Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan

4 reviews

clara_h39's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I normally don’t like thriller/horror/psych books, but I really enjoyed this one. It was not too graphic since the mass murder took place before the book, and its only slightly gory during flashbacks. Very interesting and detailed world bulding. I appreciated the queer relationship wasn’t exploited or one note, it was just representative of two real girls in love strugglingg with trauma. I do think this book was somewhat predictable but it didn’t ruin the enjoyment for me, i was still on the edge of my seat.
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islandbookwyrm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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starklinqs's review

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3.5

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

This was an interesting book, and I feel like the ending felt almost like a short story in a way? I wish we had gotten more information on our main’s past, because it was very vaguely acknowledged and fed into the plot but we didn’t really know a whole lot of what was happening. I don’t know how I feel about the ending - maybe if we got a bit more flashbacks on the camp and what happened there I might like it better? Or more in our main’s unraveling? I don’t know. 

I did read through this book pretty quickly though, I just wish there were more answers. So if you’re fine with the book being more open ended I’d say definitely go for this book! 
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nrogers_1030's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

In this YA thriller, Cherry and Sloan are the "last girls standing" in a camp massacre. Once Sloan begins investigating what happened, she finds out more than she bargained for. The story is told in Sloan's POV.

I was really excited to read this - the cover art is amazing and the book description sounded right up my alley.  After what they experienced at the camp, it's not unimaginable to see how these two ended up being together and being each other's everything. But the relationship is very toxic (to the point of full-blown obsession, including stalking). Things started picking up in Chapter 5. Once I hit Chapter 15, I couldn't put the book down because I *needed* to know what happened next. Without giving away the meat of the story, I wish the storyline didn't feel rushed. The progression from being paranoid about her girlfriend's involvement in the cult-related murders to believing in the doctrine of the cult  was a bit rushed. There was no gradual decline of mental facilities. Bam, boom, it's done. One chapter she's investigating, the next shes in a full fledged mental break. I would have liked to have seen more development in that regard.


That being said, I really enjoyed The Last Girls Standing. It's dark, it's LGBTQIA inclusive and it definitely sets itself apart from the standard lone survivor trope. Being geared towards ages 14+, I feel like the content is appropriate for those not wanting to read heavy sexual content.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.
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