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A review by archaicrobin
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I didn’t know much about this one going into it, just that it was on the Goodreads 2021 horror list and that people were loving it. I thought it was a haunted house story and it definitely was not that, but I still enjoyed it greatly! I don’t want to say much about it because this is one of those books where the twist is slowly revealed as you go, so you don’t want to know much.
Because the narrative is so chaotic it was a hard one for me to get into, but once I got a groove going I wanted to keep reading so everything would finally be explained!
This book does deal with child severe child abuse and severe mental illness, so if that is triggering or upsetting I’d say take that in to consideration before picking it up. With that in mind however, I felt like the author did an excellent job portraying and researching the particular mental illness discussed in the book and she even has a bibliography at the end listing all her resources. I’ve read so many books where mental illness is misrepresented or thrown in as a horror trope for shock value, and it was refreshing to see Catriona Ward show respect and care with this concept.
I enjoyed this one a lot but it wasn’t quite a 5 star for me. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into thrillers that toe the horror line!
Because the narrative is so chaotic it was a hard one for me to get into, but once I got a groove going I wanted to keep reading so everything would finally be explained!
This book does deal with child severe child abuse and severe mental illness, so if that is triggering or upsetting I’d say take that in to consideration before picking it up. With that in mind however, I felt like the author did an excellent job portraying and researching the particular mental illness discussed in the book and she even has a bibliography at the end listing all her resources. I’ve read so many books where mental illness is misrepresented or thrown in as a horror trope for shock value, and it was refreshing to see Catriona Ward show respect and care with this concept.
I enjoyed this one a lot but it wasn’t quite a 5 star for me. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into thrillers that toe the horror line!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, and Torture