Thank you to Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton & Bethany Clift for this ARC of Last One At The Party. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

As fair warning, this may not be the ideal read for those who already have serious anxiety issues about the current COVID-19 global pandemic.

Whilst this does reference covid and the current global pandemic it is in fact about another global pandemic, in the not to distant future, that wipes the face of the earth with something only known as 6DM (6 Days Maximum).

Be prepared - this book will make you want to become a doomsday prepper! I have planned my escape route and what supplies I’m going to need! I’m meeting Bethany in Scotland 😉 join us if you dare 😂

This book says all the things you might think about at the end of the world but also opens up all the doors you think you will leave closed come the end of the world.

The writing of this is perfectly timed and hilarious at just the right points.

I felt akin to all the stages of grief that the narrator seemingly goes through. And all the realisations she has along the way.

It made me wonder how I would fair if the worst happened and I was the last person seemingly alive. This immediately induced a bit of a panic (I watch far too many apocalyptic tv shows/films) and I had to remind myself that I cannot plan for everything.

The writing draws you in and the descriptions give you a little movie in your minds eye.

You follow the narrator on her journey of self discovery and realisation about the life she lead prior to the pandemic and the person she has always wanted to be.

I was almost half way through when I started recommending this book to the book groups I’m part of. I rarely do that (only with my favourite authors generally) so it shows how much I was already enjoying the book!

Definitely one for a book club. For those who are finding the current real life pandemic a bit too anxiety inducing, I would definitely recommend this book for when we are out the other side.

I can’t wait to see what Bethany writes next!

There is so much in Last One at the Party. It is a brilliant premise, admittedly not original but executed with verve and empathy, creating such a good, readable book.

Our narrator - we never learn her name - is, literally, the least lone at the party. (She points out that this is her won't, she's always the one left behind collecting the lost coats and cleaning up the house). She's the only person to have survived the End of Days - a sudden, distressing and inevitably fatal virus which sweeps the world before any measures can be found to contain it. Set a few years in the future, there are call-backs to the current covid-19 pandemic but 6DM is in a different league.

We're never told why she survived - this isn't a painstakingly researched pandemic book, nor would it be in character for our hero to understand such matters - she tells us herself that she's not very practical and changing a lightbulb is at the limit of what she can manage. When disaster falls, she struggles to deal with her husband's body, and then sets off into London for a several weeks's booze and drug spree, occupying the best hotel rooms she can access and looting Harrods for fancy bags and scarves.

If you are the sort of reader who lusts after the complexities and details of survival post apocalyse - food stocks, medical supplies, firearms, fuel and so on - you will I think probably leave the book there. That isn't what Last One at the Party is about AT ALL. Our protagonist has an almost wilful lack of survival skills and refuses to acquire them now she needs them. She also refuses to carry out what seems like a basic act of mercy, which left me really not liking her much in this part of the story.

What she does have, though, is self-awareness. As she narrates her story, she recalls her earlier life and the layers of expectations it created for her; her ideal parents, with their romantic outlook on life, her girl friend Ginny, who has mentored and mounted here at work; her self-destructive gay best friend Xav; her husband James. It becomes clear that she was in a mess before the pandemic and I even began to suspect that the helplessness we see at the start of the book was as much a mask as any of the other "selves" that she seems to have developed through life. As the book continued I became more and more fascinated and intrigued by this complex, human and constantly developing character. It's almost as if, to be who she really is, she needs to lose everything and everyone. Then she needs to find a way to live with herself - the one successful response to the pandemic has been the distribution of vast stocks of suicide pills, a continual temptation, and the narrator has also managed to source ample supplies of Tramadol.

It is, at least to begin with, a relatively safe, abundant world that she falls into. There is nobody else around to fight for the large stocks of food left behind - everyone died so quickly that shortages didn't develop - and electricity and water continue to operate for some weeks (the main feature of this apocalypse that felt a bit off, I suspect power would be gone in days - though car satnav would probably work for ages, those satellites aren't going anywhere). In a sense that provides a cushion, allowing the narrator to come to terms with her loss (well, not really come to terms, but to begin to). It's understandable, I think, that she goes a bit off the rails, with no immediate need to be practical.

