The Last Girls Standing
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A queer YA psychological thriller from the author of Some Girls Do.
“Shocking, captivating, and utterly chilling. A delicious thriller that will have you tearing through pages to get to the end, where you won’t be disappointed.” —Jessica Goodman, bestselling author of They Wish They Were Us and The Counselors
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?
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This book was definitely a rollercoaster of a ride for me. I had a completely different idea of what this book will contain and how it end, mostly because of assumptions on my part while I was reading the synopsis. While I was expecting a murder mystery and amateur detective work for most of the book, the story really focuses on how the trauma of witnessing your fellow camp counselors get brutally murdered and relearning how to live after your girlfriend saves you from getting killed for a cult ritual. I was and still kind of am a little disappointed about the direction that the book took. I was hoping for an eerie adventure in which Sloan and Cherry, the two survivors, figure out why their fellow camp counselors were murdered and why they were the ones to survive. Instead this is a more realistic story that doesn't end with the huge conspiracy theory being the truth, but rather ending with Sloan falling into the cultists theories and ending it all in a rather uncomfortable way.
I'm writing this minutes after I finished the book and gathered my thoughts. I still don't know exactly how I feel. All I know is that the author did an amazing job making me feel the way that I do. She also did an amazing job with the writing of the book. As I read further, I began to doubt Cherry in the same way that Sloan was. It wasn't until the end that I realized that everything that I've been lead to believe is simply what Sloan was believing, but it was not the truth. Cherry was innocent and died because of Sloan's mental breakdown fueled by the cult's believes. I felt awful reading Cherry die, especially since she didn't go down without a fight. I also felt guilty for feeling the way I did about her. I would've loved to have had a little epilogue detailing what happened to Sloan, to her family, to her ex-friends, to Cherry's mother who is all alone now, and even Edward himself. But I guess not knowing is the mystery of it all.
No enough people are talking about this book. It's so very different than the usual slasher horror. This is a horror story that takes place AFTER a horror story. Sloan and Cherry have survived a camp massacre. It has changed their lives in so many ways: they have survivor guilt, they are in the internet limelight, and they are unable to return to relationships from “before”. They are also in love. Seriously, a super cute couple, until Sloan starts finding things....things that may indicate that Cherry was a little more involved with the attackers than previously thought.
I had no idea where this was going at any point. We have the weirdness of their relationship, is Sloan losing her mind, is Cherry the world's best gaslighter?
I loved this. Highly recommend.
