The Stephen King blurb on the cover - "A true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end" - makes me think he didn't read the book; because this is the most underrated statement I've ever seen!

I read, and edit, a lot of horror; have been for over 45 years. It's my main reading genre, and something I know quite a bit about. I can say with 100% certainty that I have never read a book such as this.

I want to post a warning, however. This is an extremely slow-burn, almost to the point that some readers may give up on the book within the first few chapters. But you need to stick with it. Like a Russian Matryoshka doll, there are multiple layers - and just when you think you have it figured out... Sorry, you don't.

The problem here is that there is no way to write a decent review without giving anything away. The only thing I can say is this - even after finishing the book, your mind continues to process what you just read. Catriona weaves a magnificent tale and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

A well written thriller that will have readers thinking about this book for days, and wanting more from this author. While thrillers are not my favorite to read, the characters And plot are well written and fun to read.

I had such high hopes for this book but was disappointed. Without including spoilers, the concept of the story and the twist earned the third star because the writing style was extremely hard to follow and did not keep my attention like I hoped it would.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of possibly the creepiest book you'll read this year, or any other year for that matter.
Like to be creeped out to the point of getting actual chills? Like to be dazzled by so many twists, your head' will spin faster than Linda Blair's in "The Exorcist"?
Hoo boy, have I got a book for you.
For anyone who, like me, can never get enough scary thrillers to stay up all night with, this one should go on that list titled "Books I gotta have in my in my hands like yesterday."
This one plunges so far down a twisted abyss of psychosis, dysfunction and heartbreak, you may never think you or the book will ever crawl out out of it and see daylight again.
Four narrators tell the story here....There's ..Ted, a lonely, strange man living a hermit-like life in a lonely strange house with all the windows boarded up, except for a few peepholes. (Feel free to say "Uh oh....")
Also in the house - Lauren, supposedly Ted's young daughter......though it seems she's most likely the now grown older Lulu, who, at six years old, vanished from a family lakeside vacation, presumably abducted.. It's an unsolved disappearance that happened not far from Ted's house, which led to Ted being briefly questioned and suspected.
And also padding and purring around the premises - Olivia, Ted's cat. (Yes, she's an active narrator too and a character as vividly rendered and verbal as Ted and Lauren.
Finally there's Dee, Lulu's haunted ,driven older sister, who's moved to Ted's street in the obsessed belief that Lulu's still alive. and a prisoner in that forbidding house as a long time captive of Ted. The police may have quickly taken Ted off their suspect list, but he's been on Dee's for a lifetime.
Is it possible that these three humans and the feline may or may not be unreliable narrators?
Are you kidding? This book takes unreliable narration to almost unheard of, stratospheric heights. This may be the first thriller I've read where virtually every sentence might prove untrustworthy. You can try to make rational, educated guesses as to what's going on, but nothing can quite prepare you for the actual reveals in store for you.
As the novel progressively turns sicker, sadder and weirder, author Ward slowly but surely peels away all the secrets and twists like multiple layers of an onion.. And it's one hell of a deep, dark onion.
And none of these secrets, twists and stunning surprises are anything I'd expected when I started reading it. Yes, there's horror aplenty here, but as the revelations unfold, I could see this author had way more ambitious intentions on her mind ......to move her readers emotionally.
And she achieves that brilliantly. This story's designed to haunt and unsettle you long after you've turned the last page..
I dare not say one more word other than my rating. Without question a 5 star must read all the way. The kind of book that can give you a few nightmares and break your heart at the same time.

This book gradually unveils the truth as you proceed through it. It is a strange and dark experience and I found myself confused and disturbed many times before I finished it. Probably the less you know about this particular read the better off you'll be in terms of really taking it in. I sure know a lot more about Dissociative Identity Disorder than I knew before because I immediately did some research on it after completion of this book. What a strange ride.

<i>The Last House On Needless Street<i> is a dark, twisting, ribbon of a story. It's about children that go missing, and children that get lost, and the power of the will to survive. It's about a man named Ted Bannerman, and the people (and pets) that come and go through his grim, secluded life. It's a spooky ride, but one you'll want to see through 'til the end. Fans of Sarah Pinborough will find plenty to enjoy in Ted's world.

Thanks to Tor/Nightfire and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title.

I tried I really did but I just can't get into this book. A cat as a narrator? I just don't find that very interesting.

I was really looking forward to reading this book after seeing some great reviews. Unfortunately I did not share these folks opinion. I love to read and once I start a book I am determined to finish it. This was the first book in a long time that I really struggled with. Early on I had guessed part of what was going on. I plugged on and continued reading. I don't want to give anything away but I must say I did not like the way the book flowed, I felt there were some parts with in that quite honestly had nothing to do with anything and I found it was a bit confusing. All in all I am sorry to say I would not recommend this story.

The Last House on Needless Street alternates chapters with multiple perspectives and is predominantly written in the first person narrative. The main characters are: Ted (the man on Needless Street), Olivia (Ted's cat), Dee (a woman looking for her sister, Lulu), and Lauren (Ted's teenage daughter). It is impossible to describe this book without giving any spoilers away so I will input the Goodreads description instead that sums everything up nicely, "This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.
All these things are true. And yet they are all lies..."

NEEDLESS to say, I was automatically hooked once I read the first chapter in the cat's perspective (couldn't resist the joke). I went into this book very excited based on all the raving reviews I've read so far! Unfortunately, it was a very slow burn in the beginning and I really had to push through to read it. It's one of those thrillers where it feels predictable and you think you have it all figured out. The Last House on Needless Street ended up being way more than I anticipated once the twists started setting in! The last 100 pages or so really made the book for me and solidified my positive opinion about it. I don't want to give away too much or compare it to other novels, nor could I without completely spoiling it, but go into this one blind and give it a chance. I also heard they're developing this into a movie. Highly recommend to fans of psychological thrillers.

Wow, I am blown away by this book. I was unsure of what to expect based on the mysterious description I’d been seeing. It was so much more than I anticipated and was able to pull the rug out from under me, not once, but probably 5 or so times. While at the surface it appears as a straight forward horror story, it is so much more than that. It’s about survival, resilience, and overcoming trauma. I really don’t want to say too much because for one, it won’t do it justice, and two, readers should go into this with a very open mind so that they can have the full experience which I guarantee will not disappoint.

I love it when a book surprises me, an increasingly rarer experience the more I read. "The Last House on Needless Street" succeeds wonderfully in that regard, with it's unexpected structure and thematic development making it a book very much worthy of attention.
Not since "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" have I seen a better use of the unreliable narrator...several of them, in fact. Ward's character development is brilliant, and all the more disturbing for being so. In using the first person perspective in a multi-perspective epistolary style, Ward successfully develops immediately recognizable voices for a fascinating array of characters. More than that, this structure allows for employment of some horror tropes based around reader expectation that in lesser authors would be cliche and predictable. Ward plays with those expectations to deliver something completely unexpected and admirable in its intent and execution.

Normally, I write off the advance reviews of a novel like this as so much hype intended to generate sales but without any real relevance to the content of the novel. This book is one of the rare examples where the early reviewers, even the ubiquitous Stephen King, are dead on point and in no way exaggerating the appeal of the work.

The story is a page-turner, the book is a keeper to be recommended to friends, and the author is one whose future work I look forward to reading.

I received a free ARC of this book via NetGalley; my sincerest thanks to both the author and the publisher! :)

What. A. RIDE! I wasn't 100% sure what to expect going into this book, just that it was generating buzz, it was horror, and Stephen King himself said it kept him guessing until the end.

The tale is multiperspective and woven intricately, vividly. But, I won't lie, the twist was huge and had me expecting to have the rug yanked out from under me yet again until the very end.

The ending itself is incredibly unique for the genre, heartfelt, and well done. An excellent book of psychological and physical horror will have you questioning what is/isn't real until the very end.

Though admirable in scope, this book is about 25% too long. Experienced readers will have figured out many of the mysteries early, so that the wheel-spinning gets a tad frustrating by the end. The writing is gorgeous in places, and the atmosphere is well-established. But there are no characters I was able to empathize with or root for, even those who seemed to have all the pieces in place for the audience to be on their side. Looking at all the raves on Goodreads I am in the clear minority here, but this book did not appeal to me, and if asked for horror titles to recommend to students I would look elsewhere.

This is what books can do like nothing else. We humans cannot delve deeply into other people's minds and hear their actual thoughts. We need brilliant writers like Catriona Ward to create a novel with compelling, mysterious characters whose lives we encounter through the deep delve.

Prepare yourself for reading closely while reveling in the gorgeous language used in the three main characters' minds. Read this book now. Details are important. Think things through. Then you will thoroughly enjoy the immersive story that takes you out of yourself and into the world of those who live at The Last House on Needless Street.

I’m having so much trouble gathering my thoughts on this book. I need to digest it some more and come back.

I will say, I wish there had been an ophidiophobia warning on this sucker, because it was horrifying.

CW:// child abuse

The last House on Needless Street was a book I went in not knowing much about it and it really did not disappoint.

There are multiple POV Ted who at time seems not himself, Lauren a moody but smart little girl who comes out for weekends then disappears, Olivia the cat who reads scriptures from the bible and Dee who is trying to find who took her little sister years ago.

You think you now everyone but some of it is a lie and as the story unravels it starts to all make sense. I can't really say more without spoilers but this book was really good and I made sure to read the end acknowledgements to see how the author did a lot of research and wanted to make this story more than a horror and takes fault if she got something wrong- so I appreciated that and this book get 5 stars from me

Thanks NetGalley and Nightfire for the e-arc

I have been reviewing books intermittently between writing about film and balancing my day job for about a year, maybe a bit longer. Lately, though, with some shifting conditions in my circumstances I have found time to focus more on them than any other medium. Books have always been my first love and, while I have favorite little pockets to occupy, the most important thing to me - beyond genre conventions or expectations, beyond type of book - is the story itself. Can it make you feel something unexpected? Can it absorb you completely without your knowledge? Can it leave its mark on you long after you have stepped away from its pages? Catriona Ward can, and her latest novel, The Last House on Needless Street, is proof.

I have mentioned this before, but there is nothing quite like being so taken in and turned around by a story that you couldn't even begin to guess where it will go next if you try. It's what keeps us turning the pages and staying up into the wee hours of the night. Recently I have had the good fortune to be given opportunities to review the upcoming work of several novelists who seem to have developed the ability to keep readers on their toes at every turn to such a sharp edge we hardly even feel it sliding into our subconscious. Every time I think I've found my new first place favorite novel of the year, the next one I'm given comes to take its place - or at least nudge the others aside in willingness to tie. Needless Street, already out in the UK but releasing in the US on September 28th, clawed its way to the top of my list from first wildly uncomfortable page to last.

One of my favorite quotes to do with the horror genre talks about how it is necessarily rooted in sympathy. While it is possible to have good horror that does not contain sympathetic characters, the need for connection is there. We need to connect with something about the story in order for us to give it enough meaning that we want to carry on exploring it. Catriona Ward and her array of central characters inhabiting Needless Street seems intimately aware of this need, and of a way to play with it such that our sympathies flow along with even those we do not expect. It tells the story of a man, a cat, and a young girl; a family of a kind, all together in a house with holes instead of windows and tape recorders in the closets.

Talking about the plot of this book without accidentally divulging spoilers feels like an impossible feat and, even though it is out haunting the dreams of one part of the world, it wouldn't be right to divulge those until everyone has had a chance to experience it for themselves. So, in lieu of that let me instead say this: while genre fiction of all media forms is rooted in the human need for sympathy and connection, it takes a passionately skilled hand and mind to costume those themes in horror that is capable of being repulsive on several different levels, even as it plays with your allegiances. I can with a fair degree of safety say I have never read anything quite like The House on Needless Street, and I feel it is unlikely that I will again. Within its pages are more than twists and turns. More than darkness. It is an exploration of trauma and its effects, alternately hopeless and hopeful, planting seeds of sympathy for people who, for much of the novel, we may feel almost wrong in sympathizing with, if we identify them the way our preconceived ideas of how it should work tell us to.

Ward paints a narrative that is both unforgiving and surprisingly, consistently, sensitive. To crack open the covers of this book is to begin on a journey that demands you bear witness to its deepest, darkest corners while guided along by a cast of characters who's own worldview is but one piece of a constantly evolving puzzle. It is the first in some time I have both been unable to put down and needed to put away before bed. The first in some time to linger in my brain in such a way as to give me nightmares whose details I can't fully recall the next day. And the first in an even longer while to manipulate my view of the plot in such a way as to force me to confront my own preformed notions on both story and expectations of villainy. The Last House on Needless Street can - and very well might - horrify and break your heart all at once.

While the UK can wander its halls and crevices now, The Last House on Needless Street will open its doors to US readers on September 28th, 2021 from Tor.

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I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This is probably the best-executed book I have read so far this year. I’m not sure how to review it in its entirety without spoilers, so I will keep my thoughts brief on public forums and invite everyone who’s read it to my blog post for a spoiler discussion. The description is vague on purpose, and the best thing to do is just dive in without any information. I read some reviews after I finished the book that spoiled the main twist, so beware!

This story is about Ted, a recluse suspected of a child’s abduction. The perspectives switch between Ted, the sister of the abducted child, and that of Ted’s cat. The cat chapters were a little kooky (who knew cats could be religious!), but such a creative way to describe Ted from another point of view. I loved Olivia!

Looking back from the end of the book, I’m amazed at how well-executed this story was. I feel like I need to re-read this book in order to catch all the clues I missed!

I know this review is vague, but it's so worth it to go into it knowing nothing about the story. Just trust that it's worth it!

I was so excited to this one but it just didn't work for me at all. It was avery different which again I was excited about but it didn't quite hit the mark for me. I honestly kept skimming not necessarily because I was confused, perhaps a bit bored and not that impressed with the writing style as I expected too.

I will say the author did hit the marks on thing. You can tell they did research and tried to stay true to the trauma and harsh reality of abuse and it's affects.

Some twists seemed well done. I think the author tried too many and to find it surprising that they all piled onto each other without wowing or shocking me much..

This book is very different from the usual type of books I like to read. I do love the horror genre, but the format is is unusual. At first, it's a little dry for me, but it's unusual enough for me to keep going to see where it's headed. After a while, I'm intrigued enough to see it through to the end. It gets rather interesting about a quarter of the way through it. When you realize that this is going to be an unusual story. By the end, I was shocked. Usually, I can see the twists coming, and this one packs a punch! I don't want to give away the storyline, but I will say that this book is a must read for any horror fan! The author is brilliant in how she chose to write this book!