Review of Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift

Written in the form of a retrospective, this novel follows a survivor in a post-pandemic world. A killer virus — named 6DM because having caught it you have 6 days maximum until you die — has swept the world, and the narrator believes they are the only person left alive. In the midst of the 2020 Covid-19 crisis, I found this premise intriguing and the story didn't disappoint my curiosity.

Struggling to accept her plight, the narrator's already frail emotional state is battered time and again by the challenges she faces in her endeavors to eek out a living in a decaying environment devoid of any other living person. If she was unhappy with her life pre-pandemic, her troubles post-pandemic multiply beyond imagination, and many threads of lingering regret haunt her — she'll now never be able to make amends for the opportunities she previously squandered, nor rectify the consequences of her poor life choices. Apparently spiraling towards inevitable suicide, a chance encounter, and later an unexpected revelation, change everything.

The epistolary narrative, in the form of diary entries and, ultimately, dictaphone recordings didn't really work for me. I also found the numerous flashbacks increasingly annoying as I found it difficult to relate to the foundations of her characterization. This, along with the narrator remaining nameless, didn't engender empathy. However, the denouement worked delightfully, being a surprise twist which caught this reader unprepared.

#BookReview #AlexRosel #LastOneattheParty

I found it difficult to read a pandemic book in the midst of a pandemic, and I wish the author had not made light of COVID as there will likely be many readers who are suffering dreadfully right now who will find that deeply insensitive.  Given that the idea for the book came months before COVID, it would have been more appropriate to concentrate solely on the 6DM plot without comparisons with the dire and worsening situation we find ourselves in.

I found the narrative fairly repetitive and the protagonist difficult to like or relate to back in the pre-pandemic world, and I wasn't convinced by the many and varied ways she went about her life as the supposed last person on earth.  

The ending was abrupt and unsatisfying.  We're told that a number of people were 'rescued'.  From where, by whom and under what circumstances was not revealed and would have added an interesting dimension to a pretty one-dimensional book.

I loved this book it was so much fun which I didn't expect.  
It was great that she brought in covid - 19 and Brexit into the storyline.  The preface at the beginning drew me in which was unusual. 

It really wasn't depressing at all.   I am not usually into something like this book, love full blown dystopian and psychological thrillers but this was really wonderful.  I laughed out load at certain sections. 

I can see a second book in the making as really want to know what happens  - can't say anymore due to spoilers.  The writing was brilliant - really want to read more of this author.  She should be so proud of her achievements. 

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.

I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as the publisher do it as they do it better than I do.

I wasn't sure that reading a book about a killer virus during a global pandemic was my best idea of 2020 but I"m so glad that I requested this. 
From the first page, I was hooked. 

There is a virus with the nickname of 6DM as it takes 6 days maximum for you to succumb to it.  It appears to have started in small town America and before long it has managed to get its clutches everywhere.  The UK had managed to keep it at bay for a while but of course, it soon reaches these shores.   Everyone does what they can but with no hope of a cure, a suicide pill is readily available for all. 

What would you do?  Would you give up thinking that anything less is just delaying the inevitable or do you fight?    
Our protagonist has watched her husband die and now for the first time ever, she is really on her own. 
We get flashbacks from before the virus and see the kind of woman that she was and the hardships that she has had to face - some of them are of her own doing - but not all and we travel with her as she makes a plan to try to find other survivors. 
This is a very fast paced book.  It pulls no punches and some of the descriptions are graphic - but then, so is life. 
I loved the main character.  I doubt that we would have ever been friends, but I was rooting for her from the start.

I loved this! The author was inspired, she tells us, in 2018, well before Covid19. She weaves in the current situation seamlessly as we join the lead character in another global pandemic. One from which there is no cure, death in 6 days maximum. Our lead watches her husband and the world die while she remains immune to the virus. The story of her adjustment and survival to the new world is brilliantly written. It's both hard to read and hard to put down, worryingly near the knuckle at times, joyous, sad, funny and tense throughout.  Brilliant!

