I felt quite disappointed in this book. After all the good reviews it received I was expecting something more original. It's very much like Room by Emma Donahue. Once Jane tells Lenn she's pregnant it all became a bit predictable. The good point to it is the highlighting of the sex trafficking trade which unfortunately we all know happens!

Not a normal thriller. So many adjectives come to mind when thinking about this book. Powerful, bleak, cruel, unsettling, but a few. I found it hard to read; human trafficking is not something we think much about, but reading Will Dean’s book puts it firmly in the headlights. This is an important book as well as a thriller, and the writing is excellent bringing the details out. Lyrical at times, unflinching in the degradation; shocking the reader with details of a young Vietnamese girl held prisoner on a remote Fenland farm being systematically abused and tortured and yet threaded through with hope and glimpses of the resilience of the human soul. There is tension too which keeps the reader wanting to reach the end. It’s a book that will stay with me for a long time and I will definitely be recommending it.

Oh, my! Prepare yourselves for this amazing book about the incredible strength of the human soul and the appalling things human beings can do to each other.

This is a heart wrenching, poignant tale, so beautifully written. Thanh Dao has been human trafficked and is being held against her will by an oaf of a man who, amongst other things, insists that she answer to Jane and does his bidding, all the while, suffering a terrible affliction. It's such a difficult, emotional read, but, one that has human survival at it's very core.

Thanh Dao's life is only made bearable by her 'treasures' which are burnt if she disobeys her captor and the thought of her Sister, Kim-Ly who is working in a nail bar in Manchester. One of the treasures is a copy of the literary masterpiece ‘Of Mice and Men’ and that’s a book that had a profound effect on me in my youth and this book resonated in the same way. Despite the bleak situation, so vividly described, there is hope, so, hang in there.

I began reading this book just before sleep and then found that I couldn't and that when I eventually did, my sleep was haunted by kidnappers and fear. It's that powerful.
I honestly can't explain how deeply this book affected me and Thanh Dao is the most fabulous character, beautifully crafted and one that will stay with me forever.

Overall, an amazing, difficult, heartbreaking, important book and I'm incredibly grateful to Will Dean, NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the opportunity to preview this excellent read.

I mean I have absolutely no clue how to review this book because so much happened I don't even know where to begin.
First of all, the message this book carries regarding human trafficking is so STRONG and I would recommend everybody to read it for this reason alone. Not enough is spoken about these real realities of life and definitely unheard of in fiction books.

- The writing was great and the plot was so unique to me. I was so interested in Jane's backstory and her life and I couldn't imagine what she was going through.
- I thought the character development could be better. I wanted more from Lenn and why he choose Jane and what happened to Jane number one. I feel like this would have added more substance to the story.
- I think the ending was alright. I didn't find anything wrong with it but I wasn't gripped like I was in the first half of the book.

Overall, a decent thriller that will keep you guessing. This book has strong messages behind the writing and I think any thriller fan would enjoy this.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read and enjoyed all Will Dean’s previous books but when I started to read this one, I was initially a bit taken back, as it wasn’t what I was used to or expecting but wow! I’m glad I stuck with it. What a book! I felt so many emotions reading this book, as I got further into it I couldn’t read fast enough to get to the end and my pulse was physically racing.. This book is very dark, intense and atmospheric. It is so well written and seriously it is so good and definitely a recommended read.

Jane lives with her husband in a small farm cottage, except Jane can’t remember getting married and that is not her name. She is trapped. No one knows she is there and when visitors do come she is never seen. Her every move is caught on camera and if she displeases her husband He takes something of hers to punish her. But one day something changes and she has something to live for her and so she starts watching him...

The Last Thing to Burn, was not a novel I was expecting. The rugged, raw brutality and cruelty of the characters and landscapes in the novel provide a compelling backdrop to the real torment. The story between Lenn and Jane is really upsetting, and I would read this without any distractions. This is an abusive relationship that builds into a story of desperation, hope and perseverance. I felt like I was with Jane every step of the way. When she ran, I ran with her.

The last time I read a novel where I had so hope, so many times that the female would escape the clutches of an evil man was Stephen King's Rose Madder. This is similar in many ways and the writing is excellent.

The Last Thing to Burn, will stay with me for a very long time.

Outstanding and deserves all 5 stars!

This is a horrific story. Thanh is Vietnamese and has left home with the promise of a job and the ability to send money home to her family. Instead, she is trapped as a slave on a remote farm. Her ankle is broken and she is afraid that, if she disobeys, her sister will be punished. Most of the book details her pain and misery and is extremely hard to read. It is particularly hard because you know that there are people in similar situations. I can’t say I enjoyed this at all. I really don’t know how many stars to give it because it tells the story brilliantly. It’s just a horrific story. Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A harrowing, heartbreaking and unputdownable novel that will have you glued to the page. I sat down to read a few chapters and, after what felt like minutes, I found that I was near the end — I just really needed to know what happened to Thanh.

Thanh — or ‘Jane’, as she’s first introduced to the reader — is being held captive by Lenn. She lives in a small cottage on a farm, which is surrounded by wide open fields. Nobody knows how she got the UK, or even that she’s there — there aren’t really any visitors to the fair and, if there are, they aren’t really seen.

Lenn records Jane’s every movement and, if he doesn’t like what he sees, she is punished. For a long time, escape seemed impossible. But now, something has changed: she has a reason to live and a reason to fight. Now, she is watching him, and waiting.

The book can be difficult to read at times; it’s an unflinchingly brutal story about people trafficking and the want to survive in the face of extreme cruelty. But I found that I couldn’t put it down. 

While it’s a big change from the Tulva series, The Last Thing To Burn is superbly written — and it’s definitely going to be a book everyone will be talking about in 2021.

This was not the kind of book I was expecting. I expected a mystery, some story like any other, but it was real, and sad, and really hard to read in the right way. This is the kind of story that stays with you when you finish it.

Whizzed through this during a train journey - claustrophobic, difficult, upsetting, courageous. A really great read. Will Dean’s work is always such a treat!

This is an intense novel, horrifying, chilling, suspenseful. It was engaging (in a ghastly way) though some parts were a bit repetitive. I kept wondering why Thanh wasn't making more of an attempt to escape or to try to bean Lenn on the head with the poker or something -- not because of any complaints of the psychology of abuse that Will Dean demonstrates, but because it didn't seem to take the story anywhere. Also, I always have my bullshit meter up when men (assuming Will Dean is a man from the name) write from the PoV of women, but this book turned out to be just fantastic from that end. The very private nature of Thanh's resistance was something else, the way she talked back to Lenn in her head, and the way she kept imagining a future for herself and her daughter. I will be looking out for more of this author's work.

(Review copy from NetGalley)

This was brilliant.

I didn't think it was possible for a book set in one location to hold my attention but it did that and more - I couldn't put it down!

Will Dean’s “The Last Thing to Burn”, quite frankly, is phenomenal. Painfully brutal, distressingly tense and viscerally affecting. This will take 2021 by storm.

Lenn is a farmer who lives in a small, rugged farmhouse with his wife Jane. But Lenn and Jane aren’t really married. In fact, Jane isn’t even her real name... Kept against her will, her every move monitored and terrorised when she puts a foot wrong, Jane fears she will never escape Lenn. All and knows is that she must do all she can to get away...

“The Last Thing to Burn” is exceptionally gripping. Told from the viewpoint of Jane (real name Thanh Dao, a Vietnamese refuges), this is a stark tale of abuse and abject horror, but also a story of perseverance and determined hope. It’s a very timely novel too, as it epitomises the darkest, depraved depths of white male privilege too. Dean has expertly captured the sheer agony of Jane’s torture, whilst also weaving a string sense of hope throughout the narrative. The plot is peppered with many moments of breathtaking suspense, as Jane plots how she can escape. Throughout the novel, I was willing her to escape the shackles of her imprisonment on each page and I felt every failed attempt, every mis-engineered break out like a dagger to the heart - that is how passionately I felt for Jane, which is testament to Dean’s power as an affecting and gifted writer. The narrative is a perfect blend of human emotion and drama, nail-biting suspense and action, plus plausibly graphic violence. This makes it a thriller that is second to none.

With only a handful of characters, characterisation is really important in “The Last Thing to Burn”. Jane is a brilliantly crafted lead character. She is equal parts victim and heroine, making her a deep and engaging character. I was immediately drawn to her through the first person narrative from her perspective. Dean writes of her pain (both emotional and physical) with great power - Jane’s words are emotional and draw you completely into her life and situation. Despite enduring unspeakable abuse, the defiance and unspoken detest for Lenn that permeates through her voice is infectious. I loved the strength of her character, despite all she had suffered and she is an inspirational character on so many levels. Whilst it would have been hard to create a lead character that readers didn’t sympathise with in these circumstances, Dean has excelled at creating a character that is not just a victim and someone the reader is one hundred percent behind. Lenn is undeniably a monster of the most horrifying kind. However, true to life, there are moments where he shows a fragment of humanity or a slither of compassion. These moments made me want to know more about him - what had happened in his life to make him the way he is? He’s a complex character - barbaric, ignorant, repulsive - and in those moments of compassion he showed, I really wanted to believe that they would offer him retribution and that the evil inside of him would repent and die. However, his moments of kindness simply served to strengthen his grip on Jane, furthering his abuse, manipulation and power. There is no remorse in Lenn and I came away feeling like I had experienced the epitome of putrid black evil. He is the worst kind of villain - one without any redeemable qualities. This makes him a genuinely terrifying character and one that I will not forget. Dean perfectly exhibits how the very worst evil can so easily be found in the most ordinary of people.

