125Pages

The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on April 26, 2016

The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian was an interesting meld of teen love story, family drama and eminent domain. “What?” you say. “A YA book about the government claiming land?” Yup, and it was a very interesting way to look at where you live and what can happen when a decision is made by lawmakers and not citizens. The family drama was also great, a father fighting for a town and the repercussions from not following the party line. Then the teen love story came in, and sadly did not match the awesomeness of the other parts. The town of Aberdeen is going under water and the citizens are being paid off to leave. Keeley’s father is fighting for the town, but Keeley is fighting to make her crush notice her before the town goes under.

The plot of The Last Boy and Girl in the World was very interesting. A town slowly being flooded and the citizens for and against it and a teen trapped between her family and the boy she desires. The writing of Siobhan Vivian was strong. She was able to make me see the locations and feel the fear of the townspeople in some scenes. The pacing had some issues with some sections seemingly on fast forward and others on slo-mo. The world Vivian built was very real. I could feel the rain and wind whipping through the locations. The emotions were strong, but unfortunately they centered around whining and pouting. The characters were a downfall as they lacked dimension. Keeley was self-centered and even in the face of dire circumstances only thought about what she wanted.

I loved two-thirds of The Last Boy and Girl in the World. The family drama and the town’s fate were very intriguing; the selfishness of Keeley unfortunately dragged the rest of the tale down. If Siobhan Vivian had crafted this as more of a drama and not a teen romance with drama thrown in, I would have enjoyed the entire read. Vivian is a strong writer, and I would read another of her works, with the hope that she keeps with the strong world and less with the weak characters.

I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.