Intriguing debut

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

As you can read here, this quote has been said in various different forms by many different writers.
Bethany Clift thought exactly the same and with her debut Last One at the Party she worked out an idea that came to her while she was lost one night in the English countryside when she was driving home after a busy workday.

"I was completely alone."

A woman lost in the middle of nowhere.
Hearing no human-made sounds like cars, airplanes, … Only a few cows loudly chewing grass in the field next to her.
All of a sudden a thought crosses her mind: "What if it is so quiet because I am the only one left alive in the whole world?"
And then panic struck.

I love science-fiction and apocalyptic stories about the machination of survival in worlds gone bad but I also love romance and love and friendships and feminism and books about what it feels like to be a woman in society today.

Blending her aforementioned experience on a January evening in 2018 with her own reading preferences, Bethany Clift delivers a debut that will intrigue readers.
Well, at least those who aren't afraid to read a book that becomes frightening real, because …

Then there was COVID-19

When the first messages of a virus in China reached the rest of the world in January 2020, Bethany's sister asked jokingly if her novel was coming true.
Sadly enough a few months later almost the entire world went in lockdown.
What are the odds that a debut novel becomes so actual and has such a realistic vibe?

The initial text was then altered a little bit to enclose COVID-19 in it too, although it just get mentioned a few times but doesn't play such a big role in the overall story.

The author stresses that this is not a novel about a pandemic, but one with a pandemic in it and that it's a story about life, not death.
As not everyone seems to be able to 'relive' our actual daily pandemic life through this fictional book, it may be good to know that the focus is set after the pandemic and not too much during it.
For those who dare to take the challenge, there's an original dystopia waiting to be discovered.

Our past does not define our future

'Fuck You!'
Those are the very last words that I spoke to another living person.

The first sentence of a book always gives you a lot of information.
Does it immediately draw you into the story or not? What does it tell about the writing style: flowery or straightforward?
In this case it's clear: the first sentence is definitely the latter and makes you wonder what happened. Why did she say those words? To who? And how come these words were her last?

Jumping between the present and the past you discover the story of the main character, a woman who is the sole survivor in her environment of the 6DM-virus (also known as the '6 days maximum'-virus).
By going on a lonely quest to look for other survivors and writing down her thoughts, you get to know the woman before ánd after the period the world has turned into a dystopian environment.

Especially towards the end there are a few twists which keep you reading further.
In the beginning the story relies more on some dry humour that could have been more present throughout the book, but only appears from time to time.

The story is told in diary format.
A first-person narrative can be tricky and thus the author is balancing on a thin line. Unfortunately not always successfully.
The number of phrases beginning with "I + verb" is astonishing. At least 50 % and in some parts even to 80 % (or more) of the sentences on a page are written that way.
Maybe this is done on purpose to emphasize the fact that the main character is alone. But it can also have the reverse effect and give the reader an impression of a self-centered and immature woman.
It would have been nice if there was some sort of change in this throughout the book to depict a metamorphosis. Now it's as if she doesn't really evolve and as if the words "our past does not define our future" (see foreword of the author) seem rather empty.

Most reviewers praise the fact that the main character isn't a heroine, but just a flawed and honest woman. This is totally true.
Sadly enough her actions and reactions aren't always realistic.

Conclusion

The narrative could've been more varied, the (re)actions more realistic and the humour more present. As this is an ARC it's possible that some changes occur in the definitive version.
All in all, there are some nice ideas and twists in this story though, which can keep the reader's interest.
An intriguing debut that'll invite many readers to look out for more work of Bethany Clift.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.