The images are hard to forget, a scenario too close to home.

Powerful and relevant post-pandemic narrative. I just LOVED the fact that the last person alive after a deadly pandemic rages is a regular, flawed, incapable, scared woman.

And one that makes the reader laugh regularly. She's so relatable. Nobody alive can fail to see the comparison between Anonymous Narrator and the current world we are living in. Few will see humour in our situation. But here there is humour. Pathos. Fear. Tension.

6DM (Six Days Maximum is the length of time you have to live after catching this) has speedily moved through the population, and we get to see the just-out-of-sight view of our own COVID-like plot spun out if things had gone slightly differently.

Seeing the impact of a global virus might not be everyone's cup of tea at the moment, but I didn't have trouble dissociating from life to immerse myself in a different story. Seeing someone else's vision of how governments and societies cope in the last days, what the world will then look like. The problems a person would face in sourcing food, finding somewhere safe, the new threats he or she would face. Some that hadn't occurred to me.

Our narrator is very much an EveryWoman, one who shares quite intimate details with us and doesn't care. I did enjoy the slow reveal of her own history, her own romances and work life and personal mental health challenges. All led to the still-pretty-incapable woman being left the sole heir to the throne of humankind with little chance of succeeding.

This combined several aspects very successfully - the backstory that gives us a flawed heroine ill-equipped to imitate Bear Grylls, the (post) pandemic survival story, the woman, the sidekick, the predators, the challenges.

I really enjoyed the narrator talking to us through diary-like entries, she's open with us. She makes terrible decisions but you don't lose sympathy for her. I also loved the author's inventiveness and how well things had been considered - the new 'top of the food chain', the things that go wrong, the way life slowly shuts down and changes as humans disappear. All too real.

Very readable, despite the subject matter. Humourous, smart and hard to forget.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

I thought this book was such an ambitious and incredible narrative. I couldn't put it down and I'm still thinking about it days later. Please let there be a sequel!

TW: If COVID-19 is really affecting you emotionally right now, this is probably not the best time to read this book.

I was immediately drawn to this book from the blurb. One woman left alive from a virus even worse than COVID and her quest for survival. At times, when we get flashbacks of her life "before" you think how can she be such an ill-equiped adult. How can you get this far in life without certain basic skills. What I loved about this woman as our main character was that we weren't being given an unrealistic ludicrous piece of fiction where it was a Bear Grylls-style survivor who just knew absolutely everything about survival and made this look easy peasy. Our unnamed lead woman was so normal you can't help but see yourself in her. But she tapped into pieces of her memory and human instincts. She never made it sound easy, we got to read her trials and errors. But she was so normal in her capabilities and instincts, that maybe you'll give yourself a bit more pause when joking about how long you'd last in a zombie apocalypse. We normals (non-survivalists), might know a bit more about grassroots life than we realise.

A surprisingly enjoyable read about the end of the world. It takes a sobering look at what could happen with a pandemic that is truly untreatable - hopefully the world will be better prepared for any future pandemics after covid-19. What I like about this central character is that she is not heroic. Although you find yourself willing her to act more bravely when she finds herself all alone after humankind is wiped out, the suspicion is that we wouldn’t so differently ourselves. An intriguing ending, which leaves me curious to read the inevitable sequel.

Enjoyed this one. I felt like there was something missing though, something I needed to love it. Well thought out plot and easy to read.

I really can't quite decide what to think with this book. Firstly, reading it while going through the Covid-19 pandemic probably wasn't the wisest of moves for me. The character we follow is, at times, quite unlikeable. It is unusual, I find, not to like the protagonist. I felt that once she got her act together in March that the story both progressed quicker but better. Lucky is a lovely metaphor for true, unconditional love. It's written as diary extracts and then later we also hear dictaphone recordings which is really interesting and leads to a really good flow over a sustained period of time.
The ending really surprised me, I didn't think it would be possible to adequately wrap it up but I really didn't expect that.
It was well written, interesting and left you wanting more.

Absolutely loved this!!!!
I was hooked from the first page and couldn’t put it down. I love how it’s written in diary form.
I was desperate for her to find someone and live happily ever after or at least be saved and taken somewhere or something. I needed more at the end! I honestly didn’t want it to end!
Let’s just talk about Lucky & Simon. I had all the feels when Lucky got hurt & I sobbed! As for Simon I absolutely loved him! I needed more of him & his sass. Hilarious!
This was deep yet witty, definitely the perfect read. I was a little sceptical about reading during a pandemic but I’m so glad I did!

