Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff

Ireland, or possibly the world, has been overtaken by creatures called skrakes. They're zombies, or possibly some kind of parasite, it's never really clear. Orphen has lived with her mother and another woman on a small island for her whole life, training for the day she'll visit the mainland. Sadly, her mother dies first, and during her first visit Maeve is bitten. Orphen decides to take her cross country to a place that may or may not exist to look for help, despite having been taught all her life that once someone is bitten there's nothing to be done for them.




This is a good, but not great, read for me. It feels like we've been dropped into the middle of a much bigger story, one that's never explained or expanded on. How long ago did the skrake appear? Who knows; long enough for bodies to be bones and adult women not to know how to read, but not enough for cars to rust away, and Orphen's parents talk about water taps and gas cookers. What is Phoenix City? Probably some kind of refugee camp, but no one is talking about it, so who can tell. Why and how did her parents go to the island? No idea! Who are the Banshees? Psh, why bother telling us!

Orphen has a very distinctive voice, and Davis-Goff has clearly thought about what life might be like however many years after an apocalypse this is. It's not a bad read - although I could have done without teenage Orphen musing about kissing an adult man in a relationship who is a stranger to her - but it's not as good as I was hoping, either.

Watch your six. Beware tall buildings. Always have your knives.

Growing up on a tiny island off the coast of a post-apocalyptic Ireland, Orpen's life has revolved around physical training and necessity. After Mam died, it's the only way she and her guardian Maeve have survived the ravenous skrake (zombies) who roam the wilds of the ravaged countryside, looking for prey.

When Maeve is bitten and infected, Orpen knows what she should do - sink a knife into her eye socket, and quickly. Instead, she tries to save Maeve, and following rumours of a distant city on the mainland, guarded by fierce banshees, she sets off, pushing Maeve in a wheelbarrow and accompanied by their little dog, Danger. It is a journey on which Orpen will need to fight repeatedly for her life, drawing on all of her training and instincts. In the course of it, she will learn more about the Emergency that destroyed her homeland, and the mythical Phoenix City - and discover a starting truth about her own identity.