I really enjoy both post-apocalyptic fiction and murder mysteries, so this mash-up should’ve been right up my alley, and I did sort of enjoy it, but it did take me a lot longer to read than usual and I feel deeply disappointed by the ending. The premise was intriguing - a group of survivors wait out the end of the world in an isolated hotel, but it’s like the author couldn’t work out how to wrap it up so just stopped.

Jon Keller is an American historian who has travelled to Switzerland for a convention, and is just about to leave the hotel to return home to his family, whom he left on bad terms, when news comes through that many major cities have been nuked, and then the Internet goes down. Unsure whether he will be able to get anywhere, he and about 30 others decide to stay in the hotel, since they at least have food and power, but as the days pass and no help arrives, despair sets in for many. When the body of a child is found in a water tank, Jon, who is already chronicling their lives in his diary, decides to solve her murder, but someone seems determined to stop him.

This was an unusual take on the EOTWAWKI as a diverse group of people from different countries are forced to co-exist while not knowing how long they can survive, cut off from the news and all other people. Having most of the characters, including the narrator, be quite unpleasant and unreliable made it actually more interesting, but I felt frustrated not finding out what actually caused the war or who the aggressors were, as there were hints that it didn’t occur completely out of the blue. There were plot lines that didn’t go anywhere and an “is that it?” ending, so I can only give this 3 stars despite wanting to rate it higher for originality.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Last is available now.

Jon Keller is at a conference in Switzerland at L’Hotel Sixième when the world ends. He is just trying to survive in this strange land but he comes across the body of a young girl, he’s convinced someone in the hotel is the killer.

So I have mixed feelings about this book, which is making writing this review quite hard but I’ll try my best!

The characterisation is really strong, with each character different and unique, if not all that likeable.

We see the whole story through Jon’s diary. He claims that he’s writing it down for historical purposes but like when he starts investigating the little girls death it’s more about keeping his sanity than anything else.

The hotel is almost like a character itself. A blood soaked history, with murders, suicides, even a serial killer stayed there once! I feel that this could have been played with a little more, really amping up the horror factor.

I have to be honest as a piece of dystopian fiction it’s great, as a mystery, which is what I expected it to be from the blurb...not so much. I almost DNF at 40%, but I kept on just because I really wanted to find out what happened to the little girl, yet in the ending for me, felt a little lacklustre.

I’d recommend this to people who love a realistic dystopian novel with complex and intriguing characters.

The Last is just way too believable, from start to finish.

The story is told in the diary-style narrative of Jon Keller as he attempts to impartially record the end of the world (as we know it).

Jon is a bit of an odd character, adapting to everyone around him; swallowing his emotions; and volunteering for everything, in a manner that suggests his narrative may be more self-serving than reliable in places, or that he is seriously overcompensating for something.

All of the characters introduced here are complex and feel ‘real’ to the reader, whether likeable or not. Actions and motives are not always clear because the reasoning behind them is as convoluted or obscure as in reality, and no one is bad or good, just motivated differently and acting from different interests. Hanna Jameson’s exploration of the different reactions that such a severe stress situation could have on individuals felt thorough and thoroughly believable, and had me analysing where my own character would fall in the survival spectrum (I don’t think I would have lasted past Day 1, for the record!).

Whilst the story does feature post-apocalyptic survival, that is not where the plot focus lies, with resource-finding taking a back seat to the emotional pressures and food/water/medicine never seeming quite as important to survival as finding the right personal motivation and your own mental stability. Thus Jon’s focus on finding out who the unknown girl is, and who murdered her, seems much more vital to his continued existence as a human being than mere physical necessities. I found this a fascinating and compelling viewpoint and it really made me ponder exactly what would be important to me in the end days. Most stories assume that survival instincts would take the steering wheel, but the urge to behave in human ways can be a strong one…

I went into The Last expecting it to be a kind of post-apocalyptic And Then There Were None, but this is not that story. Instead it is a pressure-cooker of a psychological thriller, slowly simmering towards its boiling point, and also a deeply thoughtful look into human values and priorities under pressure. I found it impossible to stop reading, and after the last page I almost wanted to search for the ‘survivors’ on social media to see what happened next, as I was so invested in their stories!

Fans of psychological mysteries and realistic survival stories will enjoy this thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking book.





