After writing a swoony lineup of young adult queer romcoms, Jennifer Dugan branched out to add two YA graphic novels, two adult romcoms, and a YA horror novel to her impressive repertoire. In The Last Girls Standing, Sloane is reeling, only weeks after a group of masked men with machetes attacked Sloane’s summer camp in a cultish ritual. Sloane, and her girlfriend Cherry, who she met only days before the attack, are the only survivors.
Before I even begin to tell you about this book, I need to tell you the embarrassing truth that this is the first horror book (or movie, television show, podcast, or one-minute video) that I have ever willingly consumed. I am a longtime Jennifer Dugan fan, and when I saw her at An Unlikely Story in conversation with Rory Power (another queen of queer horror), I thought I would catch up on all their recent works, and I am so glad I did! I actually find myself looking forward to spooky season, when I get to continue my newfound love for this genre. That is right–The Last Girls Standing made me love horror. The murders are not too gory or even realistic, and even though the author herself called this a summer camp slasher, it is more of a psychological horror. In other words, it is great for sensitive readers like me who are new to the genre.
It is Sloane’s character development (or decline) that really got me into the book. As a reader, I did not realize how much I was seeing the world through her eyes, and how clouded her vision was, until the end of the book. What is always clear, though, is that Sloane and Cherry’s relationship is horribly codependent. Sloane constantly runs to Cherry, says she cannot spend the night without her, and pushes away every other person in her life. Their dynamic is eerily realistic and understandable; it avoids coming across as annoying, as so many clingy characters do. Weirdly, I felt annoyed with Sloane’s other friends and family, just as she did, even though I objectively knew they were trying to help her. It is disturbing how expert a writer Dugan is.
The setting further contributes to that feeling. The book alternates between flashbacks to the night of the murder in the woods and descriptions of Sloane’s present-day life. The forest was so much more vivid than Sloane’s town, really underscoring that mentally, Sloane never left that night in the forest. Even as she went through the motions of her day-to-day life, she never thought of anything else in her desperate search for closure.
The plot centers around that search, and it moves quickly, but not too quickly. I could not put it down because it was so incredibly suspenseful and unbelievably scary. Finally, I finished it in the middle of the night, and as I neared the final pages, my mind raced as I tried to imagine how Dugan could possibly tie up all the loose ends in the book so soon. When I got to that devastating, shocking last page, it did not disappoint. The ending was completely unpredictable and left me reeling in the sadness, beauty, and sheer horror of it.
I highly recommend The Last Girls Standing to new horror readers like myself, and I am interested to know if a veteran of the genre loves it as much as I do. If you are looking for an author that messes with your mind as much as she messes with the characters, try Jennifer Dugan.
