Thank you Macmillan Audio for allowing me to audibly read and review Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling on NetGalley.

Published: 10/10/23

Narrator: Xe Sands

Stars: 2

The cover and synopsis were equally appealing. However, the book is a miss.

Xe Sands has a creepy sci-fi voice and a wide range of tones, unfortunately she was hard to follow. There were too many times I had to stop and rewind.

The words are best explained as never ending and went no where. For most of the story I thought an employee was avoiding their boss.

This is a failed creative writing project.

This was a fantastic audio! I loved the narration and also the story. It was so layered and creepy. I was worried it would be hard to understand but the author did such an amazing job with her writing that it was just such a fantastic read. I love the blend of horror and fiction that this writer always brings and in my opinion she gets better with every novel. Will highly recommend to customers

2.75

Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling

This book was weird, for me it wasn’t a good weird. I’m not sure why it had elements that I should’ve liked such as doppelgängers, alternate realities, and liminal spaces.

This is essentially a sci-fi horror about a city that is sinking and research scientist, Tamsin Rivers, is tasked with finding out why it’s sinking starts to realize the dimensions of her own basement aren’t adding up.

She starts to become obsessed with distortions in her measurements, and one day discovers a door that was not in her basement before. Out of this door comes her elseworld double and she is everything Tamsin isn’t.

Being a scientist she starts to study this double and things escalate from there.

Basically you get sucked down this rabbit hole for several hundred pages leading to a rather lackluster ending.

Honestly I think this book had a good story in it but got distracted from itself.

I listened to this one audio which was by Xe Sands and I don’t really think this a narrator I vibe with at least in this story she felt stiff to me.

Has anyone read this that can change my mind?

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this book early. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

I'd like to thank the publisher for providing with an ARC.

I wanted to enjoy this book, but I struggled to. I found the pacing to be a bit tedious and the story itself to be boring. I wanted more out of the story itself and unfortunately did tune in and out of the story a lot. I also struggled a lot with hearing and understanding the narrator.

I really wanted to like this book. I like strange books. I thought I’d never say this, but this book was too strange for me. I found it difficult to understand. Thank you NetGalley and publisher for providing this advanced copy to me.

Wow. Ok where to start. There were so many point in this book where I had no clue what was going on but just figured I would trust the process and it was worth it! There were definitely moments that felt a little slow or drawn out but overall a great book with an incredible narrator

I wanted to like this so badly - the author writes so well, but this one didn't do it for me.
The story is so slow and convoluted and it didn't give me an ending that made it feel worth the long ride.

Thank you, Netgalley for the advanved copy!

The greatest crime any horror novel can commit is being boring. The genre demands some kind of emotional response - fear, disgust, unease, anything really that isn’t ambivalence. But I feel almost nothing about this book, besides the lingering frustration for how good this story could have been - given the premise.

The concept here is genuinely outstanding. I read the premise of a city slowly sinking and a baffling distortion in a scientist's basement who is trying to uncover the reason behind it and I was sold. But the author didn’t know what to do with the premise, or should have done it in about 200 less pages. The pacing here was leaden, and the plot itself felt like an endless cycle of gaslighting as one woman stays locked inside her own house. It just seemed like a constant loop of the same things happening over and over, the same interactions happening in a void.

The doppelganger plotline was disturbing for about two pages until it started interacting with the main character like a normal person. Then it just felt a bit goofy, almost gimmicky as they cohabit and the relationship slowly devolves.

And while the next gripe I have is exclusively with the audiobook, it did affect my overall reading experience. The vocal fry from the narrator was absolutely ear-splitting, to the extent that I almost DNF’ed. Not likely to be an issue for everyone, but did make an already underwhelming reading experience that much worse.

I know Caitlin Starling can do amazing things, but right now I’m wishing she would go back to writing sapphic cave horror. This premise gets her latest release points, but this is a story I will only look back on with frustration.

Thank you to the publisher Macmillan Audio for providing an audiobook via NetGalley for an honest review.

Is quirky the right word? This one was an interesting ride. I never really knew what to expect with this one. Solid read

Super interesting premise and overall a really intriguing story, my biggest qualm is that it was just so much longer than it needed to be. I liked that the suspense vibe was kind of subtle but that also made it hard to fully stay with the story as it dragged on because it didn’t have you completely on the edge of your seat.

The narrator took me a minute to adjust to, to be able to follow her clearly but once adjusted was fine…not my favorite narrator ever but perfectly fine.

This was a fun thriller. I read it in two days over the weekend and enjoyed my time. Was genuinely surprised by the twist.

The premise of this story is fantastic and creepy. However, I felt like the story leaned too heavy into the science side of things and not enough into the creepy thriller side. The main character was difficult to like with her superior attitude and so I didn't really care what happened to her. At times I tuned out of the book and considered DNF'ing but I wanted to know what exactly was happening. The end wasn't worth it for me, it just felt more sci fi than thriller.
I did think that the audiobook narrator did a great job.

⭐⭐💫 (2.5)

I might not enjoy audio books. I’m not sure as this is the first one I have attempted. I thought it would be a good way to entertain myself while driving or exercising or other tasks that prevent me from reading at the same time.

I found that it was very difficult for me to focus on the story while completing another task. I also found it was harder for me to engage with the story and remember the characters. I did eventually get far enough into the book that it began to make sense and hold my attention.