A strange noise erupted from one of the tables, a shrill exclamation. The woman didn’t say anything, just cried out.
I looked up, and she was sitting with her partner – I assume – and staring at her phone.
Like everyone else in the room, I thought she had just become overexcited by a message or a photo, and returned to my book, but within seconds she’s added, ‘They’ve bombed Washington!’
I hadn’t even wanted to go to this damn convention.

– Hanna Jameson, The Last

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Well, don’t you just hate it when you are staying in a nice hotel and nuclear war breaks out?

First impressions can count for a lot. But gosh, this book starts slowly with a prologue and then changes down a gear when the ‘novel proper’ starts. This is arguably the most dramatic event that could possibly occur on our planet yet following near total nuclear devastation the main character, Jon, spends much of his time navel gazing, drinking and taking drugs including crystal meth which he describes as ‘surprisingly nice’!

There are a lot of drug references in this book which at first I just put down to rules and concerns being reconsidered in an apocalyptic vision. But narratively the drugs had to be available from somewhere in advance of the ‘surprise’ of the apocalypse as these wouldn’t be commonly stocked in a hotel. Drug references don’t generally bother me in the right context and I can consider them speaking to the situation of a novel but when the drug being referenced is crystal meth, its virtues are being extolled and it is spoken of as being ‘surprisingly nice’ I think we are overstepping the mark and possibly straying into the territory of agenda. This section concerned me somewhat.

There are also a few too many under-researched parts to this novel that took me straight out of the narrative – if a story contains elements that are obviously and immediately factually incorrect or simply unbelievable I find it very difficult to remain immersed in the constructed reality of the novel, which after all is the point of a novel. An example of this is an odd section where two characters, one a medical doctor, talk about getting high on children’s paracetamol!? The doctor then states that she is not sure if it is possible to overdose on this. That is not a doctor I would want to put my trust in.

However, the description of the events of apocalypse and its effects on individuals are handled well, particularly when related to the internet and social media and Western cultures reliance on technology. This is how we get our news and how we relate to each other and so this section of the book was very believable.
But when the apocalyptic narrative starts to run out of steam, a murder mystery strand of the novel is instigated where our hero Jon sets himself up as the detective. This is what had piqued my interest initially and made me choose to read this book, but it surprisingly adds less to the story than should have been the case and simply allows further opportunity for Jon to wander aimlessly between rooms and between hotel ‘guests’ asking rather inane questions.
This genre crossing element should have been the crux of the book; the reason required for the lead protagonist to ask difficult questions and record the answers given and so find an ultimate answer. Unfortunately the idea that should have set this book aside from other similar novels instead feels tacked on, an afterthought, and excuse to make sense of the journal form of the novel.

Without giving away the full plot of the novel, in the end most of the storylines are drawn together to give some form of resolution but this is done through a number of quite implausible and out-of-place scenes which feel as though they are included for the sole purpose of concluding unresolved storylines rather than developing the story. Ultimately and disappointingly, the book finishes with a ‘that’ll do’ conclusion.

I know I am probably being overly harsh with my criticisms but I was very much looking forward to this novel and so feel more disappointed as a result. There are some new ideas in this novel and some humour in here as well and it is obviously a heart-felt book but to be honest, reads quite like a high school student has been given the task of coming up with a story about a nuclear apocalypse. It is not fair to compare this to McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ (not exactly a fast-paced action adventure itself) but it is hard not to make that comparison and The Last doesn’t come out of that comparison well.

I’m sorry – this promised so much but left me unfulfilled and frustrated.

Hanna Jameson's The Last is an interesting one. The plot follows a group of strangers isolated in a remote Swiss hotel when nuclear bombs destroy the world. Few of the guests have little chance of ever going home -airports were destroyed and society rapidly disintegrates - so they make the most of a bad situation and turn the hotel into a new home for the new world order.

The writing was clean, characters varied and interesting, and most of the cliches of the post-apocalyptic genre were nimbly avoided.

My main issue is with the whodunit mystery aspect - it seemed shoehorned in to give the plot a focus, then didn't go anywhere, and ended with a very contrived conclusion. Also, the theory that the world could be destroyed by nuclear bombs seemed overplayed - yep, long-term damage would be brutal in an all out exchange, but I'm pretty sure few bombs would land in the southern hemisphere meaning large parts of the world would still be inhabitable. At one point in the novel it's reported Scotland has been destroyed: no-one would level Scotland - the highlands are so sparsely populated you'd only be killing a handful of people with each bomb!

