(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for The Last Town, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from earlier Wayward Pines thrillers.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

Now that Ethan Burke—a former Secret Service agent turned small-town sheriff—has defied the creator of Wayward Pines, Idaho, he's facing the consequences of his (perhaps rash) decision to stand against the all-powerful David Pilcher.  In retaliation for Ethan's rebellion, Pilcher has powered down the electrical fences that surround the town, leaving everyone inside vulnerable.  Now its residents, who may very well be the last humans on the planet, are under attack by the ferocious aberrations ("abbies") that live in the wilderness outside Wayward Pines.  The bloodthirsty monsters will extinguish the human race once and for all, unless Ethan can find a way to breach Pilcher's mountain stronghold.  Even if he manages the impossible, what can possibly be next for the survivors?  Is there anywhere in their ruined world where they can find safety?  Or is it better to just surrender and let the abbies win?  Ethan must make some terrifying, deadly choices.  And fast.  Before everything he knows and loves is gone forever.

Like the first two books in Blake Crouch's pulse-pounding Wayward Pines series, The Last Town sprints along at a dizzying pace.  It's tense, it's exciting, it's suspenseful—it's impossible not to whip through pages as fast as you can to see what's going to happen next.  Action takes the wheel in this series ender as it races toward its ambiguous, but perfect conclusion.  I inhaled The Last Town in one nail-biting, nerve-shredding sitting.  Wayward Pines may not be my very favorite dystopian series ever, but it definitely kept me enthralled.  I enjoyed it and can't wait to see what's next from the always enigmatic Blake Crouch.  

(Readalikes:  Pines and Wayward by Black Crouch)

Grade:

If this were a movie (The books have, in fact, been made into a television series on Fox!), it would be rated:

for strong language, violence, and mild sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find