‘Last one at the party’ review
So this may be one of my fav books this year. 
It’s not for everyone; it’s a book about a virus that supposedly wipes out the world except from the main character and even mentions the 2020 pandemic, which was mentioned with humour. I know a lot of people don’t like reading about virus’ as it’s so real right now, but I like to watch and read about viruses as it helps me deal with what we’re currently going through because they’re always described as way worse in fiction. It shows how strong we can be when we least expect it and how we take how we’re living now (electricity, heat, takeaways etc) for granted and does it in a way which is entertaining. There are also points where we see her ‘past life’ and all the people who are important to her and this shapes her character development beautifully. 
I was accepted to read this early copy by @netgalley @beth_writes_stuff and I will be buying myself a copy when it comes out (Feb 4th)

I know some people cannot read these stories of killer viruses wiping out the population at the current time, as Covid-19 sweeps across the world.  However, this book does not focus on the virus and its cause and spread, but rather on what happens next.  The virus is called 6DM - standing for 'six days maximum' - the time you have once you contract it before you die.  

One woman survives - we don't know her name.  Living in London, this is her story of her struggle to come to terms with her new existence, to find survivors if she can, and make something of her life.  However, neatly woven into the story is her past - her failing marriage, her infidelity, her friendships, her breakdowns, her dreams.  

It is funny, horrific and verym very sad as we all identify with her as a human being.  

Well written, entertaining and a jolly good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Date reviewed/posted: November 7, 2020

When life for the entire universe and planet turns on its end and like everyone else you "have nothing to do" while your place of work is once again closed and you are continuing to be in #COVID19 #socialisolation as the #secondwave is upon us,  superspeed readers like me can read 300+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today.

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸.

THE END OF EVERYTHING WAS HER BEGINNING

It's December 2023 and the world as we know it has ended.

The human race has been wiped out by a virus called 6DM ('Six Days Maximum' - the longest you've got before your body destroys itself).

But somehow, in London, one woman is still alive. A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants, hiding how she feels and desperately trying to fit in. A woman who is entirely unprepared to face a future on her own.

Now, with only an abandoned golden retriever for company, she must travel through burning cities, avoiding rotting corpses and ravenous rats on a final journey to discover if she really is the last surviving person on earth.

And with no one else to live for, who will she become now that she's completely alone?

This book is kinda spooky, kinda heart-warming and kinda wonderful. It is well crafted and completely plausible - i.e. not too sci-fi-out-there and when you add in an adorable dog, it is utterly heartwarming. It is not your average read but it nonetheless a book that I will recommend to readers and friends alike.

As always, I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I simply adore emojis (outside of their incessant use by "🙏-ed Social Influencer Millennials/#BachelorNation survivors/Tik-Tok and YouTube  Millionaires/snowflakes etc. " on Instagram and Twitter... Get a real job, people!) so let's give it 🐕🐕🐕🐕

Devastating,  hilarious and a spectacular journey of self discovery. A story of finding  love and strength when you discover you are all alone in the world. 

"‘Fuck You!’ Those are the very last words that I spoke to another living person. If I had known that they would be my last, I would have chosen them a bit more carefully. Something erudite, with a bit more drama."

And so begins our journey and what an exhilarating rollercoaster of a ride that is

I genuinely thought this book would increase my anxiety about the current pandemic but it engrossed my thoughts abd locked out the world. It is riveting and the character is just like you or me. She's no survivalist and it makes you wonder what on earth you'd do.

At times I sobbed for humanity, for all the pain, the sadness and for her plight.  But then I'd laugh at some of her actions thinking whoa that's so true and you had the bravery to voice it! I bet you think so too. 

The author has thought of the real horrors of a pandemic and its not the done to death zombies that we have seen so many times before. Some of the hurdles here are petrifying yet I believed fully in their possibility and each one had me terrified. I'd never wish to face them, not even with an army,  nevertheless each test she faces helps her grow.

But we also, through flashbacks see who she was before the pandemic and these sections really resonated with me. How many of us mould ourselves to fit, to match, to look right. Do we ever really know who we are or have we spent so long trying to be what's expected of us. Do our chanel handbags matter if there is no-one there to see them? 

The writing in this book is incredible, it's gritty and oh so real. The pace had my pulse racing and until I read how it finished, I was unable to move from the sofa. Even then, I was sad it had ended. 