Symbolism plays a huge role in this novel too. I loved how the bleak and rugged landscape seemed to so inherently match the prospect of Jane’s future, but how eventually it may just be her means of escape. The frequent references to Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” were well incorporated too. For example, where the dream farm in that novel is a symbol of the unattainable American Dream, the farm Jane is trapped in is not only opposite (as it’s a horrific nightmare) but also similarly depicts the unattainable dream of a better future that she had when travelling to England. The symbolism of Jane’s possessions (that Lenn burns one by one when she does not behave as he dictates) is also incredibly powerful. Each of the 17 items Jane arrived with were precious to her and in her mind, defined who she really was. However, as her possessions dwindle and she feels her identity ebb away in a cloud of smoke, what she finds is that none of these items define her. Her spirit, her determination and her deep-rooted strength are who she is and Lenn can never take these things from her.

“The Last Thing to Burn” is harrowing, exhilarating and genuinely unputdownable. I highly recommend this incredible read!

Will Dean's writing is remarkable in this book. It's very grim, heartbreaking, but he told the story he wanted to tell excellently.

The characters, the atmosphere and plot jump off the page. It was truly amazing.
Thanks a lot to NG nad the publisher for this copy.

I've heard nothing but good things about Will Dean books, namely the Tuva Moodyson series, so when I saw that his new book was a standalone thriller I decided that the time was right to see what all the fuss was about. The Last Thing to Burn is a hard-hitting book dealing with human trafficking so it's not easy to read at times but oh my word, it's absolutely brilliant.

Will Dean really manages to portray Thanh Dao's every emotion as we read about her being held captive by farmer Lenn. I refuse to call her Jane as that isn't her name, which Thanh Dao keeps reminding us. Thanh Dao holds on tightly to her identity through her meagre possessions that Lenn burns one by one in the Rayburn stove every time he perceives that she has stepped out of line. Lenn watches Thanh Dao's every move through video cameras set up in the house so she really can't do anything without Lenn seeing.

Thanh Dao and her sister Kim-Ly were brought to the UK from Vietnam in a shipping container but their dreams of a better life were shattered when Thanh Dao was sold to Lenn. Kim-Ly is working in a nail bar in Manchester to pay back the cost of their passage and Thanh Dao is warned that if she tries to escape, Kim-Ly will be sent back to Vietnam with the full debt to repay. What a predicament to be in; Thanh Dao is desperate to be free of Lenn but her love for her sister is the only thing that keeps her going.

Thanh Dao has to clean, cook and lie back and think of Vietnam so it felt like I had stepped back into a different century; back to a time when a woman's place was in the kitchen. Lenn is an absolutely odious man, treating Thanh Dao like a slave which of course is what she is. Some of the things he does and says had my mouth gaping in shock and horror, he really is very selfish and doesn't have a caring bone in his body. No wonder he had to buy a 'wife'. There's certainly no fear of Thanh Dao suffering from Stockholm Syndrome!

As Thanh Dao's hatred for Lenn intensifies, and circumstances change, she becomes braver and starts planning her escape. The tension is ramped up to fever pitch and I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest; it felt like there was a string on a fret board being tightened and tightened until it reached breaking point. Even my reading pace increased as if any extra seconds I could give Thanh Dao would help. As I raced towards the conclusion, I was totally floored by another twist in the tale - to say I gasped out loud is an understatement.

The Last Thing to Burn is a heart-pounding thriller that is as taut as a bowstring. Filled with tension and suspense, this is a dark and disturbing novel that is difficult to put down because Thanh Dao's story completely draws you in. It's horrific and shocking but incredibly powerful, evoking so many emotions in me (especially negative emotions towards Lenn, admittedly). Human trafficking is a difficult subject to read about but full marks to Will Dean for drawing attention to the plight of so many women who leave their home country in search of a better life, only to find themselves enslaved.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

This is a very grim novel. It's a heartbreaking story about a woman forced to be a slave, and her will to escape.

I found the plot really interesting and didn't want to stop reading until I'd finished the book.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

Tough story to read,very emotional subect. The characters were very well portrayed and the plot had plenty of twists. A thread of hope all through.

I could not put this book down. The subject matter is topical and cruel but the book written in such a way that you engage with the main characters and at times even start trying to understand the reasons behind the behaviour. I read until the early hours of the night to find out what happened. I will recommend!

A stunning, timely, heart wrenching read and sadly only too believable. A very important book as well as an excellent thriller

Thanks netgalley and Will Dean for giving me the opportunity to read an early edition of this very disturbing story about Jane, which is not her real name. Jane was brought over from Vietnam with the understanding that she would work to pay for travel expenses,then get paid for doing a job so she could send money back to her family, this was a long way from the truth.
Jane was taken to a farm in the middle of no where, and forced to work all day in an old cottage.
She was starved and beaten by a man, and all she wanted to do was run away.
Jane tried many times to run and each time she was brought back and beaten again.
Jane then became pregnant and life got harder once she had the baby as she knew if she misbehaved the baby would be taken from. Her and killed.
This was a very sad story, but it also shows you what you can overcome when you become a mother and you want to live.