The Last Girl

The Dominion Trilogy, Book 1

By: Joe Hart

Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg

Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

A mysterious worldwide epidemic reduces the birthrate of female infants from 50 percent to less than one percent. Medical science and governments around the world scramble in an effort to solve the problem, but 25 years later there is no cure, and an entire generation grows up with a population of fewer than 1000 women.

Zoey and some of the surviving young women are housed in a scientific research compound dedicated to determining the cause. For two decades, she's been isolated from her family, treated as a test subject, and locked away - told only that the virus has wiped out the rest of the world's population.

Captivity is the only life Zoey has ever known, and escaping her heavily armed captors is no easy task, but she's determined to leave before she is subjected to the next round of tests...a program that no other woman has ever returned from. Even if she's successful, Zoey has no idea what she'll encounter in the strange new world beyond the facility's walls. Winning her freedom will take brutality she never imagined she possessed, as well as all her strength and cunning - but Zoey is ready for war.

©2016 Joe Hart (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Gripping story, but missing some details

I enjoyed the story and I do recommend this book, however there were a few things that, to me, just didn't make sense.
*Spoiler alert*. I'm about to reveal some parts of the story:

1). If these girls/women are supposedly the last females on earth, and "The future of the human race" why were they basically treated like prisoners who had committed some terrible crime? I would imagine they would be treated more like goddesses who were the hope for the future.

2). Why would the women be so cruel to each other if they spent their whole lives in the compound and are stuck all in the same boat? There was never any reason given for the animosity.

3). Why were the women not allowed to read books or listen to music? How would that affect their ability to reproduce?

4). Why would the scientists kill the women after giving birth to a boy? The women could've gotten pregnant many more times and subsequent babies could've been girls

5). When the protagonist Zoey escapes and sees the world for the first time ever, after spending her entire life in the compound, she is barely surprised by any of it--and somehow expertly knows about it all "from reading about it in the textbook" and is able to survive on her own. It seemed a bit far fetched.

However, despite those questions, I was able to enjoy the book and hope some of it will be explained in the next version.

Had potential but it was lacking in clarity

If there were only 1000 women left in the world and a handful in captivity, what happened to the rest of the women/young girls that were kidnapped and experimented on? The author eluded to the fact they regularly went on raiding parties to find new candidates. Considering Zoe was taken as a young child and was just turning 21, you'd think the facility would have been brimming with girls. Why would such a precious commodity be treated so badly? If the problem was women giving birth to nothing but males, you'd think the scientist would want to safeguard all women for the day they found a cure and would have women with good genes around to repopulate the world. You'd think these special girls would be treated with kindness rather than with terror. Getting thrown into some dark box and terrorized made no sense at all. There were just a lot of holes in this story, not enough character building, not enough explanation about what was being done to solve the problem. For example, no one was treated with any sort of favoritism but there was obvious tension between the girls. How come? If the girls and their male overseers were only going to be sperm and egg donors, then why was it important to have Zoe and Lee develop a relationship if the point was for them to provide the ingredients for a petri dish conception and not an intimate relationship. Overall, I did not get bored with the story mostly because I asked questions all along. If there is a sequel, I might listen to it just to see what happened to Zoe and her fellow escapees. If Joe Hart doesn't do something to tighten up his story, I would not purchase the third book in the series.

It was much longer then it needed to be

I just couldn't get into this book. It was very well narrated, which kept me going. The descriptions of characters and places was very detailed, and after awhile was too much. The story line dragged on.

Listen to the Sample

THEY ONLY HAD BUTTER ONCE A YEAR
I fell for the hype and I should have known better. For some reason Audible felt this was a top Sci-Fi pick and a top Suspense pick. I loved the concept, but when I check out the author, I found he has two other books at audible. One has a 3.7 rating and the other a 3.8 rating, so what made audible think this book was so important? It is really a YA novel and had I listened to the sample I would have known that. It is a good sample and very representative of the book. You listen and decide.

Unusual and compelling

If you could sum up The Last Girl in three words, what would they be?

Brave, heroic, horrifying.

What did you like best about this story?

Zoe was so determined to be an honest, free person that she had to protect the others that were not as brave and honest as she.

What does Dara Rosenberg bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Dara brought a naive youthfulness to the character that fit quite well with Zoe's personality.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It horrified me at times. There were shadows of the Handmaid's Tail in this.

Any additional comments?

I definitely need to finish the series to see what happens.

solid work

picked up at the end. characters were bland, and were somewhat stereotypical. how many times did a man ask Zoe if she was okay?

Suspend disbelief, and your common sense.

I understand this is supposedly post Apocalypto of some kind but it is one of the worst stories I have read with no stable plot. I hate having a pretty good understanding of how babies are made and how the sex is dictated. It was so many flaws within the scientific part of the story, and character development. They never once looked at all the men that was inhabiting the earth in droves. The story had too many holes, and nothing was tied up at the end of the book.

Great story. can't wait for sequel.

Admittedly, it did have a slow build up. Speaking for myself, I can appreciate elaborate detail if it's done tastefully. I did not mind the less intense scenes. I believe it adds to the story and derives a great road for suspense. The story did escalate within a few hours and the drama was well written. I quite enjoyed the narration as well. Give this story a shot. I love a read that can pleasantly surprise. I gobbled this audio edition in two days tops.

Different, but good

The story is good, but leaves a few holes that are hard to reconcile. The center if the story is the main character's resilience, and that journey us very good.

Tedious listen

According to the description there are only 1000 women left in the world. This book has some of the them living in a prison being treated like serial killers. Why? There are countless hours of a basic description of prison life including 30 minutes of a woman locked in solitary confinement. Although the initial premise started out well, after 5 hours I just gave up. Nothing made any sense whatsoever. If I had used a credit for book, I would have returned it. If you want something to your your insomnia this may be just the ticket.

Brilliant

This book is so worth a listen, it kept me hooked right from the start, you think you know where its going but has good twists and turns.

really good book.

Very good Narrator. Couldn't wait to hear what happened next. Can't wait to download next book.

Just terrible

interesting idea for a story but badly written and narrated. The main character is immensely irritating. Not worth the time or money

Starts slow, but redeems itself in the end

I'll start by saying that I seriously considered putting this down and not coming back at the beginning. The first 1/4 was slow and came across as whiny, and made me question my book choice. However, I hate leaving books unfinished and it paid off with this one.
After a lacklustre opening it begins to pick up speed, moving forward into a well formed story with some genuinely brave and interesting characters.
So bear with it... it's worth the wait!

Interesting theme

The narrator is not well matched to the character of the main player in the book.

The mismatch makes listening to the book discordant and spoils the performance .

emotional journey

this was a fantastic read I couldn't stop listening it definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat I think the narrator is very pleasant to listen to and Joe heart the author is very in depth with how he writes you actually feel like you're there with the characters

good book

The book kept my interest. It was a different type of story and had a good ending.

Very poor narration!

Would you try another book written by Joe Hart or narrated by Dara Rosenberg?

Not based on this audio book...

Has The Last Girl put you off other books in this genre?

No each genre has its own bad books... this is unfortunately one of them.

Would you be willing to try another one of Dara Rosenberg’s performances?

No, its a poor narration...hard to follow with the style she reads with.