Book Review :: The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall

The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall
ISBN: 1649374402
Published by Entangled Publishing: Red Tower Books
on 3 December 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Source: From author, NetGalley
Goodreads

Thrown into a desolate land of sickness and unnatural beasts, Kai wakes in the woods with no idea who she is or how she got there. All she knows is that if she cannot reach the Sea of Devour, even this hellscape will get worse. But when she sees the village blacksmith fight invaders with unspeakable skill, she decides to accept his offer of help.

Too bad he’s as skilled at annoying her as he is at fighting.

As she searches for answers, Kai only finds more questions, especially regarding the blacksmith who can ignite her body like a flame, then douse it with ice in the next breath.

And no one is what—or who—they appear to be in the kingdom of Vinevridth, including the man whose secrets might be as deadly as the land itself.

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What is The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall about?

The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall is about a girl with no name, who wakes up in the woods, her belongings stolen from her, and no memory of where she is, what she’s doing there, or even who she is. All she knows is that she needs her necklace back, and she needs to get to the Sea of Devour for some reason.

When she finds out who took her things as she wanders into the local town looking dishevelled, there’s a scuffle and a bunch of things are broken. The townsfolk are mad at her and demand money for all the things she broke. So Kai finds herself at the mercy of the thief – Olivia – as she works around the town to earn some money to give to those whose things she broke. Olivia offers her a place to stay (as a thief would? ha), and Kai meets Jadon, Olivia’s (hot) blacksmith brother.

As Kai tries to figure out who she is, why he world is dying, and what this strange wind-centric power she’s developed is, there are monsters and soldiers storming the village, Jadon gets under her nerves (but in a good way?), and there’s still the question of getting her amulet/necklace back. Oh and she needs to get to the Sea of Devour.

My thoughts on The Last One

I really wanted to like this book. With the author’s representative reached to me with the description of The Last One, I was intrigued and said I’d give it a go. Thank you for the opportunity to read this, and Netgalley for providing the means of doing so.

However! I struggled. I struggled hard.

So much so that I actually struggled to remember what happened as I just wasn’t retaining what I was reading.

The first 35%/40% of the book (I checked as I was reading on my tablet) was a real slog for me; not a lot happens as Kai tries to put the pieces of her life together. We meet the other characters and learn more about the town she’s in and the world … but I had to force myself to keep reading, which isn’t what you want in a book. When the action did start happening more it felt like the battle scenes were just thrown in there. They didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I think part of my issue was that it was incredibly slow and yet not interesting enough to want to keep reading the first third or so (maybe even half, to be honest), and then by the time we got to what was better in terms of plot … I hadn’t grown fond enough of any of the characters due to the meh-ness of the first bit.

And it’s a big book – over 500 pages in ebook format – which means that slow slog was even more pages long.

There were definitely things that I did like – I enjoyed the concept of the book, Kai and Jadon’s banter in parts (though it did seem a bit out of place at times). But for the most part, I didn’t love it.  I think this book has potential for me to like it, I really do, but it needed to be about 150 pages shorter at least, and the pace needed to be taken up a notch.

I’ve given it just 1.5 stars. 😬 But please don’t let my opinions deter you from reading it.

Have you read The Last One? What did you think? 

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Disclaimer: I gained access to this book for free from the author and Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion and all thoughts are my own.