The Last

S: July 15th, 2021 | C: July 22nd, 2021 | 5 ⭐

⚠️ WARNING! This review may contain spoilers, read at your own risk. I also cuss a lot.

I found this book at Costco and I was intrigued by the cover (funny story, I didn't realize the book I was buying was book 2 of the series because it said The Last so we had to go back to find book 1 and it took a minute for my dumbass to locate it.)

The first thing I will say about this book is that it was hard to put down. I really enjoyed reading it and I found myself in the endless loop of "one more chapter" for a while. I usually read before bed and I was soooo tired, but I didn't want to stop reading. I needed to know what happened next. The characters are also loveable and I had no problem with show more any of the troupe (except one and for good damn reason!)

《You saved my life. You can't eat me.》

This is the single BEST line in the entire book. I laughed so hard when I read it lmao At this point in the story, Tobble was my ultimate character. He's so brave and loyal despite being small and limited in what he can do. He can really teach people how to be brave despite your limitations. You don't have to be the strongest to be a hero! He's also adorable as fuck, okay. He is precious and I would die for him.

《What purpose does that serve?》 《None whatsoever.》

You cannot tell me that Tobble is not a gem, a comedian, a precious being that we must protect at all costs. I just wanna hug him, he's so precious 💙

《Well, they can only execute me once.》

I enjoyed this line because I am well versed in sarcasm, but I can't stand the person who said it. Which is a good segway to talk about this fuck. I never trusted him from the moment he appeared. It was so obvious that he had ulterior motives. The worst part? I started to slowly trust him and then the fucker dipped and betrayed them! 🤬 Oh, I was so damn mad, bro. I can't wait to see him get what is coming to him!

{Suddenly, in a puff of pink smoke, the old man's worn boot was replaced. Unfortunately, I was replaced with a delicate pink lady's shoe. Tobble rolled his eyes. 《Told you magic is ridiculous.》}

The best scene in the whole book. If I hadn't been at the doctor and nervous as fuck, I would have snorted with laughter 😂

When Gambler appeared, he (sadly) bumped Tobble down to second place. He instantly became my favorite but that may be partially because I was thinking of Khajiit from Skyrim, which I adore. Either way, I love him 💙 And I decided then and there that if he dies in this book, I will fucking RIOT.

There was one place in this book (when they were running from the Knight of Fire for the first time) where I had to really struggle to hold back my tears, but they soon turned to tears of joy! That scene could have gone soooo bad but I'm glad it didn't. And can we talk about the Knight of Fire for a hot minute? I know he's the bad guy and he's trying to kill our troupe, but... he's so cool. As someone that has always envisioned her OC with fire that she has full control over and that seems as if it has a mind of its own, I was so happy to see someone that also followed that path.

Finally, I want to talk about one of the main tropes of this book: humans = greedy, power hungry assholes. The humans are the main villains of this story and they crave power so much that they try to destroy all of the governing species so that they are number one. They are portrayed as liars and that's why the Dairnes are so important, because they can detect lies. Every single time this book insulted humans in this way, I could only find myself nodding along to the words because it's so fucking true, even in our own world.

I was so tempted to include these comments but if I did that, this review would be a book on its own! The best lesson to take from this book? Never trust another human being 🙄 We suck! But this book certainly doesn't! It was a great read 📚 show less

I enjoy middle-grade books that take place from a non-human point of view; I feel they encourage out-of-the box thinking. Katherine Applegate does a nice job of writing from the viewpoint of a creature from an endangered (possibly edging on extinct) species. Through Byx, she conveys the horror of losing family, the bittersweet feeling of building a new sort of family, and the sadness of being the last of a species. Byx is a very likable character. She's not terribly confident in herself, but she never gives up, and she brings out the best in those around her.
I like the idea of different species working together to govern, and the conspiracy of one of the species trying to get rid of the others is dastardly and exciting. Endling has the show more potential to be an absorbing series, and I can't wait for the next installment.

