Last One at the Party

by Bethany Clift

THE END OF EVERYTHING WAS HER BEGINNING

It's November 2023. The human race has been wiped out by the 6DM virus (Six Days Maximum - the longest you've got before your body destroys itself). The end of the world as we know it.

Yet someone is still alive. Alone in a new world of burning cities, rotting corpses and ravenous rats, one woman has survived. A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants and hiding how she feels to meet other people's expectations. From her career to her relationships, to what she wears and where she lives, she's made a lifetime of decisions to fit what other people want her to be.

But with no one else left, who will she become now that she's completely alone?

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Horror, Post Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Apocalyptic

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 4, 2021

About the author

Bethany Clift is a graduate of the Northern Film School, the producer of low-budget British horror film Heretic, and the Director of her own production company, Saber Productions. Last One At The Party is her debut novel.

Reviews

[Ceecee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andover, Kansas is now as famous as Wuhan as this is where the deadly virus 6DM (6 day maximum). It sweeps the world, there’s chaos, madness and devastation as the horrific virus sweeps all in its path. The UK holds out for a while but by 24 November 2023 it’s here. This is a dystopian novel but it more about one unnamed woman’s story of survival and she tells her own tale.

You’d think reading this in the middle of the Covid pandemic would be a mistake but it isn’t! It’s riveting, gripping and deeply emotional, it’s funny in places, you applaud our narrator survivor for her fortitude and initiative, you sob with her and live in hope with her. . Her narrative is extremely honest especially as she confronts her past and you become invested in her survival along with Lucky the golden retriever who is utterly adorable in his loyalty and love as her only companion. In places it is horrifying and there are some powerful visual images of the impact of the enormous loss. As the virus hits Britain her reaction is reminiscent of the danse macabre of the Black Death with an ‘eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’ (well certainly in six days) attitude. It’s very well written, her backstory emerges a bit at a time and her battles with mental health over the years is movingly portrayed as she tries to quell her demons. In places it’s nightmarish as the depth of the pandemic reveals her solitude. Her travels the length and breadth of the island give some fabulous images with flashes of humour which are most welcome. It’s eerie, macabre at times, there’s hope, dashed hopes and chasing a dream. She’s incredibly resourceful, brave, clever yet at the same time fragile though stronger than she thinks. The end is excellent.

Overall, I fully appreciate not everyone will wish to read a book like this in these times but all I can say is that it is fantastic. Yes, it shows the effects of a deadly virus but it’s also about love, strength, self discovery but principally about survival against all the odds. Her character shines through admirably and just as she was the last one at the party pre pandemic so she is afterwards. This book is amazing!

With thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the arc in return for an honest review.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will not be for everyone
It’s a book about a woman ( we never know her name ) who is the sole survivor of a pandemic in 2023, the virus is 6DM ( 6 days max ), interestingly in the forehand letter the author tells how she was writing this book when Covid appeared and how she had to add the parts about it to the story
It’s her story, in a kinda Bridget Jones, plus gore of exactly what she sees, feels and experiences as the only person alive, parts of the book are also her back story
It’s refreshingly written, pure in word as she is thinking, rude, gory, filter free, dramatic, scary, reassuring and all manner of words that come to mind
Is it good? I am not sure the author is looking for that description tbh, is it moving, horrific, lol funny, sorrowful and a tad too realistic then 100% yes
It’s a shocker but then life is at the moment and this book really made me think how much worse it could be
You will either be amazed by it and devour every word or hate it from page 1 and not get much further
I am marking it on solely on how it made me feel, good, bad, sad, happy, horrified and elated

10/10
5 Stars

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

See that gorgeous cover? Gosh, I love the pink and black together and the whole design. Inside it’s not a contemporary about a festive party in the city. Instead, it’s about a global pandemic happening in 2023. The virus is called 6DM, and you can only live with the virus for a maximum of six days. There’s one person still alive. She’s the last one at the party, and it isn’t a party at all. It’s a bleak world all around her.

Of course with the timing this one is frightening and all too real. The author also manages to write an inspiring story of one unnamed woman and her will to survive.

I know the timing won’t be good for everyone, but I found this story engrossing and one I had to read pretty quickly to find out what happens to the main character. It’s a poignant read, and I felt a mix of emotions, which is a reflection of how invested I was in this powerful story.

I received a gifted copy from the publisher.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Anissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this unique take on a post-apocalyptic survivor's tale. The main character was a complete hot mess but I could not put this book down! Like truly, she got on my nerves but I had to know what would happen. There was a hugely predictable plot point that I figured out very early and it informed the final third heavily but I didn't feel that detracted greatly. The very ending made me yell "AYKMRN?!". I could have done without that entirely. Well, maybe except for the part that confirmed that our narrator was not the only person to survive the pandemic. Did I mention that I couldn't put this down? This was a two-day read that I stayed up late to finish.

Recommended for originality and crisp, good writing. But only if you can stick with a difficult and unlikeable MC. I found the unnamed one here & her plight interesting (mostly in her present). She did grow by the end but it was pretty much within the final 50 pages and even then, she still wasn't doing many of the things most would have recognized as necessary. Fascinating as a character study, not one that I could relate to but I did understand her actions and inaction given what is related here. Her perspective and point of view were expressed very well.

A couple of memorable passages that made me smile:

The British Library was another magnificent palace of knowledge and history, and contents should have kept me interested for days. But they didn't. It was too sad to stay there long. Someone had sellotaped a note to one of the front doors that read:
 
If you are reading this, please take care of these books they may be the only part of humanity we have left

Just one handwritten note. The last act of someone heading home to die. I made sure all the windows and doors were closed before I left.

and

It took nearly an hour, but by the time I sat down in front of the camera I was reasonably sure that I looked like an ordinary woman who had suffered a terrible car crash, and not a crazy bag lady whose cat wouldn't even eat her.

[Repix Pix · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es una mezcla de otros libros y series, con muchos fallos y con una protagonista estúpida la mayor parte del tiempo.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly feel-good book, notwithstanding the dire premise and quite a large amount of bodily fluids, decay, and thoughtless decadence.

Despite her being flighty and unable to think more than one minute ahead, I empathized with the woman whose journal is the subject of The Last One at the Party. Imagine Bridget Jones as the apparent sole survivor of a deadly plague, aimlessly blundering through an end-of-times scenario while ruthlessly recounting and assessing her poor life choices, and you've essentially got the picture. Similar in theme to This Fragile Earth, but with better execution.

What starts as a rather obviously self-destructive and shallow seeming account turns into a true and ultimately admirable voyage of self discovery. The woman finds strength as she finds herself, and by the end, I was sorry to say goodbye to her.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gosh I LOVED this book. I scurried through it in one sitting, couldn’t stop reading it for the life of me. Then at the end I cried because it was over. Look, its 2020, I can cry if I want to…

Last One At The Party starts, yes, with an apocalyptic event, maybe you would think it a bit close to home given our current situation but be reassured. That may be the inciting event but this one is entirely character driven. It’s not that easy to pull off a one woman show but Bethany Clift did just that.

