We are quickly heading into spooky season and so I decided I wanted to read something… spooky. I like a good creepy book, especially if it’s paranormal, but it’s not a genre I read from often. One book that I saw repeatedly mentioned on Twitter was The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. I was able to find it on Netgalley and was accepted to review it. Unfortunately, this book really wasn’t creepy to me so let’s talk about it. This review will have spoilers.

Synopsis:

This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.

All these things are true. And yet they are all lies…

You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this story before. That’s where you’re wrong.

In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it’s not what you think…

My Thoughts:

• Rating-

My main complaints with this book are that I found it to be tedious and predictable. I think the story idea was interesting. I think it could have been a creepy, suspenseful read. However, there were too many characters and simply nothing that grabbed my attention and held on to it.  The only character that I found truly interesting was Olivia; a Bible reading cat. As for the other main characters, well, they were forgettable.

There is Ted, an awkward man who seems to be mentally ill. There’s Lauren, Ted’s daughter, who is never seen outside and rarely heard inside the house. Lastly, there’s Dee. Dee’s sister disappeared when they were children and after years of amateur detective work, she believes Ted had something to do with it.

Dee’s story line was my least favorite because again, it was just boring. It’s mainly her staring at Ted’s house all day and night waiting on him to do something incriminating. She then ends up dying in the woods and her body is never found… and that’s that.

As for the twists, all but one were very predictable. The only one that actually surprised me was when it was revealed that Lauren and Olivia never existed. By that point in the story, though, I was extremely tired of the whole thing so I didn’t really care. 

Final Thoughts:

This is not the worst book I’ve ever read but it’s not great. I think the blurb from Stephen King on the cover is what’s really adding to the hype and not necessarily the story itself. I’m definitely in the minority on this, though, because so many people love this book. As always, I’d really like to know what you think, especially if you’ve read it. Thanks for reading and have a great day!