I started reading this after dinner one evening, so reasonably late in the day, and then carried on reading until I went to bed. I really should have left an hour of non-reading time before attempting to sleep, because every time I closed my eyes I could see corpses and people dying horrible deaths. Which is strange, because books with this kind of content don’t usually bother me. I think it was the humour that made it seem more normal, more believable. And I can’t deny that reading it whilst we’re actually living through a pandemic might have added that extra bit of “Oh my god - could this actually happen??!!”
I liked that there weren’t zombies or something reminiscent of Mad Max - I think I’ve seen loads of those kinds of books before, and whilst I’ve been known to enjoy them as well, it was nice to have something a bit different. This is a breath of fresh air. Or at least as fresh as it can be with the imagined stink of millions of decaying Britons on the streets and in their homes (I’m not even exaggerating) 🤢
I liked that the main character didn’t have the answer to everything - or in fact, to anything - but she muddles along, making mistakes and learning from them.
This book isn’t wildly exciting, in that the zombie hordes are absent, and no one is being strapped to the front of a 4X4, and I loved that about it. The main character is a ‘normal’ woman, trying her best to stay alive at the end of the world. She’s a great character, she seems so approachable, and even though she probably wouldn’t agree, someone I’d be happy to spend time with. Even though I’d probably be a rotting corpse. Nice.
I’d really recommend this book, it’s definitely not your run-of-the-mill apocalypse story!!

The opening lines tell us exactly what we can expect from our protagonist. She is blunt, direct, and appealingly honest. Her diary isn’t written for an audience, so, despite her profession as a writer, it is not edited – instead, it is the heart and soul of a woman in despair. So ordinary, so recognisable, a lady to whom many could relate.

Considered purely as a work of dystopian fiction, Disturbing, evocative, upsetting – yes, in part, but equally light-hearted and likely to prompt a chuckle.

But, her initial response to the crisis is exactly why we take comfort. She is real.

With thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton

Sadly I couldn't get into this book and it was a DNF book. I just couldn't get away with the main character, I found her annoying.

It has taken me a long time to write this review because I'm finding it so difficult to put into words how incredible this book is. I read a lot of post-apoc books and honestly, this is one of the best I've ever read. In theory, this book shouldn't have been my thing. I tend to like stories that build up and lead to a big action event and this book is far from that. Instead what it is is a very chilling yet heart warming, horrible yet beautiful, hopeless yet hopeful story of one woman's life after she realised she was the sole survivor of a global pandemic.
Now, this woman is probably me and she is probably you. She is just your normal average woman with no military/survival/prepper experience. I mean, who wouldn't decide to go looting in Harrods if there was no one around to stop you?! Ha ha ha ha...... She is so relatable and also quite bloody frustrating at times. I got annoyed with her and laughed with her and sobbed with her. The whole book was a crazy rollercoaster ride of emotions and I really do think that is so representative of what most of us would go through if we were in this situation, and I think that is what made this book so brilliant. However...... that ending makes me think the author, Bethany, has a slight sadistic side (if you've read it you'll know what I mean ha ha..)
Without a doubt this book has earned it's place on my all time favourites list and I've already been gushing and recommending it to anyone that will listen. There's a reason the book ended up on the Amazon bestsellers list in several sub-genres!!!
I will say that if you are someone who has been anxious with the current Covid-19 situation then this may not be the book for you right now. I haven't felt like that in the slightest but even I did start to feel creeped out and anxious at the start of the book when the current pandemic is discussed and how the world ended up in an even worse situation a few years later when this book is set.

A thrilling read especially in the midst of a pandemic. Throughout my own lockdown experience, I found myself evolving into the person I always wanted to be, so I found following the transformation of the female protagonist as a cathartic release. It was equal parts funny and uncomfortable as many moments hit a little to close for comfort give the COVID-19 pandemic. All in all an enjoyable read if you have the courage to face a pandemic story.

A new virus, 6DM (so called because in 6 days maximum, you die), sweeps the world. As it tears through the UK, one woman is immune and we follow her on her quest for survival.

