That was more chilling to think about than a fictional character, and Im honestly not sure what kind of person this makes me. An unspeakable secret binds them together, and when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees behind their house will come back to haunt them all. The story is narrated by Ted, Oliva, Dee and Lauren with some characters in third person and some in first person, a technical that allows a rounded tale, told from limited but different viewpoints. Can you help explain The Last House on Needless Street? However, it gave me plenty of things to think about, and one thing I cant take away from Ward: she clearly put a lot of research into the main mental health problem featured in this book, and handled her characters with care. Dee, the girls sister, has never stopped thinking about Lulu. MEDIA REVIEWS. *, The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (Author), Christopher Ragland (Narrator). By the time they leave, the six year old is missing and Dee's family is shattered forever. The Last House on Needless Street - The BOLO Books Review Full of twists and turns, sorrow and humanity. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. As I mentioned in my review, I suspected from the first chapter that multiple personality issues will come into play in some way, including Lauren and Olivia. There is so much going on in this book that its easy to slip up and inadvertently spoil the story for others which makes it especially hard to review. Abused as a child, he has turned mostly into a recluse in his adult life, going out to get food when necessary and see his therapist so he can get his meds. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. For Ward, part of writing Needless Street necessarily involved processing heartbreaking and often quite upsetting things. But when a book has a mildly interesting plot with characters that fail to make you have strong feelings towards them, being occasionally appalled is just not enough. The Last House on Needless Street follows Ted, who lives with his daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia in an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street. #shireliving, Birthday+winterstorm+homework= snuggling up by the fire watching my favorite, eating my favorites love this peace and happiness, Still lots to do but it looks like a home now. I loved the story, but the audio production made it ten times better. She read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward | 9781788166164,Buy new & second-hand (used) books online with Free UK Delivery at AwesomeBooks.com 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. Learn how your comment data is processed. It releases on September 28th! shammon5 1 yr. ago. If you dont, you may not., Especially since The Last House on Needless Street isnt the sort of horror story (or even quasi-horror story) that relies on gore or jump scares to terrify its readers. Required fields are marked *. This is a great example of the skill of showing and not telling. What Im trying to say here is I have no idea what Im trying to say. Depending on how you view him, he can come across as creepy, sinister or benign. Privacy Policy. A teenage girl who isn't allowed outside, not after last time. This book is the exact reason why I rarely read reviews before picking up a book. The Last House on Needless Street Audible Audiobook - Amazon.com.au It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end. Ive been looking for a good opportunity to get to read this book, and the Ladies of Horror Fiction Readalong seemed like the perfect reason to jump The Last House on Needless Street on the top of my TBR. I knew what was happening in this story. He's unemployed, drinks a lot, and suffers from a few undiagnosed mental health problems. Could you all raise your hand if the first thought after finishing this book was something like: Conflicted by this one. To play [not just ] with the expectations of horror but also with the snap conclusions people might come to about certain kinds of behavior or mental health conditions [or socio-economic indicators].. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to . Find out more here. I no longer need to think of you as my son. Im fascinated by the lake. We then find out that Lauren is another alter of Teds, created when he was just a child, and that he gave all the pain of his mothers abuse to Lauren so that he didnt have to endure it. Tanya H. said "I don't know why they've got so many bad reviews but our experience was great! Thanks for the great review! The same applies to the psyches of its characters. Dee is left petrified of snakes, thinking she knows who took her sister, she fixates on Ted Bannerman, even though there was CCTV showing he was in a store, with scores of witnesses at the time, proving he had nothing to do with the taking of Lulu. I loved Ward's Rawblood a few years ago but The Last House on Needless Street is such a disappointment, just a cheap series of narrative cheats whose only purpose is to support the oldest and most cliched 'twist' ending in horror fictionwe are seriously supposed to believe that not only does the murder suspect have multiple personalities, but that the dominant one has a name coincidentally . And [theres] actually a huge quality of empathy [involved] because what youre saying to the reader is, Here are my vulnerabilities. All original content on this site belongs to the author. Ted lives in the last house on Needless Street. The cat chapters were a little kooky (who knew cats could be religious! Her desperation drove her to the edge of sanity, and I guess thats what she paid for in the end. Yeah, the mom buried Lulu in the neighbor's yard when the neighbor went on vacation. THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET blew me away. Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, September 2021. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Anne Coates is a journalist and author of the Hannah Weybridge crime thriller series: Dancers in the Wind, Death's Silent Judgement, Songs of Innocence and Perdition's Child . The last house on Needless Street is a boarded-up, run-down shell of its former self. I never heard from her again although I do think of her every once in a while. I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars. It is impossible to write a meaningful analysis of The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (Viper, 2021) without . The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (Author), Christopher Ragland (Narrator) Eleven years ago Dee and her six year old sister visit a lake with their parents. I feel like I need to re-read this book in order to catch all the clues I missed! 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. "You are an honest child. Ted has blocked out the outside world as much as possible, except for his . Please, just read it. To nie tak, e ta ksika bya dla mnie neutralna - ale miaa moim zdaniem tyle samo zalet, co (niestety) wad. , I hope you enjoy it if you read it. I am overwhelmed. What's worse, she adds the further cliche of repressed memories/unreliable narrator to the protagonist in order to further obfuscate the narrative. Overall, The Last House on Needless Street is a thought-provoking novel, with some chilling elements, placing mental illness into the focus in a different way - which is refreshing - managing to stay with you for a long time. As soon as you crack open Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street, you know something's very wrong. 05/04/2021 15:11. Cookie Notice Book Review: The Last House on Needless Street - PHANTASTIQA - was it as simple as the mum ended up burying LuLu on her property whilst she was away on holiday. Often, Im not a fan of male narrators trying to do female voices, but Christopher Ragland did an incredible job of matching all the different characters. Truth will out, or will it? THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET by Catriona Ward Time is iffy and everyone is erratic. What kind of parent says they dont love their child? The Last House on Needless Street | Necromancy Never Pays She alters her memory of the snakes in order to cope with the guilt. I usually try to keep my reviews as spoiler-free as I can, but Im going to have an exception here. Snakes were her one true fear because they slithered out from under Lulus body when she found it. 18 March 2021. In the present-day Ted Bannerman lives on Needless Street in a house where all windows are bordered up with planks while the gardens are filled with various treats for the birds . If you usually ignore the afterword in books, make this one your exception (though not until after youve finished the book as there is a spoiler in there). A division of The Kreisau Circle LLC. Everything was obvious to me from the get-go. What was her role in everything?! She pushed down her own guilt and focused that guilt on trying to find her sister and the person who eventually took her away from the scene. Almost time to get my garden going. I know thats tough to do as you want to read everyones reviews and see if the plot is a good fit. The perspectives switch between Ted, the sister of the abducted child, and that of Teds cat. Your email address will not be published. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. It sure left me with thoughts. DAS LETZTE HAUS in der Needless Street, Catriona Ward - EUR 22,99. Not very successfully. Because in my opinion, this is not even close to a gothic thriller. . Like, holy shit, talk about psychopaths At first when they were in the forest and his mother revealed her fathers history and told Ted she never loved him I thought her coldness for her son was, if not natural, kinda understandable. Things are slowly getting out of his control when Dee appears in the house next to his, bent on finding her lost sister who went missing some ten years earlier from the lake. 'Every monster has a story': Catriona Ward on her chilling gothic novel By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Technically, the book was well written and the characters were interesting but the ending was such a cop-out, relying on such an overused trope these daysas the review above notes. I felt that this was just perhaps pushing the envelope a little bit further., Ward refers to her previous novels as Gothic-style stories of distressed girls wandering about on moors, and says that part of her drive to write Needless Street came from an urge to do something completely different and to write something as mad as I liked.. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Again, I dont even know if this book is horror, Ward admits ruefully. Wayward Magazine features veteran entertainment journalism staff covering new releases in horror and horror-adjacent fiction (mostly books). There is something odd going on in the boarded-up house at the end of Needless Street. 7. Dee didn`t kill her own sister, it was accidental and she panicked and ran off only to realize she wasn`t dead. Each one walked away with him and was never seen again. In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. Lauren isn't Lauren, and also suffers from severe dissociative identity disorder. Thats not to say I cant appreciate a great thriller or mystery I like watching true crime shows for instance. Absolutely hated it and it was fucking confusing to follow. This absolutely horrifies me because what kind of world do we live in where someone can walk up to a woman in a group of friends, introduce himself by his name, and take her away and kill her in broad daylight? she continues. A young girl who isn't allowed outside, not after last time. As I mentioned in my review, I suspected from the first chapter that multiple personality issues will come into play in some way, including Lauren and Olivia. Horror books; Fiction; I did not like the last 20-30% at all when the big "reveals" happen. The books narrative counts on its readers to feel as though they know whats happening, that theyve already guessed the twists ahead of them.