issue a trigger warning of drug abuse, physical abuse, alcohol abuse and homophobia along with it.



That being said, Bailey's latest novel is also a dark, atmospheric read, but with a southern gothic feel. The Deep South seeps through the printed words in this story, and in true southern fashion this book is a slow burn.



The characters are well thought out, very well developed, and all unique. The reality of small town life is brought to the forefront and the flaws, embarrassments, and unseen friendships that go along with that life are told along the way.



Once again Bailey does a stand up job with writing an atmospheric novel with a unique plot, full of unique characters. The pure perfection that was written creating the southern scenery left me in awe. This story sticks to you like the oppressive southern humidity.



The scenes are set so perfectly. The swamps, the alligators, the Cyprus trees, mosquitos, even the thick humidity were all felt with ever word read. This is a poor, rural town full of gossip, drugs, corrupt politics, and not-so-hidden classism and racism. I felt like I was there, investigating along the way.



Thanks to Netgalley and Atria books for allowing me an advanced e-copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 5 star read.



"Our Last Wild Days" is out today, May 20, 2025 here in the U.S. so get your copy now! It is the perfect read to take you into the Memorial Day weekend!



Happy Reading!

4.25/5
Thank you @atriabooks #partner for the gifted copies of this book!

Talk about an incredible setting! This one drops you straight into the swampy, sticky heat of the Louisiana bayou — and from the very first page, I felt like I was right there in the middle of that small, tight-knit community full of secrets, shady characters, and lurking alligators. The atmosphere in this book is everything. Anna Bailey’s writing is so vivid, I swear I could feel the humidity clinging to my skin, hear the buzzing mosquitos, and practically smell the murky water as a body is pulled from the swamp.

I loved the dynamic between Loyal and Cutter — estranged friends with a complicated past, both navigating a town where everyone knows your business and no one’s ever really innocent. Cutter especially stood out to me with her gritty, outcast vibe. I felt so drawn to her character, and seeing how the town treated her, especially in the wake of tragedy, made the connection between her and Loyal even more meaningful.

This book constantly felt like something was lurking just out of sight, and I mean that in the best, creepiest way. If you love crime thrillers with police procedural elements, small-town mysteries, and seriously atmospheric reads, Our Last Wild Days is one you need to add to your list. Grab your muck boots and dive in — this one’s out now, and I seriously loved it.

To the people of Louisiana, the Labasques, a family of alligator hunters, have always been seen as outcasts and troublemakers. So, when Cutter Labasque is found dead in a swamp, nobody seems to care or question it, except her childhood best friend, Loyal. And when Loyal goes looking for answers, she uncovers more than she ever imagined about her friend, her past, and her town.

This book really felt like SHARP OBJECTS meets WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING. It is atmospheric, mysterious, dark and layered with many well-executed themes. The whole story proved to be more than just a mystery with its close look at family, loyalty, and society’s perception of women as well as those who are different,

It was also just the atmospheric books I have read in a while!! Weaving through the swamps and bayous of Louisiana, everything in this read was elevated by the setting! You really feel the suspense lurking like an alligator, always there and ready to pounce!

I will admit that I did almost abandon this book because the first 25-50 pages had me feeling a little blah about it all, but I am so so glad I stuck with it. The names of the characters really were rubbing me the wrong way at first -- totally a nit-picky opinion, but after the characters and setting really began to develop, I was hooked.

This really will be the perfect summer read.

4.5 stars!

This was so gorgeously written that I really had to pause multiple times to say ‘wow.' It’s hard for me to believe now, that I had a difficult time connecting to this at first. I still can’t fully say why, I thought it was so well written immediately and I was interested in the plot, but it just took me a bit. By the time I hit the halfway mark though, it had a tight hold on me. It felt like everything started to get pieced together more, and I couldn't pull away from it.

I'm not sure if I've read much, or any, Southern Gothic novels prior to this but now I think I need to, because this really scratched an itch I didn't even know I had. Just enough folklore and supernatural elements to intrigue, to make it haunting, but the real dangers were much more human. I thought it did a very real job, a great job, of touching on addiction and poverty and desperation, and a certain brand of men who are scarier than those gators.

And speaking of gators, without spoiling majorly... Very satisfying ending. Very, very.

There were no perfect characters in this book, but that just made me like them more. They were all a little fucked up, but that's what made them feel real for me. I was still rooting for them.

Again, this was such a well written book, with some really heavy lines that hit me hard. Really beautiful, emotional stuff. I will absolutely have to read Anna Bailey's other novel after this, and anything she writes in the future.

This book was dark and wildly atmospheric, transporting me to the swamps of the South with their muggy heat and savage creatures.

Cutter and her brothers live at the edge of town, catching gators and running wild. When Cutter is found dead in the swamp, her old friend Loyal is determined to get to the bottom of what happened to her.

The writing in this book is lyrical and sets the scene perfectly, but the large amount of description and small amount of dialogue made it an extreme slow burn for me, even on audio. I was both fascinated by Cutter and her family and scared of them as dark secrets about her family seeped out over the course of the story, which left me with an overall uneasy feeling. While this wasn't necessarily the book for me, I can see how readers who love a deep Southern story will enjoy it!

Our Last Wild Days is dark, atmospheric, and down right deliciously tense.

Anna Bailey offers up a novel about a family of alligator hunters in Louisiana. There's a death, no one seems to care, but Loyal May does. She cares so much, she's willing to dive back into the darkness of her hometown to find answers.