This story is a blockbuster of a  novel, wrought with emotions and action and although it is deeply sad at times  it is also a tale of beauty and of how love is always there. 

Highly Recommended

This is the second eARC of a pandemic dystopia I have read during some kind of lockdown which does feel a little too close to comfort in many, many ways. But like The End of Men, the pandemic in this book has consequences far exceeding even those of Covid-19. Unlike the End of Men, the current situation is referenced in the book, I suspect at copy editing stage as the author writes in her introduction that when the book was conceived, written and accepted, the events of 2020 were yet to unfold. 

The pandemic, 6DM, has cut through humanity remorselessly. No one knows how infection is spread, but they do know that every infected person dies within six days, often painfully. And everyone gets infected. The UK government closes the borders and holds it off for a few weeks, but once it finds its ways onto these shores it takes no time to spread. In the end all humanity can do is concede, suicide pills freely available to everyone so the population has a chance to die without doing so in days of agonising pain. But one woman doesn't get infected. Is she immune, did the horrific three day hangover she endured at the start of the pandemic expel it from her body? There are no research scientists to investigate, all she knows is that everybody she knows is dead and she is alone in a city, a country, a world of corpses. 

This is a story of survival, more, what it's like to survive despite the odds. The narrator is a relatable everywoman. She isn't outdoorsy, doesn't own a smallholding, can't build a bivouac. She lives in a city, works in an office, hates to drive, can barely cook. So how will she manage when she is the only person left alive? To start with she shields herself from reality with excess - luxurious hotels, binges in Harrods foodhall, drugs, alcohol. But then comes the question. What makes a life worth clinging on to? Would she better just ending it all now? A road trip across the UK brings hardship, some dark reckonings of the soul and the realisation of how unfit for survival she really is, especially as with no other humans, she has slipped a long way down the food chain...

Last One at the Party is compulsively readable and fast paced, begging the question of every reader, what would you do if it was you? Would you take the tempting suicide pill or would you hang on? Where would you live, how would you survive, how would you stop yourself going mad with loneliness? The whole country is yours, every castle, mansion, luxury penthouse, designer outfit - if you can get past the dead bodies, the feral animals and birds and make sure you don't get ill or injured. And what does any of that matter when there's no one to impress or share them with? I would have loved a slightly less ambiguous ending, invested as I was in the book, but other than that, highly recommended.

I read this book through Netgalley and I'm still trying to work out what my actual thoughts are!

It's a dystopian, set years after Coronavirus. A new virus has emerged that kills you within 6 days. It's actually very realistic, very thought provoking and the entire time i was reading it, i kept thinking.... This could actually happen!!!

I really loved the main character but there were a lot of questions left unanswered... Why did she not catch the virus??? And the ending of the book LEFT SOOO MANY PLOT HOLES that i had to rate it 3 stars.

I would definitely recommend to reas it. Its gruesome, but SO realistic and its a worse case scenario, i feel, of what could actually happen!

This is the second eerily prescient book I have read about a global pandemic (the first was the End of Men) and they are both equally brilliant. I especially like how the heroine is not particularly special or well equipped to handle the end of the world as we know it, and has her own demons but manages to find a way through. This resonated with me so much more than any number of protagonists who manage to defeat impossible odds. I also liked how hedonistic she was, sometimes in response to catastrophe you have to party!

Bethany Clift seems to have come up with the idea of this novel while driving home and getting lost in the middle of nowhere. The story is about a woman being the sole survivor of a virus that possibly wiped out the rest of the world. As the author explains in a preface, the first draft was ready in 2019, a few months before the world received the first reports of a new virus in China. In January 2020, her sister joked that the novel was coming true. The rest is history (actually, it’s still present, alas).

The idea behind this book is not new. ‘The Stand’ by Stephen King for instance, or a TV series like ‘The Walking Dead’, basically does the same: picturing how what is left of the human race tries to survive a pandemic. The difference is that Clift doesn’t bring a bunch of survivors with varying skills together in an attempt to rebuild stuff. The nameless protagonist of this novel hasn’t got that many skills, which is probably much more realistic. Most of us don’t know how to restart a power plant, don’t know which berries and mushrooms are safe to eat, don’t know how to kick-start a car without ignition key, don’t know how to set a broken limb, etc. The woman in this book doesn’t know most of these things either, and struggles to survive. She also has to fight loneliness and other emotional issues, resulting from not finding other survivors. This all makes this a very believable story. 

