The Last by Hanna Jameson is narrated by Jon, a variably likeable character who seems weirdly dispassionate in the face of such horrors. As his story unfolds we learn that it’s just his way of coping, but it does jar. I finished the book massively frustrated by the conclusion - the little girl’s murder was neatly tied up with the introduction of a new character, and we still didn’t know why the world was under a nuclear attack, or who had perpetrated it. An easy book to get lost in, The Last was thought provoking but superficial at times, but potentially realistic in terms of the hotel’s guests’ fears not being realised, and peripheral stories not being developed. A book that I would recommend, but with some reservations.

I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. When reading you can't help but make comparisons to other stories and this one to me, felt like a Station Eleven/Lord of the Flies hybrid, which is no bad thing.

This story follows an unreliable and, at some points, unlikable narrator describing the events following a nuclear apocalypse. Survivors are holed up in a grand hotel and all i swell, until someone is murdered.

This book was tense and enthralling however i felt slightly let down by the ending.
All in all a good addition to the genre.

Dystopian present/future? Check.
Modern take on the 'country house murder mystery' genre? Check.
Conflicted narrator? Check.

The Last by Hanna Jameson is a fast-moving, yet thought-provoking, exploration of what happens when a set of strangers thrown together by chance have to cope with a catastrophic world event. Far from family and friends, with no access to the internet or any form of news, limited supplies, and the constant threat of looters and raiders, the guests at L'Hotel Sixieme support each other, turn on each other, prey on each other but ultimately come to rely on each other in their new post-nuclear world.

The restricted setting of the hotel and grounds for the majority of the novel creates a suffocating, sometimes threatening environment, and cranks up the tension as Jon Keller, the main protagonist, insists on investigating the murder of the dead child found on the premises in the days after the nuclear bombs hit the US and Europe. Any more detail will entail spoilers so I won't say any more except that I really enjoyed this novel and would definitely recommend.

Jon is away from his family and friends at a convention in Switzerland. When nuclear bombs start going off around the world, he seems to be in a tiny safe haven. A hotel out of the blast zones, with enough resources for the remaining residents to survive for months at least. There's just one small snag. Soon after the explosions, he finds a body in a water tank. The body of a young girl. Investigations suggest that she died right around the time of the explosions... but in the panic, who would kill a girl? And why?

There's lots to love about The Last. The narrative style is great, with the fast paced diary entries giving you a real insight into Jon's personality. It allows secrets to be kept from the reader, so that the puzzle pieces of Jon's life are revealed slowly rather than all at once. The relationships between Jon and the other residents of the hotel were also amazing. Scenes where he and some of his new friends relaxed, both in one of their rooms and on the roof, were beautiful and really added some happiness to a book that so easily could have been overly grim. Characters like Tomi and Dylan were fascinating too, as there was always the sense that there was something lurking beneath the surface.

The ethical questions that characters raised were also fascinating. How would you react at the end of the world if someone did something terrible? What is the appropriate punishment when the people are judge and jury? I also really enjoyed the descriptions of the reality of life post-apocalypse. There were adventures relating to food (and horrible suggestions about what some people nearby might be eating...), realistic depictions of medical care, and depictions of panic that felt real.
There are so many different ways that people could react to the end of life as we know it. Jameson's characters show us that there is no one right way to react to disaster and that ultimately, in the face of horrors beyond our imagination, the only way to survive is together.

While I loved the characters and hearing about Jon's journey, some aspects of the book were a little disappointing. It felt like questions that felt so important at the beginning of the book were either left unanswered or hurriedly tied up towards the end. The mystery of the little girl, which had seemed so central at the beginning, is solved relatively quickly. Being honest, I'm not sure how much it added to the book at all in the end. Jon's personal journey was intriguing enough on its own, without murder. References to paranormal activity are very interesting, but could have perhaps been taken a little further. At one stage a character hypothesises that they are all already dead and this could potentially be the afterlife, a place like purgatory perhaps. I found that idea fascinating and would have perhaps liked further exploration of that idea. Questions are raised about the lifestyle of those in a town Jon finds, but these are never really answered. I'm also not really sure how I feel about the slight heavy-handedness regarding who was responsible for the nuclear disaster, as the discussion on what seemed to be our own political world took me out of the story a little bit.

The Last has a great premise and characters, but for me aspects of the plot sadly detracted from its true potential.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Books, Viking and Hanna Jameson for the opportunity to read The Last!
3.5/5

What is it about :

There’s a convention in a hotel, when they hear a nuclear bomb has hit Washington....it’s the end of the world. The inhabitants of the hotel then drink, get high and find the body of a young girl in a water tank. Murdered. An investigation is done to try to identify a killer...all while conserving electric and documenting day to day events.

What did I like :

I liked the idea of the story, but felt it was just lost.


What I didn’t like so much:

I didn’t believe the finding of a body after so much probable devastation as the result of bombs would have been important at all. There’s a lot of sitting about drinking or getting high and I really didn’t get the feel of the characters. While I’m sure it’s an ok read, it’s just not for me.