That said, I did enjoy it, a solid 4 stars, just don't think about the realities too hard or it'll break your suspension of disbelief.

This was so gripping from the start and so different from anything I've read before. I really hope there will be a sequel as I need to know what happens next.

A few things drew me to this book - first, Emily St. John Mandel's quoted glowing review because I LOVED 'Station Eleven' and this looked to be in the same vein, and secondly, the fact that the synopsis pointed towards a post-apocalyptic murder mystery. That's certainly an interesting way to combine genres and I'm all for it! It had been a long while since I'd read a dystopian novel so I was excited by this one.

I did like Jameson's writing style - told in the form of a historical journal, Jon Keller gives his account of the seventy or so days that follow after Nuclear war ravages most of the world and he is left, with a small band of survivors, stranded in a hotel in Switzerland. Of course, different cultures and personalities clash and ally throughout this novel and it certainly is powerful in the political and ideological reflection it provokes. This would make a great read for a book club, accompanied by discussion as the group face many challenges and controversial decisions throughout the novel. I liked the way that it built up to it's climax, though the pacing was slow.

I think my main issue with the book came from the fact that I did not like ANY of the characters. At all. Jon spent most of the time pitying himself and his situation, mulling over all of the mistakes that he made in his family life prior to the explosion. The people he meets were also extremely unlikeable - Tomi, the 'tough-girl' who had an attitude and opinion on everything and everyone, Peter who was awful for no reason whatsoever, Dylan who seemed to think it was a great idea to keep everything from everyone but of course had nothing to hide, and - you get the idea. Everyone seemed unnecessarily rude and seemed to accept their situation a bit too quickly, and Jon spent the whole book basically saying 'I didn't like what they said, but I saw their point of view'. Also, and this is the important one, I was mostly turned off by the solution to the murder mystery. It was weak and random after so much build towards it.

Although this is a fictional novel, it's a very relevant story. A nuclear bomb goes off in Washington after a controversial election, and a lot of protesting from some Americans and the rest of the world. The president is killed. Jon is away at a conference, staying at a hotel in Europe in the middle of nowhere. He is alone and away from his family. More bombs go off, but it is hard to tell what is happening in the rest of the world when the internet connection and any link to the outside is quickly lost.

Many people staying in the hotel leave immediately, but a few stay. These people start trying to live together, at what they assume is the end of the world. Jon is a historian, so he tries to keep a diary of what is happening day by day. He speaks to other people in the hotel and they tell him stories about themselves and their lives, hoping that they won't be forgotten and perhaps needing to let some things go.

This is a really well written book. It isn't complicated or pretentious, but it is very thoughtful. It is quite slow moving, but so is the pace of life in the hotel. Things do happen, however, and the tension, fear and suspicion builds to various points of climax as things progress. The characters are all quite unknown because the story is told from Jon's point of view, and he doesn't know anyone well. He only knows what he learns from watching and speaking to the other people in the hotel. This is a big part of the story really, because a lot of strangers being thrown together are always going to have secrets, and they are never all going to get along.

This is mainly a story about what happens to Jon and the other survivors in the hotel. But it is also a provocative piece about current politics and more generally our modern lives. Living without phones, internet or social media, or even music is explored. Jon and the other guests have many thoughts about their lives and what they have done, as you obviously would in this scenario. It is quite philosophical at times, but not overwhelmingly so, and not too intellectual so as to detract from the story.

I enjoyed this book. As I said before, it is quite slow-paced, but it is an interesting take on the end of days, when compared to your usual zombie or testosterone-filled tales of action and danger. This is more about fear, suspicion, and what it means to be at the end of modern society. I also really loved the ending - no spoilers! But the last page or so really made this book complete for me.

Really enjoyed this entertaining and intelligent novel. A different twist in the normal end of the work books. Option for a follow up. I would like to think so

This is not the kind of book I would usually read but I got it on netgalley - it was a good read about what might happen following an 'end of the world nuclear bomb'. We follow Jon's narrative of the next 75 or so days as he documents what happens to him next. He is at a hotel for a convention and rather than leave he stays there. It explores ideas such as the lack of communication as the internet goes down as well as no media coverage and the inability to use a mobile phone. In the idst of this he tries to solve a murder and who did it. I would read another book by this author.

