A review by dan_tee
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This is an interesting book. Less horror than psychological thriller, we follow Ted, a seemingly nice slow guy, and learn more about his life and how he might not be as nice as he seems. 

I went into this completely blind, so the twists and turns worked for me. Took a little time to get going, but the last third had me speeding through it. 

Spoilers below:

Ted is a person with DID. I had no clue that this would be a thing, and so this kept the mystery working for me. Dee, the missing girls' sister was also interesting; it was nice having someone to root for, and empathise with without feeling guilty..until you realise she was wrong about Ted. Ted's alters come from trauma inflected by his mother. You're led to believe she is..well, mildly abusive, but also caring and scared for Ted and what he is. Again, it's not until the last portion of the book we are shown his mother was more than a little abusive, and was in fact a serial killer and incredibly abusive both physically and psychologically.


So yeah. If you guess the twist, or have seen a lot of discourse around this, you probably won't get as much out of it. I enjoyed it as I was a blank slate. 

Not the most beautiful writing, but an interesting premise reasonably well executed. 
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