Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey

I bought Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey on Vinted. It was on my list of books I wanted to read on my phone, although I don’t  remember where I read a review of it. It took me a while to get round to read it. It is the second novel by Anna Bailey, who also wrote Tall Bones.

Published in 2025, Our Last Wild Days is the incredibly atmospheric story of the mysterious death of a young woman – Cutter – in the swamps of Louisiana. Even by the standards of their tough, poverty stricken town, Cutter Labasque and her brothers, Dewall and Beau, are outsiders. They farm and hunt alligators for a living, Beau is a drug addict and everyone is afraid of Dewall.

Loyal May left Jacknife 10 years ago to live with her father and become a journalist in Houston, after betraying her best friend, Cutter. Now she is back to care for her mum and is working at the local paper, along with the editor’s great-nephew, Sasha.

The police and local people aren’t interested in Cutter’s death. Even her two brothers don’t seem bothered. Loyal is determined to find out what happened to her former friend. But there is danger everywhere she goes. Is someone trying to cover up the truth about what happened to Cutter? And is there a connection to a missing 13-year-old girl?

I was hooked from the moment I started reading Our Last Wild Days. It is so dark, but so beautifully written. It reminds me a lot of Where the Crawdads Sing and Demon Copperhead – both absolute literary triumphs. Remarkably, Anna Bailey isn’t from Louisiana. They are from Gloucestershire, like me! (Although they have spent time in rural America.)

If you’re looking for a beautiful and atmospheric read, and you don’t mind a bit of darkness, I would definitely recommend Our Last Wild Days.

One of the reasons I started buying books on Vinted was I thought it would make me easier to pass them on, rather than keep hoarding them. So far, I’ve done pretty well with that. But I’m not passing Our Last Wild Days on!