The Last House on Needless Street
by Catriona Ward
On This Page
Description
"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 "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 In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods show more 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"-- show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
Member Reviews
This was the second thriller I read yesterday, another chilling and fast-paced story. It is told by multiple narrators with flashbacks, which create a disorientating effect. The reader is faced with interconnected mysteries of what happened to a lost little girl and what is going on with the narration. Ward carefully fosters then confounds the reader's expectations of both. There is a lot of brutal child abuse, which is hard to read. Yet the book remains involving as the narrative voices are vivid and the tension sustained extremely well. Dee's death was rather abrupt, but as part of the total reversal of expectations about who was responsible for Lulu vanishing it worked very well. After considering Ted a terrifying abuser for most of show more the book, the realisation breaks that he was abused by his mother and his identity fragmented. Lauren is not his victim and Olivia not his cat; both are his alters. Using dissociative identity disorder for shock value is not new for horror fiction, but the treatment of it seems fairly respectful here. Ted isn't dangerous, as it turns out. He's trying to cope with terrible childhood trauma. The ending is therefore quieter and more reflective than many thrillers, which I appreciated. Although this is a very neatly constructed novel, I wouldn't call [b:The Last House on Needless Street|54621094|The Last House on Needless Street|Catriona Ward|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603323638l/54621094._SY75_.jpg|85222103] enjoyable to read. It's definitely atmospheric, creepy, and compelling, though. show less
This is the story about a six-year-old girl who vanished without a trace on a summer's day at a lake in Washington, but it's also much more than that. The narrative frequently changes perspective: told in first person by Ted, a loner who lives in the eponymous house, and Olivia, Ted's cat, and in close third by Dee, the sister of the girl who went missing eleven years ago. The novel is frequently disorientating, so much so that I made the mistake of checking the end fairly early on to see if it was worth persevering, so knew part of the solution, but it's fair to say that it didn't really help much.
The arrival of Dee on Needless Street acts as a catalyst and, like in a thunderstorm, the tension mounts and mounts until it ends in a show more catastrophic release of energy that will change everyone affected by it.
The novel is in equal parts terrifying, heartbreaking and thought-provoking, and I felt the author was incredibly brave to portraythe person with dissociative identity disorder as the victim, instead of opting for the easy horror option and making him the villain in the story. I can only imagine how much time it must have taken to get all the voices and details right . show less
The arrival of Dee on Needless Street acts as a catalyst and, like in a thunderstorm, the tension mounts and mounts until it ends in a show more catastrophic release of energy that will change everyone affected by it.
The novel is in equal parts terrifying, heartbreaking and thought-provoking, and I felt the author was incredibly brave to portray
I ripped through this in a single day when I really should have been doing other stuff and I'm not sorry. It comes with a bewildering number of blurbs from a variety of authors and it's easy to see why, this is a dazzling piece of craftsmanship, in voice, characterisation, plot, atmosphere, and a kind of dread that comes with emotional confusion as the reader doesn't know which of the characters it's safe to fall for, possibly all of them, but how can that be in a psychological thriller filled with violence and terror? Once the initial disorientation of fractured perceptions and impossible points of view wears off, the pages keep turning because you HAVE to know. A genuinely brilliant piece of work.
I can't remember the last time I had such an enjoyable reading experience! This book is not my usual cup of tea: it's bleak, it's distressing, it's violent, it's mysterious, and the obviously unreliable narrators make it difficult to know what's going on. And yet—it's compelling. I kept turning pages. I also cared deeply about the characters, so even though the situations weren't always clear, I certainly could feel that emotional investment.