That does change, but the book never gets to full-on "Survivors" mode with the solution of practical problems the overriding driver. There are some sticky moments, dangers, and crises (the ultimate one leading to a situation of great jeopardy which the narrator is able to meet with determination and skill) but the real drama here always arises from the earlier choices the narrator made, and her sometimes brutally honest assessments of them. We see her happy and fulfilled as a music journalist before a crisis brings that to an end, then, again, happily working for a shipping journal and globetrotting to write up a port or a tanker (she learns at one point to make a fishing net - so, maybe not as impractical as she claims). We see that end, and her changing as she thinks she must to satisfy others - husband, co-workers, her parents.

Her life seems to get darker, with the eruption of 6DM coming almost as a deliverance. What would you do if you were suddenly alone to enjoy, intact, all the goodies of life? This book certainly made me ponder what I'd do, where I'd go, if freed from the need to worry about the everyday. Making a new world, a new life, must be about more than stockpiling fuel and rigging solar panels, it has to start within oneself. That's the insight that Clift so brilliantly explores in this book and it is so much more interesting than mere practicalities. In fact, it's a cracker of a book and one I'd strongly recommend. (In the end, the empathy and insight of Clift's writing even won me over to sympathise with her protagonist, despite some misgivings at the start - if you find yourself hating her at one point, give it some time, keep going).

This book grabs you and draws you in from the first chapter and doesn’t spit you out until the end. It’s not an easy read as we are all aware of the current pandemic situation and some descriptions are best read on an empty stomach but my God this book doesn’t pull any punches, it tells it how it could be and leaves you emotionally exhausted. It is well though out and I liked the two time lines of before and during, which gives an insight into the narrator’s mindset and history. A very well deserved (but disturbed) five stars

Coronavirus is a horrible disease, and we have spent the last year trying to keep it at bay. Lockdowns, Social distancing, masks, and sanitiser have become the norm in society. As devastating as it is, this story explores the idea of something worse coming along, and completely wiping out humanity.

As with every illness there would be a select few who have a natural immunity, and this story follows one such person. Our protagonist has been in very close contact with 6DM and has miraculously not caught it. She’s not a survivalist, not even close, she can barely look after herself when surrounded by people. So she’s forced to learn on the fly.
I must admit, was worried for a while, because I wasn’t sure that we’d see any character growth for this unnamed narrator. But we did. And it probably saved the story for me.

It’s a tough book to read, not because of the writing or anything, which was quite good, but it hits so very close to home with the current world climate, and is honestly a little disturbing.
But it’s also very addictive.

Last One at the Party is an exploratory tale of survival, of finding yourself and what you’re made of when all your rocks, supports, and humanity are gone.

I became invested in the woman’s and her dog Lucky’s plight, a woman the same age as me, and it got me thinking about my own survival skills if I were in the same position. Thankfully, much of what she learnt, I already know. But maybe I should look at learning more...

With such savagery and cruelty of a decimated world, I began to fear the end of this story. Of what it would bring. I needn’t have worried.

Definitely one story that will stay with me and haunt me for some time to come.

Many thanks to Bethany Clift, Hodder & Stoughton, and NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An unnamed woman survives the 6DM virus which has wiped out the world’s population. In a series of flashbacks we find out more about more about her past friendships and relationships as a millennial in London. The novel is peppered with memorable or important parties, from which the protagonist tells us she was always the last to leave. Now alone in the world she initially makes some terrible choices to mask the horror of the situation before rescuing a golden retriever she names Lucky and embarking on a type of odyssey across Britain to find other survivors. This takes into some horrific situations and there is certainly lots of vomiting, decomposing corpses and attacking vermin. I wouldn’t however categorise the novel as sci fi/fantasy as the thrust of the novel is about human connections, family love and self discovery.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a review copy.

I liked this, but I didn't love it. It was a bit to ointemse for me, and as others have said if it wasn't for the current global situation I would've probably enjoyed this a lot more, jut this just felt too real for me. Would recommend, but not currently.

Thanks t9 NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

It was very surreal reading this while we're still very much in the middle of a pandemic, especially as Clift has managed to include references to Covid-19 during the revisions to the text. But it didn't diminish my enjoyment of it at all. This novel is bitter-sweet, charming, touching and hilarious despite the grim subject matter. The found-footage type narrative is reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale or World War Z, and just as good. Mental health and the difficulty of finding where you fit are discussed in the same breath as the practicalities of survival when the world is collapsing around you, and while I saw the twist coming, I was gripped from beginning to end. I'd recommend this book to anyone.

This, for me, was an uncomfortable read. I get the fact that many people have said this is a witty book, it is in parts. But there is a lot of darkness in it, and some pretty graphic details. If we weren't currently living through a pandemic I think I would have enjoyed reading this book.

The story is set in late 2023/early 2024. A new virus named 6DM (six days maximum) has wiped out the human race. It is the end of the world. Yet there is one woman still alive. Despite coming into contact with people who have 6DM, including her own husband, this woman survives.
The book is written in the style of a diary that is being kept by this woman - unnamed - and it discusses her life before 6DM hit, how the new and deadly virus ravaged her life and loved ones and how she survives. She comes across as quite self-centred and I think the point is to show the reader how she has had to adjust from selfish to self-reliant.

For me, there was too much graphic content in terms of animal suffering. The demise of the humans she knows and encounters is almost comical in some parts, but the description of animals suffering and dying as a result of the deadly virus really upset me.

The end was quite disappointing. We don't get to find out what happens to her. We do find out that she wasn't the only survivor - there are a couple of clues in the book that suggest this - but we don't get to know what happens to her.

This is not the kind of book I would normally read, much less during a real-life pandemic! It is well written, and yes, there are some witty moments in the book. Like other people have already discussed elsewhere, the woman isn't that likeable, but that's probably the point. I would have liked to know why she seemed to be immune to this virus too.

Overall rating 7/10 3 stars ***

My goodness, what a book to read during the lockdown with this pandemic, it seemed strange reading about the next one and it could have been so true. Saying that, it was a great read and I look forward to seeing more of Bethany and if her following books are as good as this one they will be enjoyed by so many people. 5 stars and well done

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this eARC

When a global pandemic hits, we follow a woman who may just be the last human alive.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is set in the very near future. In two years time, the world is hit by another virus - 6DM (Six Days Max before it kills you).
With the situation we are currently in... the book hits the right note to send shivers down your spine.

We follow a dual timeline of the same character.
Following the news of the pandemic wiping out America and the rest of the world; of Britain closing its borders and holding strong for a while longer. Until the virus hits.
We get to watch our protagonist lose her husband, the love of her life; and have to deal with how she is not suited for survival. She's a city girl through and through; completely incapable of self-reliance. She was the weak one, constantly needing her husband's support.
She's too much of a coward to take the government provided suicide pills, so she has to find out how to survive in the new world, which gets increasingly harder.

We also follow her story, from being a music journalist when she was young, to meeting James.
I was surprised at how much I liked this timeline. I was worried that it wouldn't hold up to the apocalyptic drama; but I was addicted throughout.
Our protagonist is likeable, but very flawed. We get to see that they are far from the perfect picture of marital bliss that was suggested on her husband's deathbed.
There was nothing big, or dramatic. Many of the issues that plagued them, and the poor choices that our main character makes, are so heart-achingly normal and familiar. The writing really hooks you in.

I don't want to say too much about this book, because I don't want to spoil what happens.
This is a character-driven book, but also explores a chillingly-real pandemic, and how it affects the UK.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I can't wait to read more of the author's work.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
❌

Trigger warning: death, violence, gore, depression.

I am absolutely amazed at this book! It is violent, raw, brutally honest and as a result, very realistic and believable. However, warning: not for the faint of heart. If you’re squeamish or prone to panicking, this might not be the best pick.

In 2024, a deadly virus wipes all human life... with one exception. One woman finds herself in the middle of London, alone, surrounded by corpses.

I absolutely loved this book, especially the start which absolutely BLEW my mind. The concept is awesome and the story fantastic. Having read The Midnight Library earlier this year, which left me a little unfulfilled, I enjoyed this book even more as it truly revolutionised similar concepts and took a raw and honest approach to mental health disorders.

It’s not pretty, it’s violent, it’s raw. And it’s real! This story gripped me completely and I can’t remember when I last read something that understood so well mental health issues.

The main character is imperfect. She makes bad decisions, she can be irresponsible, sometimes she’s a coward, sometimes she’s superficial, but she is always 100% true to herself and REAL, and to me, it provided an incredible reading experience.

The writing style is excellent and honestly funny! For a story discussing such horrendous and serious topics, some chapters were incredibly funny!

So why only 4 stars and one strike? Purely because of the amount of gruesomeness in the book! As you can expect from the synopsis: there are corpses everywhere, some fresher than others, all sorts of horror following anarchy and the symptoms of the deadly virus (many many bodily fluids).

Finally... I’m sliiiightly frustrated about the ending. I want more. Will there be a second book? I hope so.

I rarely read dystopian/post apocalyptic books. But Bookstagram made me do it and here I am.
This book is not for everyone in my opinion. Mostly because the action takes place just a few year from now and the main topic is way to similar to what’s happening now in the world. So everything will be a huge trigger for some readers.
The writing was phenomenal and while I wanted to stop reading at times because I just couldn’t think of this pandemic, I also wanted to see how everything was unfolding and where is this story going forward.
At some points I was laughing out loud as the heroine was doing some tragicomedy stuff and it really made me wonder how would I react if I was faced with the same situation
But it was also sad and heartbreaking overall.
I couldn’t say I liked or connected with the heroine ( we never found out her name!) but I was feeling so much for her as a woman and mother.
I’m still debating whether to really recommend it as a post apocalyptic story or just a fiction book.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy.

This book is definitely poignant, considering our current situation and the fact that Covid-19 is referenced in this book frequently enough. I definitely can see why that fact might make some readers uncomfortable, so that is something to consider.
However, the overall story of the book is about a women’s survival, both physically and mentally, when everything she has ever known is gone. It is incredibly atmospheric and the details of the setting have clearly been well thought through.

The writing is style could get slightly repetitive, but considering it is written from a single character perspective I can understand how that would occur. There was a lot of humorous parts too, which definitely helped since the underlying story is quite dark.
Pacing wise, I was very impressed at how well the story flowed right the way through. I was expecting some lulls here and there considering the limitations of the plot, but this really wasn’t the case and it had me pretty engrossed til the end.

While there wasn’t any sections I necessarily disliked, there was some parts that I felt weren’t really needed. That lost time could have been given to telling us more about the main character’s life before the pandemic, which might have helped.

Overall, this is an impressive and very brave debut novel, considering the environment it’s coming out in and I’m excited to see what comes next for Bethany Clift.

I was a little slow to pick this up. Seeing as we're in the middle of a pandemic, and I can barely manage home working and home schooling right now, did I REALLY want to put myself through reading about a global pandemic that wipes out the human race?!? Seems I did.

The year is 2023 and the hyper-virulent 6DM killer virus is sweeping the globe. Named 6DM as an abbreviation of "6 Days Maximum", the length of time you show symptoms before your body begins to shut down.

