A review by bookloversofi
Last Girls by Demetra Brodsky

4.0

I want to thank NetGalley and Tor Teen for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book a lot, especially its great originality and the incredible perspective that the author chose to explore, atmospheric and suspenseful. It took me a bit, in the beginning, to get fully into it, especially since the main character didn't click with me and I ended up having certain problems with her attitude, I feel that it's simply not my type of character, even so, I enjoyed most of the aspects of the book and it's a stand-alone that I would definitely recommend, for its survival and sisterhood side.



4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can find more fo my reviews on my blog A Book. A Thought.


In Last Girls, we follow the Juniper sisters: Blue, Birdie, and Honey, who live in a doomsday preppers community, where they've been trained to survive any possible destruction or "end of the world" as we know it. One day, a danger awakens from within and Honey must put everything they learned to the test to keep her and her sisters safe.


I really enjoyed the plot itself, in fact, since I knew what it was about I had an interest in reading it, it's a YA suspense/thriller that has all the condiments to keep you hooked from the first moment since jumps quickly into the action. I like how the author handles intense moments and the action too because I felt that it was also like watching a movie, which I really liked. I don't want to dig too deep into the plot itself because I think exploring it yourself is part of the fun, it has unexpected twists that genuinely blew me away, and it takes interesting paths to follow.

Exploring also the doomsday preppers lifestyle was very interesting, especially because I didn't really know much about it, rather than having seen this dynamic in some movies, so I really liked that it was the focus of the story, it makes it unique and quite peculiar, to distinguish it from other books of the genre. In addition to touching on these topics, the book covers a large range of situations, it talks about family, friendship, love, and personal grown, it also touches on topics such as terrorism and conspiracies. Overall, I really enjoyed each one of these aspects, which is great.


On the other hand, I had a difficult time with the characters, especially with Honey, who has a very distinctive personality, is somewhat abrupt, terribly honest and can also be very hurtful with others, but behind all that, I must admit that there's an artist sensitive soul inside her and a protective sister that I liked to see. On the other hand, I loved the character of Blue, it was my favorite, for some reason the smallest of the Junipers touched my heart with her personality so mature for her age and was the only one whom I could really connect with. Then we have Birdie and she's the trouble-maker type, and impulsive, and I feel pretty unbiased about the character.
But the magic happens when they're all together because I completely LOVED their sisterhood, the way they protect each other, the concern and love is remarkable, and it made me feel so good to read a sister dynamic like this one, simply I loved it. We have more secondary characters but honestly, I don't feel that any of them has a great impact other than being there as a love interest, and I'm sorry to say that, but it's something that almost always happens to me, and that's that I didn't enjoy the romance as I expected, it seemed to me that it developed hastily.


The writing style is wonderful, I ended up super committed to it, but I confess that at first, I found it somewhat difficult to follow. Even so, I would be interested in reading more of the author, even more, if she continues writing about this type of plot, so exciting and intriguing.

This is a super personal opinion that didn't prevent my enjoyment of this story at all, but I do think it would have been more beneficial and accurate to follow a single plotline or at least two at most. The author expands this story too much, so we have many sub-plots ramifications that can be somewhat distracting from the main topic and can even make reading somewhat dense. Especially when you start reading it's a confusing structure, for me, it was super enjoyable, though and I would recommend it.


It's a brilliant point of view on survival, resilience, intelligence, challenges, and family bonds. I think that it also explores the human being very well, and how sometimes we react to being placed in extreme and unexpected situations. Although the characters can be a challenge to follow, they have varied personalities, and each one represents a possible outcome or reaction, which I appreciate and understand 100% what the author wanted to convey with this book. I'm thrilled to see that it has such positive reviews so far; I think it deserves it!







My First Thoughts 04/30/20

I really enjoyed the originality that this book gives us, it's entertaining and it keeps you wanting to know what will happen from the beginning, which I loved. On the other hand, there are some factors that I didn't like that much, above all they have to do with the characters and their personalities, but I'll talk more about it in my full review SOON