The Last House on Needless Street: The Bestselling Richard & Judy Book Club Pick

Dieses Buch ist ein absoluter Thriller und hat mich von Seite zu Seite gefesselt; die Spannung ist unglaublich und die Geschichte ist packend. Ich kann es jedem empfehlen, der an spannenden und tiefgründigen Horror-Geschichten interessiert ist.

Spannend!

Wow, I thought I had it all figured out - and I was so so wrong. Actually, I had to change my conclusions a few times, but what was revealed in the end was… unexpected.I also have to admit that I nearly DNFed the book, because it starts very slow. And it took me a long time to connect to any of the characters; I stayed indifferent to their fate and that made it hard to just be in their heads all the time, being told stuff that had happened and that was really hard to bring together to get the picture.But the thoughts about quitting the book became less and less the longer I was reading, because the plot grew immensely on me. An before I knew it, I just had to know it all.On the outside, it’s a story about a girl that had disappeared, her sister looking for her and, most of all, of the very peculiar inhabitants of the strange house on Needless Street, who aren’t what they seem and who are all part of an unfathomable secret. What the story is on the inside, I won’t spoil, of course.

I was pretty excited to read this, I hadn’t heard anything about the book, other than a vague rumor that it made no sense until around 85% of the way through, at which point the reveals dropped like bombs and made it all make a mad sense. So exactly the type of book I like. So, I was anticipating – well – something a little more mind-blowing. It’s good. It’s well written. The flow is fantastic, voice is easy to read. But I was more or less on the right track right from the beginning. Drat. If you want to see what I mean, check my progress bars in the review on Goodreads, where I write my thoughts, I don’t want to give spoilers here, the reveals are surprising, and I didn’t get it all correct, so it still left me impressed with the level of research and presentation Ward brings to the novel. The presentation of the cat, Olivia, was – I maintain – obvious, and I felt the explanation of the exact meaning and significance of the green boys – somewhat washed over, but make no mistake, this is a great mystery horror. The breakdown of a serial killer’s mentality was fantastic, one is immediately aware that Ted’s pov has problems, unreliable narration, memory loss, etc. It makes for fantastic storytelling. Likewise, the sister of one of his victims, Dee, was great, you are really rooting for her. Her twist was indeed out of the blue, there’s no way to see that coming, and the scene in the water with the snakes gave me (pardon me) the willies lol. This was a slower read, it seemed to take a while to get into my brain, I had to take long breaks to process it all. But it was a great resolution, and a fantastic take on the condition Ted suffers from. Plus, the poetry of the text is wonderful, the prose a delight to read. A literary approach, and appreciated all the more for it. 4 out of 5⭐‘s