Our last resort by Clemence Michallon


Frida and Gabriel have a history that is beyond belief being raised in a cult. Emile who is a French leader that manipulated women and a tight knit community, this story is told in dual timelines both past and present. Frida and Gabriel developed a strong bond growing up in this insane atmosphere. However, After breaking free from their cult past these two go their separate ways but are soon reunited at a luxury resort. Their past comes crashing in along with their sketchy history when a guest is killed.

As much as I loved this authors previous book but this one fell short. I had a tough time connecting to these characters. I was shook by the content about the cult and I know this is real in life but I actually enjoy reading about the chaos.

I will continue to follow this author.
Thank you NetGalley and Elliott and Thompson for this Arc!

This one was slightly a sophomore slump for me because The Quiet Tenant was so good, it’s hard to top. I liked the cult sub plot, but some of the story felt far fetched and a little lack luster.

Thank you to NetGalley, Clémence Michallon, and Elliot & Thompson Publishing for the eARC of Our Last Resort. This was my first book by this author and I promise that it will not be my last!

This book was so well written, with a style that is so inviting to the reader. I finished this book and immediately looked up more books by this author. Just a good book that is everything you want it to be.

Thank you to NetGalley, Clémence Michallon, and Elliot & Thompson Publishing for the eARC of Our Last Resort.

I absolutely loved The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon when I read it last year, and Our Last Resort features the same beautiful writing style and unique story. Telling the tale of Frida and Gabriel, and the deaths that litter their past.
Told over multiple time periods through their lives, we follow Frida and Gabriel growing up in cult, fleeing to an unknown world, discovering themselves and to now; an attempt to get to know one another again after years of distance.

Atmospheric and engaging. The pace of this book was perfect, the characters intriguing and the ending unexpected.

I would absolutely recommend this book and cannot wait to see what Clémence Michallon comes out with next.
However, of her two releases, I still preferred The Quiet Tenant.

The novel immerses readers in the complex bond between siblings Gabriel and Frida, who fled a cult fifteen years ago. Their efforts to catch up at a posh desert resort in Utah take a dark turn after a body is found and Gabriel is the chief suspect. The author masterfully interweaves double timelines, switching between the investigation of the current-day murder and the creepy backstory of the cult. This format slowly unveils the trauma that formed Frida and Gabriel, making them confront hidden secrets and the reality of their relationship. The novel delves into deep themes of family loyalty, the lingering effects of childhood trauma, and the blurring of innocence and guilt. With its tight tension and psychological nuance, "Our Last Resort" will have readers guessing until the last, devastating revelation, securing the author's place as a major voice in suspense.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars

This was an enjoyable read, though a bit predictable at times. I really liked the dual timelines and how they slowly revealed the depth of Gabriel and Frida’s history—that part kept me hooked. The writing was solid, and the setting added a nice atmosphere, but I found myself guessing most of the twists before they happened. Still, a good choice if you’re into character-driven stories with emotional layers and a hint of suspense.

4.5 stars

plot - 4.5 stars
as someone who hasn't read a lot of thrillers, this was a great place to start. i enjoyed learning about the cult in which frida and gabriel grew up. though some aspects were slightly predictable, the way it was written very much made up for the fact that the plot itself could be anticipated. definitely would recommend for people wanting to get into thrillers!!

writing style - 5 stars
from the get go, the writing style was brilliantly done. straight to the point, engaging and poetic in its own way. it was definitely a step out of my comfort zone (as a not very avid thriller reader) but the writing style had me hooked instantly. it also lent itself very well to the genre, plot and development of the story

charachters - 4.5 stars
i thought gabriel and frida were incredibly interesting and well-written. i think it was well done how gabriel was depicted through frida's perception; it really felt at certain moments that it was unclear whether frida really truly knew him. their relationship was also incredibly interesting.

overall enjoyment 5 stars
i really really enjoyed this, which can be seen from the fact i finished this in about three days!

vibes/pacing 4.5 stars
a specific thing i really liked which was v implicit was that frida chose the desert for gabriel and her's getaway. without spoiling anything, i think it shows her character really well when one considers what is revealed later in the story! it shows how much thought was put into the entire story as a whole

Michallon's 'The Quiet Tenant' was such a force of nature that it's almost unfair that any book be compared to that initial tour de force. Even graded on a sophomore curve though, Our Last Resort felt slight, like a desert mirage that never really solidified into something of real substance.
The parallel timelines of Frida and her brother Gabriel's lives today, and years prior before they staged a daring escape from a cult in the North East, works to drag the reader a world of constant paranoia. The vibes are absolutely set for a killer thriller, but the actual mystery that takes place in the modern-day timeline lacks any real punch behind it.
I found the relationship between Frida and Gabriel's deceased wife Anne, and by extension, the relationship between Frida and the other women in her life before and after the Cult, the most interesting aspect of the book. I think that if the plot had been more focused on those formative years between them leaving the cult, and the mystery of Anne's death, instead of being set an additional 9 years in the future, it would have worked better.

I loved the quiet tenant so receiving this arc was a treat. Unfortunately I didn’t love this. I normally like dual timelines but this never quite came together for me. It felt kind of amateurish and not well executed. I started skimming around the 50% mark

I feel like multiple timelines and chronologies are now pretty much the norm for upmarket thriller/suspense stories. (Similar to Room 706 by Ellie Levenson.) Here, “brother and sister” Frida and Gabriel find themselves reuniting years after they both escaped a mentally, emotionally, and sexually abusive cult which separates children from their families. There’s a documentary about to be made of their situation, and they’re reconnecting after losing touch.