Things I liked most about this book:

a) It’s not only about the aftermath of the pandemic. Most of the chapters have some of that, but also contain a lot of flashbacks in which the woman tells us something about what happened before. She doesn’t only talk about the last month before everything collapsed, but also speaks of the years before, and goes deeper into how her life has been (career, friends, emotional issues).

b) On top of other emotions, there is humour. It distinguishes us from other living species, so I liked it a lot that this aspect of humanity survived the pandemic. And very important: it was good humour. One example that made me laugh, after the woman finds a hotel with electricity, booze and a working TV set with on demand movies:

<blockquote>“I got drunk, got horny (yes, it’s weird, but I am sure there are lots, or rather were lots, of studies about how death and sex are linked) and spent an afternoon watching nothing but porn. At least, I planned to spend an afternoon watching nothing but porn, but, after a couple of hours when I just couldn’t face masturbating again, I got bored. When I found myself starting to analyse the plot holes rather than anatomical ones, I turned it off.”</blockquote>

c) There are cliffhangers. With them, Clift makes you often curious and you keep on reading.

Things I didn’t like:

There is not much to tell here. Nearing the end, it started to drag on a little bit but not to an extend that it became annoying. The author ended the book just in time to avoid that. It’s an interesting ending by the way. Kept me wondering if there is more to come someday.

To wrap up: this is a well written, very realistic book about surviving a pandemic with nobody to talk to and to share things with. It’s gripping and makes you think about how dependent we have become of technology and the skills of others to provide for us.

I knew what this book was about from the blurb. The last woman left alive post a global pandemic. So it has very obvious echoes with our current global status. But I thought to myself this is fictional. I love dystopian novels because of what they reveal about ourselves and humanity. They’re brilliant insights into what makes us human. And the premise of this regular, everyday woman being the last person left alive was too compelling to not pick up. 

And I can only highly praise the writing. It’s truly brilliant. Immediately the book sucks you into this world. It’s thought out incredibly well. The main character is wonderfully compelling. She’s utterly clueless about survival... but in the same way that you or I would be. How would we forage for food in the morning? How would we know how to grow sustainable crops etc.? I loved her attitude to realising she’s possibly the only one left alive... she broke into a swanky hotel and got incredibly drunk on champagne. It’s just brilliant!

And how she dealt with the death of her loved ones... watching her husband die. Returning to her childhood home to find her parents dead... it was incredibly moving but with brilliantly dark humour. In a sort of if life gets too sad all you can do is laugh kind of way.

But I just couldn’t find a way to finish this novel and that is 100% on me. The author chose to acknowledge 2020 and COVID-19 as having also occurred in this world... the book is set just a few years ahead of us in 2023. And that dose of reality and talk about how society in the book’s past dealt with its most recent pandemic just freaked me out. 
I couldn’t get past it. 
COVID-19 and its global ramifications has made me quite anxious this year and seeing it written in a book was just more than I could deal with. It was too weird. Too unsettling, and the presence of COVID-19 wasn’t a narrative choice I was prepared to have been made in this book. 
I really did try to keep going because I loved the author’s writing, I loved this main character. Honestly I could see this book as eventually being quite an uplifting read as this character learns more about herself and her truths. But sadly at this point in time it appears that I just can’t read anything that mentions our current pandemic state.

However because of the quality of the writing, world building, character development I want to rate the book four stars. I read 24% of the novel, and from even just that percentage read I know that this is an incredible author with a bright future. There is also a wonderful forward written by the author that acknowledges the weirdness of releasing a book that features a pandemic in the midst of a global pandemic. They also recognise and pay wonderful tribute to frontline workers who are dealing with the cold face of COVID-19. I wish the author every good luck with this book and hope it finds its right audience. 

