Review ~ The Last by Hanna Jameson

Penguin
1 August 2019

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

The world has ended in Nuclear War.

You and nineteen other survivors hole up in an isolated Swiss hotel.

You wait, you survive.

The you find the body.

One of your number has blood on their hands

The race is on to find the killer...

BEFORE THE KILLER FINDS YOU

What did I think about it...

Nuclear bombs drop on strategic points around the globe and for the remaining guests at the isolated L'Hôtel Sixième in Switzerland life, as they once knew it, is definitely over. For Jon Keller, an American historian, the situation allows him to observe his fellow survivors in close detail and so when the discovery of a body suggests foul play, Jon needs to do all he can, not just to find the perpetrator, but also to survive against all odds.

The Last is a decidedly scary account of what might occur should there ever be a global nuclear atrocity. The post-apocalyptic world is so eerie realistic that I read through the book with a feeling of extreme cold, trapped in the same time-warp, with the same feeling of disbelief and terror. The dystopian world is a frightening place to linger, survival of the fitness is reliant on those who have food, medication and a means of protecting themselves. For the nineteen survivors who are trapped in the hotel having to depend on each other proves to be extremely toxic in a terrifying world where there is complete a news blackout and with no idea of as what is happening in the wider world.

Jon Keller's own very visceral account is recorded as detailed journal entries and gradually, over time, we watch as the mystery at the heart of the novel becomes ever more complex, people start to become more wary of each other and we also witness the overall deterioration of morals, ethics and everything which makes us act with humanity

In a nuclear age, when all the super powers have the facility to launch a nuclear attack, The Last proves to be a scarily realistic tale and one that stays with you long after the last page is finished.

About the Author

Hanna Jameson wrote her first book at the age of seventeen. She wrote The Last, her first book for Penguin, during the fallout from the 2016 Presidential election. She has the skill set of a wild-west gun-slinger and you would want her on your zombie Apocalypse team.

Twitter @Hanna_Jameson #TheLast

@PenguinUkBooks