I devoured this book; it's a perfect read for spooky season and just the type of horror I like (creepy, atmospheric, without relying on gore and cheap thrills). The main character Dr. Tamsin Rivers is brilliant, put together, and decidedly not a nice person - in short, she’s one of my favorite types of characters (what can I say, I like my women with a side of sociopathy). At least, she's all those things until her doppelgänger shows up in her basement.

Watching Tamsin deal with this arrival of another her, going from self possessed and in control, to slowly losing her grip on reality and becoming more and more of an unreliable narrator, is a tension filled delight. Caitlin Starling excels at dropping clues that barely register at first until they become glaringly obvious, leading to a point where I sat up and cackled “oh sh*t” in delight.

Everything is told from Tamsin’s POV, and while there are several side characters, she and her dopp are the primary characters. But there's also her corporate-provided “minder” Lachlan, who is ever present in Tamsin's mind even when she's not there physically. I enjoy reading cipher characters like Lachlan, and the evolving ways we as a reader see her through Tamsin’s changing mental states. However we don’t really get to learn too much about her which is a shame as she’s fascinating in her own way. There is however lots of tension (sexual, romantic, and fear-based) between Tamsin and Lachlan, not necessarily healthy in how we see it play out (in the romantic sense) but very fitting with the story.

What didn't work for me was some of the explanation towards the end, which I found a bit unsatisfying but readers who like more of an ambiguous story may not mind.

October 3, 2023
"But maybe observing does produce the result observed; maybe if nothing had been measuring depth at the construction sites, not only would they have not noticed for months or years, maybe there would have been nothing to notice.
If she hadn't been going down to her basement, maybe the door would never have appeared."

Dr. Tamsin Rivers is a scientist. She works in a lap for Myrica and studies things underground. Apparently the city is sinking, which undeniably, is a problem. However, what is also troubling is that the basement in Dr. Rivers' home appears to be stretching. What is the correlation and why are these things happening?

Starling's books are each so different and interesting and science-y with interesting horror elements. Last to Leave the Room felt very science fiction/Twilight Zone-ish, and although those things aren't necessarily things I gravitate to, I did enjoy this one once it got going. I will say that it took awhile to get there though, and I was getting pretty restless until the a door appeared in the basement and Dr. Rivers doppelganger walked in. At that point I was like WTF, and tore through the book to see where it was going.

This would be a great book club book because there are so many interesting questions to be asked about the story and the science and the ethics and all kinds of things. Definitely a book I could see myself rereading in the future.

In Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling, the city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, head researcher investigating the subsidence problem, is sinking even faster. One evening, a door appears on the basement wall that wasn’t there before, and out of it walks an exact copy of Tamsin. Who is this second Tamsin? Where did she come from? How did she get here? And how can Tamsin stop the subsidence from destroying the city?

What I love about Starling’s style of horror is how psychological and character driven it is, and Last to Leave the Room is no different. Dr. Tamsin Rivers is, I believe intentionally, unlikeable as a character, narcissistic and self-serving and cruel. But Tamsin is, at her core, a scientist, and her obsession with the subsidence felt infectious. I appreciated the care Starling took to develop Tamsin’s character and show the research process, with Tamsin hyper-focusing on meticulously collecting data and measuring the progress of the sinking. I loved the way that Starling seeded doubt about whether Tamsin was a reliable narrator, allowing the reader to wonder what was real and what was an invention of Tamsin’s mind. While I eventually grew to sympathize with Tamsin, I loved Lachlan’s character even more. She is tough and intimidating, but her job as company muscle was portrayed in what felt like a realistic way, with excellent disability representation.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and at about the halfway mark it gripped me so tightly that I could not put it down until I finished reading it. I rated it four stars because I was left wanting a little more from the ending. The resolution seemed rushed, and I am left with so many unanswered questions. However, I grew to love the characters, and it was great to be back in another unsettling world of Starling’s creation.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for gifting me a copy of this eARC!

