From the Bookshelf of Splatterpunk…

Last One Alive

Kristopher Rufty

Start date: July 1, 2025

Finish date: July 31, 2025

Discussion: Group Reads 2

Why we're reading this: This is our Group Read 2 for July 2025.
[close] This is our Group Read 2 for July 2025.

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Showing 2 of 14 topics — 251 comments total

Group Reads 2

* September 2025: Playground: Child of Divorce by Aaron Beauregard
By Gillian · 10 posts · 23 views

last updated Sep 07, 2025 02:49PM

August 2025 (tie): The Venue by T.J. Payne
By Gillian · 8 posts · 21 views

last updated Sep 10, 2025 02:47AM

What Members Thought

Apr 10, 2022 Christine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Megan and her best friend , Allison, along with Allison's boyfriend, Brian have decided to spend the weekend hiking and camping in the mountains. But on the second day, Megan's friends are both brutally murdered by a maniac with a machete. A maniac who is now hunting Megan through the forest... and who seems incapable of dying.
Her friends aren't the only ones to suffer this fate; Megan is camping in the area of the mountains they started referring to as the "Bermuda Triangle," because of all the ...more

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Jul 01, 2025 FranWeird rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub

I actually enjoyed this read. Right amount of gore and a sprinkle of paranormal elements

5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 03, 2025 Pisces51 rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2025

LAST ONE ALIVE [2013] By Kristopher Rufty
My Review 3.0 Stars

This nominated novella was a second-place favorite among those members who voted for the Group Read selection this month (Splatterpunk Horror Book Club). I was pleased about it and had already purchased the book because my albeit limited exposure to Rufty’s work had been very favorable.

This work is a 35,000-word novella which may suggest some ennui on my part since I finished the other Group Read selection in the same time frame. My no LAST ONE ALIVE [2013] By Kristopher Rufty
My Review 3.0 Stars

This nominated novella was a second-place favorite among those members who voted for the Group Read selection this month (Splatterpunk Horror Book Club). I was pleased about it and had already purchased the book because my albeit limited exposure to Rufty’s work had been very favorable.

This work is a 35,000-word novella which may suggest some ennui on my part since I finished the other Group Read selection in the same time frame. My notes in the Discussion Thread suggest that I was both a little puzzled and trying to like the story. I had read approximately the first third of the novella and it was suggested to be a slasher story with one girl (Megan) escaping from the campsite where her best friend Allison was murdered and Allison’s boyfriend horribly mutilated. I subsequently read more of the story and at the 51% mark I really had no idea what the plot was about. There was the behemoth with the machete, the ghost of Megan’s friend Allison, a forest ranger in a jeep jumping into the fray to help Megan. There were entreaties to return to base from an authority figure on the radio suggesting a military conspiracy. And did I mention that the hulking giant of a creature brandishing a machete was a revenant? (can be killed but does not stay dead, i.e. supernatural). Then there was a trio of hillbillies to accost Megan, but they were not really hillbillies. Finally, there was the tale of the witch who…...well you will find out if you read it. The h---- of it is, I really wanted to like this novella. It is literally all over the place, tossing in one trope after another, until all it does is serve to confuse. I won’t even mention the conclusion. Megan was not more than a cardboard figure and not a feasible main character (good thing, that!). In the end, everything was upended.

There is a disclaimer coming now. I am an outlier here. 52% of Amazon’s 102 ratings were 4-5 Stars. Goodreads is showing a 3.99 rating. This is especially upside down because I actually did like the short stories, I have read by Rufty and have two full novels of his I intend to read, “The Devoured and the Dead” was nominated for a Splatterpunk Award. Another curiosity on my part is the references (more than one) to this story reading exactly like Laymon. Say what? I have read maybe half a dozen Laymon novels, and this novella “Last One Alive” does not remind me of Laymon at all. So, take my opinion for just what it is as always, and know if you like this novella, you are in the majority.

TOO MANY COOKS…

...more

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Jul 06, 2025 Erica★ rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I am unsure how I feel about Last One Alive, I liked that it’s a backwoods camping slasher and was really likening the first half of the story, but then it ended up with witches and paranormal aspects but the worst was how it ended. I thought I had misprinted copy as it just abruptly ended and the next story started called Love Seat. I kept flipping through thinking I missed something but I didn’t…The next two stories weren’t my favourite either…

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Dec 08, 2021 Charlene (Char)🍁☕️📚 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Camping gone wrong

I've had this book for quite some time this book was really good. This book has it all murder, an unstoppable killer, and the wilderness. This book was good from beginning to end but the ending ??? Goodness one of the best I read was completely unexpected. Definitely a good read. ...more

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Mar 31, 2022 Nikki rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book has all the elements of a great horror story: isolation, strong characters, a deranged family of hillbillies, supernatural beings, and something else even worse… If you add some very well devised plot twists you have a tale that will make you stay on the edge of your seat all the way till the end! Fast paced and is full of blood, gore, and violence!

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