Last Train to Babylon: A Novel

by Charlee Fam

Overview

A sardonic young woman must face the demons of her past when a high school friend commits suicide in this “startling coming of age story” (Kirkus).

Recent college grad Aubrey Glass has a collection of potential suicide notes—just in case. And now, five years—and five notes—after Aubrey has left her hometown, her former best friend Rachel is the one who goes and kills herself. Aubrey can’t believe her luck.

But Rachel’s death doesn’t leave Aubrey in peace. There’s a voice mail from her former friend, left only days before her death, that she can’t bring herself to listen to—and worse, a macabre memorial-turned-high-school-reunion that promises the opportunity to catch up with everyone . . . including the man responsible for everything that went wrong between Aubrey and Rachel.

In the days leading up to the funeral and infamous after-party, Aubrey slips seamlessly between her past and present. Memories of friendship tangle with painful new encounters, while underneath it all Aubrey feels the rush of something closing in, something she can no longer run from. And when the past and present collide in one devastating night, nothing will be the same again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062328083
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/15/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	355
Sales rank:	956,662
File size:	448 KB

About the Author

Charlee Fam is a twentysomething novelist living in New York City. A native of Long Island, she graduated from Binghamton University in 2010 with a degree in creative writing and several awards to her name. Last Train to Babylon is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

11/03/2014
Fam portrays early twenty-something arrested development in her somewhat bleak debut. Aubrey, living in Manhattan with a boyfriend she's more or less satisfied with, working for a news site she doesn't despise, is probably doing as well as could be expected for someone her age, even if she does drink too much and have passing thoughts of suicide. She thinks she's escaped her Long Island upbringing and the friends and foes of her youth, but when she learns that her high school best friend, Rachel, has committed suicide, the past comes rushing back. Torn over whether to attend the funeral, Aubrey feels compelled to return to her hometown anyway—and smack into the memories of what drove her and Rachel apart. Events surrounding Rachel's funeral and disastrous "after party" alternate with those leading up to Rachel and Aubrey's senior year falling out, illustrating how those events still loom large in Aubrey's consciousness, even years later. Unfortunately, the attempts to build intrigue by delaying the revelation of a particular horrific event in Aubrey's past often just make the narrative feel artificially drawn out and sluggish rather than suspenseful. Aubrey and Rachel's story does, however, illustrate the complicated and often inscrutable nature of high school girls' volatile relationships and their long-lasting scars. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

An intense and compelling page-turner about what keeps us loyal to friends and lovers who betray us, and one young woman’s struggle back from the brink. Fam’s prose is searingly true. — Jennifer Echols, author of SUCH A RUSH and DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

“Fam creates a startling coming-of-age story that is neither sentimental nor clichéd.” — Kirkus Reviews

“This debut novel is a stunner...Forget comparisons to other authors; Fam stands on her own in weaving the narrative between new adults and the teens they were before.” — Romantic Times BOOKclub, Top Pick, 4 1/2 stars

[Fam] has created a powerful story, and beautifully developed characters that ring true, regardless of one’s upbringing as the loss of innocence, betrayal, and teenage angst tend to be universal for almost everyone. — Examiner.com

From the Publisher

This debut novel is a stunner...Forget comparisons to other authors; Fam stands on her own in weaving the narrative between new adults and the teens they were before.

Romantic Times BOOKclub

An intense and compelling page-turner about what keeps us loyal to friends and lovers who betray us, and one young woman’s struggle back from the brink. Fam’s prose is searingly true.

Jennifer Echols

[Fam] has created a powerful story, and beautifully developed characters that ring true, regardless of one’s upbringing as the loss of innocence, betrayal, and teenage angst tend to be universal for almost everyone.

Examiner.com

2014-09-30
In Fam's debut novel, a recent college graduate "content creator" returns home to Long Island for the funeral of her former best friend and is forced to confront her deeply painful past.Aubrey wakes up in a psychiatric care facility, bruised and severely hung over, after taking a drunken walk along an elevated train line after the funeral of her high school best friend, Rachel. Aubrey harbors a seething anger toward Rachel and her guidance-counselor mother, Karen, but the reasons are camouflaged by a 20-something cynicism and the despairing consumption of booze. As the narrative progresses, we move between present-day Aubrey and the experimental, bored high school version and meet her then-boyfriend, Adam. Gradually, we learn that Aubrey's transit through young adulthood involved some deeply traumatic experiences which were compounded in part by her inability to trust her best friend. For years, she's walled off her feelings, becoming increasingly emotionally detached. Aubrey's future happiness depends on her ability not only to recognize what happened, but to be able to tell others without fear of reprisal. The first-person narration has a guarded, angry tone: "Who put the word 'fun' in funeral? If you really think about it, funeral sounds like it should be synonymous with 'carnival' or 'funnel cake.' But I can't think of anything fun about Rachel's funeral, except for the fact that she won't be there." The book's strident pacing, combined with its unsparing portrayal of teenage cruelty and thoughtlessness, makes Aubrey's eventual confrontation with her past a welcome relief. However, despite Aubrey's warped perspective, Fam manages to carve out enough space for the supporting characters to believably exist within the maelstrom of Aubrey's raw emotions.By sardonically inhabiting the solipsistic, emotionally fraught reality of adolescence, Fam creates a startling coming-of-age story that is neither sentimental nor clichéd.

Kirkus Reviews