5⭐- I loved, loved, loved this book, it's so good! Although graphic in places, it's also interesting and funny! All other pandemic related stories tend to focus on the underlying conspiracies, or show the story from a virologist/WHO point of view. I've always craved the tale from a regular person's vantage point, and this is it! One of the first things the narrator does is go to a posh hotel and takes over a suite, along with picking up expensive handbags in Harrods, which I can completely imagine myself doing too😅 She saves a golden retriever dubbed Lucky and sets off to see if anyone else has survived. I want this made into a movie please 🙏

Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for this ARC
Last One at the Party is a dystopian story about a woman surviving a global pandemic, not entirely sure why I chose to read this during an actual pandemic but never mind.

This was a bit of a surprising read; I was a bit unsure due to the cover but you know what they say about that.

In terms of writing, I thought this was done quite well, considering this was written before COVID -19 she’s pretty much nailed the situation such as lockdowns. Dark humour, terrifying and a nice amount of tenderness. Only gripe is the ending, however I didn’t walk away thinking I wish I never read this book.

An interesting read during a lockdown in a real pandemic.

The story is based around a pandemic in 2023, with a virus so bad that the government has resorted to handing out pills so people can kill themselves rather than go through pain and suffering before dying a horrible death.

The virus transmits easily, it's fast and it's fatal. There's one main character in the book who narrates the story - no-one else is alive, or no one that she can find.

This book is engagingly read considering the subject matter, amusing and thought-provoking in equal measures. It did give me a bad dream the first night I was reading it, so it must have got under my skin!

In the end you find out how many (or if any, I'm not saying!) people survived.It

You could poke lots of holes in the plot I'm sure, but if you just accept it as a work of fiction, and how one person reacted to the pandemic, it works well as a story.

So in the grip of a devastating global pandemic, what better thing to read than a book set in the wake of a devastating global pandemic, but I’m jolly glad I did. A very loose tagline for Last One At The Party would be “Bridget Jones goes Bear Grylls”, and despite the very pink chic-fic cover, there is a lovely balance of the frivolous and the serious in this book. Our female narrator finds herself in the unenviable position of being what appears to be the last human on earth, and once getting a serious spell of therapeutic looting and louche behaviour under the influence of drugs and drink out of her system, she begins to really look inside herself as to how she can live and how to overcome her feelings of despair and loss and simply survive. I thoroughly enjoyed- as much as I loathe this word- her ‘journey’- from a fairly shallow and irritating individual to an emboldened and resourceful woman, which is so much in evidence towards the end of the book and its surprising turn of events. I loved Clift’s depiction of this post pandemic world, particularly in her descriptions of London’s eerily empty buildings and streets, and I thought that this sense of solitude and the unnerving peacefulness that she conjures up was incredibly vivid and powerful. However, it is in the narrator that the real power of the book lies, and I liked her very much indeed, rooting for her to survive and hoping that her emotional despair and loss could not prevail… Recommended.

DNF @ 20%.

Okay, so I cannot get behind all the amazing reviews that this book is receiving. For me, nope, I didn't like it and unfortunately I had to give up on it. I know that all our reading preferences are different and so I have no problem sharing my views here, because although I may not have enjoyed this book, it's clear that loads of other people did.

So, what did I dislike you may ask? I had fundamental issues with how the main character was dealing with being the last person alive in the world. Instead of being absolutely terrified, moving from home to home, banging on doors, crying, shouting and trying to find anyone else alive, vomiting from absolute panic and desperation...no, instead this main character went on a hunt for a fancy hotel with front doors that were unlocked, found the penthouse suite, chilled out there, then went and found the most expensive champagne in the place and drank two bottles, almost like she was the most carefree, stress-free individual on earth. Shortly thereafter, she goes to her best friends house (who happened to partake in recreational drugs), found him dead in bed, found his cocaine stash, had a party on her own dancing around the lounge while drinking and snorting coke, and then had a lovely relax in his hot-tub while pondering life. And let's just remember that she's just lost everyone important to her...husband, parents, best friends. You lose all that, and instead of being devastated beyond belief and wanting to end it all by throwing yourself off the nearest roof, you go partying, drinking and drugging? Um, no, that just in no way works for me whatsoever. I found myself rolling my eyes, and thinking how absolutely ludicrous the story line was, and so I gave up.