And the drama! Well-plotted and full of twists and turns, the narrative keeps building, as the interesting characters work through their struggles and move toward the book's climax. And then! That special moment when everything falls into place. Suddenly, everything makes sense, and the show more realization is as the sunrise. Light shines in the story, too, and as a VERY minor spoiler, I can saythe characters who survived the dark night of this novel are greeted at the end by a much more hopeful dawn. Things are definitely looking up. This novel was cathartic. It was cleansing, even healing. Despite the unpleasant subject matter and disturbing events of the story, the novel feels as wholesome by the end as a deep breath in—and out—slowly and peacefully, at the start of a new day. show less
And the drama! Well-plotted and full of twists and turns, the narrative keeps building, as the interesting characters work through their struggles and move toward the book's climax. And then! That special moment when everything falls into place. Suddenly, everything makes sense, and the show more realization is as the sunrise. Light shines in the story, too, and as a VERY minor spoiler, I can say
This was an excellent book to mess with your head. I tore through it in two days. I enjoyed the ambiguity of it, the twists and turns, the slow cultivation of empathy for the characters, as well as their different and distinct narrative voices. I also loved the setting of the house--both real and metaphorical--how it changed, was sometimes a comfort and sometimes claustrophobic. There is a mystery, suspense, and a satisfactory resolution. The author handled often-misused horror tropes well and provided compassionate insight into the trauma of abuse.
This is one of those books that shifts and changes its way through a reader's experience, becoming something else and something more each time a reader lets their guard down. In so many ways, it felt like a bleeding together of the styles and stories of Neil Gaiman and Tana French, and I mean that in the best way possible. Ward's writing is immersive and powerful, and I've no doubt that a second read would bring even more detail and appreciation to the surface. The book consistently surprised me, and it says much that even when I didn't like what those surprises/twists were, I believed in them and appreciated them for the story they told.
It's difficult to talk about this book without offering spoilers, so I'll only finish by saying that show more it's made me a long-term fan of Catriona Ward, and while I'm not sure whether I'd label this horror or suspense or something else entirely, I'm thankful to have found it and I'd absolutely recommend it. I've already preordered the author's next book. show less
It's difficult to talk about this book without offering spoilers, so I'll only finish by saying that show more it's made me a long-term fan of Catriona Ward, and while I'm not sure whether I'd label this horror or suspense or something else entirely, I'm thankful to have found it and I'd absolutely recommend it. I've already preordered the author's next book. show less
So very very weird. I should be used to that with this writer, but it still threw me and I stalled reading the book and then picked it up again to get through the weird parts hoping there would be sense in there. There was, but things were confusing. Now I understand what was happening, it makes sense to present it that way. Stuff did trigger my suspicions though and I noted enough weird bits that I finally got what was really happening it’s multiple-personalities or Dissociative identity disorder aka DID. First it was Ted calling Lauren and Olivia kitten. Then it was Ted and Olivia describing the rug feeling like soft pills - both of them? That’s weird. Then T called the cat Lauren and sometimes Olivia. Lauren was the biggest show more oddity of them all, but now I understand why - she was the one who bore the brunt of her mother’s abuse. She bit and clawed and screamed and seemed really unhinged, then relatively normal. Relatively. For a person who can ride a bike but not walk. Who seems crafty, but doesn’t go to school.
And what was with the italics in Olivia’s narrative - it took me a while to realize those were the parts she was recording. A cat who can work a tape recorder? Then Ted was using it. And Lauren, too. That was too much. They all had to be one person. In retrospect I should have caught the nesting dolls, too, but I didn’t until the end. When Olivia would break things and then they’d be whole again, repaired and in their places, that threw me. Were they all just crazy? In the end it made sense, sort of. The house itself was a construction of Ted’s fractured mind. He could go into to it and arrange it in any way he liked. That’s why the stupid rug kept changing color. And don’t even bring up the old freezer. Olivia’s “crate”. Ugh.
The whole Mommy’s Little Psychopath thing was creepy and I knew there had to be more. Ted’s weekend place and the buried gods were too weird and had to mean more. Why didn’t I suspect her? Getting fired from her job with kids. All the other kids going missing by the lake? Setting up Ted as Lulu’s kidnapper with Dee in hot pursuit was a nice distraction and worked to shift suspicion off mom. And Dee, too, escaped my suspicion, but I should have realized her guilt could drive her to shift her blame to someone else. Though the kid was taken and killed, Dee wasn’t telling everything. Overall pretty well done and chilling. Reasonably satisfying. show less
And what was with the italics in Olivia’s narrative - it took me a while to realize those were the parts she was recording. A cat who can work a tape recorder? Then Ted was using it. And Lauren, too. That was too much. They all had to be one person. In retrospect I should have caught the nesting dolls, too, but I didn’t until the end. When Olivia would break things and then they’d be whole again, repaired and in their places, that threw me. Were they all just crazy? In the end it made sense, sort of. The house itself was a construction of Ted’s fractured mind. He could go into to it and arrange it in any way he liked. That’s why the stupid rug kept changing color. And don’t even bring up the old freezer. Olivia’s “crate”. Ugh.
