Title: The Last House on Needless Street
Author: Catriona Ward
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: September 28, 2021
Page Count: 326
My rating: 4 stars
About the book:
Catriona Ward’s The Last House on Needless Street is a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House.
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.
A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.
An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
As a huge horror fan I’ve read a lot of horror and have seen a lot of horror movies so I honestly don’t pick up horror too often anymore with running across a lot of this is familiar feelings. However, when I saw that Stephen King was used to endorse this one I couldn’t help but be curious as he was always a favorite so I went ahead and picked this one up. At the point of actually picking this one up I’ve also noticed lots of my reader friends are enjoying this one too so I was excited to dive in and see what was the draw to this one.
One of the houses on Needless Street is occupied by Ted Bannerman. Ted lives in the old home with his daughter, Lauren, and his pet cat, Olivia. Ted keeps to himself and his daughter never leaves the house after that one time out. Now Ted is getting a new neighbor. Dee is moving into the house next to Ted still searching all these years later for answers to what happened to her little sister. Years ago Dee was distracted when she should have been watching her sister and the girl has not been seen since. Now Dee has her eye on Ted.
The Last House on Needless Street is the type of story that changes the point of view between several of the characters to tell the story. There are flashes back to the past from these characters helping build the story on how they are all linked together. The book got off to a slow start for me but it did pick up as the story went on. This one is a creepy but yet engaging read and once going it really did keep the pages turning waiting to see how it would all turn out and the best of all it really did surprise me in the direction this one took.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
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Excellent review, Carrie. This is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, but also strangely compelling. ❤📚
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Thanks Sandy! I completely agree and I had to dig deep to write a spoiler free review on this one because you definitely can’t say too much.
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Great review Carrie and I agree with you, it was really hard to write a spoiler free review. I also agree with Sandy, it was a very strange story, one I enjoyed even though it was totally out of my comfort zone. Glad we all enjoyed it.
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Thanks Carla!! I’m used to totally strange and weird stories unlike you guys but I love what the author did with this one and made the strange appealing to more people.😃
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