✨This was a fun, fast-paced thriller with lots of my favorite elements: an isolated location, a locked room mystery to solve and a dreary wintry setting.

✨ The main character is a hot mess but trying (and failing), but you still can’t help but root for her.

✨ The twists and turns as the story unfolds really kept me on my toes.

✨This will be the perfect chilly thriller for a cold wintery day.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Psychological thrillers
✨Locked room mysteries
✨Isolated locations
✨Snowed-in narratives
✨Renovated mid-century roadside motels
✨Alternating points of view

My thanks to @putnambooks and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

It started with at first her car was a Toyota and then magically turned into a Honda and went downhill from there. I can say the book tried, but it’s a no for me.

Honestly meh? I don’t think I would call this a feminist take on the shining. I don’t know that I would file this anywhere close to that actually. This was a hard story to get into and an even harder one to finish. The plot could be interesting at points but most of the time it was a yawn fest. This was just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy of this ARC. This will be out in January 2025.

An interesting thriller! I did love the unreliable narrator and the retelling of The Shining. I liked how the twists kept coming. However, I feel like there was a lot of common tropes and it was relatively easy to guess “who did it”. It also seemed that the end came too quickly and was too neat and clean of an ending. A fun read, but not necessarily one of my favorites.

Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for sending me an ARC of The Last Room on the Left in exchange for an honest review.

Kerry has an drinking problem, and it’s ruining her life. Her husband Frank has left her. She hasn’t spoken to her best friend Siobhan in two months. She has a book deal that could make her career but she can’t get the words on paper. So she’s going to spend the month of February working as a caretaker at the Twilite Motel in the Catskills, in the hopes that the isolation will help her stop drinking and start writing. But within hours, she thinks she’s found a woman’s dead body in the snow, but did she? Because it’s gone when the police arrive. Is Kerry in danger from a killer or is she going crazy?

The Last Room on the Left is a pretty standard psychological thriller. It’s got the multiple points-of-view and the non-linear storytelling that are so common in the genre now. There are half a dozen potential suspects, and several red herrings, but you’ll probably know who the killer is. It’s the kind of book I usually rate as 3.5 stars rounded up 4.

But The Last Room on the Left is expressly positioning itself as a “feminist take on The Shining.” And this book certainly borrows the set-up of The Shining: an alcoholic writer takes a winter hotel caretaker job to finally stop drinking and write their novel.

And yet for me, it was perfect, my own little Overlook Hotel, where I could finish my book (minus the ghosts, psychotic break, and homicide, of course). And unlike Jack Torrance, I didn’t even have a family to terrorize and I wasn’t going to be drinking a single drop. All work and no play was finally going to make Kerry a truly successful girl.

But The Shining uses that set-up to show Jack’s slow, supernaturally aided descent into homicidal madness. The Last Room on the Left does none of that and nothing like that. Moreover, I’d argue The Last Room on the Left isn’t even feminist. Placing women in mortal danger at the hands of men is not feminist. Instead, the three main female characters are actually pretty awful to each other throughout the story.

The Last Room on the Left is the rare book that I rate as 3.5 stars rounded down to 3.

Kerry is an alcoholic who takes a job as caretaker of a remote hotel. She liked the fact that there wouldn't be wifi and she could finish writing her book. Once she arrives the room she is suppose to stay in is dirty and looks like someone never left. Kerry finds a body frozen outside and she reports it to police. The police arrive and there is no trace of a body. Kerry isn't sure if it was real or if she imagined it.

I just didn't enjoy all the drug/alcohol aspects and the explicit sex scenes in this book.

Trigger warnings: Drug/Alcohol abuse, explicit sex scenes

The book was billed as a modern, feminist take on the shining. I was immediately engrossed and flew through this book. The story followed a writer to a remote motel as she worked as an overwinter caretaker to work on her novel and struggled with her alcoholism and absolute wreckage of her life. I thought the writer did a really great job exploring these issues and also wrote a captivating thriller. I thought it was interesting how she included her compulsion to numb herself with the “endless scroll, scroll, scroll…” with her other vices. As someone who was once a terrible alcoholic, but is now sober and still guilty of checking out in social media, this is something I am becoming more and more mindful of and was interested to see it included here. Overall it was a really good thriller.

A renovated mid century motel in upstate New York is closed for the winter and needs a caretaker. Enter hot mess writer, Kerry, hoping the peace and solitude will help her finish her novel. Peace is definitely not what she finds.

