This started a bit slow to the point where I almost quit but then it picked up in a big way! Part literary fiction/part mystery - almost felt like True Detective but being solved by journalists and in the best way! It was such a great setting, too -- definitely give this one a try!!

Our Last Wild Days comes out next week on May 20, 2025, and you can purchase HERE!

"This place," he says, "ain't as untamed as people think. We're already breathing factory air, drinking factory water-they'll build a factory on top of us one of these years, just you wait. We're living in our last wild days, boy. And that ghost gator, she's a relic-something left of the strange beauty of this backcountry. So maybe I am looking, but just to see her. I'm used to looking at things I can't have."

A woman is found drowned. A 13 year old girl is missing. Someone's frozen waffles have been stolen. There are dead snakes hanging from trees. And someone is whistling in the dark woods. Are any of these things related? And if so, how? This is what Loyal wants to find out after she returns home to Jackknife Louisiana to take care of her aging mother. She brings back her big city journalistic drives and can't resist investigating the death of her childhood best friend, Cutter. What she gets into is so much more than expected! I think some people will try and compare this book to Where the Crawdads Sing, and sure it has that same feel. But this book is much more action and suspense focused. The setting of the swamps and smalltown life support the plot but are more minor characters than in Crawdads. In this way, those who enjoyed Crawdads will enjoy this book and many who didn't enjoy Crawdads will still enjoy this book!

Loyal May returns home after a decade away to help care for her ailing mother. Soon after she arrives, her former best friend is found dead, launching Loyal down an investigative path.

Anna Bailey's atmospheric writing makes the reader feel as hot and suffocated in the murky bayou as the characters. I enjoyed parts of the book, but found it difficult to become invested in Loyal or Cutter. Sasha's arc was written the best, but even that felt on the verge of being fulfilling, but never quite got there.

Atria Books provided an advanced copy via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

DNF at 23% - I was excited to read an atmospheric suspense story, but at almost a quarter of the way in, I felt myself dreading every page.

This story is definitely atmospheric, which I usually love. But it felt too atmospheric for this type of story, if that makes sense. Instead of immersing me in the story, the descriptions bogged the plot down and made what should be a suspenseful story slow and boring.

I kept catching myself skimming and finally realized that the author’s writing style just didn’t work for me in this genre. If you like super slow burn atmospheric suspense stories, you may enjoy this one.

Thank you to Atria Books for the opportunity to read this early.

A mystery set in the southern swampy town of Jacknife, where the police force doesn't always have everyone's best interests in mind. So, when a town local is found dead, they seem to do the bare minimum to determine what happened. Thankfully, two local reporters are determined to find out the truth, uncovering some dark town secrets in the process.

Loyal May reluctantly returns to her hometown to take care of her mom, whose mental health seems to be declining. She aims to keep busy during her stay, quickly joining the Bayou Leader, and gaining a possible story with Sasha Petitpas, when a female body is found. That body being her childhood friend, Cutter. The police are quick to label it suicide, too quick if you ask me. That doesn't sit well with Loyal and Sasha, who begin to dig deep into Cutter's life, starting with her two brothers.

Beau and Dewall are two very odd characters, but that made their arcs that much more interesting. Beau is a drug addict, who only seems to care about his next fix. Dewall basically runs the family business, catching gators, and that says a lot about who he is and how he operates. Scary overall. But are either responsible for Cutter's death? While I think there is some connection there, I didn't think they personally killed her. With little information to work with, I think Loyal and Sasha were very resourceful and determined to the truth.

The author does a good job of pulling several subplots together to reveal the truth about Cutter's death, while finally exposing some other secrets. The atmospheric writing style also set the perfect vibe for the story - I could almost sense the swamp-like setting, adding a creepy element to the already mysterious story. While the pace seemed slow for a mystery, this was overall, an intriguing story.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book but the last half or so seemed to drag on and I was expecting more in the end. I thought the story was interesting and unique especially with the descriptions of the Louisiana swamps and alligator hunting. Despite some slow moments I think with more editing and refinement this book has the potential to be a great read! I also believe this book makes the perfect summer/beach read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review and feedback.

