I had figured out what was happening and what had happened about half way through the story but this didnt spoil the story, in fact it made me somewhat more invested as I raced to see how it would all manifest. Noping right out of that one, that absolutely does sound like nightmares waiting to happen. Ward is a talented storyteller, and she shows that here. The Last House on Needless Street is out September 28th. At this point, we still think that Lauren is Lulu. Now take it out of your pocket. Often, Im not a fan of male narrators trying to do female voices, but Christopher Ragland did an incredible job of matching all the different characters. I know that The Last House on Needless Street is in the best possible hands, and I cant wait to start working with them to bring the mysterious world of Needless Street to life on film., Serkis called The Last House on Needless Street The kind of book you come across once in a lifetime. Sometimes you just want to say read it, and then talk to me about it, and leave your review at that. Ward's third breakout novel The Last House on Needless Street (2021 - Viper, Tor Nightfire) won the August Derleth Prize and has been shortlisted for the Kitschies, the British Book Awards, the South Bank Award, and the World Fantasy Award. And yet some of them are lies. Each character has their own distinctive voice, each one giving a slightly different viewpoint of the story. Just that little excerpt, holy sh*t! Growing up, I had a black cat called Velvet. But he cant help thinking about Little Girl with Popsicle, a girl who went missing from the lake a few miles from Teds house. This is the most gloriously complex, shifting story, deeply disturbing yet also, somehow, heartwarming. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Signup for Breaking News Alerts & Newsletters. I do.You know the little girl at the hospital, who has cancer? The book embraces many of the most familiar aspects of the horror genre, but it also counts on its readers to possess a shared understanding of its common tropes and signifiers, and uses those assumptions to subvert many of their preexisting expectations. Your perceptions change every instant and quite often no two people remember the same event the same way. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an ALC of this incredible audiobook. Wonderful review, Jeanne. I loved Olivia! "The new face of literary dark fiction." Sarah Pinborough Read more Print length 352 pages Language English Publisher Tor Nightfire Publication date Sept. 28 2021 Dimensions Ward has created something truly special here, and fans of the horror and thriller genres will be well impressed by what they find. 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. 2. 1. She doesnt do love and she doesnt ever go home. I always leave her work enriched. The ending is propulsive and shocking and definitely had me re-running prior scenes in my head to assist with putting the pieces together. I figure I might as well share it with you! Did you plan them in detail, or write furiously and edit afterwards? At least the people in Wuthering Heights understand that life is a terrible choice, which you must make each day. Horror fiction can scare readers, make them anxious, or upset their stomachs, but the most powerful narratives in the genre manage to create an unshakable sense of unease, and that's exactly what this novel does. I was immediately drawn into the story, intrigued by Ted with his idiosyncrasies and strange way of living. It would be a bad book if I wasn't afraid of it, says author Cat Ward about The Last House on Needless Street, this season's must-read horror novel. Deftly written, intricate, absorbing, The Last House on Needless Street draws the reader into it's web. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex [], Your email address will not be published. The Last House on Needless Street is finally out! I felt that this was just perhaps pushing the envelope a little bit further., Ward refers to her previous novels as Gothic-style stories of distressed girls wandering about on moors, and says that part of her drive to write Needless Street came from an urge to do something completely different and to write something as mad as I liked.. All commissions go toward supporting this blog. Showing all 1 items Jump to: Summaries (1) Summaries. Im not sure where it sits, Ward admits with a laugh during a lengthy conversation with Den of Geek. Least of all Olivia. You just dont, Ward says. His mother knew what he was at an early age after finding him killing an animal, and her words in that moment never left him: "For a long time, I have feared that this was in you. An unspeakable secret binds them together, and when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees behind their house will come back to haunt them all. To play [not just ] with the expectations of horror but also with the snap conclusions people might come to about certain kinds of behavior or mental health conditions [or socio-economic indicators].. Well, then there's the rest: gods buried in the woods, the mystery of Lauren's sporadic presence and brooding mood, angry green boys living in the attic, and Olivia, a cat who talks, reads, believes in God, wants to have a TV show, and suffers from dissociative identity disorder. THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET is psychological horror of the highest order, disguised as a Russian doll of a novel, with layer within layer holding new characters and secrets. The worst kinds of monsters, after all, are those that we can find evidence for in the real world. ), Its a very strange genre, horror. How did that book end? I'm getting bigger all the time. For Ward, part of writing Needless Street necessarily involved processing heartbreaking and often quite upsetting things. Oh no. I feel like I need to re-read this book in order to catch all the clues I missed! Once I found out about Olivia though, I did start to think that Lauren was an alter as well. Your email address will not be published. An unspeakable secret binds them together, and when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees behind their house will come back to haunt them all. Surely I couldnt. Today we're discussing the book of the month that we read for March!! In her delirium, we find out that her memory about that day at the beach had been unreliable. Each plot thread was integral yet interconnected to a hundred others, and each change affected and reverberated through the whole. Your email address will not be published. The second time I tried, you came out of my mind'" but the experience is unlike anything else out there, and that makes it a must-read for those who like the kind of labyrinthine narratives that pull the rug out from under you, sending you tumbling into a dark, dark room. 