But the super-exclusive desert hotel where they find themselves (which is probably based on Amangiri and very similar to the setting for Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza) is rocked by a murder. A crusty old Rupert Murdoch-like man’s beautiful fourth wife has been bludgeoned to death. Frida and Gabriel have nothing to do with it at face value, until it comes out that Gabriel was accused in the court of public opinion of his first wife—Anna’s—death. Sure, he was never charged, but “it’s always the husband,” etc.

Of course, Frida works to make sure nobody throws shade at Gabriel for this recent murder by trying to clear his name. Pulled in alongside current events are flashback chapters to them surviving the cult and, eventually, breaking free after testing the boundaries.

Spoiler alert:

At face value, these plot events have very little to do with one another. The cast for this one also felt incredibly small—only the siblings, Rupert and the wife (who only appears alive in a scene or two, then some flashbacks), a few cult people (flashbacks), Anne (the dead ex-wife, flashbacks), and a few bumbling Utah cops with a hero complex. The way the cops latch on to Frida and Gabriel seems completely uncalled for. Rupert using Gabriel as a meat shield and planting evidence seems familiar.

Gabriel did hook up with the murder victim, but this was a second instance of Gabriel being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as Frida was the one who killed Anna, who’d found out Frida and Gabriel started a deadly fire to escape the cult, and was about to dredge it all up for the “siblings.” So she had to go.

Summary:

This one could’ve benefited from more complex motivations from everyone. Also, if Gabriel and Anne maybe knew one another somehow, or if they had more riding on keeping their identities separate from the cult murder. As is, there were a million ways for them to avoid jail for the fire—they had the abuse victim narrative on their sides, they could’ve claimed it was an accident, etc. Everyone leaped right to murder for no good reason. They could’ve escaped the cult without killing anyone (they didn’t even kill the cult leader, so their noble goal of keeping him from hurting any other girls went unfulfilled anyway). Anna didn’t have to die because she figured it out. And Anne didn’t have to die because she hooked up with Gabriel.

I’m not sure the story would’ve worked without every single character being much more trigger-happy than necessary.

Like many others, I loved the Quiet Tenant. If you are expecting the same experience from Our Last Resort, you are in for a disappointment. Clemence Michallon is an incredible writer, but this book just went nowhere for a long time.


Thanks to NetGalley and Elliott & Thompson for the opportunity to read this ebook!

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

A great thriller following two individuals, Frida and Gabriel, "siblings" by environment and their vacation at the Ara hotel. However, things were not as relaxing as Frida had hoped when a guest is found dead. Their trip suddenly changed and they are forced to stay at the hotel for questioning. We jump back and forth from their childhood to present times at the hotel. We learn about the secrets of their cult past and where they are now., mixed with twists and turns on vacation.

Didn’t enjoy this read, it felt forced and lacking in clarity - the phone location/wild animal section was particularly far fetched.

This was a bit of a detour from the author's first book, but I still really enjoyed this book. I felt connected to the characters and was invested in both timelines. The plot twist was shocking because it had nothing to do with the central murder of the book. I want a whole book about the cult!!

Thank you @aaknopf for the digital advance reader copy!

Fifteen years ago, Frida and her brother Gabriel escaped a cult. After struggling to build a life in the real world, they drift apart after the suspicious death of Gabriel’s wife Annie. Now, as they reunite at a sprawling desert resort, her brother ends up being a suspect in a murder investigation of another guest as their past comes back to haunt them.

Overall, I enjoyed this mystery and was fascinated by the story of the characters’ upbringing in a cult, but I felt the present day timeline was a little slow. I thought it had a lot of potential at the start but I wasn’t wowed at the end.

Rating 3.5⭐️

Overall I did like this book and will definitely be looking into reading more of Clémence Michallon’s books. I really enjoyed the two timelines and getting to know more about Frida and Gabriel’s time within the clut, however I think more about the cults workings would have been interesting. There was one twist I didn’t see coming which I thought was great, it caused the resort parts to feel a little bit slower than the others. The bond between Frida and Gabriel was developed well showing the ups and downs of the trauma they went through together. I would recommend this book as it was an easy read with interesting aspects.

Thank you to NetGalley and thank you to the publisher for the chance to review this ARC. Full review coming soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and thank you to the publisher for the chance to review this ARC. Full review coming soon.

I really enjoyed Michallon's previous work The Quiet Tenant. It was more of fast paced thriller. Our last Resort if more of a murder mystery. It was a slow burn. I was immediately interested when I read it was about a cult, but the story fell flat for me. It was written in two timelines past and present. I would have loved more depth of the cult background. I still think it is worth the read and would recommend it if you like reading about dark pasts with hidden secrets. Thank you to Net Galley and Elliott & Thompson advanced arc copy in exchange for my honest review.

Our last resort is a quick and easy read, but not my favorite from Clémence Michallon. The writing style feels much more simplistic compared to The Quiet Tenant, which made it harder for me to connect with the story fully. That said, I enjoyed the cult aspect of the plot: immersive, intriguing, and easily the most compelling part. I wish there had been more of it. Unfortunately, the rest of the storyline didn’t grip me the same way. Some parts felt predictable, even if the ending did manage to surprise me. Overall, a decent page-turner, but not one that will leave a lasting impression.