Reviews

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

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c_marie_writes's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. I was unsure on this one after reading reviews, and TBH I went in and almost gave up after the first chapter because it was a true WTF am I reading thing... BUT. I am glad I stuck it out, and I won't spoil or say TOO much, but I definitely would disagree with calling this a "horror" book. Most definitely a psychological read, as far as suspense and storyline go. Yes, it will get your brain going, yes there is wondering again, WTF am I reading and will this all make sense? But I am glad I stuck with it!

Full disclosure I listened to it on Audible, and I'll certainly review it there too, because holy SH... that absolutely had to be THE best narration I've EVER listened to!

krolo's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

caytiecadence's review against another edition

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dark emotional relaxing tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow, this book was nothing like what I was expecting. I agree with those that say going into this as blind as possible is best. I knew very little outside of the synopsis and that there was a cat that was fun to read their perspective of.

It feels wrong to call this a horror book. Ted didn't do anything wrong, having DID made his life better and worse. Giving him humanity after explaining what happened to the missing girl and other children made me want to go back and reread the whole book to see the things I bet I missed.

Content Warnings

thecryptsleeper's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

jimbowen0306's review against another edition

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3.0

The subject matter of this book made me feel a little uncomfortable. This isn’t because of the murder that occurred in this murder mystery. I’ve read books about child murders before, and while they’re never fun, this is caused me discomfort in a different way.

In this book, we read about 4 characters a few years after the evening, including the sister of the victim, the person she views as the prime suspect, his cat (yes his cat, which thinks in English), and his daughter.

You’re supposed to root for the suspect I think, or view him as a Norman Batesian figure (is he a well meaning creep, or is he crazy?) but that’ll happen easiest if you guess what’s happening (and anyone who’s read many murder mysteries will, I’m no genius, how anyone said they didn’t guess is… bemusing).

If he’s mentally challenged, that makes his an unreliable narrator, so you can’t trust what he says about the incident, but equally, that takes him off the table as a suspect, because you can’t say that these days. So the result is you’re going to be left without many clues, and a whole lot of waiting around, waiting for something random to happen.

It’s how he’s handled, that felt me feeling discomforted. It… could have been handled better I think.