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A review by zilver
Last Girls by Demetra Brodsky
3.0
3.5 | “Our end will bring our beginning to light.”
I need to start of by saying that reading this book with this pandemic playing out in the meantime does make the whole prepping for the End Of The World As We Know It business a whole lot more reasonable. Maybe it always was.
That being said, I kinda really dug this non-dystopian dystopia story. Because of how ingrained the prepper lifestyle is for all three Juniper sisters, it really feels like you’re on this precipice the entire story - the apocalypse might really happen at any time. It’s a bit strange to say, but it was refreshing to read a story where the apocalypse is approached with as much calm, distance, and preparedness as in The Last Girls. It’s like this: it’s likely the shit’s gonna hit the fan sometime (especially with copious amounts of references to an unnamed POTUS who keeps starting wars and tweeting his bad decisions out to the world) and the Juniper sisters are ready. They know plan A, and B, all the way until Z. And then some, probably.
The setting for TLG is one of the things that makes the story so intriguing. The amount of detail and care that went into describing the compound, the way it works, the way Honey, Birdie and Blue’s brains work as a result of the way they’ve been trained, is really fascinating.
And we all know I’m a sucker for a strong sibling bond in any story, so I was pretty certain this book was up my alley in that respect, and I was right. It was the other strongest part of this novel. The idea of despite all that’s going on, we are each other’s first priority, is just super appealing to me. That combined with the literal found family trope we had going on… britneyyeah.gif. When there are two storylines you know are going to intersect at some point during the story that just makes for a really exciting prospect, and the chapters surrounding that moment in TLG definitely had me on the edge of the couch.
“You trained us to be soldiers, to protect what’s ours, and that’s exactly what we did.”
That also leads me, though, to some of the stuff I had issues with. Because despite enjoying a lot of the story, when I sat with it after finishing the book I also felt… unresolved. And I think one of the reasons for that was the pacing of the book, because despite really liking the idea of the two different storylines, I did feel like it took too long for them to intersect. It meant that I was left with the sense that the resolution of this pretty major plot point and event in the characters’ lives was rushed.
The other thing was, and I think this was pretty major in my final feelings about the book, that I felt like a lot of the characters could have been developed a lot more. It especially struck me when it came to Blue, who, while unambiguously beloved by her sisters, is just [says something prophetic][embroiders clothes][has cool pet bird] all the time. Even Honey isn’t able to say much more than “wow, what Blue just said is even weirder than all the stuff she’s said before.” Blue doesn’t seem to have any friends, or relationships besides her sisters/mother. And when she’s supposed to be one of the core people to this story, makes it just a bit harder to get into.
Also all the antagonists remained really flat. Their motivations remained really unclear, they were just bad, angry, mean people, without there being really more to it than that. That in combination with the amount of things that were supposedly going on in the second half of the book, the violence, the paranormal (???)... It was just a bit too much for me. It feels like a case of less would’ve been more. It would’ve given some more space and depth for plot/characters that I think really needed it.
Still, I think The Last Girls surprised me in a lot of ways, and made for a really interesting story with an original setting. I’d definitely recommend it to people looking for something really fresh and exciting.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I need to start of by saying that reading this book with this pandemic playing out in the meantime does make the whole prepping for the End Of The World As We Know It business a whole lot more reasonable. Maybe it always was.
That being said, I kinda really dug this non-dystopian dystopia story. Because of how ingrained the prepper lifestyle is for all three Juniper sisters, it really feels like you’re on this precipice the entire story - the apocalypse might really happen at any time. It’s a bit strange to say, but it was refreshing to read a story where the apocalypse is approached with as much calm, distance, and preparedness as in The Last Girls. It’s like this: it’s likely the shit’s gonna hit the fan sometime (especially with copious amounts of references to an unnamed POTUS who keeps starting wars and tweeting his bad decisions out to the world) and the Juniper sisters are ready. They know plan A, and B, all the way until Z. And then some, probably.
The setting for TLG is one of the things that makes the story so intriguing. The amount of detail and care that went into describing the compound, the way it works, the way Honey, Birdie and Blue’s brains work as a result of the way they’ve been trained, is really fascinating.
And we all know I’m a sucker for a strong sibling bond in any story, so I was pretty certain this book was up my alley in that respect, and I was right. It was the other strongest part of this novel. The idea of despite all that’s going on, we are each other’s first priority, is just super appealing to me. That combined with the literal found family trope we had going on… britneyyeah.gif. When there are two storylines you know are going to intersect at some point during the story that just makes for a really exciting prospect, and the chapters surrounding that moment in TLG definitely had me on the edge of the couch.
“You trained us to be soldiers, to protect what’s ours, and that’s exactly what we did.”
That also leads me, though, to some of the stuff I had issues with. Because despite enjoying a lot of the story, when I sat with it after finishing the book I also felt… unresolved. And I think one of the reasons for that was the pacing of the book, because despite really liking the idea of the two different storylines, I did feel like it took too long for them to intersect. It meant that I was left with the sense that the resolution of this pretty major plot point and event in the characters’ lives was rushed.
The other thing was, and I think this was pretty major in my final feelings about the book, that I felt like a lot of the characters could have been developed a lot more. It especially struck me when it came to Blue, who, while unambiguously beloved by her sisters, is just [says something prophetic][embroiders clothes][has cool pet bird] all the time. Even Honey isn’t able to say much more than “wow, what Blue just said is even weirder than all the stuff she’s said before.” Blue doesn’t seem to have any friends, or relationships besides her sisters/mother. And when she’s supposed to be one of the core people to this story, makes it just a bit harder to get into.
Also all the antagonists remained really flat. Their motivations remained really unclear, they were just bad, angry, mean people, without there being really more to it than that. That in combination with the amount of things that were supposedly going on in the second half of the book, the violence, the paranormal (???)... It was just a bit too much for me. It feels like a case of less would’ve been more. It would’ve given some more space and depth for plot/characters that I think really needed it.
Still, I think The Last Girls surprised me in a lot of ways, and made for a really interesting story with an original setting. I’d definitely recommend it to people looking for something really fresh and exciting.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.