The Last House on Needless Street

I have complex feelings about this one. I really liked it until I didn???t.
I wish authors would stop making mental illness a plot twist, but I don???t think the intentions were bad. Need to sit on this one for a while.

The Last House on Needless Street will disturb you, and surprise you. If you think you have it figured out, you most likely have no clue.

Ted lives with his cat Olivia in a ramshackle home. Sometimes Ted's young daughter Lauren visits. Something isn't right in the home, and something isn't quite right with Ted.

Dee is haunted by her sister Lulu's disappearance. She went missing years ago on a family trip to the beach. Dee is desperate to find out what happened to Lauren, hoping she's still alive. Dee moves to Needless Street and soon discovers that not everything is as it seems.

It's difficult to say too much without major spoilers but I will say that Catriona Ward is an amazing storyteller. I was absolutely immersed into the book. It's truly disturbing and if I'm going to be honest, sad. You will think you have it figured out hundreds of times, only to discover the haunting, shocking truth. It's definitely different and any fan of horror should read this book. Also, The Afterword is a must read. It shows exactly why Catriona decided to write this story.

I really want to say more but it's difficult without spoiling the entire plot.

A story that seems very familiar. There is a missing girl, a weird man in a boarded up house who regularly looses hours if not days he can't remember, and the sister of the missing girl still on the search years later.

But then there's also a talking cat and this is where things got a bit more interesting.

The story is small in scope, taking place only with a handful of characters and locations, which makes it very easy too read and it flows great.

The atmosphere throughout is very tense and the slow dripping of new information keeps the mystery interesting.

That is until at a certain point the “unreliable narrator” trope is getting a bit too much and it became pretty clear where the story will be going. There was a lot of drag in the third act and some chapters blended together because the characters kept repeating the same stuff again and again.

In the end it was enjoyable enough because it took some turns away from the usual tropes.