This is described as "an atmospheric novel about a young woman who searches for answers after her estranged friend is found dead in the bayou of their rural Louisiana hometown". My first thoughts diving into this one was that the setting was a character all on it's own! The swamps, alligators, and the accents (if you listen on audio) all give the reader (or listener) the atmosphere of what the swamps of Louisiana feel like. There is also a bit of superstition that permiates this story.

We follow Loyal, the estranged friend of Cutter who is found dead in the swamps, Loyal has returned home to help with her mom's failing health, and work for the local paper. With her friend dead, she finds herself digging deep into Cutter's death among the locals who don't appreciate her interest.

Dark atmospheric setting for a murder mystery.

My thanks to Net Galley and Atria Books for an advanced copy of this e-book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster | Atria Books for gifting me the sophomore novel by Anna Bailey, after her wonderful debut, Where the Truth Lies. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars rounded up!

Loyal May has tried to put her childhood growing up in the swamps of Louisiana squarely in the past. But when her mom needs help, she grudgingly returns, hoping to also make peace after a fall out with her friend, Cutter. But when Cutter is found dead and presumed a suicide, Loyal is a journalist and is determined to find answers, even though it's too late to make restitutions with Cutter.

Wow - this is an incredibly atmospheric novel, set in the backwoods swamps of Louisiana, where huge alligators are everywhere and hunting them is a way of life. And so are drugs and violence. Cutter's family have had it tough and continue to be outcasts in Jacknife, but there are evil forces in all aspects of life here. These characters felt so real and raw, and I loved Loyal and Sasha, her coworker on the small town newspaper. I also felt for Loyal and her mom, as they both tried to navigate disease and a new relationship. There's a Gothic vibe throughout and I couldn't get enough of this book, and the fight for redemption. Anna Bailey has cemented her place as a must-read author for me!

Dark, atmospheric and highly enjoyable. Our Last Wild Days had me up reading for days! The descriptions in the book was great and really pulls you into the story. The Gothic atmosphere of the Louisiana setting was well done. The characters were flawed and felt like real people. It does have a slow burn, but packs a punch with the feels . The Labasques family aren’t your typical family in Louisiana, Bayou. Outcasts who survive off the land by hunting alligators and selling their meat, they’ve never fit in with the rest of the town. . But when Cutter Labasque is found face-down in the bayou, her supposed suicide barely raises an eyebrow… except from one person: Loyal May, her estranged childhood friend who once betrayed her.Loyal has returned to Jacknife, Louisiana after learning that her mother is having memory issues. She takes a new job working at the local paper. The first day on the job, she and a fellow journalist, discover a body in the swamp. The body is discovered to be Cutter, and Loyal is devastated. Loyal goes in search of answers, uncovering a web of deceit and corruption that implicates those in town.
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Huge shout out to Netgalley and Atria Books for the early copy of Our Last Wild Days in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.

What a wild ride this book was! The story was fantastic and throughout, there was a heavy feeling of foreboding and danger every step of the way! The characters very likeable and written in a way that placed me right there alongside them as they journied through the confines of this mystery. Chapter after chapter the plot kept me on my toes enough that I was constantly trying to figure out the whodonit of all it all and that was a great thing as it made me yearn even more for the finale of the book. The setting of Louisiana was a character all in itself and I loved how certain aspects of this particular location was described and the unique dailogue between the characters also. There was a dry whit sprinkled throughout this one which lightened the mood a bit as well. This was a complete read from beginning to end and I'm looking forward to future reads from this author.

Just published!
"You and me and the devil makes three."
This one has it all - faith healers, white supremacy, missing girls, drugs, shady sheriffs, and gators of course.

4.5
Loyal has returned to Jacknife, Louisiana after learning that her mother is having memory issues and is behaving erratically. Her small town childhood was spent with her bestie - Marianne "Cutter" Labasque, until an event that changes her opinion of the family, and she writes a story for the town paper that burns all her bridges on her way out of town.

When, shortly after her return, Cutter's body is found washed up in the river, Loyal wants answers.

I was thoroughly absorbed by this one, as someone who loves a dark and gritty small town story. These aren't characters you easily fall in love with, but they do become people you can root for.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

3.75 rounded up.