Thank you @atriabooks for the gifted advance reader copy!

Loyal May returns to her rundown small town in rural Louisiana to care for her mother. When the body of her childhood best friend is discovered in the water, she is determined to find the truth of what happened to her.

This mystery was so rich in atmosphere I felt transported to the sweltering Louisiana bayou. The story started out slower but I was very intrigued by the unique characters, gator hunting, and legends of the swamp. It deals with some heavy topics and doesn’t shy away from gritty details. The story culminates in a very satisfying way and with surprising character arcs that pulled on my heartstrings.

Rating 4.5⭐️

I feel like this book has a bit of a low start, but once you start to figure out what might have happened then things become more interesting. Loyal goes back to her hometown to work as a journalist and her first case involves a friend that died in suspicious circumstances. The friend’s family is in the alligator business, which make things interesting and intriguing.

Thank you atria books and NetGalley for this arc!

I really enjoyed our last wild days by Anna Bailey. This isn’t your typical thriller. This is southern gothic and I love it. It’s slow burn and dark. It was a quick read for me because I love this genre.

When Loyal May returns home to care for her ailing Mom, she knows she’ll have to rebuild some bridges. What she doesn’t expect is to not even have the chance when her estranged friend Cutter is found dead.
While Loyal and her colleague Sasha try to piece together how and why Cutter died, there are a slew of other well developed characters that make up the story.
This is a well written mystery that had a surprising ending.

Loyal left her small hometown of Jacknife, Louisiana, when she was just 18-years old, after a falling out with her best friend, Cutter. When she left, she took a lot of guilt with her over what she'd done to Cutter. Now a decade later, Loyal returns to Jacknife to help care for her Mom, who seems to be teetering on the edge of dementia. Loyal is nervous about being back. It feels like she's been on the run from her past this whole time.

Luckily, Loyal, a journalist, is able to get a job working at the tiny local paper, which she'd contributed to when she had been in high school. She hasn't burned every bridge.

Her first day on the job, she and her coworker, Sasha, get word that a body has been discovered in the swamps. They rush to the scene to see what info that can glean from the responding officers. It's quickly revealed that the body belongs to Loyal's estranged best friend, Cutter. Loyal is devastated on so many levels. She was hoping for a chance to reconcile with her friend, to apologize for what she had done, but now she's been robbed of that chance.

Cutter's early life had been filled with hardship and tragedy, and from what Loyal's heard, it's only gotten worse recently. Now she's been taken out just as tragically. Many believe Cutter most likely took her own life, but Loyal isn't buying that. There's no way the girl she knew would do that, but how well did she actually know Cutter anymore?

Loyal and Sasha begin digging for answers, discovering small town corruption and dangerous dealings along the way. Will they be able to expose the truth, or will Cutter end up just being another person lost to the swamp?

Our Last Wild Days is Anna Bailey's 2nd-novel, and IMO, it's an improvement over their debut, Where the Truth Lies, which was good, but nothing about it really stood out for me. I feel like this novel is going to stick in my mind. The characters were fantastically-developed and I thought the South Louisiana setting, the atmosphere created around that, was excellent as well.

If you enjoy gritty Crime Fiction, with a touch of a Hillbilly Noir-type feel to it, you should definitely give this one a shot. It has a nice slow burn, that definitely pays off if you stick around until the end. And when I say slow burn, I don't mean that it feels slow. The story itself builds at a nice clip, I just feel like Bailey really invested the time in building out the story in a way that would pull the Reader in and make them care.

