The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld - Revision history

Sue at 12:07, 14 May 2018

2018-05-14T12:07:32Z

Sue at 09:12, 4 March 2018

2018-03-04T09:12:46Z

Sue at 13:09, 2 January 2015

2015-01-02T13:09:45Z

Sue at 10:36, 2 December 2012

2012-12-02T10:36:50Z

Keith at 00:41, 7 November 2009

2009-11-07T00:41:09Z

Keith: 1 revision

2009-10-24T17:29:55Z

1 revision

Keith at 12:54, 3 July 2009

2009-07-03T12:54:18Z

New review

{{infoboxsort
|title=The Last Days
|sort=Last Days
|author=Scott Westerfeld
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=A wonderfully observed vignette of societal breakdown in this creepy vampire fantasy, with New York as a perfect backdrop. Readers of the first book in the series will see it slightly differently to the newbies. Recommended for fans of the genre.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|format=Paperback
|pages=320
|publisher=ATOM
|date=2 Aug 2007
|isbn=978-1905654062
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905654065</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1905654065</amazonus>
}}
Something is troubling New York, and it's not just the sanitation crisis. Deep below the ground, something rumbles ominously. People are getting sick. Their teeth are getting pointy. Things are becoming bitey. Pearl, Moz and Zahler aren't thinking too much about it though. They're not hungry for flesh; they're hungry for fame. But when they recruit Minerva as their singer and Alana Ray as their drummer, they are pulled right into the darkness. Their band won't protect them from the danger below; it will summon it.

Vampires. Who'd 'ave 'em? Plenty of people, it seems. Vampire books are everywhere. Instinctively, I disapprove of vampire teen fiction. The feminist inside me sees it as a watered down way of selling fetish porn to the underaged. I've no objection to fetishism and certainly no objection to writing about sex in books for teenagers - but I'm not so sure about glossed up marketing. Perhaps I'm just getting old and a little bit Mary Whitehouse in readiness for impending dotage. However, I can't level this criticism at ''The Last Days''. It is dark and it is sexy and it is highly polished - but it pitches itself very well at the kind of sex and relationship preoccupations experienced by teenagers. It's not aspirational in any other sense than aspiring to what teenagers want - to find a girlfriend or boyfriend, to discover intimacy with them, and to fall in love for the first time.

I loved the depiction of New York - vivid, busy, with a life of its own. I loved the depiction of societal breakdown - it's happening throughout the book, but New Yorkers carry on regardless, oblivious to the implications of what's going on around them until it's all too late. People are sheep. And ''The Last Days'' makes this point subtly, but very well. It's told turn and turn about with each band member getting a shot at the narrative. I usually prefer to sit inside a single person's skin when I'm reading, but here, where the focal point is social disaster, it's interesting to see how the different characters perceive events.

Those, like me, who haven't read Westerfeld's first book in the series, [[Parasite Positive]], will enjoy the mystery surrounding vampirism in the book - it's clearly a disease, but it's not fully explained for a long time. I found it added to the creepy suspense. Those who have read it will probably take something different entirely - but will be glad to know the main character from it gets a good cameo.

It's a stylish book with plenty of meat on its bones and comes recommended to teen fans of all things bitey. Music fans and impending doom fans will enjoy it too. That's all teenagers then, right?

My thanks to the good people at Atom for sending the book.

London is equally strongly evoked in [[Scared to Death]] by Alan Gibbons, a supernatural urban fantasy using a Jack the Ripper motif.

{{toptentext|list=Top Ten Books For Children Who Love To Be Scared Silly}}

{{toptentext|list=Top Ten Books About Vampires}}

{{toptentext|list=Top Ten Books About America}}

{{amazontext|amazon=1905654065}}

{{commenthead}}
{{comment
|name=Magda
|verb=said
|comment=

[[Wicked Lovely]] is kind of along the same lines (and certainly aspirational in the same way).

But I THINK I'd rather have fairies. What is so sexy about vampires,
anyway (apart from Bowie & denevue in The Hunger, of course, but it'd be
hard to beat that!)?

}}
{{comment
|name=Jill
|verb=replied
|comment=

Well, fairies aren't fetish and vampires are, I guess. Hence my prissy reservations. Yes, The Hunger is VERY sexy!

}}

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 I loved the depiction of New York - vivid, busy, with a life of its own. I loved the depiction of societal breakdown - it's happening throughout the book, but New Yorkers carry on regardless, oblivious to the implications of what's going on around them until it's all too late. People are sheep. And ''The Last Days'' makes this point subtly, but very well. It's told turn and turn about with each band member getting a shot at the narrative. I usually prefer to sit inside a single person's skin when I'm reading, but here, where the focal point is social disaster, it's interesting to see how the different characters perceive events.
-Those, like me, who haven't read Westerfeld's first book in the series, [[Parasite Positive]], will enjoy the mystery surrounding vampirism in the book - it's clearly a disease, but it's not fully explained for a long time. I found it added to the creepy suspense. Those who have read it will probably take something different entirely - but will be glad to know the main character from it gets a good cameo.
+Those, like me, who haven't read Westerfeld's first book in the series, ''Parasite Positive'', will enjoy the mystery surrounding vampirism in the book - it's clearly a disease, but it's not fully explained for a long time. I found it added to the creepy suspense. Those who have read it will probably take something different entirely - but will be glad to know the main character from it gets a good cameo.
 It's a stylish book with plenty of meat on its bones and comes recommended to teen fans of all things bitey. Music fans and impending doom fans will enjoy it too. That's all teenagers then, right?

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{infoboxsort
+{{infobox1
 |title=The Last Days
 |sort=Last Days
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 |date=August 2007
 |isbn=978-1905654062
-|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905654065</amazonuk>
+|cover=1905654065
-|amazonus=<amazonus>1905654065</amazonus>
+|aznuk=1905654065
 }}
 Something is troubling New York, and it's not just the sanitation crisis. Deep below the ground, something rumbles ominously. People are getting sick. Their teeth are getting pointy. Things are becoming bitey. Pearl, Moz and Zahler aren't thinking too much about it though. They're not hungry for flesh; they're hungry for fame. But when they recruit Minerva as their singer and Alana Ray as their drummer, they are pulled right into the darkness. Their band won't protect them from the danger below; it will summon it.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 |buy=Yes
 |borrow=Yes
 |pages=320
 |publisher=ATOM
@@ Line 38: / Line 37: @@
 {{amazontext|amazon=1905654065}}
 {{commenthead}}
@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 |name=Magda
 |verb=said
-|comment=
+|comment=[[Wicked Lovely]] is kind of along the same lines (and certainly aspirational in the same way).
 }}
 {{comment
 |name=Jill
 |verb=replied
-|comment=
+|comment=Well, fairies aren't fetish and vampires are, I guess. Hence my prissy reservations. Yes, The Hunger is VERY sexy!
 }}

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