The Last Bookstore on Earth
By: Lily Braun-Arnold
Genre: YA
Number of Pages: 320
Published: January 7, 2025
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Dates Read: February 16, 2025 - February 18, 2025
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

Trigger Warnings: body horror

Ever since the first storm wreaked havoc and changed the world as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been surviving in her old job, the bookstore in the New Jersey suburb she grew up in, trading books and letters for supplies. It’s her safe space. Until she heard about the next storm coming soon.

Then she meets Maeve, someone who breaks into the bookstore one night looking for shelter. Maeve and Liz butt heads, but Maeve has the skills Liz lacks that are needed to fix the dilapidated store before the next storm hits. Liz agrees to let her stay.

As the girls grow closer and feelings start to appear, they realize there are more threats than just the storm and they find themselves fighting to stay alive.

Though this book is post-apocalyptic, I will say it does focus more on Liz and Maeve’s relationship than it does the world around them. Which ended up being a little disappointing to me because I would have loved to read more about it – especially how Liz handled the days following the event and making it into the bookstore. 

I didn’t think realistically that Liz would have even lasted the amount of time that she did last before Maeve showed up. Maeve came in and showed a lot more of what it was like in the “new world”, but we never got into detail about Liz’s. <spoiler> and then what she did with her hand and the generator as a whole was crazy </spoiler>.

Overall, this was a cute sapphic post-apocalyptic young adult novel set in a bookstore where people still exchanged goods for a book.

*Thank you Delacorte Press and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review