Welcome!! This the final stop on this Blog Tour for THE LAST by Hanna Jameson.
I would firstly like to say a rather big thank you to the amazing Emily @ BrandHive, Viking Books and of course the wonderful Hanna Jameson who gifted me an early copy of THE LAST. I am forever grateful and promise that the review below is 100% honest and of my own views.
To kick off, we have the “blurb” for the book;
Breaking: Nuclear weapon detonates over Washington
Breaking: London hit, thousands feared dead
Breaking: Munich and Scotland hit. World leaders call for calmHistorian Jon Keller is on a trip to Switzerland when the world ends. As the lights go out on civilization, he wishes he had a way of knowing whether his wife, Nadia and their two daughters are still alive. More than anything, Jon wishes he hadn’t ignored Nadia’s last message.
Twenty people remain in Jon’s hotel. Far from the nearest city and walled in by towering trees, they wait, they survive.
Then one day, the body of a young girl is found. It’s clear she has been murdered. Which means that someone in the hotel is a killer.
As paranoia descends, Jon decides to investigate. But how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice? And what kind of justice can he hope for, when society as he knows it no longer exists?
So, you want to know what I think?
Now I’m not usually a big fan of dystopian novels. I can’t really pinpoint why I’m not a big fan…maybe it’s something to do with the reality factor. Do I want to feel like the events being written about are not that far from fiction and could eventually happen? I think I do and with that in mind, THE LAST gave me the jeebies! In the BEST possible way.
Imagine going to a works conference, in a hotel, when at breakfast you hear someone screaming that a nuclear attack has been launched against major cities across America and Europe – pretty much wiping out millions of people. Given the current state of the world, this event seems more of a ‘when’ than an ‘if’.
Imagine then that with your skillset for your career, you start to diarise the events taking place immediately after that attack. The people left behind and what happens to them. The scramble to reach loved ones, to learn they are safe. The panic….the fear…. the uncertainty. Then imagine that one of the group of people you are left with is capable of murder!
THE LAST is a unique book in the sense that it is a fiction book, but serves as a pre-history book of what may likely happen in the future. Short, journal style entries keep the book flowing at a steady pace, taking the reader on a journey.
Let’s talk about that ending through! The ending was….. let’s just say that with how well the book was flowing and the build up throughout, I was maybe expecting more with the ending. It left me asking more questions! Maybe this was Hanna’s intention all along – an ending to a book with no sequel (that I know of) that keeps people talking about it much longer after they finish it!
I was talking to my colleagues about this book (they haven’t read it yet) and they became frustrated, confused and wanted answers to the same questions I did! This to me is a sign that this book is going to do great things and be around for a while.
Is that a movie deal I see on the horizon?
Meet Hanna Jameson;
Hanna Jameson’s fourth novel, part murder mystery and part post-apocalyptic thriller – THE LAST – is out early 2019, with Viking UK and Simon & Schuster – Atria Books US. The Last is the story of an American academic searching for the truth about a girl who has been murdered in his Swiss hotel in the aftermath of a nuclear war that has destroyed most of the Western world.
Jameson had written the first draft of her debut, award-nominated novel – SOMETHING YOU ARE – at just seventeen. Something You Are and two further novels in the series – GIRL SEVEN and ROAD KILL – are available now in the UK, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands.
She lives in London currently, and is working on screenwriting projects. She likes whiskey, history, and emotionally taxing TV shows.
THE LAST is out now and can be purchased at the following outlets (and MANY more! Don’t forget your local bookseller and library!);
Amazon (UK) | Amazon (US) | Amazon (AU)
-S.
Be sure to check out the other blogs who participated in this Blog Tour. See below for further details and be sure to follow all of the action across Twitter!
The P.Turners Book Blog 