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 ...
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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).
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When the end of the world happens, where will you be? Jon is at a conference in Switzerland when nuclear war hits, away from his family and friends he finds himself with a group of survivors camped at his hotel. However, when a body is discovered can he really trust the people around him?
I always struggle a little with apocalyptic thrillers as my favourite book is The Stand by Stephen King and you very often get poor imitations or very similar works that you can't help but compare. The Last isn't the usual virus/zombie apocalypse story, it's much more realistic with the start of nuclear war. There are references in there to the here and now - particularly the blame being placed on Americans for voting for 'him'. However, as there isn't any in depth detail in this it leaves it open to be timeless in when it is set and relevant for I'm sure many governments yet to come! Hanna Jameson doesn't focus too much on the whys or how's of the end of the world, she solely focuses on a small group of people remaining in a hotel in Switzerland and this character-focused approach is refreshing and interesting. There is also a bit of a detective story in there as well as our main character Jon tries to solve a murder.
The story is told through the diary of Jon, our slightly unreliable narrator who wants to document the end of the world. The pace is nicely kept up all of the way through and you get bits of flashbacks and backstories about other guests to keep drip feeding you information. The story does take a bit of an odd turn towards the end but I really enjoyed the ending as it stood and it's a great stand-alone piece which I appreciated.
Overall I really enjoyed The Last, it's a refreshing take on the apocalyptic thriller genre. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Books UK and Viking for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
