The Last Girl

MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading ListI got this book free through the Kindle First program. ***MILD SPOILERS***I thought this book was great and it really ticked me off what these people were doing to these girls. Supposedly, this virus/plague came through and did something to where there were hardly any females born, so this group of jerks in the government (naturally) goes through and nabs all of the baby girls, or young girls they could find and bring them back to the compound. They kill a l [...]

Another dystopian novel where a girl is being held captive and has to escape her fate. Zoey lives in a world where the female birth rate has dropped off because of a plague that eventually mutates and kills everyone. She stays at a compound with the NOA with other girls who have been taken from there parents, and when they turn 21 they are induced which is supposedly them moving to a safe zone with their parents and the other girls who have already been induced. The premise was an interesting on [...]

'The Last Girl' is not my usual type of book, but I've been branching out a little more lately and trying different genres. I've been lucky enough to find some gems recently as I've explored other genres. Unfortunately, 'The Last Girl' is not one that was a big hit with me. If I had to describe this book in one word, that word would be "underwhelming". A dystopian-themed book, 'The Last Girl' centers on Zoey, a girl that has been held captive by a militarized, government "research" group. There [...]

I have one of those weirdo fascinations with books with a dystopian theme. That whole end of the world thing just draws me in.Now just because I read a bunch of them don't think I'm the one to save your bum when the crud hits the fan. I'll probably be dead in just a few seconds. I'm not much for living without coffee and toilet paper.In this scenario all the girl babies have stopped being born. Some kind of epidemic stuff happens and it changed everything. The government steps in. You know that [...]

For some reason, there is a common dystopian trend of there being a shortage of females. Women become a commodity and in this case, the last remaining females are locked up in a prison-like environment until they are 21. At the magical age of 21, they are given a ceremony and released to live in a utopian paradise with their parents. I'm just wondering, in this world, what color is the sky? The girls who have survived, are they also somehow missing the capacity to smell a load of bullshit when i [...]

* I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review * Zoey is a female. One of the last of her sex. A plague has turn the world on its head when only baby boys are born, no baby girls. Zoey has been raised in a government stronghold, built to protect these females. At the beginning of the story there are 7 girls and one woman teacher. The compound is ran like a prison. They are not allowed anything we would think of as luxuries, like books and gum. They have to read the govern [...]

I broke two of my rules in choosing this month's Kindle free preview books and regret it: 1. The long-standing "no first book in a series" rule. 2. No More Books with Girl in the Title EVER! (a new, but soon to be forcefully enforced rule)2.5 Stars, minimally better than "okay" because it did keep me turning pages to find out what would happen, but there was just too much pulling me out of the story while reading to rate it up to 3. Nothing added up in the book. Everything was "explained" but t [...]

Sometime in the not too distant future.  Following a war and a plague, female births have declined dramatically for reasons unknown.  Much of the population is gone, especially females,  and  the authorities have locked up several  of the the surviving young women into a large facility where they spend all their  time indoors, being studied, manipulated, and fighting with each other until they reach the ripe age of 21.  Then they are permanently separated out, apparently to get busy hav [...]

Chose this as my February Kindle First book.It was hard work. One of my favourite themes in fiction is the breakdown of society, so I tend to give books that deal with it a little more leeway, but this had no depth. It had an interesting premise but I felt the book jumped right over the best bits. Before you even hit the prologue proper, you find out that something is happening in society that means female births are declining, there is civil war, nuclear war much to interest meen we move to a h [...]

This book, to quote page 239 "speaks of obduration in its purest form." You might be wondering what that means, since obduration isn't a word. Obdurate, however, is a fancy word for saying headstrong, which this author was with this book's style.I'm left really confused. Why did the author narrate the whole book in present tense? Outside of literary fiction, this is not a common technique. There's nothing gained from the exercise here, sentences such as "within the next hour, they gather the las [...]

Phew what a wild ride. I am a huge Dystopian/ Post apocalyptic fan so of course I really enjoyed this. Zoey was a great protagonist, and the moral quandaries in this book were absolutely insane! I loved the idea of what would happen if women could no longer produce female babies, what the government did was pretty realistic in my opinion. The suspense in this story was right on point, and I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of moments. There was only one moment where I felt like the story had [...]

The Last Girl is a dystopian story taking place in the very near future. In 2017 there is a significant drop in female babies being born with the percentage falling to near one in one hundred million babies rather quickly. Rebels rise up against the government and how they are handling the birth rates. Several years later we meet Zoey, she is a twenty year old young woman being kept inside a government facility along with a handful of other women. The last in society and hope for the future they [...]

This was a Kindle First read for February so I got to read it for free. Here's the deal on this - it was a very engaging read. In fact, it was such a page turner that I stayed up late last night. I'd read the next book in the series. The problems, however, are REALLY irritating (SPOILER-ISH):1. I understand keeping the girls under lock and key. I even get that they're in a military installation under lock and key. But WHY waste time psychologically torturing them when they break a rule? That jus [...]

Wow, The Last Girl seems to have divided the readers, a real love hate relationship going on with this one – me I’m on the “love” side of the fence mainly because I could not put the darn thing down once I’d started it, to me always the sign of a good book, whether that be a commercial novel or literary fiction and no matter the genre.This is honestly addictive – I was right on board with Zoey from word one and it was an interesting premise executed well. In a world where the female [...]