The whole Mommy’s Little Psychopath thing was creepy and I knew there had to be more. Ted’s weekend place and the buried gods were too weird and had to mean more. Why didn’t I suspect her? Getting fired from her job with kids. All the other kids going missing by the lake? Setting up Ted as Lulu’s kidnapper with Dee in hot pursuit was a nice distraction and worked to shift suspicion off mom. And Dee, too, escaped my suspicion, but I should have realized her guilt could drive her to shift her blame to someone else. Though the kid was taken and killed, Dee wasn’t telling everything.
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Best Horror Books
281 works; 85 members
Differently Abled Horror
64 works; 4 members
ScaredyKIT 2022
15 works; 1 member
Houses and Buildings as Characters in Fiction
182 works; 29 members
2022 To Read List
11 works; 2 members
Haunted Places and Ghost Stories Reading List
99 works; 4 members
Favorite Books from the 2020s
32 works; 4 members
Books Read in 2021
5,361 works; 114 members
Best Books With Sisters
130 works; 30 members
Nightmares Not Included
175 works; 3 members
At the Library
217 works; 1 member
Horror Spotlight Readalong
37 works; 2 members
Which house?
423 works; 16 members
Five star books
1,767 works; 110 members
GoodReads Horror Choice Awards
160 works; 4 members
Books Read in 2023
5,638 works; 147 members
READ IN 2022
206 works; 2 members
Mysteries with Female cop, investigator etc.
33 works; 4 members
Fiction Published in 2021
27 works; 1 member
I Could Live There
185 works; 12 members
Female Author
1,234 works; 64 members
Books Set in Washington State
8 works; 3 members
Books Read in 2022
5,226 works; 115 members
Adult Stories Involving Animals
76 works; 6 members
KayStJ's to-read list
1,616 works; 11 members
Top Five Books of 2021
604 works; 181 members
Violette's Top 5 Mysteries 2025
5 works; 1 member
Author Information
12+ Works 5,139 Members
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Notable Lists
Work Relationships
Is abridged in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Het laatste huis
- Original title
- The Last House on Needless Street
- Original publication date
- 2021-03-18
- People/Characters
- Ted; Olivia; Lauren; Dee
- Important places
- Washington, USA
- Dedication
- For my nephew River Emanuel Ward Enoch, born 14 August 2020
- First words
- Today is the anniversary of Little Girl with Popsicle. It happened by the lake, eleven years ago - she was there, and then she wasn't.
- Quotations
- Anyway the trick to life is, if you don't like what is happening, go back to sleep until it stops.
The air smells strongly of cleaning products, a chemical impression of a flowering meadow. At some point in the future, I guess, almost no one will know what real meadow smells like. Maybe by then there won't be any real mead... (show all)ows left and they'll have to make flowers in labs. Then of course they'll engineer them to smell like cleaning products, because they'll think that's right, and it will all go in a circle. These are the kinds of interesting thoughts I have while in waiting rooms and at crosswalks or standing in line at the grocery store.
Dee only ever reads this one book. She likes to read, but you never know what books are going to do to you and she can't afford to be taken off guard. At least the people in Wuthering Heights understand that life is a ... (show all)terrible choice, which you must make each day. Let me in, Catherine pleads. Let me in. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The sky and trees are flooded with birds. The song flows and ebbs around us, on the air. Lauren gives a little sign as the sun warms our skin. "Now," I say. "We eat."
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.6
- Canonical LCC
- PS3623.A7315
- Disambiguation notice*
- Thriller van de maand in 'The Times', 'The Observer' en 'The Guardian'
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 2,643
- Popularity
- 7,099
- Reviews
- 131
- Rating
- (3.78)
- Languages
- 11 — Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 34
- ASINs
- 10