Last to Leave / Teresa Richards / Book Review

LAST TO LEAVE

You have to be careful what you say online. Fallon knows that better than anyone. As a streamer, what she says matters. What she says can get clipped and shared a thousand times. What she says can get her demonetized. What she says can have the wildcard slot for the largest e-sports competition in the world taken away from her in a moment.

So you really do have to be careful... but that doesn't mean you can't take a risk.

For Fallon, that risk is SluethIt, the new murder-mystery web show competition that's going to feature exclusively up-and-coming streamers. As a gamer, she knows she'll have an edge, but her chances of getting into the competition are slim... until she does. Against her family's wishes, she jumps on a plane to LA, ready to meet the competition. But this competition isn't all that the ads made it seem...

THOUGHTS

This book was fun! It wasn't what I thought it would be. I kept waiting for a twist that just didn't come. But despite that, I had a really good time reading this. It took me to different places than I expected, and while I'm not sure those places were better, I still had a good time.

PROS

Really Engaging	I don't know how else to say this but that Teresa Richards's writing is just really engaging. It's the type of writing that sucks you in, even though I can't quite pinpoint how or why. If you want to be immersed in a character and her world, that will definitely be the case here.
Audience Perfect	It may sound silly, but this book is perfectly YA. And I so rarely find that in YA. What I mean by that is that this book is entertaining for any reader. It was a fun read for someone like me, who is definitely no longer the target audience for YA. It skirts just the right line, adult enough to be entertaining while still falling within the safe content area for the younger end of the YA market. YA has been skewing older and older, and the few books meant for that younger (say 13-15 year-old) range haven't felt complex or interesting enough for the whole of the YA market (and definitely not if you include the expanded, adult readership who often goes to YA for lighter or safer reading material). But this book straddles the line perfectly. It is absolutely YA, and it is a safe read for anyone within the 13-17 year-old market demographic. But it doesn't hide from harder truths. It doesn't shy away from difficult topics and discussions. It just does so in a market-appropriate way that is both a nod to adulthood and a safe space to explore these harder topics.
Winning Set-Up	The concept of the weird, new web show competition that this book revolves around is really fun. I know everyone's tired of "influencers" as a plot device, but this book doesn't make influencer a stock character. They're streamers of various kinds, the kinds you see across all kinds of content and platforms, instead of cardboard archetypes. And these content creators been invited onto a weird murder-mystery show, a reality competition that is both a web show and an app and a new form of streaming content. Which is strange and also feels... strangely possible, in this sort of web-celebrity and web-innovation space. Hosting it as a 1920s-style speakeasy murder mystery is really fun, and the Cluedo influence is clear, but in a way that's campy instead of a cop-out. While this plot didn't go as dark and twisty as I thought it would, I think the concept is really fun. And it definitely carried me right through to the end, like a weird reality TV competition might just suck anyone in.

CONS

At a certain point in this book, Fallon asks herself, Where is the twist? And you know what? I was asking myself that, too. I kept waiting for this plot to take a dark turn, to up the ante. And it just didn't. I don't think it was bad as is, but it just didn't go as far as I wanted it to go. It just didn't have as many twists as I expected, and I think fans of the genre might be majorly disappointed. Did it work? Absolutely. Somehow. Inexplicably. But those who need that high-octane thrill won't be getting it in this one.	Twistless
This book wraps up nicely. Too nicely. I am not always one to advocate for messy edges in an ending, but this is a book... that could have really benefited from that. It has a lot of messy subplots happening in it, and having all of them wrap up so cleanly just didn't feel realistic.	Neat & Tidy
Fallon's mother is an addict, and I liked that this was included. I said above that this is a great book for any YA reader, even younger ones, and I hold that as true. Young teens don't need to be entirely sheltered from harsh realities, and so the inclusion of addiction in this book was a welcome one. The treatment, however, was a little... not what I would have wanted. It was a little hyperbolic. It was a little "drugs are scary, kids!" And I get it. This is for a younger audience, after all, and making it so cut-and-dry bad makes sense in that regard. But such a black-and-white portrayal when it comes to family addiction made me sad. And on a deeper analysis, it felt a little counterproductive. In making this addiction so extreme, we also sort of... dehumanized the subject. Which I don't think was the intention but was definitely the result. And that's not exactly great.	Swing & Miss

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9/10

Those who liked Ellen Raskins's The Westing Game will love this new highly-plotted (and highly-prized) competition. Those who enjoyed Kate Alice Marshall's We Won't All Survive will like this Internet-star-studded new mystery.

Details Publisher: Charlesbridge Teen Date: June 2, 2026 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.