Who Would Like This Book:
This is a wildly inventive and deeply unsettling psychological thriller that keeps you on your toes from start to finish. The storytelling is layered and immersive, using multiple points of view - including a Bible-quoting cat - to craft a tense, twisty narrative. If you love unreliable narrators, dark mysteries, and stories where reality is always in question, you’ll find yourself hooked. Fans of books that blend horror with literary flair, or who enjoy dissecting characters with complex mental landscapes, will get a lot out of this one.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Some readers found the book too confusing or disorienting, especially in the first half, as the unusual perspectives and shifting realities can be hard to follow. If you’re not into slow-burn pacing or stories where the truth is deliberately withheld - and especially if you prefer tales with more traditional structure or clear-cut genre boundaries - this might not be your cup of tea. The depiction of mental illness is heavily featured, which, although handled with research and sensitivity, can be a tough or even off-putting subject for some. Also, if you don’t like animal POVs or find too many twists frustrating, you may want to steer clear.
About:
'The Last House on Needless Street' by Catriona Ward is a dark and atmospheric psychological thriller that follows the lives of Ted, a lonely man living in a boarded-up house with his cat Olivia and troubled daughter Lauren. The story intertwines with Dee, a woman obsessed with finding her missing sister's abductor. As the plot unfolds through multiple narrators, including the cat Olivia, readers are taken on a suspenseful journey filled with unexpected twists and revelations. The writing style is gripping, immersive, and described as having layers like an onion, keeping readers engaged until the very end.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include child abuse, animal cruelty, mental illness, and themes surrounding grief and trauma.
From The Publisher:
"The buzz...is real. I've read it and was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end." -Stephen King
Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street is a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House.
"The new face of literary dark fiction." -Sarah Pinborough, New York Times bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes
An Indie Next Pick!
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.
A teenage girl who isn't allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.
An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
Ratings (252)
Incredible (52) | |
Loved It (79) | |
Liked It (58) | |
It Was OK (37) | |
Did Not Like (15) | |
Hated It (11) |
Reader Stats (624):
Read It (260) | |
Currently Reading (4) | |
Want To Read (266) | |
Did Not Finish (17) | |
Not Interested (77) |
8 comment(s)
I've heard a fair amount of hype for this book for a few years, and I finally got the audiobook from the library to give it a shot. While it's definitely a bit slow, that careful, intense tone really makes it work. The atmosphere was unsettling and had me listening closely to try to understand what was going on. And while I didn't love how infodumpy it got towards the very end, I'll forgive it because in reality, I was sat trying to figure out what the truth was.
This story was not what I was expecting at all...in a good way! I think it is best to go into this one without knowing too much; so I don't really want to say anything specific. But this book is definitely worth reading!
Religious & rainbow cat, buried gods, child abduction, murder, secrets, I mean... it all makes sense once you reach the end. Story was difficult to get into with very disorienting first chapters but built up to be a very interesting psychological thriller. I do feel though that the ending may have been rushed and could have continued in the same atmosphere as the rest of the story.
Good book and definitely recommend going in (mostly) blind!
Definitely a book worth checking for trigger warnings before reading but otherwise going in blind. This is by far my favorite read of the year so far, and it has easily earned a spot on my list of all time favorites.
Wow! Where do I even begin with this book? This is absolutely my new favorite book of 2021 so far, and I doubt that changing. Excellent use of the unreliable narrator. This author is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. This was the first book I had read by her, but definitely will be on her radar from now on. This is how a thriller/suspense/horror should be written. Still amazed days later.
What a monumental waste of time.
Interesting!
Sad and unnerving.
What can you read after
The Last House on Needless Street?
About the Author:
CATRIONA WARD was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She studied English at Oxford and later the Creative Writing Masters at the University of East Anglia. Her second novel Little Eve won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award and the August Derleth Prize at the British Fantasy Awards. Her debut The Girl from Rawblood also won the 2016 August Derleth Prize, making her the first and only woman to win the prize twice. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. She divides her time between London and the remote English moors.
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