Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Dark and creepy and completely unexpected. I wonder if I'd had a paper copy and was able to flip back more easily if I'd have put things together sooner, but it's probably for the best that I didn't. Can't wait to see what's next from Catriona Ward!

I love to read books with topics like this, unfortunately I can not disclose what this particular topic is because it will spoil the whole entire book for you. I had my suspicions that this was the route the book was taking but I didn’t want to disappoint my poor little heart had it not been the case. I loved the author’s notes at the end and I love that she did extensive research on the matter. This book can be a bit confusing if you don’t have an inclination on where it’s going but trust the process! It wraps up beautifully! I adored all the characters and the setting throughout the novel. I will definitely check out more by this author!

This book just didn't work for me, I think it might be because I've seen too many horror movies but I figured out the big twist based on the wording used a few chapters in so the reveal wasn't exciting or shocking. Instead, the lead up to it just dragged on since I already knew what was going to happen. I do think it'll be a hit with other readers though, the premise is intriguing and the opening chapter definitely had me curious to continue on.

After reading all the glowing reviews, I really wanted to like this book but I just didn’t. The detached narration made it impossible to get to know or care about the characters. To be fair, I have to say that I only made it 25% into the book before I had to stop. I know that if I’m reading less than a page a day then I’m avoiding a book. I have too many books in my TBR pile to slog through a book I don’t care for. Maybe it would have gotten better but if I’m not grabbed in the first 25% it’s probably not going to happen. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

While the premise is exciting and is bound to grab a variety of readers' attention, the execution felt muddled and intentionally misleading. A difficult title to categorize and judge based off of general checkpoints but it did not stir curiosity in this reviewer and ultimately felt like a literary misadventure upon the initial reading.

It is hard to know where to begin with this book. Let us start with our main characters; Ted and Olivia. Ted is a single man who lives alone in his boarded up house with his cat, Olivia. Occasionally Ted's daughter, Lauren, comes to visit. When Lauren visits, Olivia is put away because they apparently do not get along. Ted was wrapped up in a police case years ago when a young girl goes missing. The police searched his house but did not find anything that worked against him. Since that day, he often though about the girl, who he nicknamed "girl with popsicle." The child going missing was a tragedy. Just as big of a tragedy was Ted's life. Ever since his picture was printed in the newspaper after the child went missing, people would throw rocks through his windows as fast as he could replace them before he gave up and boarded up his house.
Ted lives a lonely life. He loves his cat Olivia and his mischievous daughter Lauren. Making friends was not his forte and he drank too much. Once every couple weeks he went to see his psychiatrist whom he called "the bug man" based on his appearance. Ted was not good at names. From the beginning of this book, I could pretty much tell where this story was going. I was a bit upset about how certain mental health disorders were handled and described. There was not a real "twist" at the end, since I figured it out long before hand. After many psychology classes over the years, it simply was not a surprise. It did upset me a bit at times with how a certain disorder was described at almost the worst it could get. Overall it was a decent read and I would be willing to try books by this author in the future.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to complete this book, I have marked it as a DNF.. I couldn't get into the Main POV character nor his cats POV. This book didn't work for me at all. I'd give it a 2/5 at best.

I was so excited to start this book. First going in I was confused as to what character was speaking and in what time period. The picture soon became clear, but I wouldn’t classify this book in the horror genre. It dealt a lot with mental health issues. It was a decent read.

TWO-CENT TUESDAY

Well, here we are, four months (egads) since my last post. I have nothing to blame but wellness (or lack thereof), pandemic brain and malaise, family emergency and probably just sheer lack of gumption. I have a ton of catching up to do and I don't want to let good titles get short shrift because my act hasn't been together, so...

Below are a few (somewhat) brief $.02 opinions about books I've read or listened to recently. This first catchup set happens to include some of the best books I read this year. I hope you'll consider one or two for your own TBR stack if they strike your fancy.

The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward

Just as a few poets sent me down my recent(ish) poetry rabbit hole, Stephen Graham Jones sent me down something of a horror trek. I'd heard nothing but raves about this one, so when it came across my desk I was curious and anxious to dig in. Man did it blow my expectations out of the water and spun my head around (heck, even Stephen King was blown away). Ted lives in his boarded up family home with only his part-time daughter (Lauren) and a cat (Olivia). Or does he? Dee believes Ted is hiding her long-vanished sister Lulu inside and is bound and determined to get her back. What you think you know, you don't. Some of what you guess might be right, but it doesn't matter because (1) there will be layers and layers on top of it and (2) Ward goes about peeling back the truth in such a loving, horrific, suspenseful way that you will want to read it all over again when you've finished, just to read it with that new education. By far one of the best books I've read this year and another stellar work that has me on the steadfast path to more "horror."

When Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street first came out, it had tons of buzz. It's rare that you'll find a long synopsis of it anywhere, too. That's probably because it's nearly impossible to say a lot about it without giving anything away. So I won't be doing that here either.

What I can say is that the book alternates its narrators between Ted, Lauren, and Olivia (a cat). We also learn about a child who has been kidnapped and her sister who won't give up the search. But nothing is as it appears.

For me, I didn't really understand the buzz. Once you figure everything out (I didn't find it too difficult), you'll realize that this has been done before. All in all, The Last House on Needless Street is a perfectly fine read, but not an earth-shattering one.

MY RATING - 3

Stephen King's glowing review of this book is all the recommendation you (and I) need. This book kept me on my toes until the very end.

This book shredded my nerves, seriously. I don't even know how to categorize it: is it a psychological thriller, a gothic novel, a horror story? Its genre-bending nature is not the only subversive thing about "The Last House on Needless Street." The book defies tropes, keeping the reader guessing and wondering until they reach the end and are utterly surprised by the outcome. I appreciate how, instead of having a single, shocking twist, the story slowly unravels to reveal its core. I will be recommending this to all of my friends who appreciate well-crafted creepy novels.

An evocative, dark gothic horror tale that creates an escalating anxious sense of unease and tension without the need for gore. Harken back to eleven years ago, when Dee’s little sister LuLu disappeared, fracturing both herself and her family. Was she kidnapped or murdered, or was there a terrible accident? Dee is obsessed with Ted Bannerman…. even though he had an alibi for that horrific day, she feels he is the key in discovering her sister’s fate …. and maybe … she is still alive.
Ted Bannerman lives in a boarded-up house on the end of Needless Street, facing the overgrown and inscrutable forest. He lives with his talking cat, Olivia and occasionally is visited by his daughter, Lauren …. who races around the house on her bicycle .. but doesn’t venture out, after she has arrived. Neither Olivia or Lauren like to habitate the same room together. Ted is not employed and frequently overindulges his alcohol intake. His life takes on added tension and pressure when Dee moves into the abandoned house next door. He cannot comprehend having a neighbor or her intentions. Certainly nothing is actually what it seems!
Ted is haunted by thoughts of his mother …. her apparent statements and how she raised him.
When birds appear dead in his backyard , he thinks back to accusatory small animal deaths in his past. …. real or imagined?
Catriona Ward crafts a riveting complex tale told through the eyes of multiple unreliable and untrustworthy protagonists, while effectively intertwining multiple time lines that create multiple unpredictable reveals, culminating in an extraordinary denouement …. that no one will anticipate. Chapters alternate with the thoughts , actions and possible implicated motivations and psyches of Ted, Lauren, Dee, and the beloved talking cat, Olivia. This is my first venture into the oeuvre of this multi-award winning writer …. I look forward to downloading her previous tales. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan - Tor / Forge Books for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.
…. at. readersremains.com ….

My brain had a hard time staying interested in this book. There is a lot going on in this book that you need to pay attention to and I was trying to read it during a week where my mind was very preoccupied.

That said, I enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to reading Sundial but I will make sure that I read that book in a bath tub with lots of bubbles and no distractions so tat I can concentrate and enjoy every aspect of Catriona's writing.

Okay, I thought this was a certain type of book, horror, murder, etc. I could not have been more wrong! Yes, there were some of those elements and I was turned off at first by Olivia's parts because I could not get my head around a religious cat and so stopped reading it for a bit but then I picked it back up and my mind was blown!

There are twists within twists and I ended up devouring the book because as soon as I came to a certain conclusion about what happened with Lulu and Ted and Dee Dee and what was still happening, it was upended and I had to keep reading to find out the real truth. This book was totally different by the end and was very good. I even got to liking Olivia.

I definitely recommend reading this book and I wonder what Catriona Ward will come up with next and if it can even come close to this twisty mindbending book!

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me wanting answers and unable to put it down for long. I would definitely recommend to my readers!

What a delightfully unique way to tell a thriller and shed light on grief and mental health. I could not put this book down! The format is confusing at first, but it keeps you interested and guessing at every second.

[#partner @tornightfire @netgalley]

📚B IS FOR BOOK REVIEW📚

📔Title: The Last House on Needless Street
🖋Author: Catriona Ward
🗓Pub Date: 09.28.21 (U.S.)

🗂Genre:
Psychological horror/thriller

📖Plot:
An unlikely trio lives in a boarded up old house at the end of Needless Street: a man named Ted who who drinks too much and loses time, his daughter Lauren who is not allowed outside when she visits, and their cat Olivia who is particularly fond of reading The Bible. Used to living a solitary life, Ted doesn’t know what to think when Dee moves into the house next door. And he certainly doesn’t know what to do when she starts digging around looking for clues to the disappearance of her sister years ago …

‼️Trigger Warning:
Major trauma, child abuse, murder, self harm, suicide

🗝Themes:
Mental health, abuse, resilience, survival, duality of man

💭Thoughts:
I knew this was going to be a different kind of book going in, and it definitely is, which I’m here for. The first half moved very slowly for me, though; I found it quite repetitive. The second half grabbed my attention much more. While the structure and premise of the novel is unique and well-done, the twists were more or less predictable for me. I think this is one that folks will either love or not, but I would definitely give another of Ward’s books a try. The writing is solid.

🗣Recommended for those who like:
Room by Emma Donoghue, A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson, Paul Tremblay, Gillian Flynn

Ted lives in a run-down old house with his cat, Olivia, and sometimes with his daughter, Lauren. Ted has ... 'issues.' Could it be the obvious alcoholism? Or is it something more? He sees a psychologist regularly, but rarely tells the truth.

The woods behind the house hold secrets - secrets Ted is afraid will come to light when diggers and tractors wind they were behind the house and into the woods.

The cat knows many secrets, and Lauren never leaves the house when she's there.

Their awkward status quo is disrupted when a new neighbor, Dee, moves in on the dead-end street. Dee is the sister of a young woman who went missing years ago. Dee is convinced that Ted, the man behind the boarded-up windows at the end of her street, is responsible and she'll do anything to prove it.

I'm always on the lookout for a good horror novel and The Last House on Needless Street definitely fits the bill.

Author Catriona Ward sets us up first with our main character, Ted. We can feel something is 'off' about him right from the start and much of the book is a slow reveal into more and more of the man and what has caused him to behave the way he does.

But the book has multiple points of view, including that from the cat. The Bible reading cat seems to be the most observant of all the characters, and perhaps the most reliable as well. Even more so than the obsessed Dee.

The book is a study in character and psychosis and it's quite haunting. Ward really establishes a tone for the book using characters and her work here should be a stellar example of how to create mood.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the book is how Ted is established right away and as readers we think we know him or at least his 'type.' And here again it's the cat who keeps us focused, not settling in too early in thinking we know exactly what's going on because ... well, a cat. Why are we getting the cat's point of view?

But as the book goes along and more and more is revealed about Ted, we really do think we understand the direction of the book. The presence of Dee is sort of an 'ah ha' moment and yeah, we know exactly what's going to happen now.

Except we don't.

I think it's safe to say that the majority of readers will not accurately predict the ending (especially if they haven't read a bunch of reviews) and isn't that ultimately what we want? To be tested and surprised and entertained along the way?

At one point, maybe two thirds of the way through, I felt like the story stalled just slightly - that we had stopped getting new information and were repeating aspects of Lauren's character. But this was just a passing moment.

Readers should be aware that there is some pretty gruesome child abuse described herein.

Looking for a good book? Fans of horror and well-written, character driven fiction will gleefully devour The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

What a roller coaster read. Disturbing and intriguing by turns, I thought more than once in the first couple chapters that there was no way I could finish this book. I persevered because it was very intriguing - it's told in alternating chapters from Ted, Dee, and Olivia (an apparently religious cat). By the end I read for hours at a stretch because I had to know the truth of it all.
The book is extremely well-written. I thought I had it figured out fairly early on, ended up questioning my theories by thre middle, and even though I ended up being partly right, I was still surprised by the revelations in the end.
There is little profanity, and considering the subject matter, everything is handled very appropriately. There are several descriptions of incidents of child abuse (physical & psycholigical abuse) that are disturbing, but the author doesn't go into any more detail than is necessary to convey what's happened.
Definitely out of my normal realm of fiction, but ultimately a good read.