The story follows our narrator as she wakes in lockdown from the hangover of all hangovers to find that her husband is infected with 6DM and gradually the world around her becomes quiet as the pandemic takes hold. The story that unfolds is written as a diarised account of the following weeks and months where our narrator believed she might be the last woman alive. She is not a natural survivalist, opting for a dalliance with opiate addiction and a raid on Harrods as her first response to the surreal situation she finds herself in. Through the course of the story, we are given insights into her life and important relationships leading up to the pandemic - I loved the way that her past was gradually revealed, whilst we got to see her coping with her new environment.

This was a really gripping read. I wouldn't usually pick up a dystopian book but saw so many reave reviews about this that I had to give it a chance. I am so glad I did, it's a brilliant character driven novel that, if nothing else, made me feel that things could be a whole heap worse than hanging out with 3 feral kids and an ever-growing workload.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a copy of #LastOneattheParty in exchange for my honest review

Man oh man, if you can get past the fact we are IN a pandemic, this book is incredibly griping and just down right good. I literally read the first third in abject horror. It feels like a horror book at the beginning. And probably all through out.

And I'm going to be critical of it, even though this in no way got in the way of me absolutely loving it. And this is nit picking, but got in the way, only slightly, to it being the best book ever.

It seems convenient that she has the code to her best friend's flat. Especially as I don't think they were on good terms.

Wouldn't there have been more dead bodies everywhere? This, I'm weirdly grateful for, because it was hard to handle the reality of it. I guess everyone just died in doors?

I knew she was going to be pregnant. I think the bit about her telling a story about how she has a really good sense of smell could have been introduced earlier and seamlessly. I think her just being like, shit when's the last time I had my period, would have been enough. Not the 'I can smell my period before it comes'. I could have missed it, but if not, it could have been introduced way earlier?

Also her forgetting about petrol in the beginning. I suppose that's plausible, but considering the dangers, it seems like something she would really pay attention to, but she was on drugs, so probably ok?

Also, why didn't she take the unhinged lady's gun? That seems a bit silly.

Also, would the government have supplied a euthanasia pill so quickly?

I loved the introduction of the other man she was with, that was a nice twist. And I loved that he loved her for who she was.

I want to hate that the apocalypse gave her time to reflect and grow as a person, but again, everything was written so well, it was hard to find fault. And looking back at what I've written, those are totally ignorable.

I totally recommend it for anyone who can stomach a

4 stars!

I actually finished this book last night but was too struck to be able to formulate a proper review and to collect my thoughts. I don't think I've ever read anything like Last One at the Party. It was innovative and striking and extremely well written.

The year is 2023 and 6DM (6 Days Maximum) has wiped out most of the population on Earth. The virus is incredibly deadly and kills people too quickly for there ever to be a chance of finding where it comes from and how to cure it. Therefore, the end of the world is imminent. Our main character, a woman whose name we never learn, has watched everyone around her die of this virus, including her husband, her parents and her best friend. She starts to think she may be the only person left alive on Earth. And as such, she starts to freak out.

Our main character is very real, in the sense she reacts as each one of us probably would if faced with the possibility we were the last person on Earth. She freaks out, cries, gets drunk on champagne. Because no matter how crafty you are, when faced with the end of the world as you know it, you are bound to freak out.

Last One at the Party is very cleverly written, extremely engaging and grabbing from the very first page. It is written in form of diary entries and you always want to keep reading to find out what will happen next.

Post apocalyptic/dystopian stories are always hard to craft in a way that seems realistic enough to induce fear in the reader but still having that fictional whimsy - with the most difficult part being the ending. And it is precisely the ending of this book that didn't make it a full 5 stars for me. I believe this is very personal to me and for most people the ending will be absolutely incredible, but I wanted more and I wanted more of an explanation and more of a close to it rather than such an open ending.

Overall this a great story about humanity, about life and about what's really important at the end.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

In 2023, a deadly virus named 6DM (as you have 6 days more to live after you’ve got it) sweeps the globe. In a England, the virus leaves a woman in its wake, seemingly unscathed. All the people she loves are dead and she is left to wonder if she is indeed alone in the world, and what she will do now......

It’s taken me a few days after finishing this to write this review, I had a serious book hangover afterwards! Our protagonist is a normal person. This isn’t the type of book where the last survivor inexplicably has some sort of training leaving her well suited for navigating the end of the world. She acts in a way which I would venture many of us would; exploring famous places, raiding shops for designer gear and embarking on a drink and drug binge to cope with her new reality.

Bit by bit, out heroine reveals her pre-apocalypse life, detailing her battles with anxiety and her sense of self. She is very relatable here; Bethany Clift has created a real person that we can follow and wonder whether we’d fare better or worse than she had.

I’m unsure as to how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact on people’s willingness to pick up this book. In an author’s note at the start of the book, Clift sets out how she had the idea before the pandemic hit, though it is clear that some rewriting has been done to refer to it. The book is perhaps more real and more relatable because of us all having experienced COVID-19, lockdown and the global impact and fear of our loved ones becoming ill. I do hope that this book will do well, in spite of, or because of COVID-19.

As I said, I had a bit of a book hangover after this one. The ending was one which some people may not like, though I thought it was well done and it certainly affected me. This is a standout book for me and one I’ll be recommending.

It's November 2023. The human race has been wiped out by the 6DM virus (Six Days Maximum - the longest you've got before your body destroys itself). The end of the world as we know it.

Yet someone is still alive. Alone in a new world of burning cities, rotting corpses and ravenous rats, one woman has survived. A woman who has spent her whole life compromising what she wants and hiding how she feels to meet other people's expectations. From her career to her relationships, to what she wears and where she lives, she's made a lifetime of decisions to fit what other people want her to be.

But with no one else left, who will she become now that she's completely alone?

A little too close to the bone was this one given our current pandemic situation but this was well written, difficult to read at times but enthralling none the less. The story of one woman's strength and survival which i really did enjoy.

My thanks to netgalley for an arc of this book in return for my honest opinion.

Last year I experienced more reading slumps than I’ve ever had. Yet, from the moment I turned the first page in Last One At The Party my mind was still and I was utterly transfixed.

I’ve read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction. Beth’s debut was the first I’d read during a pandemic so I approached it with a little trepidation. I needn’t have done so, yes there are some pretty harrowing scenes but that’s not the essence of the story, this is a novel about what it is to be female when the world is crumbling around you. What it takes to find yourself when there is only you left to find and most importantly of all, the inner strength that finds you when all hope is lost.

I finished it months ago but I still think of it often and ahead of writing this review found myself thinking of which book it’s comparable to, the answer is none as it’s refreshingly original, but if you tried to imagine a delicious blend of Station Eleven and Bridget Jones Diary you’d be on the right path.

It reads like a dream, the plot itself sometimes feels like more of a living nightmare (don’t even get me started on the seagulls...) with every single word perfectly plotted to create a story like no other. Sometimes I laughed, sometimes I cried but I always related and I never wanted it to end.

I implore you to give your anxious minds a well earned rest and pick up this book, its special, very special and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

This is a triumph of a debut and well worth all the 5 star reviews it must surely get.

Last one at the party is about a lone woman surviving the end of the world due to a virus called 6DM (6 days max - amount of time you have to live after contracting it) that wipes out the human population. It is less a story about a pandemic and more about how this lone woman has to shift from urbanite to survivor. The preface sets the scene and lets you know how the author came about the story and is a great introduction.

There is strong character development as she goes from raiding Harrods for Birkins and champagne to surviving the perils of foraging, fending for herself and maintaining her sanity. We also learn more about her past and how it shaped who she is. I wasn’t sure what to expect but this woman is strong, brave and determined. I truly don’t know if I could survive if I was in her situation.

The book is filled with lots of highs and lows both in the past and the present, as well as the crazy tension in certain scenes. The ending .... sigh. You have to read it - spoilers would ruin it. I loved this story. The pacing is a little slow in the beginning but then it picks up and I found myself holding my breath till the very end. Amazing - highly recommended.