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A review by spiritedfaraway
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I continue to give Riley Sager's books a chance. And I continue to be disappointed. The descriptions always sound so good and there are almost at least parts of the books I like, but something always ruins it for me. In this one in particular, there were many things that ruined it for me.
Being it Kit's head was irritating and her not doing her job (she's a home-health aide) was infuriating. Kit's patient is in her seventies and uses a wheelchair and yet Kit would forget to do Lenora's exercises. In another instance Kit put a pair of headphones over Lenora's head because she wanted to have a private conversation. Nevermind the fact that she didn't ask, nevermind that Lenora couldn't take them of even if she wanted to. YOU DON'T DO THAT. To be honest there were just so many ableist things in this book.
There were also glaring plot holes everywhere, and almost all of the characters' motivations were confusing and made absolutely no sense. And do not even get me started on that horrible ending.
I have two more books of Sager's that I haven't tried before, but I'm not sure if I'll actually get to them because the more I think about this book the more upset I get and there is just not enough time in the world to read at best mediocre and at worst abysmal books. There are just too many other books I'd rather get to.
Being it Kit's head was irritating and her not doing her job (she's a home-health aide) was infuriating. Kit's patient is in her seventies and uses a wheelchair and yet Kit would forget to do Lenora's exercises. In another instance Kit put a pair of headphones over Lenora's head because she wanted to have a private conversation. Nevermind the fact that she didn't ask, nevermind that Lenora couldn't take them of even if she wanted to. YOU DON'T DO THAT. To be honest there were just so many ableist things in this book.
There were also glaring plot holes everywhere, and almost all of the characters' motivations were confusing and made absolutely no sense. And do not even get me started on that horrible ending.
I have two more books of Sager's that I haven't tried before, but I'm not sure if I'll actually get to them because the more I think about this book the more upset I get and there is just not enough time in the world to read at best mediocre and at worst abysmal books. There are just too many other books I'd rather get to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Blood, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Suicide
SO MUCH ABLEISM