The book definitely fits in the horror/sci-fi genre. You may enjoy it if you like audiobooks and also like the Twilight Zone.

This book is meant to speculatively horror and thrill. There is just enough going on that you keep reading to see how it ends, but once I got there, I found it to be ultimately unsatisfying. Literally the only interesting part is the Last third of the book which dosnt make up for the majority of the story being so so

I received a free audiobook copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Phew, this was a weird one. Xe Sands does an excellent job narrating this dark, speculative story, but ultimately I was left unsatisfied.

The main character, Tamsin Rivers, is highly intelligent, but equally unlikeable. She’s cold and self absorbed, and finds an exact copy of herself in her basement. Yikes. She has to research the doppelgänger and the expanding dimensions of her basement before she loses herself and the world around her to the distortion.

This was definitely an interesting premise: at what point do we lose enough of ourselves to not be us anymore? And this book tackles the question physically and metaphorically. I was with it for about 75% of the book, but the resolution just seemed… unfulfilling. It was a cool idea but ultimately the last quarter of the book just went off the rails. I wish I could rate it higher, but sadly I just can’t.

I loved Caitlin Starling’s The Death of Jane Lawrence and was very excited to read Last to Leave the Room as a result. Last to Leave the Room follows Dr. Tamsin Rivers who is investigating the sinking of the city of San Siroco. A mysterious door appears in her basement and eventually her doppelganger emerges. Tamsin begins to lose her grip on reality and the novel really takes off from there.
Unfortunately, it was over halfway through the book that it really began to move. I was very intrigued by the concept and I’m usually a fan of a slow burn, but it took me much longer to read this book than I expected because I kept losing focus. However, it really picked up toward the end and I found myself very engaged as I finished it, I just wish it had had that energy throughout.
I became a fan of Xe Sands while listening to The Echo Wife and she brings the same energy and sense of foreboding to Last to Leave the Room that she brought to The Echo Wife. I thought this foreboding tone was essential and really helped to the slow burn aspects of the horror.
Thank you to Macmillan audio for my copy of this book.

3 1/2 stars

This book had great promise but I just couldn't get into it the way I hoped. I think the storyline was inventive and original. Unfortunately, there were inconsistencies for me that detracted from the story. I couldn't connect with the characters and was left scratching my head a great deal.

I'm sure this book will be a favorite for many. It just wasn't for me.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The narration was actually very strong. I toggled back and forth between the ebook and audiobook. I probably would have listened more consistently to the audiobook but I found that with the complexity of the plot, it was sometimes difficult to follow by listening and I was better actually reading it. However, I believe that is just because it's how I respond best. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review both the ebook and audiobook.

Last to Leave the Room is a captivating and thought-provoking novel that blends science fiction, horror, and psychological thriller elements. Set in a near-future where the city of San Siroco is sinking and people are mysteriously disappearing, the story follows Dr. Tamsin Rivers, a brilliant but ruthless scientist tasked with saving the city.

The novel's strength lies in its unique premise and intriguing atmosphere. Starling effectively creates a sense of suspense and dread, gradually unraveling the mysteries surrounding San Siroco's sinking and the disappearances. The characters are complex and well-developed, particularly Tamsin, whose ruthless nature and questionable ethics provide an interesting contrast to her scientific brilliance.

However, the novel's pacing is somewhat uneven, with some plot points feeling underdeveloped and others rushing through significant revelations. Additionally, the ending, while surprising, felt somewhat unsatisfying, leaving some questions unanswered and the overall resolution feeling rushed.

Overall, Last to Leave the Room is a well-written and thought-provoking novel with a unique premise and intriguing characters. However, its uneven pacing and unsatisfying ending somewhat diminish its overall impact.

Here's a summary of the pros and cons:

Pros:

Unique and intriguing premise
Captivating atmosphere
Complex and well-developed characters
Cons:

Uneven pacing
Underdeveloped plot points
Unsatisfying ending
I would recommend Last to Leave the Room to fans of science fiction, horror, and psychological thrillers who enjoy a unique and thought-provoking story with complex characters. However, those seeking a more tightly paced and satisfying resolution may want to consider other options.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever read a speculative horror novel prior to Last to Leave the Room, but the premise of this book sounded too good not to give it a try. At the end of the day, I think some of the science fiction elements went over my head.I would find myself getting distracted and miss important details in the story (likely due to zoning out listening to the audio). I’m not quite 100% sure I’m smart enough to fully review this book, so I’m going to go with a pros/cons list review!

PROS:
📚Unique premise: I loved this take on doppelgangers.
📚The second half: So much more action and tension! This part really brought forward the horror/thriller side of the story.
📚Tension/unease: Starling does a phenomenal job of bringing these vibes to the story!

CONS:
📚Confusing: There was a lot of build up and details in the first half that I definitely think were essential, but they weren’t always clearly laid out. I listened to this one, so it might be more manageable reading the physical copy.
📚The ending: I’m not sure it solved everything for me and I still feel a little lost.

I adore Starling’s The Luminous Dead and have plans to read The Death of Jane Lawrence soon. Starling has a knack for unique stories and I think her writing makes her accessible for a broad range of readers looking for something with a fresh premise to read.

Starling excels at claustrophobic and creepy tales. A recommended purchase for collections where her previous titles are popular.