I was loving this book until about 55% in. The story was really promising and I loved the characters and the way they were all developing. But from around the half way mark it seemed to stall and the rest of the book seemed to drag on unfortunately. I was also really disappointed by the ending with a lot of things either hastily or not properly wrapped up.

Jon is staying at a hotel in Switzerland when the world has devastation unleashed in the form of nuclear bombs. His family are on the other side of the world and Jon can't contact them to see if they survived. He joins forces with a group of guests to survive, but the discovery of a young girl's body makes him determined to find out what happened.

All the elements were there; post-apocalyptic setting, rumours of hauntings, a murder, and plenty of suspects - unfortunately the story turned out to be rather less than the sum of its parts. The murder investigation quickly stalled and then went nowhere in particular, whilst the post-apocalyptic story line showed promise, but many of the interesting angles went unexplored. Were there additional people living in the hotel that the main group were unaware of? What was the point of bringing up the supposed hauntings and then doing nothing with them? Also I found the main character had little charisma to make you root for him to prevail. I was disappointed overall.

TW: suicides and drug use.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Penguin Books UK / Viking, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

This is a story about the band of survivors in an isolated hotel in Switzerland during a nuclear world wide disaster. Had it been left there this book had potential but the introduction of a body and the lead character Jon trying to discover who, who and when falls flat as a sub-part of the story. I did feel that it was fairly realistic as to how such an event may occur and what the reactions of the people would possibly be. Cannabilism to survive being one of them.. The characters were diverse and well described, although I felt them flat and could not get a picture of them in my mind. This was not a great book for me as I found it long winded, certainly not gripping. Two stories entwined into one but not to me very successfully..

Next for Sophie was The Last by Hanna Jameson. This post-apocalyptic tale is set in a Swiss hotel where a group of guests and staff have holed up after seeing nuclear bombs drop on the world’s major cities via their phones and TV. The group gradually declines in number leaving a core of around 20 trying to survive together as they have no better place to go.

The book’s protagonist is Jon, a history professor from San Francisco who was staying at the hotel because of a conference. After the group discovers the body of a little girl in one of the water tanks on the roof, Jon makes it his mission to find out who killed her. He also decides to keep a record of each day beginning with the day the bombs drop and his record is the book itself. The Last is frighteningly insular as the group of strangers tries to figure out how to work together despite not really knowing or trusting one another. It’s a slow-burning tale of fear where everyone has read Lord of the Flies and finds themselves wondering if the person in the next room is going to be the first to turn savage.

Throughout the book, Jon interviews his fellow guests and we begin to get a sense that everyone in the hotel was “meant” to be there that day. There are characters with unnerving stories to tell, and Sophie was looking forward to seeing how all these threads came together, which made it all the more disappointing when they just… didn’t. The girl’s killer made very little sense and many of the threads were simply left hanging.

Sophie found the ending of The Last to be a letdown on what had, otherwise, been a great book, and she doesn’t know if she can recommend it simply because of that.

First of all the cover of this book is amazing. That's what made me click on it and read the synopsis, it's gorgeous. I wanted this book to be great and oh gosh it was. I don't read many dystopian books but after reading this i'm going to have to change it. I loved how realistic it felt. How disturbingly authentic the story was. It unsettled me and i know a book is good when it does that.

A gripping story let down by its final act. 4/5 stars.

This is certainly an attention-grabbing scenario! You may read the blurb and think, “yeah, but how real will the story seem?” The answer? Scarily so. Maybe it’s because the narrator is a historian and attempting to record everything as factually as possible that makes the narrative feels very realistic. The reactions of all the characters to the end-of-the-world scenario are believable and as varied as they are. The hotel guests are an interesting mix of nationalities and personalities which makes for some dramatic clashes. Also, obviously, being cut off from the world with winter setting in and food supplies dwindling puts pressure on everyone that has to boil over in places.

Add to an already tense situation the discovery of a child’s body and the suspicion there’s a murderer somewhere in the hotel (who may even be undiscovered – it’s such a huge building, they could be lurking!) and the story becomes incredibly gripping. There are also effectively spooky sections: The Shining is referenced in places, which helped me picture long deserted corridors with goodness knows what skulking round every corner. A few nail-biting scenes feature footsteps heard in dark corridors and being in a room as the door handle starts to rattle.

