Review: The Only One Left
By Riley Sager
This blog is for adults, 18+ only. Please be aware of the trigger warnings listed at the bottom of the article.
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Good Reads Score: 4.20
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Horror, Fiction, Gothic
Spice Level: 0/5 - some kissing and implied sex
Jill’s Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Synopsis:
“Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.
It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.
As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.”
Review:
I LOVE a good ‘who done it’ with a morally grey main character. Kit, our MC, is accused of killing her mom, who has terminal cancer, since she was her end-of-life caretaker. Kit has no relationship with her father, who-the book implies- also believes she killed her mom. She’s basically destitute, has no friends, relationship- things are rough for her. Like, damn girl- that’s a lot of trauma! A criticism I have of the book is the lack of emotional depth Kit has. With all of this shit going on, you would think the emotional tone would be very heavy and depressing. Yet, there is very little of that. Kit is a very logical person who seems to be more concerned with making a plan than addressing the feelings-something I found to be unrelatable and honestly, unlikeable about her. Give me something to empathize with!
So, due to her situation, she feels that her back is against the wall and she has to take this work position caretaking for this woman (Lenora) who is giving Lizzie Borden- “I may or may not have stabbed my whole family”- vibes. So, this lady, Lenora, is elderly and paralyzed everywhere in her body but her left hand. A hand that she conveniently uses to type out messages (on a typewriter a previous caretaker got for her) to Kit about *ThE NiGhT It AlL HaPpEneD*. —cue spooky music— .
Here is where my second complaint lies: from the moment that Kit arrives to this beautiful mansion on the top of a cliff to take care of Lenora, our girl is OBSESSED with finding out wether or not Lenora, this woman she is supposed to be taking care of, murdered her whole family or not. Like, when I say obsessed, she is thinking of nothing else. Goes to sleep thinking about it, wakes up thinking about it, the only convos she has with Lenora are about it. She wakes up this lady in the middle of the night forcing her to type for hours telling her the story of *ThE NiGhT It AlL HapPenED*.
Not I get it- Kit is another spooky bitch and we love that. But she is not chill and seems to have no personality beyond this plot. The story is told though a different time-lines model. You have the story where Lenora is younger for some chapters and then the story where we’re in ‘present day’ actually like the 70s?) with Kit. One of the first times I read a story with this model of storytelling was that book “The Wife Between Us” and I remember how much I loved that way of storytelling; piecing together the story timeline by timeline, filling in the gaps to the mystery as you go, but that was 2018 and I have to say that I’m tiring out on it. There are so many books that use this method now and I’m ready for something new.
Okay so, I know it probably seems like I hated the book- I definitely didn’t. It’s a quick, weekend read and the way the author writes is compelling and he def knows how to make things feel spooky. But, I am mid on this book. I didn’t see the ending coming, I won’t spoil it because I think you should still read it, and that’s definitely a feat because I can usually figure out a ‘who done it’ before we get to the reveal.
I would love to hear what y’all thought about it- am I being too harsh?
-your friend Jill
“At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life
“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead”