This book was provided to me at no charge. My review is given voluntarily. show less

One of the best books I've read in a series in a long time! Gotta read the next one!

I came upon this book after being jaded by many let downs and first person POV books. I could tell you my long list of disappointments, but instead I will tell you what I read before this, Foxcraft. There's a bit in common between Foxcraft and Endling, even as Foxcraft was devoid of skillful storytelling.

The basic plot for the first half is similar, not the same, but similar. A deep loss, maybe never finding anyone again, a deep sorry. But where Foxcraft fell flat, and many others have, Endling did not. It pushed forward with a world, rules in the world. It stuck to these rules, these ways things worked. The law of the land did not bend for anyone, and show more yielded nothing to Byx. Even better, all of the characters felt real, flesh, blood, they breathed and had emotions, feelings and things. Each ones goals were there, no matter how simple, no matter how silly.

Each new character had a personality, there was no guessing games, no scrunching up my face in annoyance, no, these characters all had looks and traits. They had problems and conflicts, trust issues, and charisma.

The plot was seemingly hopeless, and I do not mean to the reader, I mean that Byx's struggles feel real, her pain, her struggles, they all feel in vain. Like any moment she will truly be the last of her kind and have nothing. Pack animals on their own cannot handle isolation, and she shows all the signs of falling apart, but holding onto a faith, a childish hope. It's amazing, it's not naive or foolish, yelled about or anything that would make her annoying, instead she hesitates, but grips onto it, sometimes slackening just a bit.

I can only hope book two is just as amazing, because I've got to get my hand on it! show less

OK very young adult adventure, but disappointing compared to Applegate's "One and Only Ivan", "Crenshaw", "The Wishtree", or "Home of the Brave". This is a standard trilogy sf+magic quest in a far future where there are half a dozen governing species, including humans, dog-like dairnes, cat-like felivets, and so on. But the humans have wiped out all the dairnes, except the female Byx, and are working on eliminating the felivets. Against this background, Byx and a growing set of companions, including humans, seeks the floating living island where some other dairnes are rumored to exist. The adventure is fine, but Applegate struggles to create any emotional depth beyond your standard animated movie for kids.

Recommended for fans of show more lightweight young-adult adventure, but not as demonstration of what Applegate can do. show less

LOVE LOVE LOVE Applegate's writing. It is sparse yet deep. In this book she is telling the story of Bix - a Dairn (sort of like a softer version of a dog that usually walks upright on its 2 hind legs) who is the Endling - the last of her kind & the characters that she finds & befriends as she is on a quest to discover if any more like her are anywhere in existance.

In Endling, dairnes are a species that can tell when someone lies, and they are a governing species. A dairne runt known as Byx is curious and often disappointing to the remaining pack. She asks too many questions, wanders off too many times, and doesn’t seem to be a big help to her family at all. However, when one day she explores a bit too far, narrowly dodges poachers, and rescues a small wobbyk known as Tobble from drowning, her life unknowingly changes forever. Tobble vows to save her life three times as part of Wobbyk Code, and then they become inseparable. But when Byx returns to her home, she finds a massacre of her species - perhaps the last of their kind - and nearly rushes in to join her dead family. However, before she show more gets a chance, she is shot with a capture arrow and wakes up hours later on the back of a horse. The person who had shot her looked male, but was actually a girl, and pretended to be a boy to continue being a tracker. Raised to believe she should never trust humans, Byx runs away from the girl Khara, and finds herself being suffocated by a large serpent. After a failed attempt of Tobble trying to rescue her, Khara comes to save the day with a beautiful glittering sword. After deciding to stay with Khara, Byx and everyone else head to the Isle of Ursina, where Khara knows a scholar who can provide help. Once they arrive, the island is bustling with people who have come for the eumony for dairnes, signaling their extinction. Byx has to pretend to be a dog in order to stay safe until they meet the scholar Ferrucci and his assistant Luca. Ferrucci orders Luca to bring Byx to the dungeons, and Khara is handsomely rewarded, but when Luca later returns, he tells Byx of his teacher’s evil plans. He breaks her and a girlfriend she made, a large cat known as a felivet named Gambler, out of jail, and the now group of five decide to wait until the end of the eumony is over. As they stake out in a building overwatching the ceremony, a patrol heads up to their room. Everyone but Luca and Khara hide, and the soldiers mistake them for lovers. However, they continued to search the room, and would have opened a chest to find a dairne inside, but Gambler leapt up behind them and distracted them. Byx flew out the window and straight at Araktik, the holder of the ceremony. After several constables chased Byx and Gambler, all five regrouped and snuck onto a smuggler’s boat. In the boat, it’s Byx’s choice where to head next, and she chooses north, where there is the possibility of finding more dairnes. Khara begins to teach basic sword skills to Luca and Byx, but when they realize there is a group of people tracking them, the group risks heading to a raptidon roost. There they meet Rorid Headcrusher, who tested Byx’s lie detecting skills and in trade for the humorous story of her flying into Araktik, told them who was chasing them - soldiers and a Knight of Fire. Everyone hurriedly left, knowing they didn't have much time. They rode to a migrating herd of gorillas, where the Knight of Fire demonstrated his control of fire. In the midst of battle, Byx was able to ride a garilan away from the night, but she left her friends behind, thinking they were dead. To her great surprise and joy, she saw them the next morning, and they told her how they’d been saved by crows. They made it to Sangaria, the city with Murdano's palace. However, there they lost Luca - until he came back, revealing betrayal. Everyone fought off the Pale Guard best they could, even Tobble who was wild looking, but they were all captured and brought to the Murdano. There he tested Byx’s lie detecting skills, and realized that having the last dairne - or last dairnes - would make him the most powerful of all. Byx and Khara swore allegiance to him that they would bring him more dairnes if they found any, but they were of course lying. The group of four now set off accompanied by members of the Pale Guard to capture a few dairnes and kill the rest. However, on the way Byx found an old face who was being tortured by the Knight of Zfire, and riskily freed him. When the now group of 5 again rode off, they knew the Pale Guard would be close behind, and so would the Knight of Fire. They somehow managed to stay ahead of both parties and left them back to fight, hoping they would all kill each other. They set up camp and a trap just in case the Knight survived, and Byx was sent up for watch duty. She caught sight of a moving island, just like the one from the legend of Dairneholme, the fabled home of the dairnes. She thought she saw a dairne, but when she heard Tobble scream, she knew she needed to go protect her friends at camp. Byx and the others led the Knight over the tap, the smoke of his fire concealing the deadly spikes. They were finally free, and decided to continue their journey to the snow capped mountains and moving island.

I loved the idea of being the last of your species, and I feel Katherine Applegate did an amazing job portraying real feelings. Endling was an exciting tale filled with action, suspense, and adventure, and I loved hanging on to every word. The unlikely crew of Byx, the possible endling dairne, two humans, a felivet, a wobbyl, and a faithful horse make this book so much more enjoyable. I loved the details this book used, from the super soft fur of the dairnes to the small magic the governing species can perform. I loved to follow the plot as it foreshadowed possible outcomes of the future that I hope are used in later books! I hope to be able to read the next book and that it is as exciting and adventurous as this one was. show less

Katherine Applegate is a superb author and it was with great pleasure that I started reading her newest release, Endling #1: The Last. It was exciting to see that this is intended to be the first of a series. The book tells the story of a kingdom which for generations has been ruled by a number of different "governing species." One of the governing species is called a Dairne and it is one of these creatures, named Byx, who becomes the main character and one of the heroes of the story. As the story opens, Byx, who describes herself as the runt and as a result not useful for anything, goes on a night time adventure. On her way back, she witnesses the slaughter of her family by the emperor's soldiers. It is then announced that her species show more was now extinct. Joining with a group of unlikely companions, Byx sets out on a quest to discover whether she is indeed, the Endling, or last of her species as well as what the emperor is up to. show less