The Only One Left: A Novel

This was a great book with tons of twists! I listened to the audiobook and I slightly wished I actually read the book, but it was still good and worth every minute. The fact that the house fell off the cliff in the end was a little far-fetched, but didn't ruin the ending at all. Just when you think

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there weren't any more twists, there would be one more. I didn't see the fact that Virginia actually could walk coming at all. However, I was waiting to find out about Jessie. The fact that she was listening to these tapes made by Jessie, I know there was something on them. I will say, by the end of the book, I had kind of forgotten about that. But when they mentioned Jessie, I was like, oh yes, I'll find out what was on those tapes. I've only read one Riley Sager before but I thought this was better than Home Before Dark. Good creepy story and didn't find the number of characters to be too confusing. I got a little confused for a minute with the "Ricky's" I also had other speculations that didn't end up being true, so I was surprised by most of the twists. Definitely worth the read/listen!

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"At Hope's End, the past is always present."

This mystery thriller had more twists and turns than a wild rollercoaster! Just when you think you have finally gotten the real story and have figured it all out, there's a new disclosure taking you by surprise. The narrative definitely kept me glued to

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the pages as I tried to make guesses about the truth. I'd say I didn't quite predict it all.

With a menacing Gothic atmosphere, the house named Hope's End is practically a character itself. Once a magnificent cliffside mansion, it's now barely hanging on to the edge, teetering and threatening to tumble into the ocean below. It's where the murders occurred.

In 1929, when the Hope family lived there, their wealthy peace was shattered when then 17-year-old Lenora Hope was thought responsible for the killing of her parents and younger sister, Virginia. Circumstances prevented an arrest or conviction, and Lenora never left the house again. No one knew what happened there that night.

Then, in 1985, Kit McDeere, a caregiver, is hired to give nursing care to Lenora, in her seventies, who is confined to her room and bed after a series of strokes has resulted in her needing assistance with activities of daily living. She cannot speak but she is able to "talk" with a typewriter. And... the tales she tells leave Kit reeling. But Kit is not sure she can trust what she's reading.

No spoilers. Suffice to say that this was a fun, fast read. I grew to like Kit more as I got to know her better. The others in the story were also interesting as the layers of the past fall away in the revelations.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

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I loved the jump-rope rhyme. Reminded me of all of the times, as a kid, I jumped rope to "Lizzy Bordon took an axe and gave her father 40-whacks. And when the job was nicely done, she gave her mother 41". The book jumps ahead 43- years into 1983 where we meet Lenora as a elderly, ailing recluse of

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her own making. She isn't alone. There's Kit McDeere, a disgraced home caregiver who has one chance to redeem herself. She's assigned to look after the elderly Lenora Hope who is well known by generations as the local Lizzie Borden. Back in 1929, Lenora "allegedly"...(remember that word)...murdered her parents and sister. Now, along with her remaining staff, she resides at Hope’s End, a Gothic mansion on Maine’s cliffs where the murders took place. She can no longer speak following a series of strokes, but with Kit’s assistance, she can type, and she says she now wants to tell her story once and for all. She confides to Kit what happened on the night of the murders. The story moves between Kit’s narration in the present and Lenora’s typewritten account of her life leading up to the murders. The novel makes the reader remember other tales like this such as The Fall of the House of Usher, Rebecca, and even a bit like Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. I have read and reread these moody atmospheric novels many times and loved the spooky atmosphere and the intriguingly suspicious characters. Riley Sager doesn’t play with gothic tropes so much as he simply brushes over them and leaves them hanging. The first half of the book is tense, but in later chapters it takes so many turns so quickly that it made me have to go back several times to be sure if this is what I really read. Characters act in ways that are cliched and sometimes implausible, and they are given dialogue that is not always age appropriate to match their behavior. Confessions come easily, and mostly in long speeches. That said, very few books are 100% perfect nor does the characters or the plot appeal to 100% of the readers. We have to take the good with the imperfect. Some can do that and some can't. I found enough really good in this story to give it a well-earned 5 stars. It reads quickly and it provides a thrilling, spooky ride. You have to just hang on and let it happen.

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Kit McDeere, a caregiver, is haunted by her mother's death, and is accused of killing her by giving her an overdose. Kit denies it, but can't shake the suspicion surrounding her. Now, she is hired to care for the paralyzed Lenora Hope who was accused of killing her family in 1929, after her most

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recent caregiver, Mary, left.
Lenora promises to tell Kit the truth and taps out her story on a typewriter. However, there are some sinister things happening at Hope Mansion and a very twisted story emerges.
I had trouble keeping up with all the twists and turns that get revealed in this spooky novel. Well done!

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His best book yet!! A great twisty gothic mystery with an ending you will
Never guess!
I loved it!

The kind of book that I WISH was 'no plot just vibes' but there is a plot, and there is a lot of it and for what! But the VIBES are immaculate.

Also, Kit is kind of insufferable. Who waltzes into a new job and starts acting like that on day one?!

Smart, with a nice creepy factor. I like the way the reveal was done.

Riley Sager could write a phone book and I would read it! This book is not one of my favorites, but dam - he can't write be perfect all the time! The Only One Left has lots of twists and turns that will keep readers guessing. Kit McDeere is a disgraced home health aide. Her name has been splashed

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in all the papers and it's been damn near impossible to land another job. She is so desperate to get out of her father's house that she takes the first position that comes her way; caring for the elderly, Lenora Hope. Lenora is a local boogeyman - there are rhymes sung about her on school yards, the legend is she killed her whole family but there wasn't evidence to convict her. Kit will have to overcome her own misgivings if she wants to keep this job. She drives up the Maine coastline to a beautiful mansion on a cliff - where she soon discovers there is a lot more to Lenora's story than anyone knows. A little high on the cheesy scale - but I still ate it up!

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This book was so hard to follow. Just too many twists and turns and very confusing. I am a Riley Sager fan but this was not his best to my way of thinking.

I was beginning to worry that I would have to write Riley Sager off for good with his last few books being quite mediocre.

WOW, this book has completely redeemed himself and The Only One Left is now my #1 favorite book of his! It was a good run The Last Time I Lied.


Set in the 80s, Kit, a

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caregiver, has been on suspension from work for 6 months has received a new job placement. She will be the caregiver at Hope’s End, where in 1929, 17yo Lenora Hope was accused of murdering her parents and her sister!
Kit is extremely concerned to be a caregiver for a murderer, but she has no other options due to her failings of her last job.

A vividly written dark creepy atmospheric book, that keeps building with tension throughout. I wasn’t able to put it down and the twists at the end…completely got me good!!

Loved, Loved, Loved! Publishes June 20, 2023 and you are going to want to run for your copy. It’s that good!

Thank you Dutton for my gifted earc.

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This is a real page turner with lots of interesting twists. A caregiver, trying to recover from her own tragic events, goes to a cliffside mansion to care for an elderly woman believed to have killed her entire family when she was just a teen,

Ehhh. The stormy clifftop setting and murder in flashback mystery did keep me reading, if only to keep guessing the next twist, but then the author went and overegged the pudding in the final chapters (everyone is related). Also, the whole warring sisters in the big house plot reminded me of The

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Book of Cold Cases by Simone St James.

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While it took me a little while to become vested in this book, once I did, I had to read the rest of it straight through today! You've got your gothic house teetering on the edge of a cliff, decades old murders unsolved and a young caretaker looking fir the truth. Lots of surprises and twists at

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the end, maybe a few too many...but still I enjoyed this book!

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So many twists and turns in this mystery that spans over fifty years. In 1929, three of the four members of the Hope family die: Winston, Evangeline, and Virginia. Lenora, the seventeen year old daughter remains alive while her parents and sister are dead by violent death. Enter Kit McDeere, a

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caregiver, who has secrets from her own past, to care for the now wheelchair bound Lenora Hope. The novel uncovers many themes: financial abuse, elder abuse, violence, forced sex with servants, suicide, traumatic birth, teenage love and pregnancy, and opiate addiction. Like a Shakespearean story, The Only One Left, contains multiple identities with the characters. Just when the reader thinks where the truth unravels, another snag enters the scene. An amazing rendition of a flawed family and the mystery of what happened that night in 1929.

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A solid 4 star book that kept me up late to finish it because I just had to know how it ended. The plot twists were great. Ready for another Sager book already.

So, Riley Sager is supposedly the "king of twists," and he proves it in this book with so many ludicrous twists near the end that it left me shaking my head and rolling my eyes. It was melodramatic, implausible, and farcical - did he do that on purpose just for a laugh, or is this his new writing

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style? Either way, I'm not sure he's worth my time anymore.

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A very solid thriller! This was a quick read and had several good twists and interesting characters. It was also set in the 80s which I enjoyed as a child of the 80s. I would recommend.

I was beginning to think that Riley Sager was a one hit wonder with me, but I really enjoyed this!

The plot was engrossing, and it kept me guessing. There were enough hints to figure out most of the twists, but not all of them. It did get a bit over the top towards the end, but I felt like it worked

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well with the story.

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Synopsis: Kit is caregiver who is sent to take care of an elderly patient, Miss Hope, accused of murdering her entire family when she was a teenager. Kit wants to learn what really happened and if Miss Hope is innocent or guilty.

Rating
3 out of 5 Stars

I really enjoyed the vast majority of this

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book.

Kit is a compelling character who has very reasonable and human reservations about working for Miss Hope. There is a scene early on in the book where Kit touches Miss Hope and freaks out a little that she might be touching a killer.

Kit is an interesting character because she was accused of creating a situation where a previous patient died. The investigation didn't find Kit criminally negligent for what had happened however it has made her job prospects extremely limited. It also makes her want to be compassionate towards Miss Hope with the hope that her patient is innocent and that what happened that night has been misconstrued.

I was enjoying the story as we learn about Miss Hope's family and childhood. Also, as we see the everyday workings of the crumbling mansion Miss Hope and her servants reside in.

My biggest issues came with the twists at the end. Riley Sager is a great author but I often find he overdoes the twists and that was the case in this book. There were several twists. Some were good. Some were okay. A few changed how I saw characters in a negative light. One particular twist I don't think there were enough hints about it to make it feel plausible.

If the author had given us fewer twists I think I would have enjoyed this book a bit more. Also, several of the twists were ones I see frequently in thrillers so they didn't feel fresh or new.

If you are a reader who just loves all the twisty turns this book might really work for you.

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