I loved The Death of Jane Lawrence. And I’m happy to say the same about her upcoming title.
Immediately after reading the description I knew I had to read it.
Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling is a story that will grab the reader from the first page and continues to build more intrigue and suspense up to the last page.
Last to Leave the Room is well written and is an absolutely riveting book.
The narration was tense throughout and it had to me on the edge of my seat biting my nails and staying awake late at night to find out what happened next.
This is the best kind of horror! And I ate it the hell up.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I'm glad I didn't look back at the blurb of this when I started it because wow, it gives so much away. But honestly, the cover gives a lot away, too. I don't think this book is concerned with giving you twists, so perhaps it's better described as suspense than thriller. Certainly psychological horror. And a character study of Tamsin Rivers.

Tamsin is an ambitious, cutthroat scientist running experiments deep in the ground, and those experiments correlate to a "subsidence" happening around the city. Then a door appears in her basement that wasn't there before... And personally I think that's all you should know going into it!

Overall, Last to Leave the Room is a blend of sci-fi and horror that will appeal to fans of Black Mirror. This book would make the perfect Halloween scary read. One highlight of this book is the intriguing premise. Once I read about the imaginary/real door in the basement in the synopsis, I knew that I had to keep reading to find out more about this door. Another highlight of this book is how horrific it was. At times, I had chills going up and down my spine. Some parts were especially difficult to read. This is certainly not a book for the squeamish. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of sci-fi or horror books in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in October!

This was a weird book...

Dr. Tamsin Rivers is doing some secretive science work when title becomes clear that the city she lives in is sinking. Which on its own is an issue because she might be responsible for it. But her attention is drawn away onto her basement that is also sinking and the door that has mysteriously appeared there. And then a woman comes out the door throwing her life into complete chaos. The woman looks just like her thinks like her and seems to be her. As the doppelgänger becomes more like her Tamsin starts to lose herself more and more...

To be honest I only wanted to read this book because it’s the pick for a book box I’m subscribed to. Without that factor I wouldn’t have been interested in this book at all. Horror? Suspense? Thriller? It was none of those...it was basically a whole lot of nothing happening. Throughout the whole book we are trapped inside Tamsin’s head as she seems to be losing her mind. 90% of the book takes place in her house with just Tamsin and Prime (the doppelgänger). It would have actually been more interesting if none of it was real. As for the mystery? It’s never really explained why the door appears or if other doubles come out of other doors (there’s only one situation where this even comes up). The nature of her work is never explained... there’s just a whole lot of nothing.

So if you want to be bored and observe to a very unlikable person with zero redeeming qualities slowly lose her mind and her whole sense of self then do read this book. Just beware that nothing happens and anything that might have been interesting is just casually brushed aside. Lachlan though was an interesting person and I would love her story, it would be way more entertaining I imagine than anything to do with Tamsin.

I wanted to like this but it was boring which sucks because weird can be fun or at least interesting this was weird and boring. A boring book with a wasted premise. Before this book I never heard of the author not certain I am curious enough to read her other work... but I wouldn’t rule it out so maybe I’ll try something else.

4.5 Yes yes yes! Deliciously weird and trippy. Dr. Rivers is doing some shady work at her company’s underground node labs when her team notices some strange phenomena. We soon find out that these strange distortions are also happening in Dr. Rivers’ basement. So begins the unraveling of our main character and everything she thinks she knows about herself.

The tension was immaculate, Mx. Woodfield was a great addition, and the blend of tech and speculative was perfect. Things just keep getting stranger and stranger until it all comes to a head. I didn’t want to put this book down!!

Firstly, my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in advance of publication. My comments and opinions are my own.

"Behind her there's a soft click.
She glances over her shoulder. The door is open, just a little, maybe two inches wide. Beyond it is the abyss, exactly as she pictured it, exactly as she remembers it. It spills from the doorway like a substance, not an absence. It washes over the basement floor, lapping at the table legs, covering her notes. The lights cannot pierce it and are swallowed in turn.
The line of the dark rises."

Starling's latest book is science fiction horror, with light romantic elements. It's a specialty in the author's cook book of recipes, last seen by me in The Luminous Dead. In this latest novel, quantum physicist Dr. Tamsin Rivers is leading a research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence of an entire city. The city is literally sinking, at a uniformly even rate, with the potential to cause enormous destruction. But Tamsin has bigger problems, because she's discovered that her basement is also sinking, much faster than the city. And there's a mysterious door in her basement, one that seems to generate doubles. Doppelgängers. Or maybe not.