By the end, I needed answers as badly as Loyal did. I needed for Cutter's true story to be told. The characters felt completely realistic. I think for anyone who grew up in a small town in the U.S., you may even start to see bits and pieces of your own hometown on display here. I'm impressed with this. I think Bailey has found their stride, and it's only going to keep getting stronger. I hope they stick in this lane. This sort of atmospheric Crime Thriller really suits their writing.

Thank you to the publisher, Atria, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm looking forward to Bailey's next novel already!!!

This was an atmospheric slow burn. The humidity and southern swamp life was tangible. This book deals with deep dark issues that often plague small towns in the south. Unfortunately, I struggled to get into it since I like more dialogue and a faster pace. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey takes Southern Gothic and adds in Nazis, murder and alligators.

Loyal May is returning to her hometown of Jacknife, Louisiana. Her mother's health has been getting worse, and she knows she's the only person to do it. Jackknife is not a nice town. It has one diner, a factory, and one family everyone avoids, the Labasques.

When Loyal takes a job at the small local paper, her first assignment is a woman's body found in the bayou. The body is of Cutter Labasque, a backwoods girl from a family of alligator hunters, and Loyal's former friend. The police are insisting it was suicide, but Loyal knows that Cutter never would do that to herself. So she's ready, with her sidekick Sasha, to risk it all to find out the truth.

This book does an excellent job at capturing small towns and the rough and tumble kind of people who sometimes live on the outskirts. The Labasque family is interesting - almost like the Curtis family from The Outsiders, except not....Ponyboy or Soda. They have raised themselves and work the only job they know how to do.

There are strong themes - parents, lost friendships, sexual assault, murder, homosexuality - but it's all woven in a tapestry that's as thick as an alligator's skin.

While the start was slow, the world of Loyal and Sasha expands into a full-fledged murder mystery thriller that's a little different from any other.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to Anna Bailey, Atria Books, and NetGalley for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are troublemakers and outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want in your community. So, when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her mother. When she left town at eighteen years old, she betrayed Cutter. Now with a ragtag group from the local paper where she works, Loyal goes in search of answers, uncovering a web of deceit and corruption that implicates those in town. It may be too late to apologize to Cutter, but Loyal has restitution in mind and she lives up to her name.

I have lived in Louisiana my entire life so when I read the synopsis, I knew I had to dive in because I'm a sucker for literally any thriller or suspense novel written in Louisiana. Where I'm from, a "jacknife" describes folding pocket knife with a blade that unfolds into a sharp cutting edge and let me tell you- this story unfolds into a sharp cutting, tension fueled narrative, unafraid to tackle deep, dark topics like oppression, addiction, grief, regret, guilt, abandonment, and the complexity of relationships. There was so much depth and character development that everything and everyone seemed to have purpose and their broken pieces were like shards of glass that could cut straight through the heart. This is not a thriller that has you on the edge of your seat with shocks and typical "jump scares", rather it slowly creates an uneasy, dark atmosphere. The swamp is where you go to bury secrets that you don't want anyone to find out. The silence speak volumes and the tension is palpable. Loyal refuses to believe that Cutter committed suicide and she's determined to get to the bottom of it, but not because of justice, but rather regret. The problem with small towns, is that no matter how far you get from them or how long you've been gone, relationships are flawed and messy and the wreckage may be cleaned up out of sight, but never truly gone. I highly recommend this book. Step into the swamplands and hope that it doesn't consume you. I'll be thinking about this one for quite some time.

This was a great modern Southern Gothic mystery/murder/thriller set in the Louisiana Bayou. Anna Bailey has such exquisite description in her writing, I felt I could actually smell the cypress and see the Spanish moss swinging from their entangled branches.

Also, the plot is great. You're presented with a murder investigation, police corruption, drug trafficking, and a family saga.

The Labasque family (three grown children who have been orphaned for years) live in the Louisiana swamp lands making their living by gator hunting. When one of their bodies is found snared in the swamp reeds, the webs of deception all begin to unwind. .