You want to know what happens? Nope I am not spoiling a single beautiful, scary, horrifying, uplifting, edge of the seat moment of this one. It is brilliant, clever, emotionally demanding yet inspiring and is written so so well.

I make no promises on whether this is triumph over adversity or one woman’s final stand…but I will promise its worth the journey.

Highly recommended.

[Rodrigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me ha terminado de enganchar y no he terminado de empatizar o de conectar con la prota, hacía al principio cosas un tanto alocadas e idiotas.
Si bien es cierto que por el título ya me podía intuir como sería el libro lo que mas me ha "gustado" es que es una persona que para nada está preparada para sobrevivir al fin del mundo, es muy normal, incluso un pelín loca.

Sinopsis: Diciembre de 2023. La raza humana ha sido prácticamente aniquilada por el virus 6DM (Seis días máximo, el tiempo máximo que tienes antes de que tus órganos se desintegren y te derritas de adentro hacia afuera). El fin del mundo, por así decirlo.

Nuestra protagonista, una mujer anónima de 36 años, siempre se ha considerado feminista, si eso incluye no poder cambiar un enchufe, estar lisiada por la incapacidad de tomar sus propias decisiones y ser crónicamente dependiente de sus padres y su esposo, James. Sus amigos y familiares siempre han sido un colchón para su ansiedad y, de alguna manera, se ha encontrado a sí misma llevando la vida que quieren para ella, en lugar de la que quiere para ella. Sin ellos, en un mundo de ciudades en llamas, cadáveres en descomposición y gaviotas devoradoras de hombres, carece de métodos básicos de supervivencia.

¿Qué haces cuando eres esencialmente el nuevo gobernante del planeta? ¿Irrumpir en los hoteles más elegantes de Londres? ¿Robar un Porsche? ¿Desarrollar accidentalmente una adicción a las drogas farmacéuticas? Absolutamente. Y buscar supervivientes... definitivamente buscar supervivientes.

A la deriva en un extraño mundo nuevo, la narradora y su nuevo compañero, un perro golden retriever llamado Lucky, emprenden un viaje por carretera por todo el país para ver si ella es realmente la última persona que queda en el planeta y aprender a vivir consigo misma por el camino.
La protagonista me ha parecido, sobre todo al principio, muy plana y tonta y si es cierto que a lo largo del libro va evolucionando un poco, va espabilándose.
Pero la historia tiene un plus con la aparición de su nuevo "amigo" Lucky".
¿pero realmente esta sola?
Bueno tendrás que leerlo para averiguarlo.
El final me ha parecido un poco fantasioso no creo que hubiera sobrevivido.
6/10

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The Last One at the Party is a macabre dystopian tale, suspenseful, with sometimes glimpses of dark humour and hope. It describes gruesome images of stark horror. I found the nightmarish post-apocalyptic scenes well written and compelling. However, I was frequently irritated by the distraught and befuddled female protagonist.

The unnamed women's journey will rivet some readers who follow the end of the world as we know it. The story begins in 2023 when a new and deadly plague begins in the United States. It spreads widely and rapidly killing everyone in its path. It is called the 6DM virus, meaning all those infected die within a maximum of six days. The disease attacks their inner organs, and they die an excruciating death. Pills can be obtained to end their lives painlessly. The book was written before the present COVID-19 pandemic, so the author inserted some brief references to it.

It is understandable that some will find this an uncomfortable and disturbing read during the world's present state. They may choose to abandon it, finding the story triggers their fears, feelings of loss, and loneliness in their isolated lives.

After 6DM spreads to the UK, we follow the story of a woman who survived, seemingly with a rare immunity to the disease. Her husband, parents, friends, and co-workers have all succumbed, and she is alone. She moves through the city, witnessing ghastly, horrific scenes of piled-up corpses, rotten garbage, fires, and ravenous rats. The electric grid is failing, and large areas in darkness, while broadcasting, TV, phone, and the internet are no more. Businesses are now deserted, making looting possible. Everywhere she goes devoid of human life.

Flashbacks show that she has been an emotional wreck, suffering from periods of depression, panic attacks, drinking heavily and trying drugs to ease her inner pain. She doesn't know her own character, constantly moulding her personality and appearance in an attempt to fit in and please her family, husband, friends, and co-workers. She has never become self-reliant, always depending on others with a lack of interest or ability to fend for herself. Despite gaining a professional and devoted husband, a well-paid career, an upscale apartment and lifestyle, she is discontent. She knows she mistreated her best friends towards the end.

In the beginning, she is alone and constantly referring to throwing up, diarrhea, vomiting, depression, and panic attacks were annoying to me. It is essential that she needs to get a grip on her emotions to survive. She loads up a van with goods and medications taken from deserted stores and decides to head north looking for other survivors. Her journey is a muddled one full of wrong decisions and erratic behaviour. She has rescued an emaciated dog, Lucky, and he becomes her friend and constant companion. She realizes that she needs to teach herself survival skills and makes good use of libraries, food and sporting goods stores. Once she and Lucky are reasonably settled in and comfortable, she learns with hope and apprehension that she is pregnant and must cope by herself.

This is a compelling story of resilience and survival against all odds.

[Teck Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a pretty at a time like this. Made me realize, if you are the last one at the party, many things I do now dont matter. Things like surfing FB, reading goodreads, writing reviews etc. Made me question my life a bit.

Also learnt a good few things on what to and not to do in an apocalypse. The only parts I find sometimes causing anticlimaxes is the interludes at every chapter. Great for character development, but sometimes I just don’t care. Maybe it’s to make the story less linear? But why, who cares?

[Aelred · Rating 1 out of 5]

A virus kills everyone with an IQ over 60. One of the survivors tells her story.

[Alexis Hall]

Source of book: Bought for myself
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.

***

Gawd, my attempt to catch up on my reviewing by deploying brevity lasted, like, barely two reviews.

In any case, Last One at the Party is one of those books that I liked more in retrospect than I did while reading, even though the incongruously breezy narration means it’s actually a fairly propulsive to read. At the time, I was fairly impressed by how carefully it managed to blend its unavoidable bleakness with hope and humour (even if the humour is fairly dark). It’s a book that has stayed with me, though, and I think it deserves additional credit for that.

The book is set in 2023. The heroine--who never names herself--is, she believes, the last survivor of a global pandemic, a virus known only as 6DM (because 6 days is the longest you can expect to survive having contracted it). Obviously this makes it a challenging read in the semi-recent wake of, y’know, a global pandemic, although apparently the author had started writing it pre-COVID. The most notable thing about our heroine, however, is that she is wholly unsuited to be the last survivor of a global pandemic. She has no survival skills, limited emotional resilience, and spends the immediate aftermath getting high and being weird.

