Published: 4 April 2017 (print)/17 March 2020 (audio) 
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire/Tantor Media
Pages: 223/4 hrs and 43 mins
Narrator: Heather Costa
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult Mystery/Thriller
★ ★ – 2.5 Stars
It all started out as a game.
Just a way to have fun. We figured as long as we had rules, it wouldn’t be a problem.
RULE #1: Only break into one another’s houses.
RULE #2: Only take stuff that can be replaced.
It worked for a while. Whoever’s turn it was to break in got a rush, and the rest of us laughed over the trophies they brought back. But then someone went too far. Lives got ruined. Someone is dead.
And I might be next.
When I added the book to StoryGraph I was intrigued by the 2.7 average rating, it had been an engaging and compelling story so far, especially something so short, and with only an hour to go I was keen to see how it would wrap up, what big explosive end of story Garrett would come up with.
Granted, there was a surprise twist, not the twist I was actually expecting, but it was a twist. Adjacent to what you’re expecting given the lead up but also not the fun twist I thought of. From there is was…mild. From a semi-intense scene, there are little answers and a few strange choices on ending.
I didn’t like the ending, it was rushed and actually lacking a lot of clarifying details that are kind of important in these types of mysteries. It isn’t even done well enough where it’s left open to let the reader decide what happened, it feels like it was just ignored. After a long drawn out line of clues, the ending wraps up incredibly quickly, and where it ends it incredibly unsatisfying given the character journeys. I’m still not entirely sure Harper learnt anything, but at the same time, given the way they act through the story it’s a weird ending where there’s consequences, but I don’t know if there’s remorse.
There are a lot of unanswered questions. Some are weird choices to leave unanswered, even in the final standoff they’d be perfect the drop in. Once you notice one mystery isn’t going to be answered, you start to realise how many there really are. Not all important of course, but some definitely are, then there’s others that are raised and never addressed again, like the author forgot they were left open.
One thing the story had going for it was while a lot of the characters are unlikable, they were compelling which I liked. You know they are horrible people, but they have a little compassion in them, misguided or vacuous as it may be, but there is something to latch onto. All of these characters are shallow people and have no real connections with their friends which is an interesting take. They are rich, bored teens who don’t really like each other, so the detachment feels correct to be fair, though Harper could be on her way to some kind of depression or she’s never been able to form real attachments and that’s just how she is.
I am very much in the camp of not needing to like characters or narrators. What I feel let down is the ending where the motive and consequences are lacking clarification. The small bit of information we get is there to tick a box, and the rest of the unanswered questions are ignored. If you are going to write a mystery, the reveal and outcome needs a little attention as this is what the hints and clues and build ups have been for. The fact most of the book does this well, builds drama and tension to have it fail absolutely at the end was a letdown. The answers are there, but the executions could have been spread out and extended better. No real satisfying closure for a good read.
The blurb promises it to be unputdownable with a dark story and dynamic writing. At times it was there, but for all the work to build it up only to have it fall at the end makes everything leading up to the flop meaningless.
You can purchase The Last to Die via the following
Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson
Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible
