Remaking an Identity: Memory and Mistakes in The Last One
Ever since Red Tower’s Fourth Wing took the world by storm (and dragon fire), the imprint has launched several fantastic romantasies, each with a different spin on the genre. Rachel Howzell Hall’s The Last One is the newest of these and it closes out the year by catapulting readers into a dying world through the eyes of a hero who has, similarly, been thrown into the setting with a deep sense of trauma.
Because she doesn’t remember who she was or how she got there. It takes a few chapters for Kai to even remember her name. In fact, when she wakes, most of what she can remember is that she likes honey cakes, and that she’s absolutely certain she’s not going to let a thief walk off with her armor and her amulet. Those items make her whole. She’s not sure how she knows that, but she knows, and the wretched thief who woke her up while committing a crime against her won’t come out of their encounter unscathed.
Except that isn’t quite how things go. When Kai follows the thief into Maford (clad in only her underthings, since the thief stole her clothing), she can’t stay out of sight, and she’s soon arrested. The thief, a young woman named Olivia, comes to her aid, trying to keep her out of a foul prison (and out of reach of the wretched jailer). Olivia’s brother, Jadon, a blacksmith and a man to whom the community listens (as well as the instant object of Kai’s desires), also speaks for the stranger, earning her a fine instead of a sentence. Begrudgingly, Kai accepts their help, even when Olivia refuses to return Kai’s things, worried that Kai will run rather than pay her fine.
This opening feels very much like a pastoral fantasy, one in which the secret behind Kai’s identity forms the center of the story. But the stakes soon change when the emperor’s men descend on the town, looking to conquer it–or looking for someone. A mysteriously powerful woman follows, demanding Kai’s return, and unleashing monsters to help her to get it. Without her memory or her things, Kai’s not at full strength, so she, Jadon, Olivia, and Olivia’s paramour, Philia, flee Maford, following Kai’s gut that she needs to reach the Sea of Devour. The journey leads them through the blighted landscape of the realm, a vista harmed not just by the emperor’s greedy expansion, but by bits of the land itself dying. Kai’s not sure why, but she knows she’s somehow tied up in all of it, and things will only get worse unless she can regain her memory and her strength.
Howzell Hall’s a veteran writer, though this is her first romantasy, and it shows in the stylistic way she presents both her fantasy world and her very modern-feeling point of view protagonist. Kai’s voice is incredibly strong throughout, and her lack of knowledge about the world, due to her amnesia, is a clever way to reveal the world-building a bit at a time, so readers never feel overwhelmed. There are no familiar fantasy monsters here, but an entirely invented series of creatures, meaning readers never know more than Kai does about the world she inhabits at any given time.
But readers may suspect the truth—hints are dropped throughout about who Kai might be, and why she has more than human abilities. Howzell Hall seeds clues about the backstories of Jadon and Olivia as well, balancing the mysteries of the characters with action-packed fight sequences. Kai goes into battle fully, never holding back, and despite her otherworldly powers, that means she gets injured more than the typical fantasy hero. She’s brash and reckless, and while she knows those to be faults, she rarely stops and thinks before crashing ahead into danger and violence. It’s glorious in terms of sheer power and graceful battle, but it’s also the cause of most of Kai’s problems. While it’s true that Olivia’s theft hinders her (over and over again), it’s also true that Kai keeps making the same mistakes on repeat.
But how is a person supposed to learn from their mistakes when they can’t remember them? As the larger reveals happen at the end of the story, readers may wonder why the otherworldly powers that impacted Kai ever thought that their plan to teach her a lesson would work. And as the book closes–on a cliffhanger leading into the next installment–readers may suspect that Kai’s asking herself the very same question.
As romantasies go, The Last One has a lot more will-they won’t-they action, and the back and forth of whether Kai and Jadon will get together has plenty of spicy scenes that never go the full distance (at least on the page). Those interruptions only heighten the tension, and divide readers in the moment of whether to root for their successful romance, or whether to root for Kai alone.
Readers will root for Kai, for all her brashness. She has a good heart and clearly wants to do the right thing, even when the deck is stacked against her. While the pacing of the novel ebbs and flows, and some pieces of information don’t seem to click into place until later in the narrative (or may leave readers questioning whether they do click into place fully), there’s enough here to keep readers fully immersed in the world from the breathtaking beginning to the climactic end—which will leave them eager to find out what happens in book two.
The Last One is available now wherever books are sold.
Alana Joli Abbott is a reviewer and game writer, whose multiple-choice novels, including Choice of the Pirate and Blackstone Academy for Magical Beginners, are published by Choice of Games. She is the author of three novels, several short stories, and many role-playing game supplements. She also edits fantasy anthologies for Outland Entertainment, including Bridge to Elsewhere and Never Too Old to Save the World. You can find her online at VirgilandBeatrice.com.