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A review by caenerys
The Last 8 by Laura Pohl
4.0
The Last 8 reads like The Fifth Wave meets War of the Worlds meets Gone. The novel opens and it seems like a normal day. That is until millions of what look like shooting stars plummet to earth. When they realise these shooting stars are actually space ships, the aliens inside take it upon themselves to wipe out the human race. As soon as they see you, they shoot to kill, turning every human being to dust. Within days, everyone is gone. But they can't see Clover and, for a long time, it seems like she is the only person on the planet left alive.
Six months after the end of the world Clover, along with her adopted Bernese Mountain Dog Sputnik, are in the car when the radio accidentally turns on. Clover expects nothing but static, but is instead greeted with a message telling anyone left out there to "come to the okay where the used to be." Clover heads to Area 51 and there she finds the 7 teenagers, the last humans left alive.
I really enjoyed the plot of this novel and I was definitely pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the novel. The premise seems really good, but the plot is generally quite basic. The first few chapters move quickly, but once Clover gets to Area 51 everything seems to slow down a little bit. I think there were about 10 chapters where there was no progress in the plot. However, while I felt that the plot didn't move very quickly, overall it didn't take anything away from the novel as a whole.
I quite like Clover as a main character. She's not my favourite protagonist ever, but she's easy to like and she's not annoying like a lot of headstrong protagonists can be. However, what's strange about her is that I feel like she's the most 2-dimensional character and she doesn't let across many emotions. I feel like we know more about the secondary characters and we can connect to them a lot more easily. Brooklyn is definitely my favourite character, and I even warmed to Violet by the end of the novel. Apart from them, and Adam, though, I feel like the other four characters were kind of interchangeable and I had to keep reminding myself who was who.
Overall a solid read and I am definitely glad that I had the opportunity to read this novel. If you are a fan of sci-fi, aliens and/or post-apocalyptic dystopias, this is a must read.
Six months after the end of the world Clover, along with her adopted Bernese Mountain Dog Sputnik, are in the car when the radio accidentally turns on. Clover expects nothing but static, but is instead greeted with a message telling anyone left out there to "come to the okay where the used to be." Clover heads to Area 51 and there she finds the 7 teenagers, the last humans left alive.
I really enjoyed the plot of this novel and I was definitely pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the novel. The premise seems really good, but the plot is generally quite basic. The first few chapters move quickly, but once Clover gets to Area 51 everything seems to slow down a little bit. I think there were about 10 chapters where there was no progress in the plot. However, while I felt that the plot didn't move very quickly, overall it didn't take anything away from the novel as a whole.
I quite like Clover as a main character. She's not my favourite protagonist ever, but she's easy to like and she's not annoying like a lot of headstrong protagonists can be. However, what's strange about her is that I feel like she's the most 2-dimensional character and she doesn't let across many emotions. I feel like we know more about the secondary characters and we can connect to them a lot more easily. Brooklyn is definitely my favourite character, and I even warmed to Violet by the end of the novel. Apart from them, and Adam, though, I feel like the other four characters were kind of interchangeable and I had to keep reminding myself who was who.
Overall a solid read and I am definitely glad that I had the opportunity to read this novel. If you are a fan of sci-fi, aliens and/or post-apocalyptic dystopias, this is a must read.