Slowly but surely making my way through my backlog of books.
The Last
Hanna Jameson
For fans of high-concept thrillers such as Annihilation and The Girl with All the Gifts, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel as the world descends into nuclear war—along with twenty other survivors—who becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after 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.
Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can’t bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel’s water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.
As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?
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Well, this was an unsettling read, as the world feels like it is descending further into chaos, this kind of situation appears a lot closer to being a possibility which gives the story an extra edge when reading. I shall set aside the terrifying nature of that thought for a second to say that I really enjoyed the story concept.
The mix of an almost end-of-the-world situation, a rural hotel with people from all walks of life and nationalities, dwindling supplies, a body found where it shouldn’t be, and fear of the unknown, creates a wonderfully tense story with a chilling and uneasy atmosphere.
The story is narrated by Jon an academic who decides it prudent to keep a historical record of what happens after the nuclear bombs have hit. I enjoyed exploring the group through Jon’s eyes, seeing which people gravitated toward each other and how the dynamics shifted as things became more desperate.
The one thing I wasn’t keen on was the mystery of the body found. I appreciated the idea of Jon feeling like he didn’t want this death to be overlooked just because of what else was happening around them, however, I feel like the execution wasn’t quite right.
There were so many other horrors around them that this part of the storyline could have been left out or changed to fit better with the other situations the hotel was facing. It’s hard to explain without spoiling it but the explanation for what happened felt a little tacked on to the end when there were other opportunities to have Jon pursue these same ideals in a way that would have made more sense considering the rest of the storyline.
I think what really got to me every time I went back to this book was the doubt that came with every decision the characters made. It made me think about how the fear of the unknown can hold us back, and how we all cling to a routine to be able to keep functioning. It is such a thought-provoking story in that way, it was a little daunting thinking about what would I do in that situation.
The Last is a story that I won’t forget in a hurry, it is tense and thrilling with a harrowing atmosphere (although I definitely chuckled at the ending), and clever writing that makes the story authentically chilling.
everywhere-and-nowhere.com 