Told from several POV, this book is filled with twists and turns galore! It’s a great mashup of thriller, mystery and horror and to make it even better there’s a blizzard. There’s nothing I like better on a 95° day than reading about freezing cold and a dangerous blizzard. I had trouble putting this book down as I needed to know what would happen next.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast paced, trippy whodunnit. You can’t go wrong with this one.

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Group Putnam and author Leah Konen for the fantastic ARC. I appreciate the opportunity.

The part where the book is said to be "a feminist take on The Shining" is a lie. Just saying.

Unless you consider every story about a caretaker of a motel that is in the middle of nowhere to be a different version of The Shining, then sure.

I read later on in the Acknowledgements part of the book that her friend had dared her to write "a feminist The Shining" but until I finished the book, I was not sure how it was anything like The Shining or even a feminist version of it. I guess there was some feminism in the book, but again, the term "feminist The Shining" stayed with me from the start until the end and sort of bothered me.

Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad book. I enjoyed it from the first page, every chapter is fast-paced and got me disturbed by the actual random sounds around me in real life. There is twist after twist, and as a reader, you cannot trust anyone, not even the narrator who has a drinking problem and a history of imagining things.

The book is pretty solid, the plot was mostly decent, but the ending kind of fell flat. As a fan of the thriller genre, I guess I intend to have a higher expectation than I should have, but the ending just sort of... happened. It is a good book, but nothing remarkable. If you are a fan of the mystery thriller genre like me, I doubt that this book will impress you, but you might still enjoy the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book jumps right into it within the first couple of chapters. After the first few chapters the books alternates between different character POVs and timelines which was well done to keep the reader interested. The author did a really good job at keeping you guessing until the very end on what really happened. I'm a sucker for a snowed in or blizzard type of book so this was right up my alley. Will definitely be recommending for others to give this one a read.

This was a quick, fun read, but I think it would have been more successful if not marketed as a 'feminist take on The Shining.' Yes, it's a woman who is a writer and goes to a secluded hotel to finish her project, but just because the main character is a woman doesn't necessarily make it 'feminist,' and unless I'd read that comparison, I wouldn't have thought to compare it to 'The Shining' myself. I think doing so just sets readers up for disappointment when it could otherwise stand on its own as a fun thriller.

The last Room on the left by Leah Konen

This book came out of the gate strong and then I struggled to push through it. I enjoyed the jumpstart with the character and learning about her struggles and addiction to alcohol but then it continued and became a constant drone of the same ol, then the pieces started to fit in with her friendship with Siobhan… well then that got played out very repetitive and became obnoxious.

The premise to the story was interesting and the idea intrigued me, especially the shining reference, motel in the mountains, seclusion, etc. Overall I enjoyed the story and it held my attention but it failed to deliver in the haha department.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin group for this Arc!

3.5 stars.

The novel started out a little slowly before picking up. Two once-close friends who have lost touch are reunited when both are named caretakers of an isolated motel during the winter off-season.

Although its billing as a "twisty, addictive, feminist take on The Shining" sounds appealing, it is inaccurate. There are no similarities between the books beyond a shared premise - both involve isolated properties in the off-season, caretakers with existing substance abuse problems, plus mysterious and sinister occurrences. The author added a substance abuse issue to the equation and I feel that is a fairly common complication used in suspense novels as the basis for much of the suspense - are the sinister occurrences *real* or figments of the character’s alcohol-addled imagination? I typically do not enjoy books where the protagonist struggles with substance abuse, but I appreciated that the author strove to create characters who were “regular” and average, very different from the implausibly high-achieving female characters found in many works of contemporary fiction and suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Putnam for granting me access to this ARC for my review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The Last Room On The Left by Leah Konen
Genre: Thriller
Length: 352 pages
POV: 3 - Kerry, Siobhan, & Allison
Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and @netgalley for the e-ARC of this book. The opinions stated are solely my own.

Synopsis:
Kerry has hit rock bottom. A writer who has recently separated from her husband due to a rising drinking problem, she has a book deadline to meet that can hopefully put her on a better path. Kerry takes a caretaker job at a motel in the Catskills to find peace and quiet to hopefully finish her book out of the hustle and bustle of the city.

