3⭐️

I ended up liking this one ok. It's an interesting sci fi horror premise. The basement and underground's of the city appear to be sinking. Tamsin, a scientist, has been tracking this change when a door suddenly appears. She can't get it open but then randomly one day a copy of her self walks out.

I really struggled with the writing style of this book. I found that I couldn't connect with the character and found myself missing alot of what I had read. I think part of this was that it is a slow buildup. The beginning of this book is weighed down by the information regarding the company and those dynamics. I believe I just wasn't the audience for this book but could be s favorite for many others.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martins press for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own..

This wasn't as good as The Luminous Dead, but still a very punchy horror novel. It's a bit of a slow starter, but by the time you notice how good it is, you're already sucked in.

Love the premise and enjoyed other novels by this author but with this one the spark didn't quite ignite. It felt a bit slow to me and a lot more scientific than the others—might be a taste thing.

A truly stunning, fascinating book. As a lover of all things weird and scary, this was everything I've ever wanted. The concept was phenomenal and the writing was superb. This is a *must* for Halloween and, quite frankly, any other time of the year. But especially Halloween! I'll be recommending it to others very highly.

I've loved Caitlin Starling's other work - I've read all of it - so I'm particularly upset that this one didn't land for me. Here's what I loved and what I didn't:

The plot follows Tamsin Rivers, a Very Important Scientist up to her eyeballs in corporate bureaucracy as she attempts to manage a strange phenomena: her city is sinking. What's even worse is that her basement appears to be sinking at a faster rate, and there's a door there that *wasn't* there before. What's on the other side of that door?

If you've read any sort of weird spatial horror a la "House of Leaves", you know whatever's on the other side isn't gonna be *good*. And if you've read any Caitlin Starling, you know that things are gonna get psychedelic with a side of unexplained - that's part of her appeal for me, in that she doesn't always neatly wrap up every occurrence. And while Tamsin Rivers isn't a likeable *person*, per se, I did enjoy her as a character - competent people are always interesting to read about in a horror/thriller like this because you know they're going to make decisions that by-and-large make sense.

Unfortunately, there was just too much padding here. This absolutely feels like this might have been a novella, but just had too *much*. By the time we find out what's behind the door, we've sat through corporate meetings and vibed with Tamsin as she ponders the dangers of having her basement sink. The story took a wild turn about halfway through, but it's telegraphed pretty obviously by the nature of *what* is behind the door, so it's not shocking. I was thoroughly checked out by the time the ending met me - this one was just too long and (in my opinion) could use a drastic edit.

Naturally I still adore Starling's other work - I just found this one too ponderous with not a good enough pay-off.

3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars.

This one had me for the first 2/3 of the book, then it seemed to take a left turn and became another story. I liked it, I looked forward to reading it, but ultimately I was disappointed in how things turned out.

This was my first Caitlin Starling book -- I read enough good things here to read another.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Last to Leave the Room is Caitlin Starling at her best yet!!

Last to Leave the Room took me by storm and I can't stop thinking about it and its conclusion. This story heralds Starling's return to science fiction in such a way that I truly was terrified. The story focuses on Dr. Tamsin Rivers, a scientist who is investigating why the city seems to be sinking. When Tamsin notices that there seems to be a new door in her basement, all hell seems to break loose when an exact copy of her comes out of the door. What begins as a simple scientific investigation, soon becomes a fight to maintain her own identity.

Though this story takes a little moment to build up, I found myself setting the stage for something big to come. I knew that something was about to happen (boy was I right). Starling starts this story off by introducing the world, and I was left feeling horror, suspense, intrigue, and a looming sense of dread for this entire novel. I genuinely was beyond terrified at some of the actions that happened in this story. The idea of losing your own identity by watching someone assume it piece by piece is absolutely awful. By the last portion of this novel (titled Tamsin(0)), I knew that it was going to be a race to the finish to figure out how this would end.

If you loved "The Luminous Dead," then you are going to love this novel too. It is claustrophobic, disgusting, horrifying, and gross. Readers everywhere are going to love it.

Perfect for fans of Channel Zero: Dream Door, Black Mirror, and Orphan Black!

The Last to Leave the Room is a story that I am a bit torn on in a few regards. The main character, Tamsin, isn’t just unlikeable. She’s bland, boring in her drive to explore the mystery of the subsidence and what is in her basement. There’s nothing else really given or shown about her. Along with that, the ending explains things a bit, but how it is resolved went well over my head.

There is a lot of interesting stuff here too, though, that actually made this a great page-turner if you get over the initial few chapters. The experiments on her double and that double’s changes and growth along the way were really well done, and the direction that goes was very successful. I would recommend this to people who like the more medical and doppelgänger type of stories that explore the aspect of what makes a person actually themselves.

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

🌟🌟🌟🌟⭐️ 4.5/5
⚠️ Trigger Warnings: Violence/Torture

This is my first sci-fi fantasy novel this year. What intrigued me the most was the interesting title and alluring cover. I rarely, if ever, read the full description because I love the wonder and surprise of going into a new book blind.