Honestly, I kind of related to this heavily. While I don’t, as a general rule, believe in binaries I do think you can divide the world into two groups of people: those who secretly or not so secretly think they’d be able to cope in a survival situation, and those who recognise they’re zombie chum. I’m comprehensively in the second category and I do wonder if this book is likely to work better for folks on team versus the alternative. Because, let me be very clear, post-apocalyptical Swiss Family Robinson this is not. This isn’t, or do I think it’s intended to be, a “realistic” portrayal of surviving the death of human race and the end of the world as we know it. It’s a book about about selfhood self-discovery that uses the death of the human race and the end of the world as we know it as a mechanism to explore those themes. People likely to annoyed by such questions as why the electricity doesn’t fail earlier than it does, unable to forgive the heroine for leaving the animals trapped in London Zoo, or frustrated she doesn’t even think to grab a book about basic survival skills from one of innumerable deserted libraries until at least the halfway point will probably not get along with Last One At The Party.

Also she’s clearly not in a good place psychologically when she’s wilfully failing to address her own survival. And, again, I found this relatable, and oddly reassuring. I don’t think the heroine is intended to always be easy to like--after all, she’s literally living in a world with nobody watching--but I felt her flaws and most of her bad decisions (both before and after the pandemic) were understandable. For example, there’s a point in the book where she acquires a dog, a golden retriever who is, of course, the best possible boy (the dog survives, the dog is okay!!) and I’ve seen some readers expressing a touch of irritation that the heroine doesn’t immediately emotionally connect with the dog, despite the dog’s loyalty and affection for her. The thing is, though, she’s living in a world where everything she knew and cared about as been taken away from her, and love didn’t play so kindly with her even before the entire human race has been obliterated, it makes sense she’d be emotionally guarded at first, even with a random dog. As well as covering the heroine’s travails in the present, the book also takes us into her past, exploring how she’s previously drifted through life, and the way her perception of the world’s expectations for her--rightly or wrongly--have taken her further and further from herself, which means that all her post-pandemic behaviour, even her non-ideal post-pandemic--comes across as deeply grounded in her character and experiences.

Tonally, The Last One At the Party is a masterful combination of darkly hilarious and profoundly, achingly sad. One of my favourite sections, right at the beginning of the book, is where the heroine--stunning and grieving--wants to bury her husband. But is hindered by the fact they live in a flat and his body is extremely heavy. It’s probably a flaw in my own character, honestly, that I find physical comedy with dead bodies so endlessly amusing. I think it’s probably a way to cope with mortality. But, anyway, after several undignified shenanigans, many of which had me wince-cackling, she gives up and, in desperation, decides to leave him with her neighbours, a gay couple James had previously been rather disparaging about.

We means we go from this:

I held my forty-six-year-old husband as he cried. The man I had loved and lived with for eleven years. The man I had thought, at one point, I’d have kids with, grow old with, be with for ever. And, in the end, I was with him for ever. It was just his for ever, not mine.

To this:

And there he was. My dead husband. For ever condemned to spend eternity in the bed of two people he thought of as ‘too gay’.

Which is such a pitch-perfect mix of macabre, touching, comic, and sardonic it absolutely delighted me.

There are some other moments, though, especially in the opening sections, as the heroine wanders London, trying to come to terms with what has happened, that are so heart-breaking I may have shed some actual tears. When it becomes clear there is no cure for 6DM, the British government makes a, uh, a suicide pill freely available to all--which is such a British government thing to do that it also dances on the funny/horrific borderline. In any case, this means that when the heroine decides to play tourist for herself, now she has all the time in the world, she is constantly confronted by all the ways people have chosen to die. For example, in the Natural History Museum:

In the dinosaur exhibition I found a man with his arms wrapped around a young boy. They were lying in the corner of the room facing the dinosaurs. The boy had a small trickle of dried blood coming from his nose, but the man seemed perfectly preserved, like one of the models. The boy was nestled in his father’s arms, his head laid comfortably on his chest, his eyes closed, his face peaceful. He might have been asleep. A final visit to a place they had both loved, a quick drink and vitamin pill and a cuddle that would last for ever. An ending filled with love.

Jesus fucking Christ. I nearly started bawling just copying that out. Honestly, in similar circumstances, I might want my last moments to be in the Natural History Museum too. Though probably under the whale, not next to the dinosaurs.

Despite everything that really worked for me about the book--and there was a lot of that--there were a couple of elements that didn’t so much, mostly to do with the (now deceased) secondary characters. While I found the heroine, and her husband, extremely convincingly rendered--he’s so well-put together portrait of the kind of man the heroine would fall in love with and also out of love with--the same dimensionality didn’t seem to be offered to her hypercompetent Black friend Ginny and her disaster gay bestie, Xav. I don’t know if the book was trying to do something subversive or deconstructive with the fact this cishet white lady has two extremely stereotypical friends, whose reality either isn’t there, or she fails to engage with. Xav gets slightly less short shift than Ginny but he’s still a rich, beautiful, tragic gay who spirals into drug addiction, and seems to count the heroine as his significant relationship. And, again, it’s hard to separate out what is a limitation of the heroine versus a limitation of the book (she does, over the course of the narrative, come to terms with the idea that she was a terrible friend to Xav) but there’s still something strange and arrogant in the idea that we queers are so dependent on cishet people for emotional connection.

Speaking of, err, arrogance, I think there’s also a little … somethingy … about the idea that our white cishet heroine literally needs the entire world to cease to function in order to truly find herself. It’s a bit Zaphod Beeblebrox and the Total Perspective Vortex. I do, however, think that’s a bad faith reading. Last One At the Party is a deliberately absurdist and hyperbolic in its premise. So I don’t think it’s so much that book is presenting itself as Eat Pray Love: Apocalypse Version as asking us to think about the ways we are shaped by--controlled by--the cisheteropatriarchy. And who would we be, who do we have the potential to become, if say … we weren’t.

[Dark Matter · Rating 2 out of 5]

A woman is the last person alive. The Last One At the Party. She goes on a drug-and-alcohol binge for a month then, after the electricity grid fails, she wanders down to the BBC broadcasting station to broadcast a call for help. Because everyone will be watching the TV with no electricity. After that, she frees a handful of animals, keeps one, and leaves the rest. Desperately seeking someone, she drives around Britain.

Humour is personal

I started reading Last One At the Party not really knowing what to expect but, by page 4, it sounded suspiciously like an apocalyptic comedy. The line “The American government acted swiftly and decisively to stop the crisis. No one wanted to make any of the mistakes that happened in 2020” elicited an audible laugh. That was the only time I laughed. If we were post-pandemic then Last One At The Party might appeal to me more.

I watched the first episode or two of the Last Man On Earth but it didn’t appeal to me at all. Others found it hilarious. A supportive audience enabled 4 seasons (2015 to 2018, noticeably concluded BEFORE Covid19). So I figure the striking similarities between the two stories place this book in the “not for me” pile.

In contrast, I love Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Black Books, Kathy Lette, Ruby Wax and other similar styles of humour.

However, I canNOT enjoy people trashing stuff just because they can. I’d always be thinking of the future, of possibly needing it later. Or, in the event of the end of the world, even the possibility of an alien race visiting Earth for an archeological dig would stay my hand.

Last One At The Party is part of a long-established genre

Last One At The Party is Empty World (1977) written for an older (adult instead of adolescent) audience 40 years later. Where it’s original is where it fails. But then I’m the person who is so caught up in BUT THAT’S NOT HOW THE ELECTRICITY GRID WORKS that I can’t see any jokes.

I admit that reading Empty World as a 10-year-old freaked me out so much I’ve never forgotten the basic plot, including the suicide and the end. During Covid19 was not the best time to read a reboot of that story. Not far in, I seriously considered dropping it and moving on. I wish I had. However, with the new Feline Overlords offering moral support and light entertainment, I pressed ahead.

Well before Empty World, pandemic fiction was an established genre in books and on television. Zeitgeist fears of governments’ research escaping laboratories to wipe out humanity date back to at least the middle of the Cold War. Add to that Children of Men’s alternative take on the end of humanity and you’ve pretty much nailed the plot.

Flawed World-building

I am prepared to bet actual money that the author’s research consisted of watching old movies and not actually researching things like WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE POWER GRID IS NOT STAFFED. AND FAILS.

There are SO MANY world-building and plot point problems with this novel that I’m not going to try to list them. Let’s just say that NO ONE INTENTIONALLY EATS FISH BONES. And does the author not see the problem with a fridge running on ONE HOUR OF ELECTRICITY A DAY? And [REDACTED BECAUSE CLIMAX/DENOUMENT SPOILER] IS NOT HOW THAT MEDICAL SITUATION WORKS.

Character inconsistencies

How does a woman manage to learn to sail, know how to jury-rig a net to catch fish but doesn’t know anything about cooking said fish? She learnt to drive a couple of years ago (because plot), but can barely drive, does not have a car, but suddenly has a history of enjoying driving long distances?

And how does said woman grow up camping in tents with her parents but not be able to light a fire, be clueless about safety, not know how to make damper or something similar…

Not know that LONG LIFE MILK is a thing…

I would have accepted weevils in the flour (after an appropriate period) but a starving woman who’s too picky to eat stale crisps?! FYI if you’re hungry enough, you’ll cook said weevil-ridden flour or other foodstuff and thank Dog for the extra protein.

Pat the dog. Pat. The. Fucking. Dog.

When I studied writing, I learnt about the “pat the dog” moment. It’s a moment about 20 minutes in to the movie where the central character will stop and pat a dog or do something equally sympathetic to show the audience “this character is nice, you can like this person” even if they have difficulties with other people.

Not this character.

Seriously, she could have rescued animals LOADS of times or at least released them from their homes. But no. She walks away again and again, leaving dogs howling in distress, the zoo in uproar… then indulges in a pity party because “it’s all too hard”. THIS WAS HORRENDOUS. In my opinion this was probably the most stressful, gut-churning aspect of the novel.

When she finally does rescue a few, she only extends herself to about half a dozen then stops because “it’s too hard”. Poor dear. Perhaps if she freed them in the first few weeks after the pandemic wiped everyone out instead of walking past distressed animals and going inside to take drugs to block out the sound.

Pet owners knew they were going to die all left their animals locked inside their homes. Some thought to leave all the pet food out and bowls of water but no one left a door or window open. Sigh.

Then – get this – she finally keeps one of the dogs. She picks a dog that should have died due to its previous privations and her “tender ministrations”. Instead, the dog saves her life again and again. Because plot. And, presumably, to engender sympathy for the woman.

Flashbacks

Last One At The Party begins with the woman being the last person alive then flashes back to various periods of the woman’s life to build a picture of her childhood, her character, her codependency, her marriage, her mental health etc.

These flashbacks kept me reading in the hope of some kind of hero’s journey where the woman grows the fuck up. To be fair, she becomes more self-sufficient towards the end but it’s one of those “telling” bits after all the “showing” of the incompetence.

And then. The End.

ARGH.

Early on, when I was debating whether to continue reading, I flipped to the end to see how many pages. I saw a change in font, a heading, and guessed at a particular outcome. That outcome was one of the reasons I kept going.

I was wrong.

Representation of disability

Apart from the fact that a pandemic rages, we read as the woman loses her husband then Everybody’s Dead Dave. Last One At The Party has representation of mental health and addiction issues in a few characters.

It could be argued that the central character presents nuanced representation, learns and grows. However, the other person with mental health issues was 100% awful. And when we learn the backstory, it becomes more awful. I think it was supposed to be funny but I felt like crying. And raging because FUCK THAT REPRESENTATION OF DISABILITY.

Representation of addiction issues and the gay character were much better but he’s dead at the beginning of the story, only showing up in flashbacks. Pretty sure that’s a trope.

The Timing

Everyone knew there’d be a wave of pandemic fiction after the advent of Covid19. It is inevitable. Last One At The Party is the first actual pandemic fiction I’ve read so far, although Kathy Lette’s Husband Replacement Therapy mentioned the pandemic briefly at the end.

In this novel, the pandemic is NOT Covid19, it’s 6DM (six days maximum, named for life expectancy after symptoms appear). It’s the pandemic AFTER the current pandemic. Which, in many ways, makes this WORSE. Especially as it’s set in 2023. Scientists warned us that a pandemic was coming. Now they’re warning us that more pandemics will ensue because of climate change and environmental vandalism etc. So, setting this novel in 2023 and 2024 with another, worse, pandemic causes my adrenaline response to skyrocket, my heart to race, my hands to shake.

Covid aint over ’till the world sings

I suspect Marketing thought that Covid would be or is about to be “over” because vaccinations have begun in some countries. (Not in Australia, which was wiped out very quickly in this novel.) Marketing hasn’t taken into account that Covid19 variants are taking off with increased virulence and higher death tolls. I think those timing this release assumed that “we’ll be able to laugh about this when it’s over”. But it isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

And the Australian government is so determined to fuck over the country that they’re telling us we’ll have to learn to live with Covid19 long-term. Which is consistent with their stance that no Asylum Seeker would be vaccinated, a position they only recently announced would be reversed. (And if you believe half the Australian government’s announcements, I have a lovely bridge to sell you situated in a world-renown harbor… I can throw in a gorgeous opera house to sweeten the deal…)

So Covid19 isn’t over as a pandemic. Not by half. Thus, reading Last One At The Party is emotionally taxing. It is NOT escapist reading. Not by a long shot.

The Verdict

Last One At The Party is Empty World written for adults with tropes ripped from Children of Men (end of humanity, suicide pills), Clueless (the central character who drove me NUTS), The Birds (seagulls that are suddenly as big as dogs and very very hungry) and every pandemic movie ever. The author appears to consciously be writing a Last Man On Earth novel but with a woman lead.

Read it if you love pandemic and apocalyptic fiction.

Read Last One At The Party if you enjoy light “fashion” fiction crossed with horror.

Don’t read if you’ve been having vivid dreams like a lot of people were reporting around Easter 2020. Do NOT read it if Covid19 has given you nightmares or detrimentally impacted your mental health.

For science-based fiction, I highly recommend Octavia Cade’s fiction and her recommendations. If you want fun fiction that includes a pandemic, read Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend. Sure, it’s kids’ fiction but I really enjoyed it (even if representation of disability needs improvement.)

[geekyfangirlstuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh damn, jaki to był super tytuł!

• genialnie zachowany klimat postapo
• główna bohaterka, która dzięki samotności odkrywała siebie i była istną mieszanką wybuchową
• rozdziały pisane poniekąd w formie dziennika/pamiętnika ułatwiały wciąganie się w treść
• tw: bardzo szczegółowe opisy dot. śmierci, ciał, rozkładu
• sam wątek śmiertelnego wirusa był bardzo ciekawy
• relacja głównej bohaterki i jej psiego przyjaciela (a później innych zwierząt) AAAAA CUDO

książka może i nie miała wielu zwrotów akcji, ale była naprawdę ciekawa, klimatyczna i przede wszystkim wciągająca✨

i tak jak pisałam już wcześniej - byłaby genialną podstawą do scenariusza filmu!!!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW this book kept me reading late into the night!! Maybe it made it more like real life as we are going through our own global pandemic. I couldn’t put it down!!

There is a deadly virus called 6DM, as it will kill you in 6 days . The virus is global and with no cure insight, a suicide pill is offered to all!!

One woman survives and is on a mission to discover if there are anymore survivors.

Although at first glance it may seem like an odd choice to read during COVID but I did enjoy this book. I found it to be emotional but at the same time funny. I loved the main character as she was strong, resourceful and although she was fragile at times, showed a real strength and a desire to survive against all odds.

I couldn’t help but put myself In her shoes and think about what I would have done!!

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

[Fanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deadly virus has taken the world by an infection that will certainly call death in six days for those afflicted. Following a woman and her dog through a journey of self-discovery, filled with humorous yet saddening and emotional yet strengthening undertones, in the midst of utter destruction and fatalities, and the stunting silence of surviving alone, this story builds on the unexpected yet understandable reactions, deeds, and purposes of humanity when something so catastrophic hits without any bias.

The fear of an impending doom and the thrill of barricading dangers vividly resonates with every human who feels the need to persevere in their veins — especially with those who witnessed a pandemic gradually unfolding its wings. Last One At The Party is similar to the very many dystopian books in the usual themes it explored, yet distinct in the manner it often surprises through more focus on empathy, love for oneself, and the sudden realisation of what anything means if no one remains around.

↣ an early digital copy received via netgalley but review remains uninfluenced. ↢

blog | ko-fi | twitter

October 23, 2020: I have gotten a little weary of apocalyptic themes in science fiction, thinking there was a golden time for it years ago, but this one is really really intriguing me!

[Romina Dimenza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this one while waiting for the kettle to boil, it was in the last box I received from the book resort. I didn’t think I was going to get so hooked. The kettle boiled and I had to put it two more times because every time it was ready I was too busy reading to make my tea, I read 95 pages straight.
That was las weekend and having a demanding job I don’t really read during the week, I still managed to read another 100 pages in there and then today I went in one go to the end. I still want to know more, what happened next?
I’m not one for spoiling books, but if the end of the world really happens I wish anyone left behind is going to leave more of a trace behind.
Is well written and as sure as I can be is gripping, is quite hard not to drift back just wanting to know what happened, even to the dog!

[Tessa {bleeds glitter} · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars

A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants and hiding how she feels to meet other people's expectations. From her career to her relationships, to what she wears and where she lives, she's made a lifetime of decisions to fit what other people want her to be.
But with no one else left, who will she become now that she's completely alone? This part of the synopsis is what made me think this was going to be an introspective take on a woman coming to terms with who she pretended to be in order to fit societal expectations, the patriarchy, feminists (because yes, in current times we do also have expectations from some feminists how women are supposed to be and act and dress). Instead I got almost 400 pages of a 30-something 15 year old (that's how she read, talked and acted) who is so stupid and whiney she never would have survived a week after everyone else died. Never.
Her contempt for everyone else was staggering, especially after they were all dead. You'd think in the face of that trauma or loss you'd forgive people for not being perfect, but no. She becomes a drug addict, doesn't do anything to help the pets and animals she knows are stuck and will die, does anything sensible to survive or just takes the goddamn easy death pill the government so readily provided. Again, I was submitted to almost 400 pages of her being an asshole.
And like, I could relate to some of her thoughts, some of the moments where she actually did become introspective and thought about how the world was, I could relate and care. But instead of following up on that with useful thoughts, or freeing herself from those expectations or anything I wanted, we cut away to her being stupid or wanting a kid.
I don't know what it is about apocalypse books needing their main characters to have a baby right before, during, or after the apocalypse, but it annoys me to no end. Women are capable of more than having children in difficult situations and "keeping humanity alive" or whatever the fuck it is authors want to tell me with that all too common trope. It's not a hopeful story for me to watch the main female character go through being pregnant and childbirth alone, traumatized, in pain and unable to change her situation. It's not a good story to tell about a woman supposedly finding out who she is after she can stop caring about everyone else and put herself first, when she immediately has to put someone else first again. It literally defeats the purpose of the original point of this book (not that the rest of the book tries to do anything in regards to that premise either, but it's what I was lead to believe it would be about).
There is also incredibly weak world-building. I mean, the name of the illness killing everyone is literally 6DM (six days maximum), that really does tell you everything about the intelligence and world-building level of the rest of the book. At least the beginning was hilarious that way. After the US and I think China or Russia immediately died off, the United Kingdom, "having learned from the Covid-19 pandemic", blew up their bridges and tunnels and whatever to the remaining world, put out a shoot-at sight order for the borders and told their people they would be safe and sound while they watched the rest of the world die. And, because of British politeness, everyone did as they were told, formed orderly lines, stayed home and did nothing violent.
After the actual governmental reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic and how the general populace reacted after "losing" the EM, I had a good, long laugh and basically didn't believe anything else the book had to say.
I mean, it's just all so very convenient for the main character. Only one major city is on fire during the main character's travel from London to the most remote, northern part of Scotland. Only one. Good thing no one had their oven on, or a fire going, or there was an exposed wire, or some died with a cigarette in their hands, or there was a gas leak, or literally any other easy, little thing that could very likely happen during the apocalypse in a city of millions like London. Nothing was set on fire, the looting was all orderly and friendly and calm, because it's Britain. No one tried to drive anywhere, the roads are all empty, there are like three crashed cars, no one died during the clean up of the bodies, the mass graves were put on fire and abandoned, with no trucks or anything filled with dead bodies around that pit. There are scenes where the main character comes across dead and rotting and half-eaten bodies, there are gross, gory scenes, but so many parts read way too clean and way too convenient. Most places she comes across still have running water, so many still have electricity and at the same time her final home has a broken roof with leaks after being abandoned for only half a year, her phone properly dies after four months, none of that makes sense. The car she gets stuck in a blizzard with, where she turns on the heating full blast before falling asleep and waking up in the dead and snowed in car turns on after the first try once the snow has melted?! I mean, what??
My main issue though was that the main character really just was incredibly stupid. She didn't plan or do anything useful or intelligent until after she finds out she's pregnant because then she finally can care for another person again (see what I mean about the part where this book is about her finding out who she is without other people? Immediately ruined, she becomes a drug addict on her own, there, you don't need to read the book now). She can't make sure there is enough gas in her car to take her anywhere, she can't for the life of her (literally) pack food aside from like two mars bars or bring water instead of lemonade, you know, the easiest parts about being alive. She constantly forgets to pack proper clothes or blankets or anything, even when she does remember to get it, she just abandons it immediately. She never cleans up after her, even though she claims she doesn't want to die. She didn't understand that having a fire burning in a room will not be enough to heat up the room if you leave all the doors wide open, especially the door to a room where she literally broke the window during a blizzard to get into the house. I mean, I just couldn't stand it. These are basic intelligence things. You don't have to be a survivalist to know or do this kind of shit.
I was intrigued by the repeated statements at the beginning how there were no cats and birds around anymore, how there doesn't really seem to be a whole lot of animals around anymore either and I thought the MC would maybe figure out that 6DM also affects animals or learn anything about the illness since the world building is so weak we don't get to know anything about the illness except how it kills and how it's nicer to take the easy death pill and be done with it, but that never comes to pass either. Instead there were two scenes about rats now apparently taking over the world and having a taste for living human flesh, whole groups of them going after her. There is one scene where she finally finds some birds (seagulls) who have become both vicious killers of anything that moves in the four of five months since humanity has died, literally sitting around day and night on rooftops waiting for anything to move and the street.
I'm not even gonna say anything, just let you sit with that.
Nothing is ever explained about the illness, about her immunity, about the fact that apparently a whole lot of people just rook to T600 easy death pill (and also gave it to their children on persistent urging from the government) instead of waiting to get sick and that there are obviously other survivors who she just never finds.
The whole book really is not well written, with weak and overly convenient world-building and an unlikeable main character to make this whole mess complete. The flash-backs to her former live were annoying at best, and didn't really add much to the story in my opinion, because nothing changes. The MC doesn't learn or grow or come to terms with things that happen until she finds out she's pregnant. It's absolutely ridiculous that the author concludes a story about a woman surviving the apocalypse and supposedly finding out who she is, who she can become when she's finally left alone to her own devices, with said woman fulfilling every societal expectation for women (have a child and lose yourself completely in being a mother) by doing exactly that. The MC repeatedly states throughout the book that she wanted a baby because then she would finally have to stop worrying who she is, she could finally be happy, she could finally be done trying to figure herself out. These statements are always put into flashback scenes where the MC is completely lost in panic, depression, running away, starting an affair, doing everything to escape learning about herself and growing as a person and it makes me irrationally angry that the conclusion to this story is her having a baby, especially since even being pregnant already mostly "healed" her of her depression, panic disorder and trauma.
So the answer to the question posed in the synopsis But with no one else left, who will she become now that she's completely alone? is literally: Exactly who the rest of the world always wanted her to be. Isn't that just such a letdown?

[Stef L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year I experienced more reading slumps than I’ve ever had. Yet, from the moment I turned the first page in Last One At The Party my mind was still and I was utterly transfixed.

I’ve read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction. Beth’s debut was the first I’d read during a pandemic so I approached it with a little trepidation. I needn’t have done so, yes there are some pretty harrowing scenes but that’s not the essence of the story, this is a novel about what it is to be female when the world is crumbling around you. What it takes to find yourself when there is only you left to find and most importantly of all, the inner strength that finds you when all hope is lost.

I finished it months ago but I still think of it often and ahead of writing this review found myself thinking of which book it’s comparable to, the answer is none as it’s refreshingly original, but if you tried to imagine a delicious blend of Station Eleven and Bridget Jones Diary you’d be on the right path.

It reads like a dream, the plot itself sometimes feels like more of a living nightmare (don’t even get me started on the seagulls...) with every single word perfectly plotted to create a story like no other. Sometimes I laughed, sometimes I cried, but I always related and I never wanted it to end.

This is the chaotic, bold and beautiful story of a life and it’s one that I implore you to read. It’s special, very special and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last One at the Party has a cover that makes it look like a descendant of Sex & The City, and I would never have considered it had I not seen a glowing review on Facebook - but I’m so glad I did. It’s a brilliant story about a woman who finds herself the sole survivor of a deadly pandemic (much more deadly than this one!) in 2023, and has to learn to cope on her own as she looks back on her life before everything changed. The foreword explains how this was written pre-Covid and that she had to rewrite it to incorporate the events of the last year. You’d think it would be depressing but it’s not - I loved it and feel almost bereft that it’s over.

The narrator is 36 and working a dull job in a London office when the first reports of a horrific new virus emerge out of the USA. Dubbed 6DM, for six days max - how long you have to live - it sweeps the globe and within weeks she’s nursing her dying husband - who has always looked after her - and freaking out about what to do. When the buzz of drink and drugs wears off, she sets off to find other survivors, picking up a stray golden retriever she calls Lucky, new life skills, and an appreciation for the life that she was never previously happy with - but how can you go on when there’s nobody left?

I’ve always rather enjoyed post-apocalyptic fiction - it’s just a shame how often zombies have to feature. It might be strange for some reading this in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic: if the worst you’ve suffered is not being able to go to the pub, it might put things in perspective, whereas if you have lost someone to it, this could be triggering (and I’m very sorry.)
I’d idly pondered how I would cope in this scenario - probably a good deal better than our unnamed heroine, I imagine. Forget getting bombed out on tramadol, I’d be stockpiling chocolate, raiding a camping shop for a solar charger to keep my kindle running, finding the newest campervan I could manage and heading for the warmest part of Britain. But then it’s not my story and there wouldn’t be the same suspense as she fends off unexpected but terrifying threats (no zombies, I promise).

The most difficult part of PA stories is always the ending - since you can’t reset, you can’t imagine a truly happy outcome, and you don’t want it to be depressing, so I really wasn’t sure how Clift would finish this, but actually really liked the outcome - no spoilers. I loved the character’s evolution - particularly after we learn everything she’s suffered. Initially I hated her for not saving the animals, but she does redeem herself and it’s easy to judge when you’re not in her situation. She acknowledges her selfishness - which turns out to be a handy survival trait, and her behaviour is probably quite realistic. This is the author’s first novel and I’ll be looking out for whatever she produces next.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc which allowed me to give an honest review.

[Indieflower · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm partial to tales of apocalyptic shenanigans and I really enjoyed this one, at first it felt a bit like Bridget Jones finding herself the lone survivor of the apocalypse, but it quickly became much more than that. A global pandemic, much worse than our current one, sweeps the world, leaving our protagonist (we never learn her name) all alone and completely clueless about, well pretty much everything, and so begins her struggle for survival. I have to say, many things in this book irritated me and didn't always ring true, just used as convenient plot devices, and the inclusion of small incorrect details such as coming across a garden plot of runner beans, ready to eat in May when they're not in season in the UK till August, nit picky I know, but it felt careless and the devil's In the details as they say. In spite of the irritations I still found it hard to put down and raced through it. I liked the diary format and the gradual revealing of the MC's back story and though extremely graphic and harrowing in places, there were many touches of dry humour. A somewhat different take on the usual dystopian survival fare, 4 stars and I'll be sure to look out for more from Bethany Clift.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG. I have literally just finished Last One At The Party & it was one of those books where I read the last page & just stared into space & thought “that was bloody brilliant”. Absolutely brilliant!

You might feel a bit nervy about reading a book about a pandemic while we’re in a pandemic, but honestly don’t be worried. The 6DM pandemic has only one survivor. One!! So survival becomes a fight only with yourself - do you want to survive, knowing you’re completely alone? Well, read it & find out!!

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of the end of the world stories, but this one fell flat.

The premise itself is promising. A new deadly plague begins, spreading widely and rapidly killing everyone in its path. It's called the 6DM virus, and everyone infected dies an excruciating death within six days. To avoid the slow and painful demise, pills to end it quickly can be obtained for free at your local pharmacy.

A UK woman survives, ending up all alone, moving through an abandoned city, littered with corpses.

That entire idea is right up my alley, unfortunately the woman ends up going on a hunt for a fancy hotel, found the penthouse, chilled for a while, drinking the most expensive champagne she could possibly find. Because that's exactly what we'd all do, right?

Also, did you know that women are only there to birth babies? Because that's what I got from the second part of this book. Maybe I'm being slightly harsh here, but Last One At The Party definitely wasn't the book for me.

[Miriam Smith (A Mother’s Musings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Last One At the Party’ written by debut author Bethany Clift is a near future post-apocalyptic novel that will have you immediately engrossed and on the edge of your seat for most of the read.

The end of everything was her beginning......

It's November 2023. The human race has been wiped out by the 6DM virus (Six Days Maximum - the longest you've got before your body destroys itself). It’s the end of the world as we know it. Yet someone is still alive. Alone in a new world of burning cities, rotting corpses and ravenous rats, one woman has survived. A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants and hiding how she feels to meet other people's expectations. From her career to her relationships, to what she wears and where she lives, she's made a lifetime of decisions to fit what other people want her to be.
But with no one else left, who will she become now that she's completely alone?

It’s hard to believe that a premise like the one in “Last One at the Party” could be strangely believable but after the events of 2020, which are still ongoing now, it’s certainly a bizarre feeling that you can
relate to the actualities and understand how the 6DM virus can spread so quickly.
Thinking I would want to shy away from anything virus/pandemic related at the moment, I was quite shocked at how addicted to the story I was and how utterly engrossed this kept me from the first attention grabbing pages. Although we’re not quite at the stages the world is in, in this story, it is scarily realistic and frightening, that one day it may well come to something this drastic. Where normally you’re transported to a different reality this one took me to a world where although set in the near future and with a dystopian feel, it was like something that felt everyday and normal.
We don’t ever get to know the name of the female protagonist and that is very ingenious, allowing us to form a relationship not just with the person but a stranger who is unfortunate (or not) to be the ‘last one at the party’. She’s crass, witty, straight talking and says things as they are but she is also genuine and a survivor. I felt like I couldn’t blink or take a breath at times especially during the last few pages which were just incredible and my heart desperately went out to her. I was with her every step of her fight for survival but the biggest fight was with herself and finding the real inner her.
You’ll be gagging yourself with some of the vomit inducing scenes and I defy anyone not to be screaming for a sequel to be written. Well done to the author for this inspiring, frighteningly realistic venture into a very possible future for us all and for assuring us of the strength we can all find to stay alive.

Bethany Clift is a graduate of the Northern Film School and is a director of her own production company.

Thank you to Steven Cooper and Hodder for my copy of the book in return for an honest review and for inviting me on the blog tour.
You can purchase this brilliant and timely debut book from the following link -
https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/bet...


4.5 stars

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last One At The Party won’t appeal to everybody right now, given the current global situation, but I let curiosity get the better of me as I am actually quite a fan of dystopian stories, and avidly avoided them during the last year.
Everyone has their own way of dealing with situations though, and I do get an odd sense of comfort from reading a fictional, worldwide scenario that is so much worse than our own. Fiction sometimes helps me to put my own life into perspective that way. And the hope that our reality will never get this bad.
Either way, I was still pleasantly surprised that I didn’t DNF this, although it did feel raw and upsetting at times, it was quite well-written and read almost like an Apocalyptic Bridget Jones’ Diary.

The year is 2023, and the world as we know it is no more as humanity is being wiped out by the 6DM virus. Which stands for Six Days Maximum because that’s the most you’re going to get if you catch it.
This is the diary of a woman who has lost all her loved ones, and is wandering the city of London. Through the barren streets. Wondering if she is indeed the sole survivor of this epidemic or not. Visiting the bodies of loved ones who had perished. Flitting between famous landmarks, posh hotels and her best friend Xav’s mansion (he too is sadly deceased in one of the bedrooms). She makes a broadcast at the BBC and gets no response from anybody, in London it seems as though there are no survivors.
She then adopts a golden retriever called Lucky, rather than leaving him alone in a house, and takes to the road to travel the length and breadth of the U.K. There has to be somebody else out there... right?!

It references COVID-19 and also at our government’s (the U.K.) incompetence with handling it throughout our situation overall.

The flashbacks to her former life and memories of people she cared about made me continue on with this. They were the highlight parts for me.

In hindsight I could have maybe held out a while longer before reading this title, so for me personally I can’t really rate it any higher than 3.5 stars, rounded down to a 3.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this so much that I went and bought a paper copy of it. It was recommended to me by my daughter who knows I love a good pandemic story, this one did not disappoint. And if you are a fan of Louise Welsh's, A Lovely Way to Burn and series, then you'll be keen for this one.