Would I recommend:

No, as I didn’t enjoy it.




I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review

This was an interesting one for me, because I think that The Last is really well written and Jameson does a great job in describing the claustrophobia of the situation, and showing the characters in both positive and negative lights. The idea of a murder mystery to be solved whilst the end of the world is happening is an interesting premise, but the book lacked focus on this main storyline, resulting in me not really caring about what had in fact happened. As a result, the ending and the shock 'reveal' at the end of the book fell flat for me. It didn't make much sense to me and was quite jarring to read. I think the book could benefit from some more focus, on what the main driving narrative of the story was. Overall, I enjoyed the writing but I probably wouldn't recommend it due to the ending.

This is an incredibly satisfying read, especially for those interested in conspiracies and true crime. Elements of The Shining, the history of the Cecil Hotel and current events, a domestic thriller. This novel fulfilled every want and need and was very well executed. Looking forward to more of Hanna Jameson's work.

Solid take on the air of the world novel with a murder thriller angle. Personally think that "The Last Policemen" did this better as it had more interesting world building.

However this is promising stuff, a great beach read.

A good, but not fantastic, entry into the post-apocalyptic genre. I liked the characters, at least the ones that didn't meld into a faceless blob of 'others', but nothing much seemed to happen. They stayed at the hotel for a while, there were fights, they met some other people, they met some other other people, then it ended. It wasn't bad at all; the POV character is a history professor and his musings and asides are really interesting. However, the ending doesn't answer most of the questions, and even though I saw it coming I still didn't like it much.

Worth reading, but not amazingly fantastic.

After a nuclear exchange that takes out major cities and kills the internet, twenty survivors find themselves living in an isolated Swiss hotel. They're surviving day by day until the body of a young girl is discovered. Did she die before or after Day One? Is someone among them a killer? And if so, how far will they go to protect themselves, here at the end of the world?

I like post-apocalyptic stories. I enjoyed this one; it's a good addition to the canon. But I wasn't gripped with anxiety to find out what would happen next, I wasn't desperate to get back to it when I put it down, and the actual resolution was kind of 'eeehhhhhh'....for me. Some of the characters blurred together, and the long periods where characters were getting drunk or stoned grated on me a bit. That's just me, though.

A good read, but not a great one sadly.

The author is brilliantly self aware with what she is writing - just as I was thinking that The Last was like The Shining, guess what was mentioned? The Shining. There is also nods to The Handmaid's Tale. The book is good as the characters are flawed and they are human. The murder is not the main story and actually it's just a hook for investigating other people and discovering who is around you. This is a scary book as it looks at what would happen if nuclear bombs were dropped. It was brilliant all the way until the end when I'm not 100% sure if I like it or not. I want more people to read it so I can discuss it. I can see a lot of people talking about this in 2019.

I came into this book expecting a murder mystery, which just happened to be set at the end of the world. What I got was a "Lord of the Flies"-esque tale on the bleakness of surviving during impossible circumstances: almost a pity as if I'd realised this going in, I'd have been even more eager to read it. Jon isn't the most likable character but he's easy to relate to and his self-reflections on how the end of the world had changed him added a lot to the story. Some great side characters too: I didn't like Tomi much, but her and Arran resulted in some of my favourite moments in the story. The author doesn't spare any detail in showing us just how the world shifted as a result of the nuclear attacks: major plot points all include angry debates over who was responsible; depression and grief amongst the survivors; the task of collecting food and governing their new put-together community. There are a few scenes in particular which continue to haunt me. If anything, the murder mystery seemed like a distraction from the main story and the resolution of who killed the girl wasn't crucial to my enjoyment of the story. As a result, the ending fell a bit flat for me.

There is nothing better than the feeling of reading the first 20 pages of a book and immediately sinking into another world, feeling like you’re there, watching the story unfold. That is exactly what happened to me when I started reading The Last.

I’ve read many dystopian, apocalyptic, and post-apocalyptic novels but The Last is the first one that seemed so very real and induced a sense of anxiety in me.

The Last follows the diaries – sorry, records! – of Jon, who is holed up in a hotel following the outbreak of nuclear war. Jon’s records give us an insight into the varied psychologies of the people around him as he tries to work out who he can trust and who is a threat in their new post-apocalyptic community. We also gradually get to know Jon, and I particularly enjoyed the rollercoaster of emotions (empathy, anger, frustration) I felt towards him.

The plot is multifaceted and complex but in a way that you might not recognise it until you’ve finished the whole book. I was left with questions about the role of faith, religion, spirituality, politics, and most intensely, the role of women and men in society and what would come of those roles in a post-apocalyptic world.

I am always nervous about the conclusion of post-apocalyptic novels but in this instance the author nailed it – in fact, it caused me to go “OH!” in the middle of a coffee shop, which prompted a few strange looks but it was totally worth it.

Dark, compelling, and disturbing - this book, and the emotions it evoked in me, will stay with me for a very long time.

Thanks to Viking/Penguin Books (UK) and NetGalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.