Overhyped for me. Standard tropes just made more Irish and female. Didn't merit the hype.

I don't get why this was so praised. It read like a bland standard post apocalyptic fiction but seems to have been praised for being feminist rather than good writing.

Post Apocalyptic Zombie novels continue to fancy me. While there are just a handful out there that truly buck the trend (Of being the typical predictable zombie novels that read like one-dimensional companion reads for Walking Dead ) - Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff seemed intriguing.

The Road set in Ireland? Ooh, count me in. The story is centred around Orpen, a young girl dragging her friend(sister?) Maeve in a barrow on a road through a densely wooded area, surrounded by rolling calm hills. It's gradually revealed that most of humanity is dead. In fact, in brief flashes of the past, we find out that Orpen has actually been living in an isolated island off the coast of Ireland, brought up by her mother, Mam and Maeve. The cause of the apocalypse is never revealed but there is the looming threat of creatures called Skrake ( good old walking dead zombies) whom she's been warned about. Early on on the mainland, she gets a feel of the grim reality that defines this landscape. But Orpen has been training her whole life for this. And she turns out to be a badass with her knives and physical prowess built over her whole young life. Her life on the island was one of discipline, a repeat of push ups, fighting with staves and knives, tending to the chickens. But Orpen has a secret : She's been hoarding newspapers and comics from the older times and she's gotten bit by this bug of getting a taste of the real life out there. Including meeting up with these all-women vigilantes known as Banshees who are saving the world from the undead and all other sorts of evil.

But the real question is, why is Maeve in a barrow and what is Orpen doing here in the mainland, searching for mythical city called Phoenix City? The threat of Skrake is real, as Orpen has just found out. And there could be not just the undead here, closer to the city that are a threat.

The narrative is spliced into the past and present, both seamlessly merging towards the later half of the novel as we figure out the motivations that drive Orpen to this mainland infested with zombies. It is told from the first person POV of Orpen and her fears and misgivings are very well etched out. Orpen is a brave young girl, a tad bit unaware of the realities that make up this world but she's driven by this burning need to peel off the protective layers that have, for long kept her blind to these hideous truths. But despite the relentless training, reality is a completely different beast altogether. Fear and confusion don't help either. I certainly didn't warm up to Orpen but I appreciated the realistic picture that Sarah draws up of her. On the other hand, I absolutely loved Maeve - a hard, focused and ruthless trainer who's hell bent on making Orpen a living weapon, fit enough to survive out there. Maeve's relentless focus on just this one goal is commendable and scary at the same time.

With just a handful of characters and a slim page-count, the book is paced very well and is easy enough to follow through. There is a decided anti-male animosity that bristles throughout the narrative. Men are evil. Men are bad news. Keep off - But curiously enough, Orpen finally meets one survivor - a male and this makes for an interesting confrontation, opening up a whole new emotional turmoil within Orpen who has never met a male before. Maturely handled, that part. While it is set in Ireland, I unfortunately didn't get a real sense of this being in Ireland. Other than the city names or the rolling green hills, I felt there wasn't a real sense of the 'place'.

While this book certainly doesn't add anything novel to the genre of zombie novels, I really liked the literary feel of the writing. It's minimal but very evocative. There are lots of details that are left unexplored - the myriad dangers of this post apocalyptic world but the focus is not on the world, but on Maeve's coming-of-age and her discoveries of what real life means, away from her protected existence on the island. And that is very tautly done and it feels pretty natural.

All in all, Last Ones Left Alive is a deftly written, taut and thrilling book that traces the rude and realistic coming-of-age of a young girl, on the brink of her adulthood, navigating her way through a world gone to hell. It certainly keeps the reader guessing, with a few twists and turns. Fits well enough into the literary dystopian genre, the mood is sombre and settings pretty scary. If you are in the mood for a quick read in this space, Last Ones Left Alive is certainly a great choice.

A gripping and fascinating read I really appreciated even if I'm not a fan of dystopian novels.
I liked the world building, the well thought characters and the plot that flows and kept me hooked.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I'd heard buzz on Twitter that this authors debut novel was very impressive, and was set in a dystopian wasteland, and since I love pretty much all dystopian stories, I was keen to see what Last Ones Left Alive was like.