I loved the colorful character of Sausha who aids in the investigation by working at his great uncle's newspaper that Sausha is trying to bring on line and into the twenty-first century.

The win for me though was the author's superb description as you can almost feel that bayou humidity and smell the brackish swamp water. Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books for this journey to Louisiana Bayou country. Look for it May 20th.

“Our Last Wild Days” doesn’t just pull you into the Louisiana swamp — it traps you there, sweat-soaked and heart-bruised, with nowhere to hide from the ghosts of grief, guilt, and things left unsaid.

This is not a thriller with chase scenes and jump scares. This is the ache behind silence, the rot beneath the surface. It’s the sting of returning home to find the walls warped, the people changed, and your own memory suddenly unreliable. Anna Bailey gives us a slow-burn Southern Gothic that sinks its teeth in gradually — like something half-submerged in swamp water, still watching.

Loyal May is back in Jacknife, Louisiana, the kind of town where secrets fester and everyone knows exactly what kind of person you are — especially if they’re wrong. She left a decade ago, trying to escape a town that never accepted her and a friendship she couldn’t forgive herself for wrecking. Now she’s back, caring for a mother unraveling at the edges, and trying to pretend the past isn’t clawing at her like a fever dream. But then Cutter Labasque, her wild, feral childhood best friend, is found dead in the bayou. The cops call it a suicide. Loyal calls bullshit.

Cutter’s family has always been the local scapegoats. The Labasques live deep in the swamps, skin gators for a living, and walk around with the kind of edge you only get from surviving things no one should have to. But with Cutter gone, her brothers are haunted and half-ruined — Dewall drowning in addiction, Beau coiled tight like a spring. Everyone in Jacknife wants the whole thing buried. Loyal wants redemption.

The murder mystery here? It’s real, and messy, and unfolds like a bruise blooming — slowly, painfully, and right under your skin. But what makes this book impossible to shake isn’t just the crime. It’s the aching, thorny humanity of it all. These characters are cracked and complicated and full of sharp edges. They’ve been burned by each other, by the town, by themselves. They still bleed love into places that can’t hold it.

Bailey writes with a lyricism that doesn’t flinch. You can feel the air thicken with humidity, the buzz of mosquitoes, the quiet menace of a town that smiles while it strangles you. There’s something uncomfortably intimate about how well she understands the psychology of small-town rot — the way it infects everything: justice, grief, memory, identity. There are no simple villains here, just people crushed under history, making impossible choices with whatever dignity they’ve got left.

Loyal is a damn masterclass in the “reluctant detective with emotional baggage” trope. She’s messy, closed-off, bone-tired, and driven not by justice but by regret — and as a journalist herself, she knows exactly how dangerous the truth can be, and just how much weight her words carry. Her partnership with Sasha — a sharp-tongued, camera-toting Gen Z reporter who rolls his eyes like it’s cardio but still shows up when it counts — gives the story some much-needed air. He’s the kind of character who could’ve been a distraction but ends up grounding the whole thing. Even their dynamic, built on dry banter and mutual exasperation, carries real weight, because in Jacknife, no relationship comes without its own quiet wreckage.

This story doesn’t rush. It prowls. It waits. And when it strikes, it does so with purpose — exposing a town unraveling under addiction, institutional rot, and a quiet, persistent violence disguised as masculinity. Bailey handles it all with precision: the lawmen who protect their own, the women left to pick up the pieces, the grief that mutates into silence. There are no neat bows here, no illusions of closure. Just hard-won truths and the understanding that some things aren’t fixed — they’re carried. That alone earns it every scrap of its 4.5 stars. This book doesn’t just stay with you; it sets up camp in your chest and lights up everything you’d rather keep in the dark.

Whodunity Award: For Digging Up the Truth with Nothing But Bare Hands and Guilt

Huge thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC — I would absolutely wade through mosquito-infested swampland for a story this haunting.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
If you like a slow burn mystery that has small town buried secrets and southern gothic vibes then pick this one up! I really enjoyed the setting of this book as it takes place in the deep south of the Louisiana bayou with a suspicious death which leads to an investigation that brings to light secrets and a tale of corruption and betrayal. I love Bailey’s writing as she knows how to suck the reader in with her atmospheric writing, painting a vivid image for the reader of the Deep South Louisiana bayou. Bailey’s writing throughout this book was vividly haunting and creepy, as she weaves a slow-burn suspenseful tale that sucks you from the get-go. I really loved the depth of the characters, the plot, the southern gothic vibes, the slow-burn mystery, and the long buried secrets that are slowly brought to the surface in this suspenseful thriller that is sure to be a hit.

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗘𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆:
✦Slow-burn mysteries with secrets, murder, corruption, and betrayal
✦Southern gothic vibes
✦Atmospheric writing, vivid imagery, and a hauntingly creepy & suspenseful tale.
✦Fun, multi-layered characters that are easy to connect with
✦An amazing conclusion that leaves the reader feeling satisfied

𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4/5

4.75 ⭐️ rounded up!
Our Last Wild Days was a beautifully atmospheric novel that completely consumed my mind the entire week I was reading it. Anna Bailey’s writing style was so immersive, and I truly felt transported to the rural, swampy, Louisiana town that the story takes place in. This book completely captures that dark, haunting, Southern gothic vibe and it was a complete delight to read about.

This isn’t just your run-of-the-mill thriller, but also a character study that is constantly challenging your opinions and changing where your loyalties lie with certain characters in an effort to make you understand them.

Our Last Wild Days follows the Labasque family, brothers Dewall and Beau, and their sister Cutter. Loyal May, estranged childhood friend of Cutter, has just moved back to town and is working at the local newspaper when Cutter Labasque is found dead. Fueled by guilt of her past actions and a desire to learn the truth of what happened to Cutter, Loyal along with coworker Sasha set off on an investigation into the truth.

Bailey’s writing shines and this book was such a gem. I highly recommend picking this book up this summer, you won’t regret it!

A huge thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Five stars to this atmospheric story filled with lyrical writing. I couldn't put it down. The setting of the Louisiana bayou draws you in as the characters POVs give insight into life in this small town as they deal with a murdered girl washed ashore.
Loyal has just moved back to care for her mother investigates the death of her childhood friend as she deals with guilt and grief. Lots of small town secrets play in to this mystery.. Keeps you guessing until the end.

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬
𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐁𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐲
𝐀𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬
𝐀𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟎, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓
𝟓⭐️

𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬 by author @annabaileywrites is literally my favorite book so far this year. I absolutely LOVED everything about this book- I fell in love with so many of the characters, the Louisiana swamp lands setting was done so well, and the storylines were executed perfectly. If your looking for the perfect summer book to start off your summer reading this southern gothic, extremly atmospheric, lyrical read is for you.

@annabaileywrites wrote this story so BEAUTIFULLY. The story is set in Jacknife Louisiana, where it’s sweltering hot, mosquitos everywhere, and our main characters live in a shack- sounds gross right? But @annabaileywrites literally made these living conditions almost beautiful and she meticulously described the area so well I felt like I’ve lived there for hundreds of years.

Our main characters known as The Labasques were very well developed and literally so imperfect that they were perfect. They were all complex, broken, and sad, yet all so strong. I finished this book over a month ago and these characters are still living rent free in my head.

The plot is focused on a murder mystery yet there are so many other storylines intertwined. Each chapter leaves you wanting and needing more, leaving you with more questions on each storyline.

I truly have never read such an atmospheric book. The beginning is somewhat slow but it kept my interest and after a few chapters in the story takes off. This is far from a popcorn thriller, it has a strong plot that focuses on dark impulses and realistic situations.

Easy 5 star read, and probably will be my number one book of 2025⭐️! This book is out MAY 20th! I can not wait to get a physical copy for my shelves😍!



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