Although this is all a hypothetical situation, the author is clearly rooting her narrative in present-day events. Several references are made to the US President having set the disastrous chain of nuclear events in motion and, while it’s never made explicit, it’s easy to assume the current US President is the one they have in mind. I also felt the way we’re told events played out on social media was spot on: I think we can all imagine how the world will end not with a bang, but with a series of notifications. Indeed, by about halfway through I did start to wonder if I should buy a few more powerbanks and hoarde toothpaste.

So far, so great. Unfortunately, I felt everything began to unravel at around 80% into the book. Up to this point I had been thoroughly gripped. There was terrific potential for the plot strands to play out in many exciting ways, but I felt the ending was rather flat and rushed.

On the positive side, everything does get wrapped up neatly. So if you hate open endings, you don’t have to worry about that! I just hoped all the mysteries, chilling discoveries, suspicions, drama, people shouting and pointing guns at each other would lead to a more explosive conclusion. I’ll leave it there to avoid spoilers, but I was just disappointed that the story didn’t go somewhere spectacular.

Overall: an explosive opening leads into a gripping story with interesting characters which is sadly let down by a flat finish.

The Last sets a scarily imaginable scenario where the world as we know it ends when several nuclear bombs are dropped over the largest cities all over the world.
The book is laid out in a diary style, and starts from Day 3 (Day 1 is when the world ended but we only later can read about that day in details) . The diary belongs to an American historian, Jon Keller, who at the time was staying at this remote Swiss hotel in the middle of a forest, for a convention. We learn more about him and the handful of people who remained at the hotel - many fled as they tried to find planes or other means to get home.
I found it extremely interesting, you read about what goes through the minds of the survivors and what kind of things they have to do in order to survive in this new world, where there is no government, no phones, no internet, no food (other than what’s left in stores which is not much as you can imagine!) and nothing that we take for granted now.
I throughly enjoyed the setting, the characters were are well developed, but I feel like the ending could have been better, and the storyline with the hunt for the murderer amongst them, just didn’t quite do it for me, but that’s just my opinion. I actually think the story still would have been great even without the murder mystery, in fact, I think I probably would have enjoyed it more without it!

Thank you NetGalley, the publishers and the author for the free advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion!

The blurb really drew me in for this book, then he cover is also so intriguing i had to read it. A solid story with plenty of mystery and thrills and worry over is it all true and when the world ends could you survive mentally and physically. The narration was spot on, engaging and had me thinking deep and hard about the characters and what they are going through. The story delves onto the idea that to be with people but still be alone at the end of the world can have interesting results.Worth stepping out of your comfort zone and having a go with this story

The Last has an original starting point for a post-apocalyptic novel. Jon learns, via the final gasps of social media, that a nuclear war has devastated the world, while he is at a conference at a remote hotel in Switzerland.

He and his fellow residents are thus doubly cut adrift – not only from civilisation as they knew it, but from all the people and places that matter to them most. They have no obvious ties or affiliations to the people around them and they have to form alliances and identify leaders. Jon, an academic historian, decides to write his account of their experiences.

This, for me, is the most interesting element of the novel. Isolated and unsure if anyone else has even survived, they have to harness the resources they have. Leaders emerge, skills are identified. Conflicts develop.

The second element is a murder mystery around a child found dead at the hotel. It seems she was killed shortly before or after they learnt of the apocalypse. Jon decides to investigate. At a time of crisis, he reverts to what he knows – sifting evidence, forming hypotheses about the past, creating a narrative when nothing makes sense.

There is a certain bleak humour in this and it does allow the author to touch on questions of morality and pragmatism – does the death of a single child matter when there has been mass extermination? How would this new society deal with any perpetrator? It also shows the way we displace at times of crisis and gives Jon a pretext to interview a number of other hotel residents. Overall, though, I felt it was the weaker part of the story.

I loved elements of The Last – the unique setting, the characterisation, the lack of obvious heroes and villains, the political debates that resist over-simplification. The sparring between the liberal but rather self-regarding Jon and the gun-loving libertarian Tomi are particularly bracing – you sense the author’s sympathies are with Jon’s worldview but Tomi gets all the best lines.

The end was disappointing and a bit rushed. Without giving too much away, there is a change in the characters’ understanding of what’s left of the world which raised some fascinating questions, but this is hardly examined at all. (It made me wonder if the author was planning a sequel but I’m not sure if you can have a post-post-apocalyptic novel.)

