Book Review: The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan
The Last Girls Standing
Author: Jennifer Dugan
Narrator: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
Published: August 15, 2023
Audiobook: 9 hours 39 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: August 31- September 7, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
Sloan and Cherry. Cherry and Sloan. They met only a few days before masked men with machetes attacked the summer camp where they worked, a massacre that left the rest of their fellow counselors dead. Now, months later, the two are inseparable, their traumatic experience bonding them in ways no one else can understand.
But as new evidence comes to light and Sloan learns more about the motives behind the ritual killing that brought them together, she begins to suspect that her girlfriend may be more than just a survivor—she may actually have been a part of it. Cherry tries to reassure her, but Sloan only becomes more distraught. Is this gaslighting or reality? Is Cherry a victim or a perpetrator? Is Sloan confused, or is she seeing things clearly for the very first time? Against all odds, Sloan survived that hot summer night. But will she survive what comes next?
Jessica’s Review:
This one sounded interesting to me and I loved the idea of the aftermath of two girls surviving a massacre: Unfortunately, for the most part it didn’t really work for me until that final twisty ending! It was a slow-moving novel that was hard for me to get into. I was just interested enough to want to see what happened to finish the book. I didn’t really connect to the characters.
Sloan and Cherry met at the summer camp where they were to work for the summer until the massacre happened and they were the only two who survived. They formed a bond and are in a relationship, but it is very toxic. Sloan has survivor’s guilt and also doesn’t remember what happened that night, and begins to doubt what Cherry says happened that night. We do get to go back in time and over the course of the novel find out what happens. A cult also becomes involved with a supernatural element which didn’t really work for me. If it had been just the cult, I would have enjoyed the book more. I didn’t need a supernatural type element added to the mix. The ending is really what saved the book for me and added .5 stars to make my review 3.5 versus just the average 3 stars.
The Last Girls Standing was also a homage to 80s slasher films, Dugan must be a fan of them! Even the cover seems to be a homage to those type films. The cover is what drew me to want to read this one.
Though it was not totally for me I would give Dugan a try again if another of her book interests me.
Book Review: Forgive Me Not by Jennifer Baker
Forgive Me Not
Author: Jennifer Baker
Published: August 15, 2023
400 pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: July 30-August 19, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
All it took was one night and one bad decision for fifteen-year-old Violetta Chen-Samuels’ life to go off the rails. After driving drunk and causing the accident that kills her little sister, Violetta is incarcerated. As a juvenile offender, her fate is in the hands of those she’s wronged—her family. With their forgiveness, she could go home. But without it? Well…
Denied their forgiveness, Violetta is now left with two options, neither good—remain in juvenile detention for an uncertain sentence or participate in the Trials, potentially regaining her freedom and what she wants most of all, her family’s love. But the Trials are no easy feat and in the quest to prove her remorse, Violetta is forced to confront not only her family’s pain, but her own—and the question of whether their forgiveness is more important than forgiving herself.
Jessica’s Review:
Forgive Me Not is a YA novel with a bit of dystopian touches that shows the problems the juvenile justice system (and also our adult system) has in regards to sexism, racism, classism, and more.
We have two povs: Violetta and Vince. They are siblings and Violetta (also called Letta) made a huge life changing error: She did some underage drinking and driving. There was an accident and she killed her seven year old sister in the process. Therefore Letta is in detention. The chapter’s from Letta’s pov include how many days she has been in detention. Vince’s pov shows how many days since Letta has been in detention. This was we have two povs: The ‘victim’ and the ‘offender’.
In this world that both Violetta and Vince live in, underage offenders serve in detention while they await their sentencing. This sentencing comes from the victim/ family of the victim. The choices the victim’s side has:
Forgiveness
Serve hard time upstate
‘The Trials’ where the offender has to prove themself.
In Violetta’s case she is the offender and her family is the victim with the loss of her little sister. With the two povs we get to see both sides of the story: ‘offender’ and ‘victim’.
There are so many issues dealt with in this story. In addition to the issues with the justice system which we see extreme injustices with one particular character we also experience drug use/abuse, peer pressure, LGBTQ representation and a variety of family dynamics.
Vince seems to be the ‘dream child’ to his parents, but he is far from perfect himself with a variety of problems of his own. Some of these issues are left open even though we do have a reasonable conclusion.
I highly anticipated ‘The Trials’ and what was going to happen. The family of the ‘victim’ chooses the type of trial(s) the ‘offender’ goes through but not what the Trial is made up of. Everyone’s Trial is different and had no idea what to expect for Violetta. This is where the dystopian elements come in to play. Could this possibly be what juvenile offenders deal with in the not to distant future?Overall, this is a powerful book that will be the cause of discussions and more. Will Violetta’s family be able to forgive her for what she did? Even more so, can Violetta forgive herself with the decisions she made that changed so much.
Many thanks to the publisher for granting me a copy to read and review via Bookish First.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Audiobook Review: Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti
Tell Me What Really Happened
Author: Chelsea Sedoti
Narrator: Full Cast Narration
Published: April 4, 2023
Audiobook: 8 hours 00 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: July 20-25, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Audiobook Description:
The Breakfast Club meets The Usual Suspects in this riveting YA mystery told entirely through the first-person police interviews of four teens over the course of several hours that asks: How far will you go to be remembered?
An influencer, an overachiever, a heartthrob, an outcast, and a conspiracy theorist all go into the woods.
Sometime around midnight, one of them vanishes.
Now, the four who came back sit at the police station, and they each have a very different story to tell about the events of the night.
What truths will their lies reveal? And with the clock ticking, will the real story come out before one of them is gone for good?
Jessica’s Review:
We all know how stories like this go: Five teens go camping in the forest and only four come out. The fifth is missing! We have five different personalities: A wanna-be influencer, the overachiever, the heartthrob, the outcast, and one who believes in conspiracy theories. The four remaining are all being interviewed and each have their own version of what happened. And what really happened is somewhere in between.
When I first read the description of the book, I knew I had to listen to the audio format since it is all first-person narration of each of the four remaining teens telling their version of what happened to the police. And I was right in that decision!
The five teens go camping for the weekend at Salvation Creek, which is notorious for its folktales and missing person stories, specifically young women. Things happen and over the course of the evening one goes missing. What happened to the missing teen? Afterwards, the teens are interviewed by the police and over the course of the novel we find out what actually happened.
At first, I wasn’t sure about the story, but I kept listening and really enjoyed the direction it went in, specifically from Nolan the conspiracy theorist. I won’t say what he thinks but I actually loved that direction and hearing his side of what he believes happened. This seems to be opposite of what most others thought who have shared their reviews. It worked for me though!
This novel ended up being a fun and quick read. I really like how the cover is a lie detector! If you are a YA thriller fan then pick this one up to read.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK