The Last

By: Hanna Jameson

Narrated by: Anthony Starke

This propulsive post-apocalyptic thriller “in which Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None collides with Stephen King’s The Shining” (NPR) follows a group of survivors stranded at a hotel as the world descends into nuclear war and the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks.

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC, has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.

Two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Jon and the rest try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when he goes up to the roof to investigate the hotel’s worsening water quality, he is shocked to discover the body of a young girl floating in one of the tanks, and is faced with the terrifying possibility that there might be a killer among the group.

As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with discovering the truth behind the girl’s death. In this “brilliantly executed...chilling and extraordinary” post-apocalyptic mystery, “the questions Jameson poses—who will be with you at the end of the world, and what kind of person will you be?—are as haunting as the plot itself.” (Emily St. John Mandel, nationally bestselling author of Station Eleven).

The story felt undone

Some Spoilers. Holding back character details and distributing them at all the best moments makes or breaks a story. This main character turned himself into a mostly unreliable narrator when the author gives over far far too late in the tale, almost at the very end, that he’s a habitual philanderer. We find that out through his reminiscences. The end of the world doesn’t make that habit a minor character flaw. Since this book is first person driven, by the philanderer, it’s an odd choice to show us only through his own voice, only through his own imagination and evaluation of that experience what it means. What the hell. Mix in some weirdly placed mysticism and the ending was, well, weird. I’d begun to care some about the characters. I’d begun to see them as making efforts at being the right kind of human in a world that’s nuked its humanity. The setting descriptions were interesting and compelling. Lots of thought provoking moments about living without electricity, with limited supplies of meds and food, without the connection we’ve all come to expect from the internet, without up to date information about the outside world, without access to loved ones maybe ever again. Much of that was undone by the way the author tried to resolve the main characters feelings about fucking around on his family as a habit before he got stuck in Sweden at the end of the world. Very less than. I went from caring about the characters to hoping there’s no sequel.

Couldn’t put it down

I loved this book. Scary, dystopian, page-turning perfection. The narrator was AMAZING. I’m so glad I read it, so bummed it over now.

End of the world meets The Cecil Hotel

Good but not great. I wouldn't listen to/read it again. If you know the story of The Cecil Hotel, then you know one of the major plot points of this story. There are times where the story gets interesting but it was rather disappointing overall.

Intriguing and sublimely written

There is such a special quality to the writing of this author. The story is very intriguing and i loved the social aspect of the book. The ending is a bit disappointing mainly because it is abrupt. The author could have easily written a few more chapters before ending the book. Pity she hasn’t.

The Last should be your 1st apocalyptic novel

A truly great Performance of this unusual, strange book. It is amazing how Mr. Starke can transform his voice into so many characters with perfect foreign accents. Bravo.