If perhaps you can in any way relate to the main character and her actions, then give this read a try because it may be the entertaining read that you're looking for. I on the other hand couldn't get behind this one. I think I need to move back to the thrillers and crime novels that I normally love so much. I decided to try something different with this book, but it didn't work for me. I'll take full responsibility for that.

Last One at the Party is a curious novel to review. A dystopian story about a woman surviving a global pandemic, with a cover that gives off a definite vibe that our narrator will be a twenty-something neurotic. It does both, and while there are elements to this that didn’t always gel with me, on the whole I enjoyed this read.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in advance of publication and to anyone unsure about whether or not to read it, try it. I think you’ll be surprised.
My first surprise came with the author’s letter at the start. It establishes that this was written before COVID-19 first made its presence felt, but the focus of this world and some of the edits strongly suggest it’s been altered a little to reflect our current situation. There are a lot of references to lockdown and the situation we currently face. Not happy reading, but the shift to a few years down the line hints at some terrifying probabilities.
This time round the virus begins in America. Lessons have been learned but 6DM as it’s known (because 6 days is the maximum time for anyone to live with this virus) is brutal. Within a very short time the majority of the world has died. Pills to end your life easily are left on counters for people to help themselves to. Everything you are accustomed to having in your life has gone.
Our narrator is not the most likeable of characters initially. She is a married woman living a half-life. Unfulfilled in her career and suffering with depression and anxiety attacks, she cannot have been an easy person to live with. When we’re introduced to her she has sworn at the undertaker who refuses to bury her husband and is struggling to cope.
From the outset we know she has failings. There may be elements we recognise, but her failure to recognise the reality of her situation is hard to comprehend. Rather than think practically, she spends a few nights in a luxury hotel, shoplifts expensive bags from Harrods and spends weeks drugging herself and shambling round London while admiring sites previously invaded by tourists. She doesn’t shy away from telling us about the horrors she sees, but it’s all rather detached.
Eventually she decides action is required. For me, this was where the story began...where she has reached the worst point and decides she wants to live.
While there are moments of black humour, there’s plenty to scare and also moments of tenderness. I found myself raving through this and thoroughly enjoying it for the most part. The ending confused me and it wasn’t wholly clear how the author had come to be linked to this story...and the ambiguity of the ending also frustrated me in a way I wasn’t expecting after so much time had been spent making us see just what this woman endured.

I received a copy of this from the publisher Hodder and Staughton, and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I wasn’t too sure about picking this one up, I mean a story about a global pandemic where everyone is dying? Right now? But you know, I’m glad I did. Living in todays times with the Covid-19 pandemic going on, it might seem strange to read a book about a similar thing, but it was very different. Bethany explains at the start of the book why she wrote this story, and how she wrote it years before Covid was here. She was doing her second edits of the book when Covid started to appear, so she went back in the edits and put things in about Covid and how 6DM was so different to Covid-19.

The book is told from one point of view, and that is ‘her’. I say her as you never find out her name. This added something different to the story, maybe it’s what helped it be ok for me to read right now. The book is about what it says on the cover, she is the last one at the party. Everyone is dying from 6DM, and they are dying quick, 7 days roughly if I recollect correctly. We follow her as she travels and tries to find life, and she takes us back to certain points in her life before.

She moves around and lives in fancy hotels, visits some big houses and does plenty of ‘shopping’. I mean wouldn’t you want to sit in a little apartment when you had the run of the country would you! She literally has herself a party, until she realises she needs to go looking for people.

There are some pretty sad moments, which is to be expected in a story like this. But there were also some uplifting moments. But birds... man are they freaky!!!

I know you may feel like I did about picking this book up right now, but it was nothing like it expected. The story was good, it made me cry, it made me laugh, it made me sad and it made me happy. Read it, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Stay safe folks

I was completely blown away by this book. I went into it thinking it was going to be a classic end of the world disaster story but it was so much more than that. Books about pandemics are always weird now but the authors note at the beginning explains how she had to add references to COVID in, as the book is set a few years later, and she does this very well. But this is a book about surviving before a pandemic, through that difficult period in your late twenties and early thirties when you’re struggling to find yourself. Hopefully it doesn’t take another global pandemic to help most people.

(Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review)