The Last Orphans by N.W. Harris

Via Goodreads

Title: The Last Orphans (#1)
Author: N.W. Harris
Genre: Young adult dystopia
How I got the book: I downloaded it onto my Kindle

Summary (from Goodreads):

One horrifying day will change the life of sixteen-year-old Shane Tucker and every other kid in the world.

In a span of mere hours, the entire adult population is decimated, leaving their children behind to fend for themselves and deal with the horrific aftermath of the freak occurrence. As one of the newly made elders in his small town, Shane finds himself taking on the role of caretaker for a large group of juvenile survivors. One who just happens to be Kelly Douglas—an out-of-his-league classmate—who, on any other day, would have never given Shane a second glance.

Together, they begin their quest to find out why all of the adults were slaughtered. What they find is even more horrifying than anything they could have expected—the annihilation of the adults was only the beginning. Shane and his friends are not the unlucky survivors left to inherit this new, messed-up planet. No, they are its next victims. There is an unknown power out there, and it won’t stop until every person in the world is dead.

My Review:

I bought this book on a whim all thanks to BookBub again. I don’t typically read this kind of genre, but it definitely sounded interesting so I gave it a shot.

Shane is coming home from his grandmother’s funeral when he gets into a fight with his drunken father and walks out. He goes to his grandmother’s house where he meets up with his aunt. She’s suddenly attacked by bees and dies.

It is seriously the most random thing ever.

As Shane tries to get help for his aunt, he runs into his crush from school and together they realize that all the adults are being attacked and killed by all the animals.

In an attempt to figure out what’s going on, Shane and a group of friends from school take on the task of saving the world while keeping the younger children safe who can’t protect themselves.

The journey itself was good, but what I loved most was the dynamic between all the characters. Shane made a great protagonist and he had a nice relationship that grew over time with Kelly, his crush. The other members in their group each had their own unique personality that contributed to their mission in some way or another.

The book was pretty morbid and could be gory at times, which I wasn’t really expecting, but it made their problem more of a reality.

The book moved along at a nice pace, but I thought the ending was a bit rushed. As the weapon started targeting the younger generation once the adults were all killed, I felt as though it was got rushed for the sake of the main characters not killing each other.

This is book one in a trilogy, but I don’t know how much farther this story can go. I do plan on reading the rest of the series, but it most likely won’t be right away.

The Last Orphans by N.W. Harris gets 4 out of 5 stars.

Favorite Quote:

“He knew she had to be as torn up as he was, but she managed to put aside grief and be a caring nurse, offering her empathetic smiles as medicine.” –N.W. Harris, The Last Orphans

Buy the Book:

Amazon