The Last Wild

The Last Wild by Piers Torday

This had a fantastically interesting premise, some specks of humor sprinkled through it, but I couldn't finish it.

An amazon summary, "In a world where animals are slowly fading into extinction, twelve-year-old Kester Jaynes feels as if he hardly exists either. He’s been locked away in a home for troubled children and is unable to speak a word. Then one night, a flock of talking pigeons and a bossy cockroach come to help him escape, and he discovers that he can speak—to them. And the animals need him. Only Kester, with the aid of a stubborn, curious girl named Polly, can help them survive.
 The animals saved Kester. But can he save them?" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Kester doesn't speak.

He's locked up in a home for troubled kids and mentally speaks with cockroaches.

The world suffers from a disease that has been killed off all the animals except for cockroaches.

....except, it turns out there is a last wild that has survived with a few species of animals. Kester is busted out of the troubled home and the animals carry him off to the last wild in hopes that he can find the cure to the disease that's killing all of them.

The reason I gave up is the pacing of the story didn't let anything really happen all that quickly and one character was relied on to have all the humor for the book. I got to page 180 and gave up a bit exasperated.

There was also a lot of lecturing on how to be a better person and a lot of reminiscing on how things used to be.

It was neat to see the different animals 'talk' to each other...but it wasn't enough to hold my attention to the finish.

I've heard a lot of good things about this book, but they were hard to find for me.

Happy reading!