Good. Atmospheric. Dark. So much under the surface waiting to break through. (Not just the gators!) Flawed and deeply human/relatable characters. The plot felt so real and maybe that’s what added to the sadness/hopelessness in this mystery.

Advanced reader copy provided by Atria and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I did enjoy this book and read it in one day. I only gave it a four star because I got confused in parts of the book and had to go back and reread parts. I would recommend this book.

This book delivered on everything I love about gothic mysteries. The atmosphere and setting were spot on and used so effectively in the storyline. While reading, I could feel the hot, humid, heavy air of the Louisiana Bayou. This coupled with the slow-burn suspense felt suffocating and I was totally obsessed with the story while reading.

The small town aspects were also done really well. Sometimes a story can get overwhelming with all the characters in the small town, but I felt the author did a great job with character development. No two characters felt similar to me and I was able to easily distinguish who was who. The intricacy of the relationships with the characters was also well done. I felt myself invested in each of their storylines. I also became very interested in gator hunting which was not something I thought I would ever say.

My only critique is the resolution of the mystery. The sheriff being guilty and his motive felt unoriginal and predictable to me. However, him getting killed by the albino alligator was PERFECT. Definitely interested in reading more from this author in the future!

When Loyal’s mom starts having memory issues she decides to return back to her hometown and she starts working at the local paper. When the body of her estranged childhood best friend is found in the water, Loyal and Sasha, a fellow reporter start investigating what happened. A book that was incredibly well written and made you feel like you were in the Louisiana swamp lands. The book was very atmospheric and the characters were beautifully tragic.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

Wow. What an insightful and fascinating read. I loved the incisive commentary, the imagery, the brutality, the prose. Everything was just so seamless and I was kept guessing all throughout the book as to what would happen next and who the culprit was. Not only the imagery but the description of the Southern landscape and life were so visceral and real. I lived for a while in the swampy areas of the south and it felt like I was right back there with the people, the culture, the scenery, the nature, and the oppressive heat of the air. I also felt that the commentary and depictions of adolescent friendships, on memory loss, on the perceptions of people in certain social groups of themselves and others, and the rise of certain present-day movements were so well captured. I would strongly recommend this and thought it was an excellent southern gothic mystery. It felt authentic and never veered into what I would consider camp or cliche.

This had an interesting premise and I loved the whole swamp atmosphere. It just lost steam toward the middle for me and I felt it a bit predictable. Unfortunately I find this will be a forgettable read.

If you loved Crawdads and want a book that will take you back to the bayou, this is it! Except it grittier, realer, and a lot less romantic. This was my first Anna Bailey and it won’t be my last! She has a real gift for setting the scene. You will feel like you are in the living, breathing swamp with all that lives in it. The characters are real and terribly flawed. The first half was a bit of a slow burn but then I couldn’t put it down thanks to all the twists. No spoilers here, but the author takes you for a ride trying to figure what is truly happening in the swamps of Jacknife Louisiana and the surrounding parishes.

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

I sadly had to DNF this one at 22% of the way through. The synopsis definitely intrigued me, as I love any book that is set in the bayou.
The writing was very atmospheric, which I liked, but there were multiple mentions of animal violence within the first 22%, and that's one of the only (if not THE only) triggers that I have when reading. None of the mentions of animal violence were detailed or graphic, but they were in there nonetheless. I almost stopped at the very first mention of animal violence, but since it was just a brief mention, I continued reading in the hopes that there would not be any further animal violence. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
I also didn't love the focus on the FMC's weight. There were comments about her thighs extending past the edges of the seat of the car, someone referred to her as a "lardass"...I just didn't care for that. I am assuming (and actually hoping) that it serves some larger purpose to the overall story that would've hopefully been revealed had I continued reading.
Lastly, some of the characters felt SO stereotypical, almost like caricatures of people that live in the deep South or in the bayou. I've spent a limited amount of time there, so I'm certainly not the expert on it; perhaps that's really how it is, but to me, some of the characters just felt really over-the-top.
At any rate, those things really turned me off to the point that I decided to DNF. I'm sure there are people that will love this book, but it did not resonate with me.
Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the arc in exchange for my honest review. I'm sorry this one was a miss for me!

"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!*