This book is very good at setting the atmosphere. It almost felt like I was in a Louisiana swamp, sweating to death, and creeping around trying to avoid alligators and the Labasques family. It did such a good job of pulling you into the story and that's always a huge green flag for me.

This book is a nice slow burn, and if you don't usually care for them, I implore you to stick this one out and let Anna Bailey take you on a ride that will chill your skin and make you sweat.

Big thank you to the publisher for an advanced reader copy!

Our Last Wild Days feels viscerally real. The evocative prose lets you feel the humid air of rural Louisiana, alligator eyes watching you from the swamp water. Many of the characters are beautifully, tragically, and menacingly crafted, feeling like they could walk right off the page. And the issues the novel touches on, violence against women, homophobia, rural neglect, and more, are vitally and thoughtfully explored. Only the mystery falls short of greatness.

For a mystery thriller, the plot of Our Last Wild Days moves relatively slowly. Thanks to the strengths listed above and the excellent tension within scenes—characters want things so palpably, often at odds with each other—it never feels slow. The one exception is that the middle of the novel lags slightly. While the novel isn’t long, the plot feels stretched and padded in the middle. Still, I never came close to losing interest thanks to the characters. This holds true for the conclusion as well. Each lead character has a very moving end. On the other hand, the mystery’s resolution, while unpredictable and tension-filled, lacks the explosive reveals that define the best thriller plotlines.

If you’re looking for a character-oriented thriller, Our Last Wild Days is a must read. It has an important message too. Even amongst cruelty, violence, and neglect, love and kindness persist. And, if you let them, they can win out too.

You can feel the haunting and humid oppression of the Louisiana swamps in every page of Our Last Wild Days. This slow-burn thriller follows the hometown return of journalist Loyal May as she investigates the death of her childhood friend Cutter who was pulled out of the river before she had the chance to reconnect and make amends. Suicide? Accident? Or murder? It seems like everyone in town just wants to leave the truth buried int he swamp. But some secrets just refuse to drown.

Atmospheric and reflective, this story is as much about regrets, hopelessness, and the trials of poverty as it is about a dead girl very few seem to care about. It felt very authentic. And for those who love just desserts, it is served with a cherry on top.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC.

Wooo.... this book. The setting was all encompassing. The author really had me thinking about the swamp and this family even when I put the book down. It took me awhile to fully become engrossed, but once I did, there was no stopping me.

Our Last Wild Days has a small town, secrets, corruption, a mysterious death, alligators, swamps. Everything you need in a book, really! This is a slow burn that will suck you in quickly, heavily character driven. And what a unique set of characters! The setting itself is a character itself! It’s told through multiple POV which always helps to keep my interest and not only that, it’s beautifully written and atmospheric. I loved the audiobook narration as it captured the nuances of the individual characters.

A Southern gothic mystery from Anna Bailey. I somehow missed her debut, Where the Truth Lies, so I can't comment on whether her second book lives up to her first, but I have a feeling it does her credit. I certainly enjoyed it.

The story is set in the small, rundown town of Jacknife, LA, where people lead a pretty hardscrabble existence in the swamps and bayous. Loyal May escaped all that and has been living in Houston for the past ten years but has returned now to take care of her ailing mother. She's gotten a job with the local newspaper and the first story she has to cover is the death of her former best friend, Marianne Labasque, nicknamed Cutter, someone Loyal hurt badly before she left. She had hoped to make amends but it's too late for that now.

The sheriff's working theory is the young woman's death was either from suicide or accident but Loyal can't accept either so decides to do some investigating herself, with the help of her fellow reporter, Sasha. Her boss reminds her that her job is to report, NOT investigate, but this feels too personal to let the police handle it. She owes it to Cutter to learn the truth. But it soon becomes apparent someone really doesn't want the truth to come out.

This is a slow-burn of a mystery, concentrating on the building of atmospheric dread through the dismal setting and eccentric characters. I used to think Alaska would be a scary place to live with the wildness of nature but the swamps and bayous of Louisiana have just as many scary things that can kill you, like gators and snakes. Or are humans the most dangerous creatures of all?

As I said, there's a slow pace to begin with. We don't even learn how Cutter was killed until we reach the 50% mark. But be patient--the conclusion explodes with action and drama and makes it so worth the wait.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new mystery via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from this author.

I did not read Bailey's debut, but this sophomore novel of hers is so well written that I will be going back to check her debut out soon. Bailey tackles many themes with this one (addiction, domestic abuse, aging, mental health, grief, and more), and all of theme are very well written and executed. I'm not sure of the official classification of this book, but I would say it is a cross between a mystery/thriller as well as a family drama. I love when an author creates a sense of place so well that the setting is like another character to the story, and the Louisiana bayou is such an excellent location for this story. Although I felt like many of the characters could have been a bit more fleshed out, I love how they are all a bit messy while many of them are lovable at the same time. There are lots of comps out there to Where the Crawdads Sing, but I felt that this one was a much better book overall. I can't wait to see what Bailey does in the future!

The Labasques aren’t your average swamp family—and this is not your average murder mystery. Cutter Labasque is found dead in the bayou, and no one seems to care… except Loyal May, her estranged childhood friend back in town to care for her mom.

Wracked with guilt and suspicious of the so-called suicide, Loyal teams up with a ragtag crew from the local paper to dig into Cutter’s death. What she uncovers? Corruption, buried secrets, and a town that would rather stay quiet than face the truth.

Anna Bailey’s writing is sharp as a gator bite—Southern gothic with real teeth. It’s a slow burn, but it smolders, and the characters are flawed, fierce, and so human it hurts.

4.5 stars—because the swamp doesn’t forgive, and neither does the truth.

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