Hello everyone!
I am back with another book review, today I am reviewing The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian. Thanks so much to Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me an ARC of this book to review. All opinions are my own.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was funny, witty, and REAL. The town was flooding and you got a sense of that terror, urgency, and fear.
The story is told from the perspective of the main character, Keeley Hewitt. I enjoyed her perspective on things, I felt that she was accurate in portraying a character in this situation. At the beginning of the book, I was totally rooting for her, and her relationship with Jesse. As the story progressed though, and without giving too much away, I liked her less. She started to get annoying. She did her own thing, only thinking for herself, not caring what happened to those around her. Still, I didn't hate her, because she was only trying to make a bad situation better.
The main love interest (I say main because there was a slight, minor, barely noticeable until the end, love triangle) Jesse was a good enough character. He was charming and fun, Keeley's childhood crush. As a person though, he wasn't my favourite. He didn't seem to take anything seriously, and he didn't really open up. Even know, I'm not sure I could name 5 personal things about him.
The other major character in this book is Levi. He is the other part of the sort of, not really love triangle. At the beginning of the book, I didn't like Levi. He was a suck up, and, having the sheriff as his father, followed the rules. He was such a contrast from Jesse and pretty much every other teen in the book. It wasn't until the end that I felt for him, and liked him more.
I think what I loved most about this book was the realness. I felt like I was there, living it with everyone. When it was flooding, I was sitting in the gym scared. When they were at the pool party, I was right there with them. Vivian's writing is so atmospheric, you are in the novel with the characters. I think to, that is what I loved about the characters. Even though they could be annoying, or irritating, they felt REAL. I haven't felt characters this real since I read Eleanor & Park. Even the actions of the parents through all of this, they all made sense, you could see a community being shattered by this disaster.
That being said, I didn't give this book a full five star review. I docked one star because of Mr. Hewitt, and because of the ending. I won't say too much about the ending, because when I posted a photo of this book on Instagram, the author mentioned that the ending of the published book has changed. I'm not sure how, but I'm hoping it is significant enough for me to feel more at peace with it.
The other reason I didn't love this book was because of Keeley's dad. I felt like at the end, when everything was revealed, all the sympathy and excitement I felt for him vanished. He was the leader of the Reservoir Resistance and I didn't think his actions were appropriate as such. Again, the published book has a slightly different ending, so he might be better, I'm not sure.
All this being said, I still preordered this book, and I plan on re-reading it, or at least re-reading the new ending. Because I want a better ending, a happier ending for these characters.