The Last Academy by Anne Applegate
♦publisher: Scholastic Point
♦release date: April 30th, 2013
♦hardcover, 320 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review
What is this prep school preparing them for?
Camden Fisher arrives at boarding school haunted by a falling-out with her best friend back home. But the manicured grounds of Lethe Academy are like nothing Cam has ever known. There are gorgeous, preppy boys wielding tennis rackets, and circles of girls with secrets to spare. Only . . . something is not quite right. One of Cam's new friends mysteriously disappears, but the teachers don't seem too concerned. Cam wakes up to strangers in her room, who then melt into the night. She is suddenly plagued by odd memories, and senses there might be something dark and terrible brewing. But what? The answer will leave Cam—and readers—stunned and breathless, in this thrilling debut novel.
Camden Fisher arrives at boarding school haunted by a falling-out with her best friend back home. But the manicured grounds of Lethe Academy are like nothing Cam has ever known. There are gorgeous, preppy boys wielding tennis rackets, and circles of girls with secrets to spare. Only . . . something is not quite right. One of Cam's new friends mysteriously disappears, but the teachers don't seem too concerned. Cam wakes up to strangers in her room, who then melt into the night. She is suddenly plagued by odd memories, and senses there might be something dark and terrible brewing. But what? The answer will leave Cam—and readers—stunned and breathless, in this thrilling debut novel.
Review: The Last Academy was a very fast, fairly entertaining, but slightly frustrating read. There is a lot I can't tell you without giving a major plot twist away, but actually someone with a good knowledge of mythology can guess right away what is really going on at this school, just from the name of the school and the name of the main villain. I am not that someone, but I would guess that I figured out what was going on right about the time the first friend mysteriously disappears.
But the predictability was not a problem. I actually liked how the story flowed and unfolded. It was fun, a bit humorous at times, some good conflicts and had some good twists. It had a good mystery running through it, too, as Camden desperately tries to figure out what happened to her missing friend and if the creepy, sinister Barnaby Charon is responsible---all while dodging the other students' bullying because they hold her to blame for the girl's disappearance.
The big problem I had with this story was the characters. There wasn't any one character that I would say I could connect with. Camden had her moments of funny wit, but she lost me within the first 20 or so pages when (and I don't consider that a spoiler) a complete stranger violates her on a plane and she does nothing about it. Their actions, while some made a little more sense by the end, were just so disconnected and confusing. The behavior and reactions of everyone (and I mean even the teachers at the school) were a bit dumbfounding and sometimes completely immature. It made for an interesting story but one that you can't really immerse into because the character were all pretty irksome.
The ending though..well, the ending was what brought this book back from a two-cupcaker to a three. Despite my lack of connection to the characters throughout almost the whole book, as each one's story is revealed, I felt a little more for them. What happens at the end for Camden touched my heart so completely that I actually found myself in tears. It made the whole book worth a read.
If you decide to give this one a try, go in with a little trepidation, but know there is a bit of lovely payoff at the end!
