Wow. I recently listened to a podcast where Riley Sager was a guest. He mentioned how it was tricky to always come up with a "twist" in a thriller. Well he knocked it out of the park with this one. I loved the twist and how everything played out. I was up reading way too late to try and figure out what was going to happen next. Overall, a super entertaining read. Riley Sager will continue to be a "must read" author for me!

In 1929 the Hope family is found murdered in their mansion Last Hope that sits on a cliffs edge. The only survivor is the daughter Lenora whose covered in blood, she claims she didn’t do it. Never charged she never leaves the mansion and soon becomes a spooky tale that the local children talk about and they soon create a chant they recite about,

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said

Fast forward and it’s 1983 and Lenora is in need of care since her previous caregiver up and left in the middle of the night, we meet Kit she needs a job , we soon uncover she had something happen at her previous job that landed her in the newspaper, she’s desperate and is shocked when she discovers who her new patient the infamous Lenora. Lenora is confined to her bed unable to move or talk except using a finger to tap, one tap for no , two taps for yes. Unknown to anyone else except Kit, Lenora can also communicate through tapping the old typewriter, one night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything. Curious Kit decides to help Lenora tell her story one page at a time, soon it becomes clear that there’s more to the tale than people know. Kits suspicion rises and maybe this frail old woman confined to her bed may not be telling the whole truth and she just may more dangerous than anyone suspected.
Set in the crumbling mansion named Last Hope, Kit swears she hears footsteps at night in Lenora’s room but when she opens the door no one is there, there are cracks in the walls and floors and she knows the mansion will soon topple into the ocean, the mansion is stuck back in time since that horrible night, and each of the staff appears to be have their own set of secrets. Soon Kit begins to wonder was it a mistake to take this job and will it be her last?

The Only One Left | Riley Sager

There is just something so fun about reading Riley Sager’s newest book each summer! First and foremost this cover is absolutely everything I could have hoped for. I love it so much.

This book is positively creepy and I really did love every second of it.

Here were my favorite things -

🔪 The setting!!! I know, I know we’ve seen a creepy old house that is isolated and on a cliff, but this was perfection for this story. Think Daisy Darker’s setting BUT BETTER.

🔪 The dual timelines ish. It isn’t exactly dual timelines, but it is. You get the story from the summer of when the initial horrific crime occurred through letters and things like that. I loved the way this was done!

🔪 SOOOOOO many twists. Like so many! 🌪

🔪 The ending. Some people probably won’t love that, but for me it worked. It also tugged on my heart strings and I feel like that is a tall feat in a thriller.

Overall, this book was engaging from start to finish!!!

4 ⭐️

You know it’s Summer when a new Sager book hits the shelves, and I really enjoyed this gothic mystery!

From the atmospheric vibes of the crumbling mansion on the coast of Maine, to the unreliable narrators, I thought this was such a fun campy thriller to binge in the beach.

📖𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙇𝙚𝙛𝙩
✍🏻Riley Sager
🗓️6.20.23
🔪Mystery/Thriller
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Netgalley, duttonbooks and prhaudio #gifted

Ok Mr. Sager. I see you. This was such a banger of a book and while it isn't my favorite of Rileys it's definitely top 3.
I'll admit I did have an inkling of the bigger twist but some of the smaller ones did surprise me. The ending was so perfect I loved it so much.
My favorite bit of this book was definitely the setting and how atmospheric it was. I loved the crumbling mansion and the metaphor of it.

Love love LOVE this book. The characters were amazing and the story was so memorable and the plot was intense and I couldn't put it down.

READ IF YOU LIKE
🏠 Isolated settings
🫣 Creepy mansions (on a cliff!!)
🌪 Twist upon twist upon twist
👀 Everyone is suspicious
🪓 Lizzie Borden
⏰ 1980s
🥶 Chilling stories
⌨️ Typewriters
🗣 AAC (shoutout to my fellow SLPs)
🩺 Caregiver/patient stories

✨ When a young caregiver finds herself without a job, she learns the only availability is to care for Lenora Hope.. a near-70 y/o who was accused of brutally murdering her whole family when she was 17.

☁️ THOUGHTS
Alright y’all. This one was GOOD. 😮‍💨 I know Sager is polarizing & The House Across the Lake had mixed opinions (I loved- gave 4.5 stars) but if you read that one & liked how the twists KEPT. COMING. in the last ~25% of the book, I’m happy to report that this one is the same way. Just when I thought I had things figured out, yet ANOTHER bomb dropped. I truly felt like I had whiplash upon finishing this book, but I mean that in the most complimentary way. It was WILD & an absolute rollercoaster, but everything came together perfectly & I was left without questions- just in awe. For a hot second, I was a bit bummed & worried because I DID guess a big twist at the start of the influx of them (said twist was comparable to a v popular thriller which was upsetting) BUT that feeling was redeemed when the secrets/reveals didn’t stop there. I was in continuous shock until the END. Were some twists crazy? Yes, but tbh, it could all actually happen IRL. 🫢
The last few pages even made me cry!

Loved the isolated setting, loved the shock of character’s actions & motive revelations that I did NOT see coming, loved the emo ending (so unique for a thriller); it was 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 & I am so glad I picked it up. Such a fun & perfectly creepy, bingeworthy thriller for a summer night. Thank you so much to @duttonbooks for my gifted copy!!!

I loved. I recommend. A total stand-out & fave of 2023 for sure. 👏🏼

🎥 Also, can we get a movie adaptation?! 🤞🏼

This was fantastic.

My last few reads by Sager have left my jaw on the floor and this one was no different. The atmosphere is delightfully creepy and the story was full of twists.

I enjoyed the gothic vibes and and the way the narrative was slowly pulled out through pieces of writing by one of the main characters. I have recommended this to a few people already who mentioned they are looking for a summer page turner.

I thoroughly enjoyed this gothic thriller. There were so many twists and turns. I never would have guessed the ending. I would recommend this book to gothic horror and thriller fans. Five out of five stars.

“At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life
“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead“

This story gave me Rebecca meets The Thirteenth Tale vibes, except you’re on peyote. And swimming through maple syrup. And maybe having a stroke.

I love a good gothic tale, particularly when a house is a main character. This one, with its creepy location, creepy staff, and creepy past, delivered.

I found the last couple of chapters absolutely bonkers, and had to reread it a few times before I believed what I was reading.

While I’ve heard good things about Riley Sager, this is my first book of his. Cannot wait to do more dark-and-stormy-night reading.

6.5/10

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Group Dutton, and Hodder & Stoughton for this atmospheric ARC.

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

It was 1929 when teenager Lenora Hope murdered her entire family in their lavish coastal estate. At least, that’s what legend says. Without any evidence connecting her to the massacre, Lenora was ostensibly freed, but she remained a prisoner of the house and its unsavory history for the next half-century. When home-health aide, Kit McDeere, is sent to Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse abruptly abandons her position, she quickly realizes that Lenora Hope is far more capable of communicating the truth about that night than she was led to believe. And she wants to tell Kit everything.

This was such a beautifully atmospheric read. The gaunt, crooked house, the 80s aesthetic, the Maine coastline, the suspicious staff. All of these elements combined resulted in a book that I really just did not want to put down. The pacing and character development were solid, and the ending was packed with so many twists that I had a hard time keeping up. After a couple of misses from Sager, The Only One Left feels like a return to the earlier works that hooked so many readers.

I absolutely loved The Only One Left!! There were so many twists and turns in this one. I read a lot of thrillers and trust me, when I tell you I had no idea where this was going. I haven't read a lot of Sager's books but I do own them. This one has me scrambling to read the others. Highly recommend adding this to your TBR.

First and foremost, thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me a free ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are based entirely on my reading experience and are my own, uninfluenced commentary.

Stop everything you are doing!

Stop right now and go purchase this book. I am absolutely serious, this is the book everyone is going to be talking about in July, August, September... probably until December if not longer. Riley Sager has done it again and has created a 5-star amazing book full of darkness, gothic vibes, and twists and turns. Mystery, thriller, ghosts, this is all packed into one book and it reads from cover-to-cover like a fire.

It is 1983 and Kit desperately needs a new job -- she's an in-home care nurse and she was recently accused of being involved in her dying mother's death (did Kit leave pills out for her mother? Did her mother take them by herself? Can Kit ever be trusted to take care of a patient again? Is she a murderer?). But, there is a job for her out there. Taking care of Lenora Hope -- another woman in the town who was accused of killing her mother, father, and sister in 1929. She's 71 now and doesn't "seem" dangerous but the town has never forgotten. Kind of like Kit, the police never had enough evidence to make the case, so while both of these women are innocent they're both surrounded by a dark could of suspicion.

Of course Kit takes the job. But, things get weird when she's told the nurse right before her just vanished, leaving all of her personal belongings behind. And, there's a weird nurse uniform as well... I mean, you have to make money to live but it seems like a bit much, doesn't it? Anyhoo, Kit eventually discovers a body... Mary's body (the nurse before her). Well, guess she didn't run away! This means that Mary knew a little too much about something, about a dark secret, about the true events of what happened the night Lenora's family was murdered.

Now, Kit starts trying to uncover the secret as well. Lenora is old, wheelchair bound, and has had strokes so that only one hand works. This one hand can type on a typewriter... which is eerie in itself, but I absolutely love it! At the same time, there is a groundskeeper who starts asking his own questions... did Lenora give birth to a baby, abandon it at a church, and he's maybe related to her?? That's right, there are multiple different secrets to uncover in this house.

