Review: "The Last Girl Left" by A.M. Strong and Sonya Sargent

The Last Girl Left by A.M. Strong and Sonya Sargent
Published April 2024 via Thomas & Mercer
★★★

Five years ago, Tessa was the sole survivor of the worst crime Cassadaga Island has ever seen. Since then, she's been struggling to keep her head above water. As a last-ditch attempt to finally put the murder that killed her friends behind her, she decides to take the biggest leap she can—to rent the same house. For a month. In November, and on an island—with no easy way off. The murderer is dead, and so it should just be her friends' ghosts haunting the place...but something is not...quite...right. I read this partly because it reminded me of Riley Sager's Final Girls. Not sure what it is about human nature that makes it appealing to read about someone who has already survived something horrific again being subjected to, well, something horrific, but a well-done thriller set in an isolated house is deeply satisfying (and I can't be the only one who thinks that way, or...books like this wouldn't exist).

The book is a little slow to get started—Tessa's interactions with her sister read rather like throat-clearing en route to the bulk of the story—but once she's on the island and back in the house things pick up. I wondered at times whether bringing Tessa's sister to the island might have upped the stakes, but having Tessa be so isolated definitely upped a different kind of stakes. There are some solid red herrings in place, but in a way that doesn't feel too surprising when we learn the truth (a good thing—I'm not a fan of mystery resolutions that come out of nowhere). I had my suspicions, some but not all of which proved correct, but the exact details are locked up well enough until the reveal to keep the reader guessing.

In places I'm not fully convinced: first, I think the tension could have been ramped up even more before the climax. It's a long simmer before an abrupt boil, and I wonder whether that could have been heightened by, e.g., Tessa gradually remembering bits and pieces of what happened five years ago. (She gets flashbacks, but it's not really presented as an experience of putting things together.) I'm also on record many times as not liking Evil Villains Who Are Evil, and...we have one of those here. And finally, I'd like to know if the original investigators ever did, you know, the slightest shred of investigating, because (vaguesauce to avoid spoilers) it seems that they missed some pretty major things.

With that in mind: if you're into thrillers set in isolated locations, and final girls trying to survive yet again—not to mention things that go bump in the night—this is a very solid quick read of a book. Maybe don't take it on your next beach vacation...

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.