ARC REVIEW: Last Girls by Demetra Brodsky

Title: Last Girls
Author: Demetra Brodsky
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release date: May 5th, 2020
Page count: 368
Genre: Young Adult / Contemporary / Thriller
Purchase links: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble

Summary

No one knows how the world will end.

On a secret compound in the Washington wilderness, Honey Juniper and her sisters are training to hunt, homestead, and protect their own.

Prepare for every situation.

But when danger strikes from within, putting her sisters at risk, training becomes real life, and only one thing is certain:

Nowhere is safe.

Review

Last Girls follows the story of Honey Juniper and her two younger sisters, Birdie and Blue. They live as preppers (people that train themselves to be prepared for the “ending of the world”) in a place called The Nest with their mother Alice. However, as strange things start to happen in The Nest, some dirty secrets get uncovered and the Juniper sisters will have to fight to know the truth that’s been kept from them all along.

For me, this story had a slow beginning. I struggled at getting familiar with the story and its characters, specially Birdie and Blue as I couldn’t tell them apart during the first chapters. The one thing that caught my interest and kept me reading during these first chapters was the situation in the school, when you can actually get a reaction from Honey and start to know her a little better for who she is: someone who’s always trying to protect her sisters, always vigilant and ready for whatever comes her way. However, we see these things take a toll on her and make her more of a mother than a sister to Birdie and Blue.

At seven years old, I had a limited concept of time. Now, I’m painfully aware of every passing day.

I wish this story could have a faster pacing, as I struggled to keep going at some points because apparently, during the first half of the book almost nothing of relevance happened. Last Girls doesn’t have much shocking events or surprising twist and turns, it slowly builds up to the bigger picture at the end, and that might be why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

The characters were all very diverse (personality wise), and my favorite one was Honey. It felt like a very realistic character, this girl that’s so invested on taking care of her sisters and, in her words, being the three big Rs (Ready, Reactive and Responsive), that she loses herself a little in the process, and slowly tries to reconnect with her passion for art. I liked her interactions with Rémy, and his character was also very likeable. Birdie and Blue were also very interesting to read, and Achy the falcon was such a good addition to the mix.

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Weird is good. It’s in your DNA.

This story has two points of view, both of them very important in order to understand the story better. Toby’s chapters intrigued me a lot, the whole time I was wondering, what’s the importance of these chapters when they don’t seem to have anything to do with Honey’s chapters? But that’s what kept me going, and making theories in my head. This was a key factor in the story and a big part of the book’s magic resides in the dual pov, those two sides of the coin to help you understand it all at the end.

Now, before reading this, I have never read about about preppers in my life. I got to say Last Girls included in it’s narration and dialogues many acronyms that got me struggling a bit. I learned some of them along the way, but some of the longer ones I just couldn’t remember what they actually meant. They added a lot to the story’s worldbuilding and helped to get a realistic potray of the life of the preppers, but I couldn’t help to be a bit overwhelmed by it.

The ending was my favorite part of the book. It made me realise that throughout the way, little things added up to make a whole bigger picture that left me very surprised. I was not expecting that ending, and the dirty secrets uncovered by the sisters, Rémy and Bucky. It made me notice all the little things I didn’t pay attention to while reading the book. By the last page, there were no loose ends and everything was perfectly wrapped up.

Last Girls speaks about family bonds, reconnecting with your past, fighting for the truth and for getting back what you lost. It’s about taking a closer look at the things in your life you’re so certain of. It won’t leave you indifferent. Even when I had my issues with some aspects in the story I already mentioned, I think it’s worth giving it a try.

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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About the Author

Demetra Brodsky loves to write twisty thrillers about dark family secrets. She is an award-winning graphic designer & art director turned full-time author. A first-generation Greek American and native of Massachusetts with a B.F.A from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Demetra now lives in Southern California where she’s always exploring and researching, hunting for clues to things that might feed into her next book. Dive Smack, her debut novel, is a 2018 Junior Library Guild Selection and (ALAN) pick.

Connect with Demetra online:

Instagram: demebrodsky
Twitter: @demetrabrodsky
Tumblr: demetrabrodsky
Website: demetrabrodsky.com

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