Catriona Ward

Told through the eyes of old drunkard Ted, his reclusive daughter and their pious cat, and a newly arrived neighbor driven by suspicion, Catriona Ward's gothic thriller traces the gradual unfolding of the truth behind an unsolved crime.

The Last House on Needless Street

iqro, aina

3.5/5
started very slow then just went full blown chaotic. this was a LOT.

I have mixed feelings on this book. I listened to the audiobook and personally did not feel like the recording was easy to follow. Also, trying to narrate a character that is a cat is just really weird so can’t say I enjoyed that. I found it difficult to keep track of who was speaking, especially with time jumps and the introduction of dissociate identity disorder near the end. The concept was somewhat intriguing, but as someone with a psychology degree, I have grown to dislike depictions of multiple personalities in books/media as it’s typically glorified and inaccurate. I mostly found this one confusing, and still can’t say I really get how it tied together in the end.

Erin Goss

Grace M

I have a lot of complicated feelings about this one. I think I may have been a victim of bookstagram hype and walked into this novel with expectations set way too high. The writing style was absolutely beautiful, and kept me going through a twist I can’t say I loved. This one was just a bit off kilter for me. That being said, I’m very excited to read more from Ward.

Bethany

I LOVED this book. I thought about it for at least a week afterwards and explained it to so many people. I thought it was such a great way to view this mental illness in a way that made it more real.

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. “The new face of literary dark fiction.” —Sarah Pinborough, New York Times bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes "The buzz...is real. I've read it and was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end." —Stephen King 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.

One of my favorite books ever. So surprising, so dark, so beautifully written. Read it all in like 3 days

John Vetter

shellybn

Technically, the writing in this book was excellent, but either the descriptions of the book were misleading or I misunderstood. I thought this book was going to be about a haunted house, but it was really about a horrific murder mystery.

Jessica De Hoyos

Alexa M

practically started and finished this in one go. super unique and enthralling. the constant POV change kept the pace quick and cat’s POV was too good. this really went in an unexpected direction but not in a bad way at all. super creepy vibes.

Leisha Chadwick

i will forever adore this book!🖤 one of my absolute faves - such a clever execution of the story line and i LOVED olivia, the cat!

James Winduss

Phenomenal! I am absolutely blown away by this story and this author. I have nothing more to say, other than I will recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Kristen Claiborn

Because I keep myself on a pretty strict regimen of which books I need to read, it’s hard to fit in books that I might want to read (that aren’t already on my lists) or books my friends have strongly recommended to me. I recently decided I needed to change things up a bit and add those recommendations to my lists. Now each month I have reserved spots for “recommended by a friend” books, and have found, for the most part, my friends are pretty damn good at book suggestions (although, I didn’t love the ones that came from my dad…sorry Pops). 
	I’ve been a Stephen King fan as long as I’ve loved reading. I will always credit King for awakening my inner reader, hell I read him before I even read young adult “horror” writers (Lois Duncan became a favorite, but that was even after I read The Shining). I’m constantly on the hunt for a horror writer that I love as much, but they all fall short. Last year I ran across a really good one by Chuck Wendig, but for the most part, horror just seems to fall short of my hopes and dreams (lofty expectations, I suppose). When I started reading this one…and for a large portion of the book, I was just as disappointed. For most of my life, I’ve been adamant that I had to finish every book I started, and this book is a prime example of why I’ve always felt that way (I have since DNF quite a few books…Jennifer Egan’s books definitely gave me the go-ahead to give up). 
	Slooooooooooooooooooow burn. That is the best way to describe this one, but once Ward gets the flame going, she burned the whole damn house down. Hell, she took neighboring houses with it. She sets the story up with the antagonist and the protagonist…then she threw it all in the trash about 75% of the way through it and completely changed the trajectory. I was reading this one on my phone during a recent hearing on the January 6 insurrection, and despite the compelling testimony on the screen, I was completely entrenched in this story. I looked up at my husband and said “What the F*%#???” over and over…he had no idea I was talking about the book. This book did not play out the way that Ward set it up, and I feel like I need to go through some counseling after the emotional trauma I was left with. It was phenomenal. I cannot gush about it enough, this was an amazing book.

Sofia Arcângelo 

Well, after spending 4 days saying to myself "maybe it gets better", it really didn't. It's clear from the beginning that the main character is highly disturbed and things keep getting so confusing.

I loved the idea behind the book, but somehow I didn't connect to the story. It was all so disorienting and so hard to follow, although there's a lot of twists and turns in the end. It just isn't the right book for me.

its hard to say much without spoilers so I will just say I loved this. I was guessing until the very end. creepy but not over the top. felt very authentic. I read through it so quickly.

Charlee Boone

The Gothic Masterpiece Of 2021

Janice Hopper

I got sucked in by the hype for this book. Others have summarized it well, so I won't. 

It only kinda worked FOR ME. I was pretty uncomfortable in the first part. I knew we were dealing with unreliable narrator(s) here. I don't really enjoy unreliable narrator stories. But I was pretty right about what was going on though, even though I changed my mind about what was happening a couple of times. 

But then: (view spoiler)[A happy ending??? And a GAY happy ending??? Seriously? Not that I'm against happy endings, but... how was this earned??? That's where I lost interest, and where the book failed FOR ME. I felt like the fairly large infodump at the end of the book was a hasty attempt to "make things right." It just didn't work for me.  (hide spoiler)] 

I listened to the audiobook version. Unlike some, I didn't feel like the narration trivialized the story. It worked for me as expressions of the characters. 

I'm happy lots of people really liked it. I thought it was ok, but was disappointed toward the end.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3. Memo to self: you KNOW you don't usually react well to stuff that has been enormously hyped like this book was. Future self: LEARN FROM PAST SELF.

leonie

This book completely blew me away, a serious journey of the horror/thriller genre. Constant twists and turns with multiple narrative paths to slowly unravel this mind-bending story. I feel like saying much more will verge into spoilers now I know how this book ends, so I'll just say this, if you're thinking about picking this book up... do it!

Beth Bartholomew

sophia n

this BOOK. what the FUCK. i love when my 5 star reviews end up just being me yelling "what the fuck" into the void because truly i just have nothing of substance to say. i adored this. i can't stop thinking about it. i'm so glad i went into it knowing nothing about it.

Jasmine

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for what seems like forever, and I’m so glad I finally got around to doing so. 

You’re going to want to go into this story as blindly as possible. There are some TW things throughout, which you are more than welcome to message and inquire about, but I won’t list them here as it is vital to the twists in Needless Street. I’m more or less just popping on here to tell you to stop procrastinating on reading this book! It’s a great, solid story throughout with a plot you’ll likely never forget.

James Eaton

Haunting. Odd. Mental. 

I don’t want to give anything away, so I feel like I shouldn’t say anything else.

Alfredo santos

It's going to be hard to top this book for me in 2022. And we're just 10 days in. 
I discovered this book while browsing goodreads best of 2021 recommendations. 

It's a complex book to describe without giving too many spoilers.

It takes you through many deep emotions, such as fear, hatred and compassion. Near the end I was swelled up with tears. 

Here is what I loved about the book:
- Everything is unexpected without being cheesy
- the plot twists keep it very engaging until the end
- The prose is more elegant than the average in the same genre, although not reaching a "gothic" status
- The characters keep evolving and having more depth on pace with the book, that was very interesting.
- It's a mash of genres, situations, etc, all having tragedy as a common denominator but from different perspectives

In conclusion it's an amazing engaging read that I finished in two days. I didnt finish it in one because I had to sleep at some point. It spices up the genre taking you down different paths in a massive rollercoaster of emotions. 

Solid 4 stars for me. I will be thinking about this book for some time, and for me that's the impact it had.

Lenya King

Stephen King was “blown away” by this? lol k

I was so excited to read this! Interesting premise and overall positive reviews.

Unfortunately, this story is riddled with tired horror tropes (no spoilers just yikes). I found myself barely engaged with the characters or overall narrative. It also felt like this author couldn’t decide on a specific ending so she included… all of them? 

This story just wasn’t for me. 1.5/5 stars

Deborah Kerr

I actually really loved this!

Though the twist was not earth-shattering the way Ward executes it is brilliant and beautiful.

LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET.

Molly Morgan

This book had me confused, guessing, and wanting to read more until I figured it out. It was creepy, haunting, and very puzzling. I loved it, probably my best read of 2021. 

Might be wary if child kidnapping/child serial killer themes are triggering to you.

Leia Douglas

I don’t want to say too much, I think you should just read it. But wow. 🥲

The Last House on Needless Street

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