I'm obviously not going to tell you how this ends because you need to go read it for yourself. But I am going to tell you that there are some major twists, major turns, and a big reveal towards the end revolving "identities" that are going to make you clap with excitement. I sat down with this book and couldn't put it down. I have notes in the margins. I have exclamation points everywhere. And I am absolutely in love!

Riley Sager's best book yet, and I don't say that lightly!

“There’s more to everyone than meets the eye.”

Mystery thriller chock full of twists and suspicious characters, where everyone has secrets and everyone holds a key to unlock the story. The background family murders carried a Lizzie Borden vibe and the reader is left guessing from page 1 through to the end of what exactly happened, who did it, and how everyone and everything fits together. There’s a lot about the story I loved, but I felt it went extreme with the twists.,, THIS is what happened… Nooo, THIS is what happened, yadda yadda until my brain was completely wrung out, but in an over the top way. I am all about the twists, but I prefer one or two major twists versus reading through a constant roller coaster ride. It’s fun, but too much.

“But Hope’s End isn’t a home. It’s a cage built of secrets.”

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Riley Sager does it again. This book is full of atmosphere! I wanted to crawl into the world and take a look around at this mansion balancing precariously on a cliff. Time has stopped at Hope's End, the staff where's uniforms and address each other formally. Kit, a home care giver, is assigned to take care of the elderly Lenore who cannot speak, or walk, and only has use of one hand. Mary, the previous care giver, having left in the middle of the night with no prior notice adds to the spooky vibes in this excellent thriller.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Riley Sager and this book is no exception. Lenora Hope is a song kids sing on the playground. Lenora hope murdered her family. At least that’s what the town believes.

Kit gets hired on to help at the Hope household as a caregivers to Lenora. She is given a nurse uniform and entrance into the creepy house where the murders took place.

Throughout the book the truth of that night unfolds as the house gets closer and closer to sliding into the ocean. This book is full of secrets, atmospheric details and will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew till the very last page.

📖 BOOK REVIEW

BOOK: The Only One Left
AUTHOR: Riley Sager
FORMAT: eBook
GENRE: Thriller
DID I CRY: No
PUB DATE: 6/20/23
RATING: 7/10
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you @duttonbooks for my #gifted advanced copy of #TheOnlyOneLeft out 6/20!

MY THOUGHTS

I was hesitant to pick this one up because I’m not Sager’s biggest fan but I ended up enjoying this one more than most of his others. This one was suspenseful from start to finish and regardless of my feelings as I went, I knew I wanted to finish because I needed answers. Nothing about this book was boring, and it was extremely fast paced. The twists in this book were crazy and definitely added a shock factor. But that’s where this book went wrong for me. The first few twists I was totally on board, but then it started to become overkill because the twists never stop coming. I won’t say much to allow you to read it completely spoiler free, but there were far too many twists and it gave similar vibes to other thrillers I’ve read that made some of the biggest ones a little predictable for me. I think I do recommend this one tho for a fun, fast summer thriller.

Riley Sager has written another suspenseful book from beginning to end! The plot as original and kept you guessing. I really enjoyed reading it.

Great thriller. Lots of action and some twists. A few of the twists felt a bit of a stretch to believe. The author did a great job describing everything and did a great job writing it. I would Recommend to all.

WHAT. 😳 If you enjoy a thriller with a twisted ending (or two!), you’ll love THE ONLY ONE LEFT. Did I guess part of the big reveal very early on? Yes. Did it spoil my enjoyment of the book? Absolutely not! ⁣
⁣
This fast-paced story is told through multiple perspectives. Kit is a caregiver who only recently had her license reinstated. She lives with her father and their relationship is frosty following the death of her mother. She is assigned to care for Lenora Hope, a wealthy recluse notorious for being the only suspect in the deaths of her family decades earlier. ⁣
⁣
Lenora is now bed-ridden and unable to speak. She does, however, implore Kit to help her tell her side of the story regarding her family. We then read Lenora’s perspective of the months leading up to the tragic deaths of her mother, father and sister in the late 1920’s.⁣
⁣
The present day is set in the 1980’s and Hope’s End, the family mansion set high above the Atlantic Ocean in Maine, gave off lots of creepy vibes. There are many mysteries in this story and Mr. Sager certainly knows how to throw the reader way off!⁣
⁣
I really enjoyed the two unreliable narrators as well as the large cast of secondary characters. The Only One Left is a fast-paced and engrossing mystery that will most definitely surprise you until the very last word.⁣ Although the ending was a little over the top, I nonetheless throughly enjoyed this very engaging thriller. ⁣
⁣
(𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.)