*Spoiler Warning*

My rating: ⭐⭐ ⭐ 3 stars (out of 5)

There's a lot to enjoy about the novel. It's told from the present day perspective of Orpen visiting post-apocalyptic Ireland for the first time, interspersed with flashbacks from her childhood growing up with her mother and her mother's friend, who Orpen refers to as her sister, but as the novel goes on it doesn't seem like they really are sisters. Until the beginning of the novel, Orpen has only met two people in her entire life, and the story begins with her desperate to find out more details of the mainland, details that have been kept from her.

I loved the descriptions of the empty village that Orpen, the protagonist, grows up in, and I also enjoyed the tension between Orpen and Maeve, the tough woman who has trained her after her mother died. All of the flashbacks I found intriguing, laden with detail, and inferences that we understood but that childish Orpen didn't, such as being wary of Phoenix City (which Orpen is desperate to find, simply because her mother and Maeve told her never to talk of it). However, the present day story, where Orpen goes on her quest to find Phoenix City, and other people like her, I just didn't find particularly engaging. I also felt that Orpen, even as an adult, acted as if she was a child, which was understandable given her upbringing, but that made her childish ideas harder to relate to.

Despite the buzz that this novel is a new, feminist take on living in a dystopia, the story of the novel, a young woman, suddenly alone, navigating a post-apocalyptic world, felt very familiar. There have been a number of novels written by women and published in the last couple of years that are quite similar, including:

Monster by Katie Hale;
The Water Cure by Sophie Macintosh;
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Halpern (it's a reissue);
Severance by Ling Ma;
Gather The Daughters by Jennie Melamed;
The Space Between The Stars by Ann Corlett, and;
The Book Of M by Peng Shepherd.
I'm not saying that there can't be a fresh new take on a well-known idea, I just didn't feel The Last Ones Left Alive gave us that new take.

Like all the best zombie stories, <i>Last Ones Left Alive</i>uses its major disaster and the resultant creatures as a vehicle for telling a story of human endurance, courage and kindness. The main character, Orpen, has grown up on an island with her mother and her mother's best friend (lover?). She had a happy childhood despite never seeing any other people. As she grows older, she soon learns that the world is dangerous, an apocalyptic event occurred and she must learn to protect herself. And then her world is shattered when her family is destroyed, leading to her breaking all the rules she's ever been taught...

This was such a gripping read. On the surface Orpen's world is harsh and brutal but there are surprising glimpses of beauty beneath. In a coming of age story like no other, the MC learns to expand her world view and encompass others under her protection, and to let go of her family. It's clever and beautifully written, and in the end, strangely hopeful. Highly recommend.

I was hesitant to read this book as it's not normally the genre I would read or enjoy. I was so pleasantly surprised. A zombie like apocalypse hits the island of Ireland and we get to see the story develop of Orpen and her companions while jumping from past to present and back again. A really nice writing style with the tension building throughout. I devoured this book and really hope there is more to come.

My first thought i have to get out, I loves this book, the post apocalyptic and zombie genre is saturated, there are some great, some ok and some terrible books out there. I found this book dose not add a lot of new ideas to those genres but the story is great the characters are great. The novel is unabashedly feminist in it's writing and the female characters are strong and self reliant.

The setting is Ireland but for me this was a weak point in the novel, it could have been set anywhere the descriptions is lacking, it could be America, it could be any country that has trees and grass but I loved the story and the pacing made you want to keep reading, it's one of the books I've read that truly is a chore to put down.

I empathised and at times disagreed with the characters but this was all inline with each of their personalities, they were flawed but their motivations rang true to me, while being in the wrong i could understand how, yes, they would act like that based on the lives they had led and for me this was where the book came to life, interesting authentic people and a story line i thoroughly enjoyed and didn't see coming.

The ending was satisfying and moving and i would love to see a sequel. While there are some minor flaws i really enjoyed this book, it kept my attention until the end and i'm still interested to imagine where the story goes after finishing the book.

spoiler alert ** This felt slightly familiar,I think if you've read one zombie take over of the world,you know what you're getting.
I've read a few.. I think this was one of the better ones.
Going from a lonely childhood,brought up by two women on an empty island,to fighting the zombies/skrakes on the road into Dublin... It's full of action,but plenty of emotion too.
As the story unfolded,I was just left wondering how many years exactly had Ireland been under attack,how did it start? What exactly was it that was going on ,that women were either breeders or banshees?

So many unanswered questions that you could only hope for a follow up maybe to answer them....