I was not expecting that ending. I was a little confused about what was going on in the beginning, but I think that helped the story along for me. It gave me a sense of dread about where this story was heading. I'm going to pick up some of the author's other books and see if I get the same feelings, hopefully I will.

This book was wrapped perfectly in a mystery shroud with a very twisted ending. An ending that left me thinking about it for a day.

There are a few chapters where it was unnecessarily detail heavy but overall it was a good read!

Will definitely recommend this!

Thank you St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this!

I have read another book by this author and I absolutely loved it. However this this one fell short for me. It took me forever to read and I couldn't fully get into it.

This one is great for the spooky season and certainly invoked all those feelings I had when I used to read R.L. Stine books as a teen! I'm excited to read more from the author!

This one was a bit confusing at the end, as Nate and his 3 friends make their way to the ultimate Urban Legend location. Some twists appeared, things get a bit weird, and then it gets pretty wrapped up. Not sure if Hiding Boy is appeased or what as it’s not clear to me. Bulk of the story was good, closing was just ok.

✨Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the gifted physical and digital copies of this book!✨

I did not enjoy this book. I shouldn’t have finished it, but I hung in because I felt obligation.

I had no idea what was going on probably 70% of this book. It was incredibly difficult to follow. I listened on audio so maybe it would have been better in print? Either way, I found it difficult to connect the dots here.

The twist was pretty shocking. It added a little bit of interest to an otherwise boring plot.

Overall, I didn’t find this one to be worth my time. I’d skip it.

Thank you so much, St. Martin’s Press and netgalley, for the eARC copy!
 
One House Left by: Vincent Ralph
 
QOTD: Do you believe in urban legends? Are they real?
 
This was a good YA thriller. The beginning starts a little slow but once it picks up it picks up!
 
"Ready or not. Whatever you do. The Hiding Boy is coming for you. "  
 
One House Left follows Nate and his family as they settle into a new town after their contestant moves to avoid the curse of the "murder road". I love reading about urban legends that the teens tested out. I remember we would do this when we were teens, which was nostalgic. There were many twists, especially that ending- that is something I did not see coming at all. It brings the story full circle while also bringing in that perfect shock at the end. It was very intense; the story was well-written.
 
I recommend this book if you love horror and mystery combined. Do not read this book at night…. LOL

I really wanted to like this book more as I have enjoyed all of the other books I've read by this author. The storyline was interesting but was hard to hold my attention at times. While this was a quick read, I don't know that I connected with the characters as much as in other books so the ending, while thrilling, was rather uneventful to me. This is a good spooky read that may keep you up at night, and as a fan of the author I would read his books no matter what, but if you're new to the author, I might choose another one of his reads as my first.

Honestly, I didn't love this book. The synopsis coins it "R.L. Stine meets Urban Legend", and I was expecting an anxiety-inducing, chilling horror story. I feel like the concept was there, maybe just not fully executed in a way that would have given me what I needed. I believe this is something others will love, just not exactly what I was expecting.

This is very much in the style of R.L. Stine or Christopher Pike and brings back all the early YA reading you did even in middle school. Very well written and with enough intrigue that keeps you reading, if you wanted to guess and run through all the scenario's in your head about the outcome you would be able to guess it but it was so fun to just go with the flow and let it happen. Then it does surprise you a bit with a twist. I really had a good time with it.

Thank you to St. Martins Press, Wednesday books, Vincent Ralph and Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I w as so excited to receive this book and it did not disappoint! The writing took me a little to adapt to, however once that no longer became an obstacle I was invested in this story and the end had me gasping! I love when a thriller completely blindsides me and this one accomplished that.

It started out a mystery about the house on the street that had various murders happen to it. Confusing when various storylines were introduced throughout the book. Resolution was abrupt and felt unfinished.

Nate and his family are running from something or is it someone?

Nate and his family have been moving a lot over the last few years. They all seem haunted by something that happened at a previous address, the infamous "Murder Road." He seems reluctant to make friends, but eventually finds a group, the leader, an attractive girl named Max, Taylor and Seb. The group investigates urban legends, which supposedly never came true before Nate joined them. Suddenly, the legends are coming to life and they feel Nate is the key component. Will they find out his connection to Murder Road? Is Nate safe in this new town or will he soon be running again with his family?

I enjoyed this book. It had some twists at the end that I wasn't expecting, It was a little slow in parts and a bit confusing at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the DRC. This review is completely my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for an e-ARC of One House Left in exchange for an honest review.

Nate Campbell grew up on Murder Road, a street where several unexplained murders took place due to the supernatural spirit The Hiding Boy. Nate’s family is now starting over in a new town, where Nate makes some friends who are obsessed with the paranormal.

I was initially intrigued by the book to the ghost story associated with Murder Road. I haven’t read a lot of paranormal books so was excited to check it out! The start of the novel is pretty standard high school new kid story. He feels left out before being accepted by friends, but their obsession with the occult drives a bit of a wedge between them.

Nate is hesitant to bond with these people as he has been severely traumatized. This book focused a lot around healing and coming to terms with trauma in the first half. Then the second half hits and it gets quite scary and creepy and so many surprises are revealed! I enjoyed the second half more and was hoping for more of that throughout the book but once we got there, it was hard to put the book down!

I was really hoping this book would deliver on its comparison to R.L. Stine. I was a huge fan of his Fear Street series growing up. He was probably responsible for my love of horror books just as much as Stephen King (who I came across later).

However, I was really disappointed in this story. I was hoping for a spooky, scary read and instead felt that the story fell flat. It centers more around teenage drama than the horror elements. I also felt like it took way too long to get to the meat of the story. The characters kept eluding to a big event that happened to bring them to where they are now. Yet it wasn’t directly discussed until pretty far into the book.

In the end, I didn’t get any chills or sense of urgency from the story.

I was expecting a little more horror, the pacing and repetitiveness was distracting from the story. The characters did not stand out, not a bad story but left more to be desired.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Well. I’m not sure what to say about this one. I couldn’t really get into it and was really waiting for a “hook” or something to get me engaged. I couldn’t relate to the characters and found the pacing to be a bit off. Overall, this didn’t work for me and I was ready for it to be done.

I started reading about a family that moves a-lot. The children, are haunted by their previous home on Cherry Hill Lane. Murders Row and they fled for their lives. Being the new kid at school sucks evenmore when you want to be a loner for your sanity. Nate makes friends with a small group that loves horror seeking. The mystery thriller then takes a deep turn into survival and loss.

Vincent Ralph can do no wrong and he knocked it out again with this book. An excellent mix of mystery and urban legend. This book had me hooked from beginning to end and Nate was an excellent MMC. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and can't wait to see read what Vincent writes next.

This was slow paced but I was intrigued for about the first half of the book with the focus on urban legends. We learn pretty early on that Nate's family is on the run from their past and the family dynamics were definitely odd. I wish the back story of why they were on the run had been shared earlier on, as I started getting annoyed with the continued vague comments so deep into the book. Like the fact that Rowan saved those kids and they were moving around to escape the haunted aftermath could have been shared sooner without ruining the book or suspense.

I thought it could have ended around the 80-85% mark when Nate trapped his friends in the house and it would have been a solid ending. It was a twist I wasn't expecting and I would have been satisfied with that closure.. I thought everything after this point was unnecessary, or could have been edited down into an epilogue.