I enjoyed many parts of this book - it nails several scenes that are nail-biting and full of existential dread of the unknown. The switching of original and double is subtle and smart, and it left this reader looking for clues and tells to figure out who was real and who was not. And after a while, I was left wondering if both Tamsins were real, just from different worlds connected by the basement door.

I also enjoyed the character dynamics, particularly with the handler Lachlan Woodfield, with her tailored black suits and slicked back hair, and her unusual physique. The personality switches between Tamsin and Prime and Naught were also really well done. There were some areas towards the middle of the book that seemed to drag on, but I figured that might just be a byproduct of the distortion field that Tamsin was researching. (Ahem.)

Overall, I enjoyed this read, and am grateful for the opportunity. For a sci-fi thriller, it hit all of the marks.

"She lingers on a story: the devil teaches black magic to seven pupils in Salamanca, Spain. The last student to leave each night forfeits their soul. But one clever man argues that, when he leaves at sunrise, it will be his shadow that is last to leave the room."

I struggled through this one. This was my first book by the author so the writing style was a bit different for me. Once I got into though, I was REALLY able to get into it. But like I said, it did take me a while to get into the story.

The Death of Jane Lawrence was one of the first horror books I ever got into, and as such had landed Caitlin Starling on my radar for their ability to create an ambience of unease without relying completely on shock value. This novel is no different. Pulling on themes of identity, obsession, and ego: Last to Leave the Room manages to take a horror archetype and adjust it for a more modern reader.
Examining classic horror narratives in any media, the idea of the mad scientist has permeated the most commonly known examples since Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. What quantifies this paradigm is not only a presence of morally questionable science, but an obsession with it. In that regard, Last to Leave the Room plays intentionally with this trope and subsequently evolves it to a more modern understanding. Horror is meant to reflect society’s fears, and while a crazy man playing god in a castle may be outdated now, what isn’t is the level of obsession depicted, and that is exactly what this novel is about. An unhealthy obsession that mutates and consumes the protagonist’s entire world, but mostly her identity.
If our sense of self is reliant only on perception, physicality, self appointment, and social achievement; if those elements are no longer unique to us, how do we then set ourselves apart from others? What makes us so sure we are who we think we are? These are questions posed by this book.
Ultimately, Last to Leave the Room is an ambient, creepy, mysterious dive into the unknown lead by a character made up of all those traits you don’t like about yourself. As such, I wholly recommend it, especially if you are looking for something to get you in the mood for spooky season.

An odd mash up of sci fi and horror and it was a miss for me. I was a big fan of the Luminous Dead which was more about the characters than the techno-horror stuff- this is the reverse. Tamsin must find out why her city is sinking and stop it. She finds an odd door and discovers she has a doppleganger who can do some of her work. Okay, fine but I got lost early on and was unable to rally. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

Absolutely fantastic! I couldn’t put this book down, I read it in a day. Twisted and disturbing, the reader doesn’t know who to trust. The author delivers a well written and compelling story. Highly recommend!!

Last to Leave the Room follows Dr. Tamsin Rivers as she and her team try to find out why the city of San Siroco is sinking. She finds a door that didn’t exist before in her own sinking basement, and one night, her double walks out of it. At first, it’s perfectly nice, but as time goes on, the double becomes more cold and calculating, and Tamsin is slowly losing herself.

Overall, I enjoyed this one. I grabbed it because it was narrated by @xesands, and I was not disappointed! Excellent audio-ing as always.

It’s listed as horror, but despite a couple of cringey body things, I’d say it’s more of a slow burn sci-fi. The emphasis is on the characters, which is always my favorite part anyway. I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it quite as much in print, but that’s down to Sands’ narration. Definitely recommend for some thoughtful, speculative SFF.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked Starling's debut, The Luminous Dead, thought Yellow Jessamine was decent, and didn't finish The Death of Jane Lawrence. Unfortunately, Last to Leave the Room was another DNF. Starling always has interesting, creepy concepts but she's also really experimental, which can be hit or miss. LtLtR just had too much going on. Pair that with characters I just didn't connect with, and I lost interest pretty quickly.

Doppelgangers, distortions, and doors: Dr. Tasmin Rivers meets her double, finds inexplicable spacial anomalies (the kind that defy the laws of physics), and encounters a new, sealed portal in her basement. Are these related to her subterranean research, or is it something more personal?

