#last to leave the room

[see-starling]

Okay, this is the official LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM promo post! A blurb, a tiny excerpt, some fancy art of the main characters by @cparrisart, and a nice photo.

The book comes out OCTOBER 10TH, 2023! Oh god that’s way too close. The audiobook is read by Xe Sands and she did a fantastic job. There’s a fancy edition coming from a particular book box, though I think that’s sold out now.

Here’s the actual pitch:

The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster.

As Tamsin becomes obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before - and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. The doppelgänger is sweet and biddable where Tamsin is calculating and cruel. It appears terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, to lose track of time, to grow terrified of the outside world.

With her employer growing increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads…

And here are a few memes to delight and entice:

And if you want your own copy of a disaster lesbian ruining her life through zoom meetings and bad decisions, here’s a link where you can preorder, and maybe get yourself some cool enamel pins in the process.

(And here are some content warnings.)

[bracketsoffear]

The Likeness (Tana French) "A detective assumes a dead woman’s identity and moves into her shared house, believing one of the housemates to be her killer. She is accepted as the victim (!!!) and becomes obsessed with her doppelgänger, trying to stay in character and live the life that she would have lived. She ends up getting psychologically consumed by the part she’s playing, losing track of her own identity. Once she’s completely confused, only person knows for sure who she is—the killer."

Last to Leave the Room (Caitlin Starling) "The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster. As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before - and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. This doppelgänger is sweet and biddable where Tamsin is calculating and cruel. It appears fully, terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, to lose track of time, to grow terrified of the outside world. As her employer grows increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads…"

[beroebluejeans]

my tastes are simple: I want to read about Women in STEM who are evil or evil-adjacent

[locallostsoul]

Books I read in November '23! 📚

(I finished The Queen of Nothing (Elfenthron) today, but I'm still counting it)

All Systems Red: ☆☆☆☆☆

Books I liked the most:

Kingdom of the Wicked: ☆☆

Books I liked the least:

[someonelookingpraediti]

Illumicrate Unboxing

Evernight October 2023

This is the second box in Illumicrate's new Evernight subscription. I did initially say I wouldn't keep up this subscription for long, as I'm not a big fan of book-only subscriptions. And I do still hold to that, especially since I'm so far past being out of room, I really need to stop getting books!

This month's book is "Last to Leave the Room" by Caitlin Starling. I'm really interested in the book, but I actually preferred the original cover. This one is completely redesigned, which normally I'm thrilled about, but the original just fit the genre better.

The foiling on the hardcase is really basic, really nothing exciting. It's a cool design, but not that special. And it came with a signed bookplate, rather than an actual signature, which is disappointing.

The sprayed edges are amazing, really detailed. This is really what I subscribe to these boxes for - the amazing sprayed edges! This one is all teeth and many, many eyes. It definitely matches the jacket!

I'm also in love with these endpapers - the two endpapers are really similar, with just the little difference of the extra figure in the second one. From the blurb, this looks like it fits into the plot perfectly, which I love!

I am probably going to give up this subscription soon, but I'll see what the next book is first.

[jaimelwuizard]

The last one out

As of 4:10. I am the last senior to exit my high school for the school year of 2024 in the last day of school. There are 2 reasons for this. My school held early release at 1:30 and that I ended up taking my Europe ap exam where the two other students taking it left early leaving me the last sudebt on campus and at 4:10 I am the last one to exit Its doors as a student.

[hemlockdumpling]

Spending Halloween reading my Illumicrate Evernight book of the month - Last To Leave The Room by Caitlin Starling. An intriguing tale of horror, science, shifting dimensional spaces, and a mysterious door. Few chapters in, and I’m very interested. 🖤

[libraryofbaxobab]

October 17, 2023:

This is for: • Fans of The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey • Readers who only like the video portions of House of Leaves • ??? • People who are gay like Gideon The Ninth is gay

7.9/10 #WhatsKenyaReading

[le-trash-prince]

Last to Leave the Room was great if uncomfortably relatable. I love me some sapphic horror

[primmlife]

Review: Last to Leave the Room

Review: Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling from St. Martin's Press #Books #BookCommunity #Horror #Science #Research

For this review, I’ve decided to break one of my cardinal rules as a reviewer. Rule: If I don’t finish a book, I don’t review it. I do this for a few reasons, chiefly, I don’t feel like I can give a good opinion on a book I couldn’t finish. And I know how hard authors work to create a book; so, I don’t want to disparage that. While reading is declining in the U.S., there is a large enough…

[see-starling]

pack it in folks, BaroqueGothik has fully captured the mood of LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM with this art!!!

doppelgängers, check. sexy threatening butch corporate handler, check. eye trauma, check. everybody having a lot of sexual tension but also possibly wanting to murder one another, check check check.

obligatory purchase link: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250353436/lasttoleavetheroom

[bracketsoffear]

Last to Leave the Room (Caitlin Starling) "The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster. As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before - and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. This doppelgänger is sweet and biddable where Tamsin is calculating and cruel. It appears fully, terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, to lose track of time, to grow terrified of the outside world. As her employer grows increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads…"

The Invisible Man (H. G. Wells) "The opening of "The Invisible Man" focuses on outside perspectives of the titular character, and the narrative itself refers to him simply as "the stranger". His looks are unusual: he wears large clothes and covers his eyes with tinted glasses, and underneath those, he's covered in bandages, as if he's had some sort of horrible accident. His behavior is strange, too. He's rude and reclusive, holed up in his at an inn and working with bizarre chemical concoctions, causing accidents and damage constantly.

Throughout the story, the man, Griffin, becomes increasingly erratic. His attempts to reverse his condition all fail, but the things he can do when he goes unnoticed are increasingly violent and cruel.

When he finally becomes fed up with everything, he reveals himself to the proprietors and patrons of the inn, who are prepared to see anything under the bandages, any manner of injury or disfigurement, but instead, run screaming from the establishment, when he reveals nothing at all."

[reviewsthatburn]

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM by Caitlin Starling is the story of a generally unlikeable person whose life is utterly upended when the anomaly she's been tracking for her work begins to have strange and personal consequences. 

I've loved Starling's previous work, and this swiftly drew me in, holding me to the very end. Beginning with the section, "Nought", the story takes a turn from merely excellent to brilliant. As much as I was fascinated by the beginning, the ending blew me away. I love books that deal with memory distortions, or changes in personality, things that mean that someone who is nominally the same character becomes a very different person throughout a story or a series. It touches on dynamics related to ableism in the context of physical disabilities and brain damage, as well as whether memory is essential to personality. 

Full Review at Link

[beroebluejeans]

Diversity win! The ex-military hired muscle for your unethical corporate employer uses the honorific prefix “Mx.”

[temeyes]

he’s dressed up for today’s occasion!!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Market based mistakes.

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