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. It is for this reason that I previously suggested that this work could equally be considered a dark thriller; while there was one specific thread that I did find to be genuinely horrific, mostly, what Wards subtle work caused me to imagine was more frightening than what was warranted by the actual unfolding plot events. She lives in London and Devon. One of the causes of the disorder is trauma in childhood, and it soon becomes clear that Alexas childhood was horribly disturbed. As an affiliate for Amazon, I may receive a small monetary commission for purchases made through certain links on this website. Required fields are marked *. Its an echo [in this story] because its such a landmark in my landscape of fear.. Not sure why she didn't bury Lulu there as well though. Its fun to talk about books because it leads you into talking about ideas and reflections. I spent most of my childhood reading so we spent a lot of time together. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks. The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward's third novel, begins with an unsolved crime: the abduction of Lulu, a six-year-old girl taken from her family one summer's day. The other dead kids were not the gods. Despite the fact that thousands of people were at the lake that day, he walked up to each woman while they were with friends and introduced himself using his real name. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. The second I finished this extremely impressive debut, I went back to the beginning and read it again: I defy anyone else to do otherwise. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! What kind of overpowering greed leads someone to need to do it twice in one day?. I stayed up late to finish it and then I didnt want to go to sleep. In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. Time is iffy and everyone is erratic. Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street arrived in 2021 riding a wave of pre-release hype the likes of which I don't think I've seen since Justin Cronin released The Passage ten years ago. The same applies to the psyches of its characters. Again, I dont even know if this book is horror, Ward admits ruefully. Everything in The Last House on Needless Street is old, dirty, or broken. Required fields are marked *. Stay on top of all the latest book releases and discussionsjoin our mailing list. So Tara decides to revisit her exes in hopes of securing her very own trope-worthy second-chance romance. Detective superintendent Alan Banks is, incredibly, on his 27th outing in Not Dark Yet, and he has a lot to deal with this time round, from a double murder (of a crooked property developer and his aid at a luxury mansion) to his friend Zeldas decision to find the men who abducted, raped and trafficked her in Moldova years earlier. So naturally I wanted to see why this book got so many high profile authors to speak so highly of it. I think Olivia is very much her own cat, however. I think so. This is the story of a murderer. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,. Dee saw her dead body, but the police/adults never found it. Her words stung me. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution--noncommercial 3.0 unported license: Big, fat. About the Author Catriona Ward was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the US, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. Her debutRawbloodwon Best Horror Novel at the 2016 British Fantasy Awards, and was a WHSmith Fresh Talent title. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. We HAVE to talk about this book!!! To be clear: I would be less likely to speak in terms of how much I enjoyed the work so much as in terms of how damn impressed I was by its craftsmanship. This story is about Ted, a recluse suspected of a childs abduction. As an avid reader, I often find myself reading a book description and not being able to remember whether Ive read it before. You can guess where this is going: Jamie is called in to help. Let me in. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesnt dampen her excitement. To order The Last House on Needless Street, Later, The Eighth Girl or Not Dark Yet go to guardianbookshop.com. This is one of the best well rounded stories that I have read in some time, everything fits and it does not feel forced. He's unemployed, drinks a lot, and suffers from a few undiagnosed mental health problems. I'm not used to how much space I take up in the world. The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward's third novel, begins with an unsolved crime: the abduction of Lulu, a six-year-old girl taken from her family one summer's day. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. No longer must I search my heart for a love that I cannot feel." And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. The Last House on Needless Street is another critical darling that employs what is arguably the most tired trope in horror, all while telling a pseudo-empathetic story that portrays a demonized community as. ), but such a creative way to describe Ted from another point of view. Ted lives in a boarded-up house on Needless Street on the edge of the forest, with his daughter Lauren (who sometimes has to go away) and his cat Olivia; he is confused, childlike, flipping in and out of the present and the past as he remembers being questioned by the police years earlier over the disappearance of Little Girl With Popsicle, and as he thinks of his mother, who was born far away under a dark star. Children have been going missing at a nearby lake for some time and a woman named Dee, whose sister disappeared there some years prior, has convinced herself that Ted had something to do with it. Five-star audio production, and five-star book. TW: child abuse, portrayal of mental health. Ward uses unreliable narrators extremely well. His work helps people find their way, but hes the one whos lost his sense of direction. . Press J to jump to the feed. I can't keep track of it. I knock things over, I bounce off doorways. The reader plays detective the whole time trying to piece together what is reliable and what is not, Ward says. It felt impossible at times but I just had to believe it would come together. In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A haven full of sunbathers, ice cream stands, sandcastlesand missing children. The creepy dilapidation of the outside world mirrors their mental state. This absolutely horrifies me because what kind of world do we live in where someone can walk up to a woman in a group of friends, introduce himself by his name, and take her away and kill her in broad daylight? she continues. The last twist was that Teds mother was the one who took Lulus body for more of her medical experiments. The reader has to hunt them out, reflect on what theyve already read to find out where the story is going to take us. Yeah, the mom buried Lulu in the neighbor's yard when the neighbor went on vacation. A teenage girl who isn't allowed outside, not after last time. There are some deliberate reverberations that I set up with Ted in the beginning, Ward explains.Hes called Ted, and he lives in Washington state, near a lake where there had been a disappearance. As with many great horror classics, the most unnerving parts occured in my own mind, as I jumped at the shadows cast by my own presumptions rather than the verbatim words on the page. If you usually ignore the afterword in books, make this one your exception (though not until after youve finished the book as there is a spoiler in there). Ted lives in the last house on Needless Street. As Banks and his team discover spy-cam videos showing a vicious rape in the home of the property developer, Zelda is out for revenge, fearful that, without it, the past would keep growing, like a cancer inside her, consuming or blotting out all that was good in her life. Dee was looking for Lulus body but had lied so convincingly over the years that she herself believed Lulu was still alive. It was like spinning a vast spiderweb. This is a place to discuss horror literature. Its windows are boarded up so he can no longer look out onto the forest that backs his garden. The Last House on Needless Street is partly narrated by a cat, has been praised by Stephen King and is set to be her breakout hit. Ted remembers details from his childhood, for example. Reading The Last House on Needless Street made me feel terrible. In The Last House On Needless Street Ward expertly toys with her readers expectations as the layers of the enigma are peeled away. There is so much going on in this book that its easy to slip up and inadvertently spoil the story for others which makes it especially hard to review. As a lifelong fan of science fiction, fantasy and horror, he enjoys all the usual mediums in which one can imbibe those genres. He is . Hey spooky fam!! The Last House on Needless Street is complex and multilayered, but more like a multiverse than an onion. Summaries. Revenge. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Genre dabblers will be drawn to the ever-deepening mystery and will further appreciate the omission of shock-horror and gross-out gore tactics. A woman who may be able to crack this cold case. The only reason I can write this stuff is because Im afraid of it. All original content on this site belongs to the author. Each thinks the other is planning to murder her out there. No, she said. Because, although Needless Street has no real factual content in the plot at all, there are echoes of a real-life tragedy built into its bones, the kind that could certainly encourage readers to draw specific conclusions about the things theyre watching unfold. His mother apparently used to experiment on him surgically, which caused his scars and is what her tapes were about.Teds therapist was also abusing him and making his condition worse. As soon as you crack open Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street, you know something's very wrong. Lulu had followed Dee while she hit on Trevor, and while Dee and Trevor were fooling around, Lulu slipped on some rocks and hit her head and died. Twenty years later, journalist Jenna Halliday is covering the case. 5. Were afraid of Ted, because context clues say we should be, because our own knowledge of the world has shown us its often right to be suspicious of loner men who live in shabby, boarded up houses at the end of the lane. (And the author herself is well aware of that fact. As the novel begins, it seems that the mystery is about the disappearance of a little girl. She feels like a big, dark, empty room and is fixed on finding whoever took Lulu. I hope you are now reading something uplifting and happy. She was already very full of opinions. There are all these oppositions in place. Its a talent that his mother largely wants to ignore, until her top client Regis Thomas dies with the final novel in his long-running (and joyfully terrible) series unfinished. I read some reviews after I finished the book that spoiled the main twist, so beware! Lauren isn't Lauren, and also suffers from severe dissociative identity disorder. 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