She has a rocky start with her few neighbors and in a drunken state stumbles upon a dead girl within the motel grounds, frozen in the snow. The police come, only to find no such body and Kerry isn't sure what to believe anymore. Is there a killer on the loose? Why does she feel like she is being watched? And can she trust anything she sees on the premises as she continues to drown her problems in alcohol?

Opinion:
I really loved the setting of this story. A motel in the middle of nowhere, snow, very spotty phone service, power outages - it is a perfect recipe for a murder and great thriller. Without giving away anything, I enjoyed how Kerry's story intertwined with her [former] best friend, Siobhan's, and how both women were in the writing and movie-making profession. It was almost like a screnplay within a book, which was very cool. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was Kerry being a semi-unreliable narrator due to her drinking. That is a trope that I don't completely love. However, it was a good book and had a small twist in the epilogue that I liked! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The beginning was intriguing, typically I love isolated thrillers/mysteries, especially in a setting where the main character is trapped by something, like a winter storm. Unfortunately, I don’t typically like a thriller with an unreliable female character that is unreliable because of a drinking or drug use problem. It’s just not something I love reading about, and the MC, Kerry, brings it up a lot. We’re also victim to a ton of “telling” instead of “showing” what makes up both Kerry and Siobhan, the other POV, which makes them paper thin; I couldn’t connect with either one.

A bit slow for the first 1/4 of the book, then it picked up. Told by 3 POVs and set in a motel closed for the winter it definitely had spooky vibes the whole way through. Lots of twists and turns while trying to figure out who the murderer is before someone else dies.

Thank you to Net Galley and Putnam books for the ARC to read and review.

So, if you liked the Shining but wish there was a FMC and oh also the creep factor is upped and you'll never be able to sleep at night, than I have the book for you! This book was perfection for a King fan like me.

#TheLastRooomOnTheLeft #NetGalley
This is her best till date.
The Last Room on the Left by Leah Konen is a chilling psychological thriller that plunges readers into the dark and desolate landscape of the Catskills, where isolation and paranoia become Kerry’s constant companions. Kerry, whose life has spiraled out of control due to her crumbling marriage and worsening drinking problem, sees a glimmer of hope in a caretaker position at a recently revitalized roadside motel. Hoping the secluded environment will provide the perfect escape to finish her long-overdue book and restart her life, she takes the job.However, what starts as a hopeful retreat quickly turns into a nightmare when a blizzard traps Kerry in the motel. Through the blinding snow, she spots something horrifying—a pale arm sticking out from a snowbank. Alone, with a dead body outside and no way to escape, Kerry is thrust into a terrifying game of survival. The suspense builds as she questions whether the deadly threats are real or a figment of her imagination, driven by her isolation and mental state. But with the body count rising, Kerry’s fears seem all too real, forcing her to confront the terrifying reality that the killer may be closer than she thinks..
This is her best work till date. It was a sharp thriller.
Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam for giving me an advance copy.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Kerry’s life is in disarray with a recent breakup and falling out with a best friend. Now she has an opportunity to be a caretaker for a week at a remote motel in the Catskills. With a looming deadline and writer’s block on a book deal, this sounds like a perfect getaway. A chance to regroup and finish writing her book without distractions and put the past behind her. Kerry jumps at this chance, but odd things begin to happen almost immediately on arrival. There are strange noises, odd neighbors, limited internet for outside contact. Throw in a power outage, blizzard and …. a body found in the snow (it’s there and then it’s missing and then it’s found elsewhere and then it’s not….) and away we go. A bit of a feminine take on The Shining? Not exactly. No supernatural happenings. No ‘Here’s Johnny’…. Simply a main character with a lot of baggage trying to make it through the week alive and write her book. The characters were well developed but the MC was just not likeable. Expecting a strong female lead, Kerry is the opposite. She fails to be accountable and take ownership of where she’s come from and where she is heading. There’s a nice twist on who is the victim and who is responsible. The book pulls together nicely at the end. A good suspense novel that is well written.

The story follows Kerry, a writer, looking for an escape to finish writing her book and for a fresh start. She decides to take a job as a caretaker at a motel, during the off season. She gets more than she expects when she discovers a dead body. There’s no cell service and she’s snowed in. This is a perfect winter read and I enjoyed this story so much. It’s creepy and lots of twists and turns. If you get scared easily, read this during the day. I definitely recommend this one if you’re a fan of physiological thrillers!