Last One to Die 🔪 Spoiler Free Review

Title: Last One to Die
Author: Cynthia Murphy
Genre: YA Thriller
Publication Date: Jan 7th, 2021
Pages: 294
Publishers: Scholastic
Rating:

Goodreads Synopsis

Young, brunette women are being attacked in the city of London.

16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived for the summer, and quickly discovers that the girls being attacked look frighteningly similar to her.

Determined to make it through her Drama Course, Niamh is placed at the Victorian Museum to put her drama skills to the test, and there she meets Tommy: he’s kind, fun, attentive, and really hot! . . . Nonetheless, there’s something eerie about the museum.

As the two strands of present-day serial attacker and sinister Victorian history start to collide, Niamh realises that things are not as they seem. Will she be next?

Last One to Die started off slow but I ended up absolutely hooked & loved the end of it! To be fair it was probably only the first 50 or so pages that were a tad slow for me. They weren’t necessarily slow moving, like stuff happens fairly quickly but I just wasn’t quite hooked just yet. I was struggling a little around the 50 – 100 page mark but I decided to start listening to the audiobook as well & it was the best decision! I read the rest of the story in one sitting by listening to the audiobook & reading along with the physical book. It just picked up the pace a little bit for me which I needed.

This book was VERY unpredictable. Right until a couple sentences before the reveal I had absolutely no damn clue who it was. There was a ‘reveal’ in the middle’ish of the book but I knew everything wasn’t revealed yet. Which was kind of obvious as it was the middle of the book. Everything doesn’t usually wrap up smack in the middle of a book. So I knew something was yet to come but I honestly had no idea that it would turn out the way it did!

I loved the main character, she was very relatable & read very realistic. Her reactions to the things she was going through made sense. I find that some characters can just handle everything & I’m sitting there thinking I would be loosing my mind if this was me. Well Niamh was exactly what I wanted in that respect. Did she scream & run away a couple times? yes! Did she have a full on panic attack a couple times? yes! Because that’s what real people would do in that situation!

I also really enjoyed the sneaky little paranormal aspect that this book had! All I knew was that it was a YA Thriller/Mystery, so that was a pleasant surprise. I love the combo of fantasy elements with mystery/thrillers. So this was perfect for me.

The one thing I didn’t like was the romance. It happened very quickly & felt a little forced at times. I understand it’s purpose in the story but it just wasn’t my favourite.

Overall I definitely think it’s worth the read! The audiobook is very well narrated & helped me really get into it. Especially as the narrator had the correct accent for the character. How I read certain phrases & slang in my head was just not right with my accent! So it was nice to have the narrator say them properly! If you are after an unpredictable thriller full of craziness & will probably make you look over your shoulder 150 times while reading then this is the one for you!