 
*An e-copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley. This review contains my honest thoughts and opinions*

What would you do if you were the lone survivor of a plague that wiped out all of civilisation?  Well that’s what our main character is trying to figure out after miraculously surviving the 6DM (Six Days Maximum) plague.  It is a pandemic that started in a small town in America where upon infection, a person has six days maximum, before succumbing to death via  organ failure.  There are no easy deaths here, everyone dies painfully, and there is no hope of recovery.  The virus quickly makes its way around the world, decimating societies in its wake, but much like Typhoid Mary, our main character is seemingly immune to the virus, finds herself desperately seeking other survivors whilst trying to figure out if life is really worth living when you are one your own. 

I am not going to lie, reading this book in the middle of a pandemic was a bit weird, made weirder still by the author’s references to coronavirus and the ‘mistakes of 2020’.   Most people don’t really know how to survive on your own, especially when the rest of nature has continued as normal.  Maybe if you are Bear Grylls you would have some idea of how to chase away wild animals, find shelter, grow your own food and find clean water, but for most us, survival relies on those around us.  And so for the author to tell of an ‘ordinary’ woman with no previous survival skills, made for quite a fascinating read, especially as the author does not hide away from the mental health implications of being a survivor.

I did feel like some of the writing dragged a little in the middle, but overall I found the story to be very engrossing in both plot and character development.  There are quite a few twists to keep the reader on their toes and although the story is quite tragic, it does have quite a dark humour to it as well.  I really hope the author keeps the note at the beginning, as it hooked me straight away and offers a lot of context to the story.

Reading this book during a pandemic seemed a bit on the nose at first, but the book gripped me from the start.
Following our protagonist through her journal, and flashes back to her life before 6DM was a wild, and profound ride.
In this book a global virus has killed nearly every single person on earth. Imagine waking up alone in London, surrounded by dead people in their houses, on the streets, in churches etc. She starts sight seeing and tasting the 
"high" life, which makes sense. Because who would want to be surrounded by that much death, sober.
We follow her journey through England, breaking into cars/houses/stores etc. I had a field day mentally pillaging big warehouse stores for items. 
The book asks bigger questions on who we are, what we need, how we feel being an employee, a wife, a girlfriend and a daughter.
Some bits of the book drag a tiny bit, but overall it's well written and hops back from "now" to earlier parts of her life.

This story was weird in the best ways. 

3.5 (almost 4) stars. 

If you’re sipping your tea right now and thinking, hmm, I’d really like a quirky read. This is it. 

It’s the kind of odd deadpan humour that is quintessentially British - and I LOVE it. I thirst for the sarcasm and wit that this book held in the plenty. 

The story is one I picked up mostly out of morbid curiosity. If you’ve read the description you know it focuses on a young woman who has against all odds become the sole survivor of a pandemic.

With Boris right now, I wouldn’t mind becoming that gal for a few days. 

And weirdly- even in a pandemic ourselves- this was a kind of uplifting read? 

Don’t get me wrong, there are darker aspects of loss, but the humour in this book was warming my cold, pandemic heart. (And making me thankful for what we do have.) 

Now, I realise the timing of this book probably wasn’t what the author had foreseen, and the explanation at the beginning of the book made me smile. As someone with family working Covid wards, with family who have been hospitalised- I could still fully enjoy the humour and writing of this book. In fact it made me laugh out loud at multiple points. So to the author- I’m greatly glad you chose to publish this with all matters considered. It’s made me laugh constantly, and truly is a brilliant, uplifting read. 

The reasons I marked it down was purely because of the storyline. The progression of someone alone- even with flash backs, and plot twists later on- becomes a slightly drawn out feat. I felt like the aspect works in films to a degree, but in a book, it becomes reliant on twists and shocks that weren’t in this story much (until nearer the end) 

I would recommend this book. It’s a truly intriguing read. 

Thank you to the publisher for supplying me with an ARC copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this book. If I were to compare this to another book. I would say that it is the British version of station eleven. This is the first pandemic book I enjoyed in a while. I think because it was less about the breakdown of society and more about surviving. If liking the main character is important to you then I would be hesitant about this book. The ending was abrupt but satisfying. I read the book in one sitting.