A review by yvo_about_books
The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda

3.0

Finished reading: January 23rd 2020

"But that was the trick of the place - it lured you in under false pretenses, and then it took everything from you."

Spoiler

Both All The Missing Girls and The Perfect Stranger are on my list of all time favorites, so to say that The Last House Guest was on my list of most anticipated 2019 releases is an understatement. I'm not sure why it took me this long to pick it up; it might have been the hype, it might have been the mixed reviews, but I'm actually kind of glad I waited until the hype died down a bit now. Why? Well, let's just say that somehow I was quite underwhelmed by what I found in The Last House Guest. It's not necessarily a bad read, but I don't think it lives up to the quality of especially All The Missing Girls either... I found the plot to be rather dull, slow-paced and predictable most of the time, and the tension took a loooooong time building up. So long, that I found myself losing interest along the way, and this definitely wasn't the unputdownable pageturner I thought it would be. Likewise, the final reveals were a bit abrupt to me and I felt the ending was almost rushed... After so long of nothing going on, I don't think the suspense and plot twist reveals were well distributed in the story. I wasn't a fan of the characters either... In fact, I don't think I liked any of them and that is kind of a problem when a story is mostly focused on the characters. That aside, I did think the Littleport setting and the contrast between the locals and the visitors were interesting enough. Avery is used to give us an insight in both worlds, although I did feel that something was lacking in the development of both characters and plot even though I can't put my finger exactly on what was missing. I think as a whole The Last House Guest sadly failed to hit the mark for me, and I'm hoping her next psychological thriller will help me fall in love with her stories again... Fingers crossed!

P.S. Find more of my reviews here.