Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

181 reviews

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is the first time ever that I’ve read a LOT of other reviews before deciding on my final feelings. I went into this blind, because that seemed to be the recommendation and also my preference with most books anyways. I was expecting horror/thriller/possibly speculative fiction? And I don’t think it’s any of those, which perhaps leads to me feeling a little disappointed. If I had to assign a genre I guess would call it psychological mystery. It’s a very slow build, and there are very few horror or thriller elements here. I guessed the “big twist” about 3 chapters in, but the final reveal I did not expect. 

After reading more reviews from people i follow, it seems like it is widely agreed that going in blind was definitely best, and i agree, and that most of the 5 star reviews I see are upon SECOND read. Which makes a lot of sense. I would probably give this 3.75… it is REALLY hard to talk about this without spoilers. Up until the last few chapters, I had some serious qualms with the representation here and how it could be damaging. I fear that because of the way it’s written, this could be triggering and people would not understand the full story or even finish it, so even though I can retract my claws (pun intended) I think the damage can still be done. I will attempt a second read at some point and see if my feelings change. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Blood, Self harm, Drug use, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, and Suicide attempt

chelsearae87's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, Abandonment, Animal death, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Murder, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Emotional abuse

elle_e_d_light's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I really don't know how I felt about this book. I gotta think on it some more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Death of parent

pagesandplanets's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Confinement, Child death, Mental illness, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

hebrideanreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Torture, Blood, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, and Emotional abuse

bertrandlm's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, and Mental illness

s13perry's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. The book starts super confusing, and you know immediately that you are being misled/not getting the full story. The truth comes out slowly in the second half, but even then I was left with a ton of questions. I don’t love unreliable narrators, and that is 100% what you’re getting here. I think the overall storyline was good but the author just missed the mark with the writing style.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal death, Mental illness, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Death, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Medical content, Alcohol, and Blood

Minor: Vomit

januaryapril's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Wow, me and this book have been on a roller coaster ride of emotions. To start I have been curious as to what this book was about as everyone who reads it is like well I can't explain or it will spoil it. So I finally decided to put my big girl pants on and read the "scary" book (I have been realizing that books people say are scary are not as scary as I work them up to be in my head). 
 

So as I began to read this I realized we were most likely going down the DID route. I do not like or appreciate when DID is used as a horror/"scary" element in books so I was not excited. Then this book does all its twist and turns that make you think Lauren has DID and is trapped and then twist to realize that Ted has DID and really his mother was the terrible person I felt better about the use of DID but still a little wary. Overall it was a very intriguing book and I think Ward wrote it very well really giving you the feeling of being trapped and stuck. However, even though Ward talks in the end about how she learned about DID and wanted to show how it wasn't a horror element but one about overcoming I am still thinking and considering how I feel about it because at the end of the day people are still calling this a "horror" novel and we are all still not wanting to spoil the aspect of DID in the book so it is still somewhat a plot point meant to mess with you. 

  IDK ill keep thinking about this one, and honestly maybe I am thinking to hard.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Child abuse, Medical trauma, and Child death

Minor: Death of parent

Dissociative Identity Disorder

evekcarroll's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I am instantly drawn to Stephen King's blurbing, tagging this book as 'exciting' and think that coming from the king (quite literally) of horror that I should devour this book. Or hope that it devours me with a grisly murder plot and a shocking twist. Unfortunately that hope was misplaced; I found the plot predictable and unsatisfying. The darkness in this book just did not satiate my hunger- maybe that says more about me! 

I think thrillers should be read blindly (I read the blurb, and I'll be honest say that this may have contributed to my overall disappointment). But briefly, the general set up for this book is that a girl with a popiscle disappeared years ago and the case has remained cold. It is a peculiar and sad case that leads us to Needless Street through the eyes of Ted, a murder suspect. As readers, we linger in several minds throughout this book, that of Ted and his cat (yes, there is a perspective of a cat) and Dee, a determined woman seeking to avenge her sister.  

Indeed, this book is twisted and dark. I mean exploring the world through the eyes of an alleged murderer is an unsettling experience, and did make for a distrubing atmosphere throughout. But I think the perspective of the cat is where the light shines in this book. This is more imaginative than the plot itself in my  opinion. I do think that the author makes each character distinctive and they all have their unique voices. However, I struggled through Ted's chapters as I just couldn't make sense of what was going on, and perhaps that was the goal, and I guess it was judging where the plot went, but it was so confusing at times that I just felt bored. 

The writing is accessible and descriptive at times, it was not hard to picture scenes. But I just think the plot could have been more fleshed out. It isn't unusual to read thrillers dedicated to missing children and and creepy old men who are unrealistically hunted by family of the missing. There just wasn't a wow factor, or shock, that thrillers so desperately need in order to stand out. The twist (if you can even call it that) was predictable. Yes, seeds were planted early on in the book, but I would argue they were not seeds but flowers already in bloom, it was that obvious to me. When all was revealed, I found myself counting how many pages were left in the hopes that there was more to come. There wasn't. Thrillers shouldn't be like that. 

I will give the book some credit from the perspective that it offers an interesting exploration of mental health. But definitely be warned that this may be extremely triggering. 

I think I have read too many thrillers like this, and I think thrillers need to thrill, as it didn't thrill me I have to rate this low. I think this would suffice as a good starting point for people looking to get into reading adult thrillers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Child abuse, Self harm, Murder, Mental illness, Grief, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, and Blood

chloseencounter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book began in a way that I thought I knew exactly where it was going to go but flipped so I could’ve never predicted what would happen. When you intake so much horror it can all start to feel similar and I’m impressed with what this story accomplished. I was drawn in by the POV of a cat but enjoyed this read more than I could’ve ever anticipated. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Alcohol, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Violence, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts