Review: The Last Girl by Goldy Moldavsky

This one is not for the faint-hearted. Rachel Chavez moved to New York to put her past behind her, burying herself in her beloved horror films to forget her own fear. At her elite high school, Rachel doesn’t fit in — until she stumbles across the Mary Shelley Club and joins in on their game. The rules of the game are simple – come up with the best Fear Test, and win. In the Mary Shelley Club, Rachel has finally found her place. But she can’t outrun her past forever, and when it catches up to her, the game becomes deadly.

Moldavsky has knocked this one out of the park. Weaving together a tightly plotted, unpredictable story, she effortlessly captures what it feels like to be a modern teenager, on the outside, and desperately searching for a sense of belonging. The characters are rounded and real, and the writing jumps off the page with authenticity.

I was entirely immersed in Rachel’s narration; believable and relatable and compelling. This book tackles some complex ideas, about owning fear, human nature, and what it means to belong, with a deliciously dark undertone that perfectly matches the pacy plot. One thing is certain — the Mary Shelley Club is addictive. Drawing on popular horror tropes, The Last Girl borrows the meta-horror from Scream and sets it against the high-stakes lifestyle of Gossip Girl. I recommend it for fans of Karen McManus and Chelsea Pitcher, as well as anyone who enjoys a tense, nail-biting chiller-thriller that’s going to stick with them for days after reading.

Deirdre Power