I found myself either skipping or rushing through narrative that tried to explain the distortions and subsidence occurring under the city. The story begins to flow at about 75% into the book (which is about the time I stopped reading for comprehension, and started to invest emotionally into Dr. Rivers). For someone who cares to see if there is logic behind the descriptions and explanations, these sections might be fascinating. I enjoyed the concept of duality in this book which brought to min Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

This book is meant to speculatively horror and thrill. Dr. Tamsin is not the most likable of main characters and has you constantly questioning the reliability of her narration throughout the book. When she dicovers the city San Siroco is sinking and a mysterious doppelganger appears Dr. Tamsin world devolves into chaos . Is the doppleganger or Dr. Tamsin's experiments the cause of the sinking city, or are their other supernatural forces at play?

Slow to start but strong to finish, Last to Leave the Room is an unsettling, mesmerizing speculative sci-fi psychological thriller.

Caitlin Starling is also the author of The Death of Jane Lawrence. If you enjoyed that book because of the historical fiction aspect, this is not that, but if you loved the psychological horror aspects, this is similar. Much like in Jane Lawrence, we have a woman struggling with a force she doesn’t really understand, and we, the readers are also unsure, at least at the outset, what is going on. In truth, the story is less about the "why" but the "what." We watch the effect Tamsin’s doppelganger has on her, and we’re not sure why it’s happening. In a sense, we’re trapped in the house with Tamsin, unsure what’s going to happen next or how to approach it.

The book does start off very slowly, though, primarily because Tamsin isn’t likable or relatable. She’s a workaholic, distrustful, and obsessive, and who seems to have no interests other than fancy cocktails and her work - which we’re never really told about in detail. There’s talk about “the lab” and the city sinking, but we’re not really sure what the company has hired Tamsin to do. As such, the sci-fi elements are quite thin on the ground, a vehicle in which to propel the main storyline.

Yet, I didn’t really care. Once the doppel, or Prime, as Tamsin called her, showed up, the outside world in the sense of the novel stopped being important. Similarly, Tamsin, who, as I said, is this hard-ass, lofty woman, becomes, if not sympathetic, but almost an experiment in herself. We are the ones watching what is going on in the house, watching what Tamsin is going to do next as she tries to figure out what is going on. The mystery itself, the realism behind how Tamsin acts and reacts to the oddness of the situation, is what is compelling about the novel. It's less about caring about Tamsin than trying to figure out wtf is happening. It has a sort of House of Leaves feel to it at the start, and then as we get deeper in, we think we know what’s happened, and then, bam, there is some body horror stuff that takes the story in an entirely new direction.

I also really enjoyed the character Lachlan and how our perception of her changes as the story moves along.

This is one of those books that takes a bit to get going but once it does, it doesn’t stop. There are some fascinating and interesting concepts in this novel, so I’m glad I powered the first little bit.

If you love psychological thrillers then you should check this out.

I was excited to receive this ARC read since I had loved The Death of Jane Lawrence by her and liked The Luminous Dead by her too, sadly to say Last to Leave the Room was a let down for me by this author. This book was more sci fi then horror because reading it was a lot more sci fi with a little thriller aspect thrown in. The book had a lot of technical wording right from the beginning which was so hard to understand that it bogs the story down with it. Last to Leave the Room was a disappoint for me and I still am confused by this whole book. I will still read more of Caitlin Starling's books and just say that this one was not for me. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for this ARC read in exchange of my honest review.

I wrote/published two more lengthy reviews at the attached links, but I really enjoyed reading this book! It's a bit of a slow build but once it got going I was hooked. I loved the characters, loved the relationships, and loved the horror. The worldbuilding/setting felt a little bit underdeveloped to me, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the novel very much. Overall, I would recommend this book (and Starling's other novels!) to any modern horror lover.

I always enjoy Caitlin Starling's writing. The Death of Jane Lawrence was a 5 star hit for me and in Luminous Dead she twisted clostrophobia into an affliction that I didn't know I had. She can take a common theme and end up with the most original unique book. Last to Leave the Room is a perfect example of this. I cannot recommend this book enough. Outstanding work.