The focus shifts back to the mystery and to Jon’s past life, and a whole lot of information is dumped at once. The final few scenes are a bit repetitive and what could have been a key revelation about Jon’s past is overshadowed because it is already alluded to in dialogue.

Despite these reservations, I enjoyed reading The Last. Hotels are odd places at the best of times, with their calibrated comforts and cheery soullessness, and it’s intriguing to consider the particular challenges of living out all our last days in the world of the trouser press and the hospitality tray.

Breaking: Nuclear weapon detonates over Washington

Breaking: London hit, thousands feared dead

Breaking: Munich and Scotland hit. World leaders call for calm

Historian Jon Keller is on a trip to Switzerland when the world ends. As the lights go out on civilization, he wishes he had a way of knowing whether his wife, Nadia and their two daughters are still alive. More than anything, Jon wishes he hadn’t ignored Nadia’s last message.

Twenty people remain in Jon’s hotel. Far from the nearest city and walled in by towering trees, they wait, they survive.

Then one day, the body of a young girl is found. It’s clear she has been murdered. Which means that someone in the hotel is a killer.

As paranoia descends, Jon decides to investigate. But how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice? And what kind of justice can he hope for, when society as he knows it no longer exists?

I think, for many, the premise of The Last by Hanna Jameson is the stuff of nightmares. You’re away from home, far from family and friends, and a nuclear war breaks out. Quickly news dries up. The media, traditional and social, disappear and you’re on your own. The interconnectedness of the 21st century is no longer available. The only people with you are strangers and they are all suffering through exactly the same traumatic event as you. Your comfortable life is gone, suddenly survival and safety are paramount. Who can you trust? Will any help arrive? Is there even anyone left out there who could help?

Jon Keller finds himself in this exact situation. Trapped in the Swiss Alps while various factions in the outside world attempt to blow one another to Hell. Jon’s default reaction to the situation is to stick with what he knows. He is a historian, he knows the importance of chronicling events. The mystery of a dead girl in the hotel gives him the perfect opportunity to play to his own strengths. Having a task he can focus his entire attention on means he can ignore the larger picture. Events unfolding outside of the immediate area are pushed to one side. Jon doesn’t need to dwell on what might be happening elsewhere. For him, this is the perfect coping mechanism.

The setting adds an additional layer of tension, and depth, to proceedings. A lonely hotel, isolated from the rest of the world, is a perfect breeding ground for secrets. There is a history of dark deeds associated with the building and even a suggestion of the supernatural. Each day without news of the outside world ensures the survivors become that little bit more withdrawn, a little bit more introverted. Tempers begin to fray and as the collective cabin fever of the group continues to grow you get a real sense that it is only a matter of time before something else terrible is going to happen. The murder feels like it is just to tip of the iceberg. A group of strangers forced together in an extraordinary set of circumstances ensures that everyone is a suspect.

If you’ve read and enjoyed Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, or The Ship by Antonia Honeywell, then you’ll find a lot to enjoy here. I was also reminded of The Last Policeman by Ben H Winters. The Last explores some similar themes; if society as we know it is coming to an end, then is there any point uncovering the truth behind a crime. Does justice even matter anymore? Jon certainly thinks the answer is a resounding yes. So much so, it becomes his obsession. The problem with obsessions is they have a tendency to become all consuming.

Why am I constantly drawn to apocalyptic fiction? I think The Last by Hanna Jameson answers this question in the most elegant manner possible. Reading about the end of the world is a constant reminder of how fragile humanity is. Our existence is a fleeting, ephemeral affair and this particular sub-genre of fiction shines a light directly at that fact. It may seem a little strange, but I find that oddly hopeful. Of course there is the trauma of the initial event, death and destruction at every turn. After that though, when the dust has settled, there are a myriad of possibilities. When I read about everything ending, it inevitably makes me think about what comes next. Jameson’s narrative hints at exactly that. Once the immediacy of the current situation is resolved what will become of Jon and the other survivors? Can society rebuild or even evolve into something better? This is why I find apocalyptic fiction so insightful, it highlights the best and worst of human nature.

The musical recommendation to accompany The Last continues the apocalyptic theme. The Last of Us (volume 2) by Gustavo Santaolalla has a haunting, desolate air that perfectly captures the tone that I think The Last is trying to convey.

The Last is published by Viking and is available from 31st January. Highly recommended.