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maddoxx's review against another edition
5.0
I expected to be bored with this book at some point, for there to be parts where it dragged and nothing was happening.
However, it managed to find a perfect balance between the horrific tragedies the narrator encountered, flashbacks to her old life and her inner monologue. Never even once was I bored, quite the opposite.
I didn't hate the narrator. She was... unpleasant, in the beginning. She doesn't exactly act like the protagonist of an post-apocalypse survival novel. She does a lot of stupid, wasteful things and has ideas that she immediately drops again. Multiple times, she's a coward and sometimes maybe even a bad person. And then she's not. She goes back for the dog. She looks for survivors, eventually. She tries and fails and tries again.
I liked that about her. She's absolutely not a hero or the kind of "strong female character" the media loves to portray right now. She's very deeply flawed in a way I could relate to - not everyone will, and that's fine. Lots of people might find her annoying, whiny, indecisive. That's okay. I think, in part, that was the point.
Not everyone needs to like her or relate to her. But as it happens, she's the last one at the party.
However, it managed to find a perfect balance between the horrific tragedies the narrator encountered, flashbacks to her old life and her inner monologue. Never even once was I bored, quite the opposite.
I didn't hate the narrator. She was... unpleasant, in the beginning. She doesn't exactly act like the protagonist of an post-apocalypse survival novel. She does a lot of stupid, wasteful things and has ideas that she immediately drops again. Multiple times, she's a coward and sometimes maybe even a bad person. And then she's not. She goes back for the dog. She looks for survivors, eventually. She tries and fails and tries again.
I liked that about her. She's absolutely not a hero or the kind of "strong female character" the media loves to portray right now. She's very deeply flawed in a way I could relate to - not everyone will, and that's fine. Lots of people might find her annoying, whiny, indecisive. That's okay. I think, in part, that was the point.
Not everyone needs to like her or relate to her. But as it happens, she's the last one at the party.
katemetty's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
stabilesero's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Two whole weeks since everyone died and I had only made the most cursory attempts to find any other survivors..... I had watched porn instead.
I freaking loved this. It was so refreshing to have a post-apocalypse book with a British sense of humour. There were so many points that were my favourite but I don't want to give anything away. You may find the MC a little self-indulgent and self-pitying. I honestly hated her for a short while, but let's be honest, we're not all going to be the best apocalypse survivors. This was a treat.
Also, there's a dog. Need I say any more?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Death, and Drug use
Moderate: Vomit, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Alcohol, Child death, Death of parent, Excrement, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Miscarriage and Xenophobia
gabriel98's review
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
nicolamb's review against another edition
4.0
Despite my hatred for the main character who makes so many stupid decisions and is honestly very hard to like, the writing was great, the atmosphere was great and I'll give it 4 stars because it made me care so much that I was vocally berating the MC at every stupid stupid decision. Ugh, she was a lot.
lpaxley's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
chickenrungravy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.5
katykelly's review against another edition
5.0
The images are hard to forget, a scenario too close to home.
Powerful and relevant post-pandemic narrative. I just LOVED the fact that the last person alive after a deadly pandemic rages is a regular, flawed, incapable, scared woman.
And one that makes the reader laugh regularly. She's so relatable. Nobody alive can fail to see the comparison between Anonymous Narrator and the current world we are living in. Few will see humour in our situation. But here there is humour. Pathos. Fear. Tension.
6DM (Six Days Maximum is the length of time you have to live after catching this) has speedily moved through the population, and we get to see the just-out-of-sight view of our own COVID-like plot spun out if things had gone slightly differently.
Seeing the impact of a global virus might not be everyone's cup of tea at the moment, but I didn't have trouble dissociating from life to immerse myself in a different story. Seeing someone else's vision of how governments and societies cope in the last days, what the world will then look like. The problems a person would face in sourcing food, finding somewhere safe, the new threats he or she would face. Some that hadn't occurred to me.
Our narrator is very much an EveryWoman, one who shares quite intimate details with us and doesn't care. I did enjoy the slow reveal of her own history, her own romances and work life and personal mental health challenges. All led to the still-pretty-incapable woman being left the sole heir to the throne of humankind with little chance of succeeding.
This combined several aspects very successfully - the backstory that gives us a flawed heroine ill-equipped to imitate Bear Grylls, the (post) pandemic survival story, the woman, the sidekick, the predators, the challenges.
I really enjoyed the narrator talking to us through diary-like entries, she's open with us. She makes terrible decisions but you don't lose sympathy for her. I also loved the author's inventiveness and how well things had been considered - the new 'top of the food chain', the things that go wrong, the way life slowly shuts down and changes as humans disappear. All too real.
Very readable, despite the subject matter. Humourous, smart and hard to forget.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.
Powerful and relevant post-pandemic narrative. I just LOVED the fact that the last person alive after a deadly pandemic rages is a regular, flawed, incapable, scared woman.
And one that makes the reader laugh regularly. She's so relatable. Nobody alive can fail to see the comparison between Anonymous Narrator and the current world we are living in. Few will see humour in our situation. But here there is humour. Pathos. Fear. Tension.
6DM (Six Days Maximum is the length of time you have to live after catching this) has speedily moved through the population, and we get to see the just-out-of-sight view of our own COVID-like plot spun out if things had gone slightly differently.
Seeing the impact of a global virus might not be everyone's cup of tea at the moment, but I didn't have trouble dissociating from life to immerse myself in a different story. Seeing someone else's vision of how governments and societies cope in the last days, what the world will then look like. The problems a person would face in sourcing food, finding somewhere safe, the new threats he or she would face. Some that hadn't occurred to me.
Our narrator is very much an EveryWoman, one who shares quite intimate details with us and doesn't care. I did enjoy the slow reveal of her own history, her own romances and work life and personal mental health challenges. All led to the still-pretty-incapable woman being left the sole heir to the throne of humankind with little chance of succeeding.
This combined several aspects very successfully - the backstory that gives us a flawed heroine ill-equipped to imitate Bear Grylls, the (post) pandemic survival story, the woman, the sidekick, the predators, the challenges.
I really enjoyed the narrator talking to us through diary-like entries, she's open with us. She makes terrible decisions but you don't lose sympathy for her. I also loved the author's inventiveness and how well things had been considered - the new 'top of the food chain', the things that go wrong, the way life slowly shuts down and changes as humans disappear. All too real.
Very readable, despite the subject matter. Humourous, smart and hard to forget.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.