This entire book is a stream of consciousness from one woman. The only person left alive in Britain as for some strange reason she seems to be the last one left as a pandemic sweeps through and leaves just her alive. She doesn't know why. There is no logical reason that she can fathom but here she is, alone, craving company. I really liked her, we never find out her name, there is nobody left to call her by it, she tells us her story through a series of flashbacks. She tells us of the guilt she feels for the way she's treated people over the years, her parents, her husband, her best friend. As she attempts to rationalise a life all by herself, unable to make amends and with way to much time on her hands to ruminate, you get caught up in her predicament. What the hell is she going to do? Does she even have the ability to survive by herself? Where is the best place for her to end up? As she figures these things out I got carried away with her.

There are so many awesome things, I love that she moved into the fanciest house and had a lovely time in glorious hotels, drinking the bars dry and living on the nibbles, obviously once the power went off it was less ideal! I adored the dog, you've always got to have a dog in these stories. It is pretty grim in parts, but weirdly, it never gets too much, just when I thought I'd had enough of dead bodies, the story moves on and takes you somewhere else. The pace is perfect, it never lags or gets bogged down, it cleverly drives forward while our girl tries to sort herself out. One of my most worrying moments was when she was trying to light a fire and the match supply was getting woefully short. I had to give her a good yelling at! Why on earth didn't she gather a lighter in her supplies?

Anyway, this is a cool book. I so enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to seeing what this author can do next.

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, I did not like this book very much. I'm going to write my review in spoilers because it's potentially triggering in current 2020-2021 circumstances.

So I know the author had a note at the front of the book saying she was writing this book before COVID was a thing and didn't want to capitalise off of it, but putting COVID into the narrative of this book was...a choice. It was actually really insensitive because the protagonist, of 2023/2024, is really dismissive of COVID because of the absolutely devastating kills-you-in-6-days fictional pandemic of the book. Wasn't a fan of that at all.

So we meet our unnamed female protagonist, who writes a diary, thinking she's the only person alive in the UK. We get insights into her old life with her husband James, and her current experiences of survival. But honestly? She's not very likeable and I get that the point of the book was that she was the classic 'messy female protagonist' but I just didn't warm to her at all. I know that she has anxiety and depression but it didn't excuse how she acted in her previous relationships and friendships.

The present day sections of the book are just as messed up. I didn't connect with the writing or the character. It was just one big journey of being a complete disaster and it had a little character growth but not enough. So this was disappointing. I hope we never have a real life 6DM virus, not that anyone really knew much about it in the book.

Also the ending is one of those inconclusive ones that I don't like. No thanks. Sorry, but don't think this was my kind of end of human life book.

[Liv Chalmers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ending??? THE ENDING??? Someone please give me more!!! What happened? Where did she go? HOW WERE THERE 16 OTHER SURVIVORS SHE DIDN’T FIND?

This is everything I love in a good post-apocalyptic novel, but I still want answers! How did she survive all that time? How come she didn't find anyone else? Why did the only person she found die upon contact with her? I want to know everything!

Who rescued the other 16 survivors if there was no-one left? How come the protagonist and her daughter weren't with them? I just want to know!! This will drive me crazy!! What a great book and I would read the hell out of a sequel.

Besides all the questions I have, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It kept me up late at night reading and scared the hell out of me at times, too. I was so convinced this protagonist was me and that I'd been left alone by everyone. I was scared that this would actually happen to us. I FEARED FOR THE LIFE OF A DOG? (which NEVER happens!). I just want to know more.

Will definitely be recommending this to everyone I know.

[Sindy Castellanos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me ha parecido una lectura tediosa debido a los monólogos de una protagonista que no sabe quién es, ni lo que quiere y cuyas decisiones son tan fuera de lugar e insensatas. Por otro lado, me implicaba mucho esfuerzo enfrentarme al tema de una pandemia tan letal y devastadora y a una percepción de la vida sin sentido. Aunque reconozco que es por eso, en contraste, que sí que ayuda a valorar la vida.
__________
I found it a tedious read due to the monologues of a protagonist who does not know who she is, nor what she wants and whose decisions are so out of place and foolish. On the other hand, it took me a lot of effort to face the issue of such a deadly and devastating pandemic and a meaningless perception of life. Although I recognize that this is why, in contrast, it does help to value life.

[Hally · Rating 4 out of 5]

My journey with this book:

Cover, title, and post-apocalyptic setting didn't attract me at.all.

Heard a few gushing reviews. Kept hearing about it. Still, my TBR is hundreds of books long so no, this one just isn't a priority. Saw a proof copy on the staffroom desk at work. Being haunted by the book at this point. Picked it up just to read a couple of pages as I wasn't absorbed in the Booker Prize Winner I'd finally decided to pick up...looking back I probably needed something easier after going from doing nothing in lockdown to working at full capacity. Continued reading throughout my lunchbreak and on the train journey home.

50 pages in I thought, 'this is a bad idea...I am completely compelled...I am also an emetophobe living through a pandemic. Reading about a pandemic in which the main symptom, this time, is completely aligned with my phobia, is pretty stupid. Needless to say I related to the protagonist on the count that she is also a bit of an idiot.

Asked my friend (who has already read it) some questions about the content, and read the author's note...there were no warnings to immediately discontinue reading. I kept going. At this point I literally CAN'T stop reading, not only because the book is so arresting but also because my obsessive-compulsive thoughts are kicking in; ''if you don't read one more chapter before sleep then this will happen to you'' they say.

My friend was right, any vomiting is stated matter-of-factly, not descriptively. Still, I flick through the book for a sense of control and accidentally spoil a big plot point for myself. I pretend this hasn't happened and continue on. The vomit mentions lessen (obviously, with the protagonist being the only person left in the book's world.)

This is actually weirdly fun? How is this book so enjoyable? The narration is funny and although not necessarily a likable character, I care what happens to the protagonist. The fictional world might be scary but it's interesting, well thought out and has it's moments of joy. There is also a dog!!!

Quite a few lucky coincidences but also how do we know if this is realistic? I do not want to find out.

Oh God She Is Going To Die (you know she's not going to die, you have already flicked to the end of the book...) nope, she's definitely going to die.

How did I not see this coming?? (You did...you literally saw a sentence that gave this plot point away.)

So satisfying, I love books about self-sufficient living, such an escape. Why is the idea of eating cold tinned food and muddy carrots so attractive right now? (Obsessive thoughts kick in again just writing this, as if I can influence events negatively just by thinking things like this.)

I like how the protagonist ends up living in a 'Hobbit Hole'. I'm enjoying both her physical adventure and her emotional one.

Moved. I am moved. I actually feel a little bit seen.

The end could have been better, too many unanswered questions, maybe being saved for a sequel?

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All in all despite starting with a pandemic this book doesn't focus on that but on the post apocalyptic struggle to survive. It could have gone maybe a little deeper with the introspection, but overall this is goooood.

TW blood and gore.