Let me tell you, Caitlin Starling did not disappoint! Last to Leave the Room is so smartly written. It was clear that Caitlin took so much pride in the story with how deeply researched the content was.

Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the lead researcher in a new revolutionary communications project, finds herself challenged to handle multiple fronts of discovery, secrets, and a city wide crisis. Tamsin is the apittimy of an unlikable character with so many personality flaws. Her ambitious nature pushes her to achievements at the behest of those around her.

Throughout, we experience how circumstances and context influence both our choices and decisions. The ultimate question that plauged me while reading this novel was, can wiping the slate clean and relearning, change who you are at your core? Or are we who we are always?

A special thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the review copy of Last to Leave the Room. Please check out this author and her amazing work.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. The premise was intriguing to say the least I’m a sci-fi fanatic and loved the psychological depth the author created. The book started a bit slow but picked up considerably till the last few pages. I stayed up late to finish! I took off 1 star for the ending as the build up was extensive and wasn’t quite as satisfying as I expected. This is the first book I’ve read by this author, had my eye on the X-ray of Jane Lawrence and will definitely be reading more by her.

Dr. Tamsin Rivers is a researcher with a mega corporation. I couldn't follow all of the creepy science in the book. But the city is falling/shrinking/expanding? Suddenly a door appears in her basement that she is unable to open or even damage. Later her twin/clone/doppelganger shows up in her home with limited knowledge. Rather than reporting this anomaly to her supervisors, she starts experimenting--and losing her mind. The twin starts to take over his life and Tamsin loses control. I was intrigued as to how the plot would play out. However I did not understand a lot of the background science in the story. Also Tamsin was not a very sympathetic character.

I swear if you looked at my fitbit heart rate, you’d be able to tell when I was reading this book--I found it that viscerally stressful. I say this as a good thing, as this is the kind of horror that gets to you on a physical level. I found my palms sweating, and my heart racing. I kept putting the book down thinking “I can’t keep reading this; I’m too stressed,” and then, not a minute later, picking it back up again because I had to know what happened next.

I mean, what would you do if a carbon copy of you--physically identical--came out of a door in your basement that wouldn’t open, and definitely wasn’t there yesterday. (I think the correct answer is c, burn it down and maybe call some religious figure to do an exorcism on the ashes.) Does your answer change if you’ve been doing some maybe not so legal and definitely super secret research in quantum physics for a tech company that is very shadowy and your boss has maybe too much control over your life? What about when you start sleepwalking and the memory gaps start to become longer and longer?

I read Caitlin Starling’s previous novel The Death of Jane Lawrence, and enjoyed it--but I’d say this is more my speed. Like many horror novels, I thought the falling action was not as strong as the rising action, but there was enough tension to carry me through even if some of the psychological tension was fading. I enjoyed our scientist main character (in both iterations) but the other characters were weakly drawn. And, because so much of the focus is on the two Dr. Rivers and their relationship, some of the rest of the world and the other characters are less well fleshed out.

If you’re looking for a high-tech, high-concept horror novel to read this spooky season, The Last to Leave the Room should deliver. A final disclaimer--I don’t know enough about quantum physics to know how much this book is gibberish and how much is based in actual physics.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for this honest review.

(Will post in September, and will update with links at that time)

The premise of this book was very intriguing. A researcher at an experimental communications lab realizes her city is facing a crisis that defies the laws of physics- and that might be connected to her work. When a duplicate of herself suddenly appears, she struggles to balance between saving the city and satisfying her need to know what is happening regarding herself and her double.

My main issue with the text was the amount of time it took me to feel invested in the characters and plot. While the second half was much more compelling, the first half of the text seemed to drag for me.

Overall, this is probably my least favorite of Caitlin Starling's novels. In the past, I have adored the complex storylines and characters in unique settings, however I feel as if everything wasn't the same in LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM. The ending wasn't as intricately explained to us, instead getting a weirdly metaphorical thing going on. I feel, though, that my biggest qualm was with the pacing. It was all basically the same (Tamsin acting out, Tamsin questioning herself, Tamsin obsessing over the basement/door) up until the last part, where stuff actually started to happen. Additionally, we were introduced to Lachland Woodfield, who I would have LOVED to learn more about, but we only got to really know her later on in the book and by then it really just felt like it was being crammed in at the end. While I overall enjoyed the story, the pacing knocked everything out of sorts and I just couldn't get into it as I have with Starling's past masterpieces.

I didn't really enjoy this others previous work. I think, perhaps, that this author and I just don't mesh because didn't enjoy this, either. My biggest issue was the time jumping, combined with a pretty non-compelling, sort of lackluster writing style. The idea for this is super cool, but the characters were boring, the writing style didn't really compel me to keep reading it was sort of flat. And it was hard to follow this book and the direction it was going in. I think the organizational issues, specifically around the fleshing out of the time jumping, combined with the pacing being both slow and a bit random, just really killed this experience for me. There were moments that I found myself really engaged in the story, but those were so few and far between, that it wasn't enough to really hold my attention. This is my third attempt reading something by this author, and I ended up really, really not liking it, so I don't know that I'm going to seek much out from her going forward.

Tamsin is a scientist working for a shady tech company who discovers that her top-secret underground experiments could be causing the city to sink. On top of that, she discovers that her basement is distorting in a very strange way, and a mysterious door has suddenly appeared. Then a perfect double of Tamsin emerges from the door. Starling creates a tense atmosphere and effectively builds the sense of dread. Her prose is calm and understated, perfectly capturing Tamsin's logical and scientific approach to the bizarre evens surrounding her, Danger abounds everywhere in this creepy and satisfying read.

I picked this book up because I enjoyed the author’s previous book The Death of Jane Lawrence; but it was such a departure, being much more modern, the adjustment makes it difficult to get into. However, as I know that the author has a range of genres they write in, I should have read the synopsis more closely. Over all I did like this novel, despite its slow start. I saw that some reviewers disliked Tamsin but, I found her characterization honest and all the more poignant as her reliability falters. During the 3/4 mark, I had to know what was going to happen, I was so absorbed in the story. But I found myself a bit lost in the final chapters.

Suspenseful, Enjoyable, great pacing, exciting settings kept me hooked. Great novel that will be the perfect to lose yourself in. Thank you Net Galleyfor ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Caitlin Starling is one of my favourite novelists and writers of speculative fiction of the past two decades. Her book, “The Death of Jane Lawrence,” is a Gothic masterpiece, and “Yellow Jessamine” is also darkly brilliant. In this newest novel, “Last to Leave the Room,” we start off with a Dr. Tamsin Rivers. She stands in the abyss. Like the literal “do not gave into this because it gazes into you” Nietzcheian abyss. She’s far below the city of San Siroco. This is a book more strongly centered on science fiction horror, and while that is not my cup of tea, I love Starling’s writer, which shines through here. As the narrative goes on, it feels more like a Ridley Scott-influenced nightmare, a “Prometheus”-like reflexiveness that will make the reader question what is going on. The exploration of tensions between humanity and machines are particularly pressing now with AI-this and ChatGPT-this, and the absolutely devastating effect they have had on not only the current writer’s guild of america strike, but also in the sense of people trying to exploit or offer “shortcuts” with these tools and not considering the ethical implications. People who have brought up concerns about Terminator-like scenarios and other terrors related to that suddenly seem to make a lot of sense and don’t seem as fanciful or fictional as they once did.

When there is this crew dynamic where readers can see the trust begin to erode between them, the alliances at the start of the book not being those by the time you get to the end, or sometimes even the middle, these cracks in the foundation begin to permeate throughout the novel.

Final verdict is if you were expecting something more in the vein of Starling’s previous Gothic works, then you may want to sit this one out. It’s a fantastic, well-plotted and well-written novel but I felt that it didn’t vibe with me overall, unfortunately, only because of my interests as a reader, and not anything at all to do with the style or with the brilliance of Starling as a writer. Highly worth recommending and checking out.

I was convinced to read this book by the author's claim that it contained an "extremely threatening yet sexy and butch 'coworker'", a quote which I incorrectly began with "extremely sexy" the first three times I tried to type it here. Freudian slips aside, I'm delighted to have been able to read an advance copy of Last to Leave the Room, and I loved it for more reasons than I expected.

The main characters: Dr. Tamsin Rivers, who is unlikable and knows it. Mx. Lachlan Woodfield, Tamsin's coworker/bodyguard/enforcer who never relaxes and never takes off her black gloves. Penrose, who is a cat. Dr. Tamsin Rivers, who is obedient and--wait, what? Wasn't she just--

It's difficult to summarize the plot beyond the blurb without spoiling anything, so I won't. I'll just say that I was lulled into a false sense of security by the slow start, and then before I knew it four hours had passed and I was interrogating my cat about his earliest memory and double checking the number of doors in my hallway. This IS horror, but you might forget that for a while...

Since I have an entire Goodreads shelf dedicated to them, I think it's safe to say that "impossible door" books are one of my favorite micro-sub-genres of SFF/horror. Of all of those books, Last to Leave the Room reminded me most strongly of The Last Universe by William Sleator (my introduction to the genre), but for adults and with much better disability representation.

Starling is an expert at depicting the horror of isolation and confined space, so much so that this novel felt like a dark mirror of my experiences as a high-risk person avoiding the continued pandemic. The medical horror aspects of the plot were intense and disturbing, but not in a way that felt exploitative. One of my favorite scenes involves pushback against the infantilization of a disabled character, which is not something I ever see!

Recommended for fans of: The Last Universe, Mickey + Jessica, Several People Are Typing, and Piranesi (the ending, not the beginning).

I received an advance e-copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.