FICTION

The Last Place on Earth

by Carol SNOW
304p. ebook available. Holt. Feb. 2016. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781627790390.
COPY ISBN
Gr 6 Up—This mystery starts with lots of promise. Daisy's best friend and potential love interest, Henry, mysteriously disappears. After following the clues left in her suburban neighborhood, she and her brother trek to his last-known whereabouts deep in the California Redwoods. Here, Daisy finds herself in over her head and has to rely on her wit and courage to survive. Unfortunately, the writing in this book is not convincing. When Daisy is in danger, there is no fear in her voice. When she is panicked, there is no anxiety. The protagonist maintains a flat tone, full of sarcasm and benign pop culture references. Despite this, the mystery is full of twists and turns with teenage jolts of humor and angst that will attract reluctant readers, especially fans of Caroline B. Cooney and Joan Lowery Nixon.
VERDICT A secondary purchase for reluctant readers who love mysteries.
Reviewed by Jaclyn Anderson, Madison County Library System, MS
California high-schooler Daisy Cruz searches for her mysteriously missing best friend Henry Hawking. The clues lead her to California's Los Padres National Forest, to a bunker of apocalyptic survivalists waiting out the threat of an epidemic. The plot is bizarre, but Daisy's determined, wise-cracking (if flat) narrative voice and Henry's torn-between-worlds character drive the story.
 , Dec 01, 2015

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