Book 696: The Last Day – Andrew Hunter Murray

I’m not sure I generally would’ve opted to read a post-apocalyptic fiction novel right now (thank you global pandemic). However, I thought my dedicated readers (oh hey all 10-or-so of you :-D) might like a change up from all the MM romance novels I’ve been blasting through. That, and this was sent by the publisher back in mid-February . . . so yeah, here it is!*

The world has come to a standstill. As in it has stopped rotating on its access and is stationary as it revolves around the sun leaving half the world in darkness and the other half in sunlight with the population surviving most in the twilight areas. The world is now an eat or be eaten world, but not quite as bad as Mad-Max (there is a throw away reference to the desert people being a bit similar), but everything rests on the UK and the government that took over after the Stop.

This is the story of a disaffected scientist who was born just before the Stop and has come of age during the chaos that ensued. She was smart enough to continue to higher education but was jaded enough not to want to be there. While there she met a former government official and made friends with him, but had a falling out and they haven’t spoken since.

Hopper, the scientist, has spent the last few years living and working on oil rig in the middle of the Atlantic, as far from the UK as she can get while still working for the government. She receives a letter from Thorne (former official) out of the blue that kicks off the chaotic week-long journey.

Hopper wasn’t a very sympathetic character for the bulk of the book. A good portion of this was her disaffection to pretty much everything. It also could have been her scientific observations of everything. The majority of the minor characters were mostly forgettable, except for the one woman who runs the collection of cultural items, but I can’t even remember her name.

The writing was engaging and the story kept me on my toes for most of it. There were a couple of times where there was a red-herring, but that didn’t come to anything which I felt was a bit odd. I easily could have missed a closing reference to the one I’m thinking of in particular, because the writing and story got pretty intense the further along you got in the story.

The thing I had the most issues with was the ending. I started wondering if the book ended on a cliff hanger with about 50 pages left. There just seemed to be so many things to tie up and so many answers that I wanted that ultimately we didn’t get.

Hopper spent less than a week trekking around London to find out what Thorpe wanted to leave/share with her and the body count continued to rise, but then all of a sudden after a pretty epic battle, the story ends. I guess it’s a happy-for-now rather than a happily ever after (too many romances lately), but it just was so abrupt and left me wanting to know so much more.

Recommendation: Worth the read. This was a fascinating take on a post-apocalyptic world that seems realistic enough to make you think about it. The ending left a lot to be desired. It felt like it ended very abruptly, roughly 20-30 pages too soon. However, overall I enjoyed it and it was worth the read and I’m glad I said yes when the publisher reached out with it.

*I received a copy of The Last Day from the publisher in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “The ship of the dead, that was how it had begun.”

Closing Line: “The car turned west at the next junction, and began to make its way, driving once again careful and slow, toward the American Zone.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)