Only slightly better than awful. Sneaky advertising led me to select this book as a Kindle First, even though I just KNEW it was going to be another dystopian, faux-mighty female driven disappointment. Firstly, you can definitely tell that this book was written by a man. The main character Zoey is completely unbelievable as a woman. Even though at 21, she's still just a girl. Somehow she is miraculously is the gun whisperer, having an innate knowledge of various weapons and is a stellar markswom [...]

Terrible book. The premise was interesting enough but the narrative flow is just off, doesn't work and there's no depth to it.

What if there were only 1,000 women left on the planet? This is the conceit of The Last Girl, and it’s the kind of premise I live for. Part Children of Men, part The Count of Monte Cristo for the modern age, Joe Hart has written a rapturous, thought-provoking, impossible-to-put-down thriller that is destined to become the first BIG BOOK of 2016.

The Last Girl – Book One The Dominion Trilogy by Joe HartPublished by Thomas & MercerAn old fashioned, science fiction cat and mouse story that combines all the now ‘traditional’ tropes of the YA post apocalyptic dystopian genre with a horrifying premise and super hero like protagonist. Whilst the first half of the book is quite tempered and focused on world building, the second half really opens up and has more action than your average Tom Cruise movie.There are no female babies being [...]

Of all the viruses that could lead to the extinction of humanity, this one takes the cake. No more baby girls. I can’t think of a more prolonged, hopeless way for people to be wiped from the face of the earth. To say that I was intrigued was an understatement. Government conspiracies, people being reduced to test subjects. Where do I sign up!Joe hart did a fabulous job of building Zoe’s character. As a reader, I was pulled into her life of captivity and I was appalled at how people could (an [...]

***2.5 Stars***This book was a string of poorly thought out, rash decisions. The plot, the setup, the whole shebang just wasn't logical. Had there been an alternate motive, had the author took this in a different direction, had there been more then maybe, just maaaaaybe, it would have jived better.Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. The "bad" guys were bad in a way that made no sense. Like none. Their actions were completely counter to their supposed goal. Our protagonist is an annoying 20/21 [...]

My favorite genre is post-apocalytic, so I did enjoy the premise of this book. Zoey is one of 7 young women at a facility trying to solve why women can no longer give birth to females. The problem is that the girls are prisoners, and although they are told how special they are, are treated like subhumans. No freedom, no books, no special treats of any kind.I read this quickly, and the action in the last half had me on the edge of my seat. There were some brutal scenes in here and I think there a [...]

My free book courtesy of Kindle Firsts.

Present tense. Fuck that shit. One star on general principle! Returned to Audible for a refund. Any author that writes entire books in present tense can fucking choke on it.A book I can't finish gets one star by default. A book written in present tense will usually piss me off so badly that I can't get past the first chapter. I absolutely despise the use of present tense in books. it annoys me so much that it utterly ruins nearly every book that uses it, making it completely unreadable to me. I [...]

SPOILER NOTE: I can’t review this book without including some details from later in the book, although I’m not going to give away everything that happens, or how things end up.Evil people in this book are stereotypes. There might have been one handsome devil if I remember correctly, but by and large all the bad guys follow the truism of evil = ugly. It made them seem a cartoon evil. Also, given the ratio of violent assholes to actual people who care about what happens to the girls, I find it [...]

INITIAL THOUGHTSThis one sounds like a mix/mash up of a dystopian genre & post apocalyptic genre, which are both genres I love. In this book, women are a rarity, making them a high value commodity. I really like the blurb of this oneVIEWI downloaded an e-copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. The cover shows a rather desolate looking landscape with a lone female walking towards the horizon. Would the cover make me pick this book up from a book store shelf? Yes, I [...]

This was my free Kindle first book for February. Usually the free books are meh, but this was awesome. Once I started I could barely put it down and even stayed up late last night dozing off between pages trying to finish! The only downside to this book is that I have to wait to read the other two now.Great plot, likable characters, fast-paced storyline. Definitely a new favorite series.

So much tragedy. So much emotion. This is a spellbinding story of survival. An action packed, emotion filled dystopian with shades of apocalypse. A heart-stopping, thrilling ride with our heroine.Zoey, oh sweet, strong Zoey. So much destruction. So much pain.4.5 stars for this superbly well written story. I'm keeping half a star back for a plot twist that I wish had gone in a different direction. Nothing but personal preference. It worked well the way it was presented.This is how a book should b [...]

The second half was better than the first, but still not enough to make me love this book.The initial premise is pretty interesting: a strange virus has made it so that the number of female births has dwindled practically nil. Obviously, that is a concern. And the government steps up to take control of the situation. And here's where it goes awry. The government decides towhat?! Spirit away any females from their families, place them in prison-like conditions, wearing colorless shifts, with leer [...]

Loved the last girl!This was a Kindle First and I grabbed it as soon as I saw it. First time I have seen one in my genre. It is a dystopian tale of a world that has lost the ability to produce baby girls. Only boys are born. One girl is born every hundred million births. Zoey is one of those girls. They are kept behind walls in a very controlled environment, each has a cleric to protect them. Any deviation from the rules are punished.At twenty one a young woman is celebrated and moves on but no [...]

This was a surprising book. The first half was nonstop action, mesmerizing storyline, and then stopped. After around 50%, it dragged and dragged. There were pages (pages!) describing the main character eating a fish. The "show don't tell" rule was thrown out the window with chapters filled with unnecessary description and info dumping. About 100 pages of the book could have been cut out without losing the main storyline. The plot is interesting enough that I will most likely read the next book i [...]