A Refuge of Last Resort by Robb Erwin is the story of Lorelei Rücker, a twenty-two-year-old who grew up in foster care after accidentally setting their home on fire and killing her parents. Her job at Saino-Blatt Corporation is stressful, and she develops the habit of escaping to the bathroom to stay away from her boss. The company she works for facilitates scams, and that alone is dangerous for her. But when she witnesses a crime, she is forced to run from a human trafficking ring that will either kill her or have her deported. She will face very dangerous situations, including kidnapping, but can she save herself from a system that has the power and the resources to track her?

Robb Erwin’s provocative story examines systemic injustice and illustrates how powerful institutions prey on the most vulnerable people in US society. The novel offers thoughtful commentary and critique on DEI policies, exposing the private security firms and political allies who go after people like Lorelei. Character work is taut, and Lorelei is genuinely flawed. Her background as an orphan and someone who has experienced abuse in foster care makes her genuinely flawed and believable. In addition to her unique struggles, she has a condition that makes her hypersensitive to smell, and I enjoyed the humor with which she talks about it. A Refuge of Last Resort is written in a gripping first-person narrative voice that captures Lorelei’s opinionated character perfectly. This book is about abuse, survival, and grit, and the well-crafted dialogue, the elaborately developed characters, and the suspense will keep you turning the pages.

Robb Erwin’s A Refuge of Last Resort follows twenty-two-year-old Lorelei Rücker, who suffers from hyperosmia, an extreme sensitivity to odors, and who was orphaned at five after accidentally setting the fire that killed her German immigrant parents. She has been shuffled through abusive foster homes. Now she is trapped at a job at Saino-Blatt Corporation, a consulting firm in Fort Lauderdale that helps clients facilitate scams. She often hides in the bathroom, trying to escape from her boss and the stress of her work. She is secretly bound in debt bondage after Florida officials void her scholarship over a DEI essay. When she witnesses a crime, she is forced to run, together with the elderly grocery industry pioneer, Bart Sampson. Her journey will take her through a modern-day Underground Railroad for victims of human trafficking, and experiences with kidnapping, witnessing a murder, and more. Can she outrun her enemies or will she be tracked and killed or deported?

A Refuge of Last Resort is grounded in the first-person narrative voice, which conveys Lorelei’s perspective; it is sardonic and digressive, skillfully balancing scatological humor against the horror of human and labor trafficking. Characterization is expertly handled, and Lorelei’s hyperosmia not only expands her personality but also draws attention to details in the setting, from the sewer gas at Saino-Blatt to copal incense at “Psychedelic Psychic” in Venice Beach. Bart Sampson was another character that I loved, a beloved friend and neighbor to many in Topanga Canyon, and known for his easy-going charm. Robb Erwin crafts dialogue that sparkles on every page, especially the car-ride banter with trades of favorite songs. The drama pulsates in boardrooms, with scenes of startling transgressions. This book is a compelling story of a young woman’s fight against a corporate trafficking scheme propped up by private security, political cronies, and NDAs. It brilliantly conveys resonant themes of surveillance and refuge in found family.

A Refuge of Last Resort by Robb Erwin follows Lorelei, who begins hiding from her miserable job at Saino Blatt Corporation by spending as much time as possible “bathroom camping” in the employee restroom, where she can escape from her obnoxious boss and the company’s invasive surveillance. Her strange but oddly funny routine changes when she is pulled into a marketing event for Duren Federated Food Group at Freshee’s Provisions, where she meets the elderly grocery industry pioneer Bart Sampson. When a horrifying incident at Saino Blatt exposes a much darker conspiracy involving human trafficking, Lorelei is forced into hiding. With help from close contacts, she becomes part of the New Underground Railroad and is moved across the country for her own safety.

I thought A Refuge of Last Resort by Robb Erwin was such an unusual book, and that ended up being one of its biggest strengths for me. Lorelei is a sarcastic and genuinely memorable character, and I enjoyed following her because you never quite know what she is going to do or say next. I especially liked the way the story mixes absurd humor with some very serious subjects. Her bathroom camping, her obsession with smells because of her hyperosmia, her awkward relationship with Bart, and the bizarre situations she gets herself into give the narrative a quirky personality, while the trafficking storyline gives everything a much darker edge. I also really liked the later sections at the shelter because Camila and the other refugees make the story feel more personal and show another side of what Lorelei is running from. The writing is conversational and often deliberately irreverent, but underneath the humor, there is a lot of empathy for people who are vulnerable or overlooked. There were moments when the social commentary became a little heavy for me, but overall I found the book entertaining, unpredictable, and surprisingly heartfelt.

Lorelei Rücker is about to embark on six months of adventures that she couldn’t possibly have foreseen. She works for a company called Saino-Blatt, an organization that specializes in helping other companies perform scams. After being in the wrong place at the wrong time, she witnesses a murder and ends up going into hiding. There are people after her, and her life goes from chaos to even more chaos. Along the way, she befriends Bart Sampson, a former hippie who inspires her in ways she never thought possible. She crosses the country from Florida to California to Massachusetts, hiding out in people’s offices and a shelter designed to protect people being hunted by ICE. Can she escape this life of turmoil? And what exactly is Lorelei’s refuge of last resort? You’ll need to read A Refuge of Last Resort by Robb Erwin.

Robb Erwin’s A Refuge of Last Resort is a modern take on just how ridiculous some of the policies and processes of daily life in the USA have become. The novel covers human trafficking, refugees, unlawful ICE raids, and, on a positive note, the people who are doing their best to help others. Sometimes the narrative is humorous, in that Lorelei seems to be forever getting caught in nasty bathrooms, and often it’s confronting and at times eye-opening. Erwin gives his readers a sober look at what life in 2020s USA is like for many people. A Refuge of Last Resort is the kind of book that, despite its humor, needs to be taken very seriously. For those of you living in the US, I’m sorry you have to encounter these situations, and for the rest of us, we need to know that all this goes on.