Miku the Literary Cat Review: Adrian J Walker The Last Dog on Earth
Walkies around a post-collapse London
Miku’s take:
“Dogs? Are you woofing kidding me?
I’m just glad she read this one during one of those weeks she goes away and uncle Nyle comes to visit and gives me breakfast AND lunch AND dinner so I don’t mind that she’s away that much.
She then made me pose with this FILTH which I hope you can see I am not happy about. I heard her tell my Dad that parts of it were narrated by the dog character. That’s my thing. The woofing cheek of it.”
zero out of four paws, and by the way dogs would NOT be loyal past the apocalypse when all the food has run out. Neither would cats but that’s not the point.
Miku’s Mum’s take:
The novel that came before the superbly popular “End of the World Running Club”. Human and dog characters (Reginald and Lineker) narrate alternating chapters as they navigate backdrop of the destroyed city. Reginald is a highly anxious, anti-social, man trying to keep to himself while post-collapse life has other plans. It is a great set up, although there is the straw-iest of strawman characters found in villain Angela/Captain Hastings. Her aside, Walker knows just how to tear his protagonists down to the kernels of who they really are. Reginald goes on a Job-like journey to reach the conclusion, which is far more satisfying than actual Job’s. It wasn’t the easiest of reads for me because, as a cat lover, I found the visceral dog stuff about shit and arses and bosh! and fuck and digestion were a bit much.
