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A review by kpesch
The Last 8 by Laura Pohl
2.0
I really wanted to like this story and it started out with promise but it just went downhill fast. So much of the book repeated itself:
1. How many times did character "chew the inside of their cheek" I stopped counting at the 3rd one by the 3rd chapter. Do people actually do this when they're nervous? Try it, it hurts.
2. The author had to keep reminding us that aliens had invaded. "These are the aliens that took my family", "these are the ones that took over my planet", "they're the reason everyone is dead." We get it, it doesn't need to be retold again and again. It felt like the author didn't know what to say next.
3. Multiple times while a character is explaining their encounter with the aliens, Clover would think a variation of "sorry didn't need to be said, we all felt the same thing." Which if sorry didn't need to be said, why are you thinking that as every character tells you about who they lost "when the aliens came"
So much if the story just felt like it wasn't flushed out, like the author had an idea and didn't think it all the way through. Chapter just end when it feels like more should be flushed out and the just chapter we've had a jump in unknown time where they're doing some based off the last chapter. It would have been nice if they were more connected.
I will say there was a twist that I didn't see coming, so props for that.
I usually really enjoy YA but I think this one may have been a bit too much on the younger side of YA for my taste. The teenagers went back and forth too quickly from being children, to acting like full adults, to back to being children, but now they're incredibly smart children who can just figure out things that adults hadn't figured out in 20 years. All in all, it just wasn't very believable.
Finally, who ever decided to compare this to The 5th Wave messed up. The 5th Wave was awesome this falls short.
1. How many times did character "chew the inside of their cheek" I stopped counting at the 3rd one by the 3rd chapter. Do people actually do this when they're nervous? Try it, it hurts.
2. The author had to keep reminding us that aliens had invaded. "These are the aliens that took my family", "these are the ones that took over my planet", "they're the reason everyone is dead." We get it, it doesn't need to be retold again and again. It felt like the author didn't know what to say next.
3. Multiple times while a character is explaining their encounter with the aliens, Clover would think a variation of "sorry didn't need to be said, we all felt the same thing." Which if sorry didn't need to be said, why are you thinking that as every character tells you about who they lost "when the aliens came"
So much if the story just felt like it wasn't flushed out, like the author had an idea and didn't think it all the way through. Chapter just end when it feels like more should be flushed out and the just chapter we've had a jump in unknown time where they're doing some based off the last chapter. It would have been nice if they were more connected.
I will say there was a twist that I didn't see coming, so props for that.
I usually really enjoy YA but I think this one may have been a bit too much on the younger side of YA for my taste. The teenagers went back and forth too quickly from being children, to acting like full adults, to back to being children, but now they're incredibly smart children who can just figure out things that adults hadn't figured out in 20 years. All in all, it just wasn't very believable.
Finally, who ever decided to compare this to The 5th Wave messed up. The 5th Wave was awesome this falls short.