If you want to read something totally different then I recommend you read this novel.At the beginning I wasnt sure what to expect. After all talking cats, a girl causing havoc riding her bicycle round the house and a grown man. How could they all mix together and tell a story but believe me they do. This is a multi layered story which will certainly make you think. Be prepared to be amazed by this beautifully written yet creepy book. One not to be missed.

An excellent book that requires a second reading to pick up all the clues. Heartrending at the end, and the story stays in your mind for a long time. Beautifully written. Enjoyed reading it.

This is one of those books that stays with you. It makes you want to find other people that have read it so that you can discuss it and hear them go; yes, I didn't see that coming either.

I'm not going to say much more about it, other than if you like books that mess with your head, grab a copy. It had me swinging from one perspective to another, and all my preconceived ideas about what I thought was happening definitely got stamped on. It's a really unusual and dark read but one that I'd highly recommend. My only criticism is that, in my opinion, the end ran on a little longer than needed, but this didn't detract from my overall enjoyment. 4.5 stars!

I have never read anything from Catarina Ward. All I can say is wow. This story had lots of twists that I did not see coming. This story kept me on my toes and I was constantly trying to work out what was happening and when I thought I figured out another twist came which I did not expect. There is at least 4 different narratives in the story. They where all easy to get attached to. This is a very dark gothic story and it’s not all what you see you need to go more deeper.
I definitely recommend this book. Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.

Well, this book was, just wow! Mind blown!

It's very difficult to review this book without giving much away because you really need to go into it as blind as you can!

What you need to know is it's creepy, weird and whatever you think is going on you're probably wrong! It's a bit of an odd one but definitely worth sticking with til the end. Oh and the authors note at the end does help make sense of things a bit!

A gothic thriller/horror that makes your head spin, keeps you on your toes and will leave you feeling like wtf did I just read!?

If, like me, you like your books dark, twisted and unpredictable then this is the book for you! It's billed as a gothic thriller, but I'd add psychological horror to the mix as well - it's a real mind f*** in all the best possible ways!!

And that of course makes it very difficult to review without giving anything away! It centres around a house that is next to the woods. There's a man, Ted, who lives there with his daughter and a talking cat Olivia - genius move adding a voice to the cat by the way!! - and very little is known about him. He keeps himself to himself - he was a suspect in a horrific crime years ago and that has left him wary of everybody. His pleasure in life is to feed the birds. And one day, these birds are poisoned in his garden.... his nightmares begin again and he feels like he is being watched.

Dee moves into the area, desperate to find news of her sister who went missing many years ago. She is convinced Ted knows something about it and will do all she can to find out the truth.

What follows is a fascinating and disturbing story that flits between now and then, as the past sets the tone for the present and the fates of characters play out in chilling fashion - a real stuff of nightmares!!

It's one of those books that I can't wait to go back and read all over again! Brilliant!!

Disturbing, psychological genre-splicing horror crime.

Ted, a strange and reclusive man, lives alone with his daughter Lauren and cat Olivia. Some years earlier a six year old girl disappeared from a popular beauty spot and the girl’s sister, who has spent her life searching for her, is convinced that Ted was responsible. The story is largely told from these four voices, which alternate in narration and fragmented memories.

With no spoilers, this book is disturbing throughout; unnnerving elements click into place around half way to allow for a dark and tragic tale which has twists and turns right up to the very end, and will stay with you for a long time.

This book is clever, and although using a theme well known in movies of the same genre, it is executed so well. Even before the plot strands come together, the tension and wrongness draw the reader in from the outset though the different voices, and I was compelled to read the second half of the book in one sitting.

This is horror.. but not as you think you know it.

With thanks to NetGalley for the arc, views and opinions are my own.

I received a copy of this from the publisher Viper Books/Profile Books, and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I’m going to try my best to talk about this book without giving away any spoilers.

This book blew me away. From the start I was drawn in to what was happening, and honestly, until about half way though I still had no idea what was going on! The story focuses on 3 people: Ted, Olivia and Dee.

Ted is the one we hear most from. He lives alone in a little house on Needless Street and his young daughter Lauren visits once in while. We hear from Ted’s childhood, his relationship with his parents, and his life now as a grown adult and parent. Ted is a little bit different from other people, but seems nice enough, keeps himself to himself, and loves his daughter.

Olivia is Ted’s kitten who is the second voice in the story. She see’s everything Ted is doing, she see’s when he comes home drunk, tries to grab her and she claws him. She doesn’t know why they live in a small house with all the windows boarded up, but she wants to be out.

Dee is the third person, and is on the hunt for the person who took her sister when they were little. Dee’s sister Lulu went missing while they were at the water with her parents, and years later no one knows what happened to her still. But Dee has hunches, and is headed back to the place it all happened to find out what went on and if her sister is still alive somewhere.

I can’t say much more except please read this, it messes with your head so much and it all becomes very clear towards the end. It’s brilliantly written and I’m jealous of anyone who gets to read it for the first time!

There was a buzz about this one and the talk of a new gothic novel made it a must-read. My first impression of Ted’s broken voice was not a good one; I found the prose clumsy and odd and immediately I sensed some contrivance at hand. Matters picked up when the story of the girl going missing at the lake introduced a fairly standard crime trope. However, pretty early on I guessed what might be happening in Ted’s house. For me personally this was a bit of a let down. There were some nice reveals about Ted’s history but overall I found this kind of plot rather too contrived for my taste. I think some people will find the 'twist' engaging but overall the book lacked pace and some of the best ideas about what happened at the lake were defused by being reported 'off screen'. What it does have is originality and Ted and his house are strikingly creepy.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Serpent's Tail / Profile Books in exchange for an honest review.

It has been a long time since I've read a book that has made me struggle to put into words the effect it has had on me. Particularly when it comes to this book, I feel it is better to go in blind so I can't actually say too much about it. On the surface, The Last House on Needless Street is a familiar story. We are introduced to Ted, a man who was suspected of kidnapping a little girl several years ago and who now lives with a mysterious daughter and a cat. The cat acts as a secondary narrator and this is where the weirdness starts.

Almost immediately you get the sense that something is 'wrong' with this picture, and it's that wrongness that draws you in and keeps you hooked. It is very easy as a reader to make assumptions and this book plays with this, making you feel like you are wandering into an obvious trap and yet you can't see how else things could go. The result is this book casts a brilliant spell. It consumed me in a way few books can, and I was desperate to keep reading it at every opportunity.

Overall, I don't think there's much else I can say except that I think most people should give this book a try. The horror is subtle and slow, and it creeps up on you. I think even those who don't enjoy horror as a genre but enjoy thrillers or similar mysteries would get something out of this book. It has a lot of depth and interesting things to say, as well as just being a fantastically written and immensely entrancing story. I know this book will stay in my mind for a long time after reading it and it was an experience I won't forget.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Never having read anything of Catriona Wards work I was intrigued by the blurb and decided to give this a go.
Hmmmm what can I say I was confused from the beginning and unfortunately that state of mind did not change until the very latter part of the book when all was revealed. Because of my confusion I took longer than usual to read it as I really struggled to understand what was going on.
Now that the content has been clarified I intend to wait a couple of months and read it again with my new found knowledge.
Very clever book which on reflection is a completely harrowing existence for those whose story has been told.

I’m very aware that this book has got numerous 5 star reviews with people raving about it but I’ve got to be honest and say it just wasn’t for me. I tried twice to get through it but in the end gave up after 50%. I do feel bad but I just didn’t get it. My thanks go to the publisher and netgalley, I’m just sorry that I couldn’t finish it.

This book is very different from Catriona Ward’s other books, and I’ll be honest, it caught me a little off guard to begin with. Both Rawblood and Little Eve are historical novels with a strong Victorian Gothic feel to them. There’s something about that historical divide that adds to the otherworldliness of the settings, and somehow that makes it more comfortable as a reader. It’s a spooky story, but it happened so long ago it’s safe now. That’s not the case with The Last House On Needless Street, it’s a contemporary setting, and that immediately pushed past the little safety zone I had and started me out off-balance and uncomfortable.

I have no doubt that this discomfort was intentional, given the style of the book. Where some books start close and then expand to allow the reader to see more, or begin with a wider narrative to allow the reader to orientate themselves before moving inwards, Needless Street starts very close – too close for comfort – and stays there. It felt like reading a story under full zoom, and being unable to step back or pull out to get a sense of where I was at any point. Ward begins by pressing you as close to the character as you can get, and then stays there. Your field of vision is narrow, as restricted as each character’s, and at no point are you given the relief of a narrator who is removed from the situation, who can give you a bit of balance and space. The story is told through a peephole, and you alternately are desperate to see more and you want to look away.

One of Ward’s incredible skills is the way she is perfectly able to pitch-perfectly write a book for any genre or time period. In Rawblood she manages to channel Lovecraft with panache in the appropriate time period, adjusting her style for each subsequent jump in time. In Little Eve, it’s a ghost story/mystery on par with Shirley Jackson. And Needless Street opens like a quintessential murder-thriller – a strange, oddly-socialised man, living alone in a rundown house, weirdly fixated on his mother, and previously associated with the disappearance of a young girl several years ago, but no evidence was found and the case went cold. The feelings the opening evokes are the same as those I got watching One Hour Photo, it has notes of Norman Bates, and of the outsiders they follow in Mindhunter. But, this being Ward, nothing is a simple as it appears from the opening.

It’s difficult to discuss more about this book without giving away the levels of twists and turns behind it, but the layers that are built between the different narrators and the references they make to each other are intricate. Ward keeps you close and gives you all the information, but never allows you the space to see how it all connects, instead forcing you to play into your own expectations of tropes and tie yourself in your own knots. She preys on the reader’s prejudices and conditioning, but keeps the cards otherwise very close to her chest.

The narrators are all unashamedly biased as well. Each one has a very heavy lens over their perspective, so swapping POV doesn’t immediately refute anything the previous narrator has set up. Everyone in this book has their own all-encompassing motivations and drives, to the point that they never consider any other explanation for anything could be possible. Ward has clearly enjoyed herself with making each character so staggeringly unreliable, in a way I’ve not seen an author do in quite such an emphatic manner, while at the same time making them all sympathetic and continuing the consistencies (and key inconsistencies) through every chapter. It’s such a work of controlled perspective I was staggered by the time I got to the end and she let the curtain fall away.

This is an emotionally intense book. It probably sounds strange to say, but I found the proximity of the narrative very hard – I felt like I was being pressed right up to these characters and I just wanted to step back and take a breath. But it’s not meant to be a book that makes you feel comfortable, it’s about harrowing, horrible things, trauma and the aftermath. You can argue that if you felt comfortable reading it, it’s not done its job. Just be aware that if you are someone with triggers around certain subjects, this is a book that doesn’t shy away from darkness.

I found Ward’s author’s note at the end extremely moving, and the perfect aftermath to calm me down after the speedrun I did towards the ending. I felt wrung out and a bit exhausted, so taking the time to read the note that contextualised her research, that was kind and calm, gave me space to process the revelations of the ending. It’s not an ending without tragedy, but it does have a sense of hope too. After reading a book that keeps your perspective so narrow the whole way through, and then gives you that ending… it’s like you’ve been kept in a small, dark, stuffy place for too long, and then stepped out into the light and fresh air.

Briefly:

A dark, intense mystery thriller that exploits the reader’s own genre prejudices to build a complex story that hides its secrets until the very end.
Its descriptions are visceral and vivid, but Ward manages to keep the reader feeling like you’re wandering around with blinders on even with such rich detail.
It’s radically different in tone and setting from Little Eve and Rawblood, but it shares a number of common themes and ideas that Ward explores with the same care and thought.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. What a book this was my head is still in a fit of confusion with all these twists and turns along the pages. YOU CAN NOT TRUST ANYONE IN THIS BOOK!!!

I think this book could possibly be for some and not for the rest, at first I really didn’t think it was for me… I was on the fence, I didn’t get it. I could tell something was off but I didn’t know what, but I was drawn to the pages again and again and I needed to know what happened.

One thing I do know for fact is that Ted Bannerman the creepy main character is certainly a character you will not forget in a hurry.

Ted lives in a dilapidated house with his daughter, Lauren, and his cat, Olivia. Their house is at the end of an ordinary street called Needless Street (hence the title) but the windows are all secured with wooden boards, with just small holes drilled into them to see out of. A decade before, a girl called Lulu went missing from a nearby lake, and her family broke apart as a result: the mother walked out on them; the father died of a broken heart; Lulu’s sister, Dee, was left alone with her guilt and self-recrimination. Now Dee believes that Laura (who she hasn’t seen yet, but has heard Ted talking to) is Lulu, and Ted is the man who abducted her sister all those years before. She’s intent on finding the evidence, bringing Ted to some kind of justice, and rescuing her sister.

As least that’s what we think is going on. This is a twisty-turny Gothic horror chiller, told from a variety of perspectives, not least that of the cat, Olivia. While the set up seems straightforward at the start, it isn’t long before readers are unsure of their footing. All the people in the book are unreliable narrators, to use that overused term, and revelations come aplenty as the narrative unfolds.

The Last House on Needless Street has received much praise, not least from Stephen King. The film rights have been optioned and it will come to screens shortly, I’m sure. But I have to say, this novel really didn’t do it for me. I really wanted to enjoy this book, not least because all the buzz told me I should - The Times Thriller of the Month, an Observer Thriller of the Month, a Guardian 2021 in books pick, a Waterstones March 2021 pick, a Red Magazine March 2021 pick, a Refinery 29th March 2021 pick - the list is exhaustive. But I’m afraid to say this book just left me cold. It never seemed to know what it wanted to be - gothic horror? crime thriller? - and I found all the twists and turns confusing.

It was an enjoyable enough read, and lots of people will disagree of course (they already do, look at the plaudits), but for me it just didn’t work.

The Last House on Needless Street is a gorgeous, intricate, magic eye of a book. As each scene slips into place, the big picture comes a little more into focus, and the result gently tips an entire sub-genre of psychological thrillers into the bin where it (quite rightly) belongs. Dark, empathetic, fun, there are a lot of words I could use to describe this book, so let's settle on 'Masterpiece'.

I'm always weary of books that use a comparison to "Gone Girl" because that comparison is SO overdone these days, and most don't live up to the hype when you get into them. And for this book, "The Last House on Needless Street"--after finishing, I'm not even sure if it lived up to that hype, either. But what it did live up to was a totally DIFFERENT kind of hype. This book was fantastic! It's very hard to summarize what it's even about, period, much less to do so without giving anything away. It packed so many twists and I had so many wrong guesses, exactly what I look for in a thriller. Do yourself a favor and read this five star book!

Ted lives with his cat and sometimes his daughter, who is very difficult to deal with. He is rather odd, doesn’t go out much and drinks too much. The windows of the house are boarded up, with peepholes. Dee has spent years trying to find out who abducted her little sister from the lake, and her search brings her to Ted. Will she find out the truth at last? This is an unusual and memorable psychological thriller/ horror story told by multiple ( unreliable) narrators, including Olivia the cat. Whenever you think you have worked it out, there is another twist and everything is seen in a different light. To say more would be to give too much away, but be assured it is weird, creepy and unsettling but with the possibility of redemption.

The Last House on Needless Street is a rare and unforgettable novel, unlike anything I’ve read before. It blew my mind — repeatedly. And even now, weeks later, I find myself marvelling at the author’s incredible creation.

This is a story about Ted, it is a story about a lost little girl. It is a story about a house, a forest and a mystery, the like of which will shock you to your core. Cinematic in its vivid imagery and emotional strata, the author has created a unique story and compelling characters which will slip into your mind as quick as a snap of the fingers.

I loved the author’s lyrical prose, which marries light and shade, possessing an emotional acuity second to none. Themes of horror, mystery, thriller, suspense elegantly and effortlessly segue into one another. It is hypnotic in its beauty.

TLHONS is an exploration, a deep-dive into the human psyche. It explores the effects of abuse on the mind, the heights one can fall from yet still recover from. The author approaches all this with sensitivity and truth, a tenderness in her words that belies the brutal content. This balance is striking and it moved me and devastated me all at once.

The characters are rich, nuanced and have a power over the reader as soon as you meet them. Ted is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever come across. Other than that I can’t say much more. This is a difficult review to write as I do NOT want to give away any of this book’s secrets.

The Last House on Needless Street is a marvel, and I’m going to be pressing it into everyone’s hands. Don’t wait a minute longer, pre-order and brace yourself for one of the most striking and unforgettable novels you will ever read (certainly one of mine.) Once you enter The Last House on Needless Street, you might never leave.

Catriona Ward has written an instant classic. The novel is so well plotted and the viewpoint characters are so intriguing. As usual I don’t want to discuss the plot in any way as it would spoil it. This is so much more than a thriller and the afterward explaining one of the key plot points had me retuning to the start to read again. This novel has stayed with me weeks after finishing and I would recommend everyone picks it up.