BOOK REVIEW: The Last Girl / The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pages: 431

Genre: YA Thriller

Thank you for the gifted review copy @jonathanballpublishers @jbpchildrens 💕

Thank you for the buddy read @wanderring.pages._ - it's always amazing with you 💕

"Mary Shelley writes of two men. One, an intellectual capable of creating life from death. The other, a grotesque creature made of human body parts an covered in scars. But it isn't the obvious monster that we have to be afraid of. It's the one that looks like us and acts like us. Mary Shelley's message was clear: Real monsters aren't the ones created by man. The real monster is man himself."

One genre of books I really enjoy, but tend to neglect is thrillers. Thrillers can be such page-turners and I really need to read more of them.

"Fear strips that away. It's the great equalizer. And when you're truly scared, there's nowhere to hide - no private school, no popularity, no trust fund. It's just you and your most base emotion. Fear is where the truth lies."

After something traumatic happens to Rachel Chavez in her previous home in Long Island, she and her mom move to New York City to start over. She is now the new girl at Manchester Prep, a fancy Private High School attended by rich kids where her mom works as a teacher. Rachel watches horror films as a way to help her cope with her past trauma.

"I'm just trying to say that fear is kind of this important thing in our lives. It'll always be there. And if you let it, fear will hold you back."

Her love of horror and her addiction to the adrenaline rush and sense of comfort it gives her, leads her to uncover an exclusive club at her new school. She is eager to join, make new friends who have similar interests as her and to take her passion for horror to the next level. Things however turn deadly when it seems like Rachel's past followed her to New York City. Can she trust anyone?

"This game used to be candy. A sugary, addictive treat. Now there was just the sour aftertaste and the seeping knowledge of just how bad for you it was. The excitement that'd eclipsed everything before was eroding, eaten away by the harsh truth of what we were doing. It was a game of terror, but all we were doing was terrorizing people."

I really enjoyed Rachel's character. She is a very relatable character in the sense that she suffers from anxiety and hates parties and social gatherings. Sounds like me LOL. She comes across as very strong and brave as she faces her fears head on, but she is also not blind to her own faults.

"Anxiety and exhilaration were two sides of the same coin; both made you lose your breath, made your skin vibrate so strong your teeth could chatter. But on one side it felt like torture, and on the other it was elation. Enlightenment. Nirvana. It was the crystal-clear sense of the whistling trees all around you and the dark green grass tickling your cheeks. It was going dizzy but not feeling like you were about to faint. Feeling, actually, like you could flat."

This book had me on the edge of my seat at the start and the end, while there were some slower parts in between and had me suspecting each and every character at one stage or another. Jane and I came up with so many predictions of how it will end. Jane seemed to be able to figure it out better than I did though. I felt like there were some unanswered questions when I finished the book, but overall I loved the plot twists and seeing how the puzzle pieces came together towards the end.

"I love that about horror: It's the only genre that aims to please while daring you to look away."

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone wanting to add books to their Spooky Season TBR and lovers of horror films as there are so many references to horror films and tropes. This book is also perfect for fans of Karen M. McManus' books and Ace of Spades.