Thank you Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for a review copy for this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a slow starter but I wound up really enjoying it. Unlike other reviewers, I found it to be very predictable and guessed pretty much every twist very early on. I won’t say specifically what clued because I don’t want to spoil it but when the blurb described the book as “not what you think,” it kind of ruined it for me. Nonetheless, the journey was still enjoyable and it was really clever. This is going to sound weird for a horror/thriller book, but you’ll understand what I mean when you finish reading it - there was something poignant and tragically beautiful about the authors take on things and that plus the clever storytelling was what really did it for me, even if I guessed where the story was going.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire for allowing me to review an e-book copy of THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET.

I wasn't sure how this book would read for me because I knew there were mixed reviews - readers either loved it or hated it. I think I was in between.

It's hard to review the book without giving away too much information. Here's the synopsis:

"This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.

All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...

You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.

In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think..."

So, the book focuses a lot on mental illness, which is important. But, the problem I had was keeping up with the characters and how they related to the missing girl. It was also a very slow-paced plot.

I enjoyed the overall creepiness of the book, which was perfect for the week before Halloween. I would enjoy reading the next book the author, Catriona Ward, writes.

I rate THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET three out of five stars.

I'm absolutely reeling from how brilliantly crafted this book was. It's rare that I see a book get this much hype and think it deserves every bit of it, but The Last House on Needless Street does, from start to finish. I feel that this is one of those books where there is almost nothing I can say to explain why it's so incredible — all I can say is that I am devastated, raw, shocked, and amazed. Catriona Ward has immediately become an auto-buy reader for me, no questions asked.

The prose is lovely and effective, the characters are complex, and despite the fact that I am literally almost never taken off-guard by a reveal, I was on the edge of my seat to the very end and was genuinely stunned by some of the moving pieces here. As a bonus, the audiobook narrator did one of the best narrative jobs I've ever heard, and if you're an audiobook lover, I can't recommend that format highly enough for this story.

A wonderfully creeper thriller for dark evenings and nights. Fantastically descriptive and fully immetsive writing. Three characters are all bound by their own prisons until a new neighbor moves in and the eerie events begin. A must read!

Wow! I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened this book. The synopsis really grabbed me and pushed me to click the button to request this one. As soon as I started, I was hooked to the cat's chapters. She is such a lovely unique perspective. I was a little shocked to see that her owner put her in a broken freezer as her "crate" but had to keep remembering that it is a horror/ thriller even though it broke my heart.

Thanks to Macmilland-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This was my first book by Catriona Ward and it won't be my last. It was incredibly atmospheric and well done. It was hard to put down and perfect for this time of year, when I love to read creepy, haunting stories.

This books was not for me, and that's okay. I was initially drawn in by the synopsis and the rave endorsement by Stephen King. It was more (or less?) than I had bargained for. I'm not a fan of the writing style and the characters in the alternating points of view don't thrill me. Not for me, but certainly others.

This book was unsettling and twisty; perfect for October! Super creepy and spooky and atmospheric. Someone who likes mild horror or thrillers would love this book.

The Last House on Needless Street was a strong psychological ride and Catriona Ward took great vehicles to tell the story and deliver the pieces of the puzzle little by little. The only caution I would give is this book is advertised and even categorized as horror, and with Stephen King citing how much he loved the book; it might mislead readers’s expectations. It’s not horror, but a deeply woven psychological thriller with a man named Ted at the center.
If you’ve seen movies like Psycho, American Psycho or Gone Girl (which Stephen King quotes in his blurb) and loved these, you’re in splendid company as Needless Street fits into the same bucket. The novel begins where our protagonist wakes up to a backyard full of dead birds, not understanding who’s behind this and then the narrative throws you in several directions with a few characters knitting a web of mystery until the dots connect and you realize the genius behind the weird moments of the story.
Catriona Ward’s prose is a breeze to read and accessible to readers of all levels except the subject—I would advise against kids reading this—and allows us to enjoy the mystery at the heart of the book. But what was excellent and sometimes peculiar is how she took each character and gave them their own voices. Have you ever read a novel where a cat has its own personality and is a participant in the narrative? My point exactly.
I have little more to say unless I reveal some elements of the story and fringe on spoiler territory, so I’ll conclude by saying that I really relished this book for what it was, and if you’re seeking a thriller wrapped in a mystery with a slight dash of supernatural, you’ll find a home in The Last House on Needless Street.

This was absolutely devastating. Heartbreaking and terrifying with an unusually satisfying finish. I was equally invested in all the characters and once I started the climax I stayed up all night to finish, knowing I wouldn't sleep until I knew how it ended.

It’s rare that I read a book and when I finish I just blink and think what did I just read, but this was that book. This is a hard book to talk about without giving too much away. It was full of twists and turns, but it wasn’t the traditional horror story. It was a perfect October pick and I definitely recommend it. This is the story of a man named Ted, his cat Olivia, and his daughter Lauren. They live in a creepy house with boarded up windows on a dead end street aptly named Needless. It’s told from all their perspectives and the perspective of Dee, sister of a girl who went missing about 10 years before. Dee is determined to figure out what happened to her sister all those years before and she hopes to find answers on Needless street. This book definitely kept me glued to the pages. I think I end up giving it 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. I really like that it kept me on my toes.

Ted Bannerman lives in a creepy boarded up house at the end of Needless Street. Deemed odd by his neighbors and by those who encounter him, he is needless to say, a loner. He had been questioned years ago in connection with the disappearance of a young girl at the lake near his house whose body has never been found. Cleared of any wrongdoing he is still obsessed with the vanishing. He spends his days drinking, taking care of his daughter who he will not allow to leave the house, fussing over his cat who does not get along with his child. His cat adores him, or so he thinks…

Ted’s childhood was not a very happy one. He had an overprotective mother who was a nurse and worked a great deal. She explained to Ted that the gene pool on her side of the family was not very good and she did not want him to turn out like anyone from her side of the family. Then one day, as Ted explains, she upped and left and never returned leaving Ted alone.

Dee is the sister of the missing girl who disappeared all those years ago from the lake. She has made it her life’s mission to solve the mystery of what happened to her sister. She has always suspected that Ted, who was a person of interest back then, had something to do with her missing sister Lulu. Dee decides to buy the dilapidated house across from Ted when it comes up for sale. She decides she will do her own investigation of him to see if he can somehow lead her to her sister, or if she can prove his involvement in her disappearance.

As Dee watches Ted and interacts with him, she becomes even more convinced he is hiding something. Her obsession with him grows increasingly all-consuming. But Ted and Dee have more in common than they know. The both hold past secrets deep within their souls. Some harmful and others which protect them.

Without giving too much away, I will say as the story progresses the shocking lives of Ted and Dee will be made clear. Sometimes it is hard to discern between good and evil, love and hate, fear and heroics and the weak and the strong. Try to never judge a book by its cover because the story inside can be incredibly more shocking.

The Last House on Needless Street is a perfectly crafted tale of horror, pain and courage.

Thank you #NetGalley #Nightfire/Macmillan #CatrionaWard #TheLastHouseonNeedlessStreet for the advanced copy.

This book starts off so weird. You will literally say “WTF am I reading?” aloud. You continue reading and you think you have it figured out… nope, guess again! 🤯 In conclusion: Your mind will be blown several times and you will not be able to put this book down. Buy this book now and then message me after you read it in one sitting.

WHOA. I'm not sure I have the words to summarize this one! As others have said, in reviewing this story you have to vague as to not spoil the MAGNIFICENT twists and turns that Catriona Ward provides!!!! Let me try in as few words as possible:
Ted lives in a boarded up, broken down house on Needless Street and his daughter, Lauren, visits him sometimes. He's overweight, drinks a lot and has trouble with his memory. Then there's Olivia, the talking cat who reads the Bible. Yes. Dee moves in across the street from Ted - she has been searching for her missing sister who disappeared when she was a teenager. Their worlds collide. New neighbors arrive and secrets find their way from the dark to the light. Trust me when I say just when you think you have it all figured out - BAM - you'll get hit with a twist you won't see coming!
This was an AWESOME read for Halloween time, but really it's a great, creepy, horror-ish thriller for any time of the year!
Thanks to Catriona Ward, Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the ARC.

Catriona Ward is the newest and creepiest voice in fiction that we didn’t know we needed. This book was a roller coaster of wrong guesses and dead ends on my end ad I tried to put pieces together from start to finish. The Goodreads synopsis says it best: “This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of the street. All these things are true. And yet they are all lies. You think you’ve read this story before. That’s where you’re wrong.”

The story is told from three perspectives:
👨Ted, a lonely and quirky man whose solitary activities and odd mental state lead you further and further into doubting how sane he is and what dark things he’s capable of.
🐈‍⬛ Olivia, Ted’s pet cat. His best friend and sole witness to the things that take place inside his house.
👩🏻 Dee, the sister of a missing girl who is on the hunt for the kidnapper and potential murderer.

The story is dark. It’s creepy. The descriptions of the house. The dialogue that leaves you guessing as to the true intent behind masked words. It will have you changing your hypothesis about the true nature of events every few chapters.

And perhaps the best part of all is the author’s note that follows the story. Her explanation of the evolution of and inspiration for the characters during her creation of this book sealed the 5 star deal for me.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for the perfect spooky read that leaves you guessing until the very end, you need to pick this one up!

This story was deeply unsettling in all the best ways. If I wouldn't have read the authors name on the cover I would have swore this was a Stephen King and son production . The success of this story lays in not just the setting development but in the million and one established quirks that are revealed in each one of the utilized characters. The writer infuses a heavy dose of paranoia and plays on the readers dependance on classic horror story roles to warp the the sense of those who begin to think they know whats going on here. I really like that the scares in this book had less to do with the paranormal and a gore factor, but instead utilize modern day examples of humans behaving badly. It was ten times more disturbing and frightening, much like The Collector by John Fowles.

Thank you to Netgalley and Nightfire for allow me to read a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Last House on Needless Street is definitely a trip down one messed up street. It's one of those books too where the less you know, the better off you're be. This novel is described as a psychological thriller, which I guess it can be from the twists and turns the novel takes you on. It's told through multiple POVs that all comes together close to the end. I personally saw the twists coming, but that didn't bother me too much. It's a slow burn novel so you will have to wait for the results of hours of reading. Is it worth the wait? I'm honestly not entirely sure. It took me awhile to get invested in the story and I'm not sure the final twist was enough to make me recommend it to a lot of people.

The Last House on Needless Street was very strange and confusing up at till the last like 30 or 40% and then slowly you start getting the information you need to put things together but by then I was so bored I didn’t really care. I also pretty much guessed most of the twist but maybe one of them.

It’s told mostly in three different POV’s none of them which I really cared that much for. You have Ted who lives on Needless Street with his daughter and a cat. He is really strange and reflect a lot on his mommy and it really makes you think he has something a bit wrong with him, or at least I did. He was a very boring kind of guy. Then you have the pov of the cat, yes I said cat. Olivia is a cat that lives there and she is a bible reading cat. She doesn’t want to say a bad word so she uses the initials and well, if you don’t want to say it then don’t use the intials, that annoyed me. Then there is Dee, a young woman who moves in next to Ted because she has suspicions about him. Her sister went missing a while back and she is still searching for her and thinks something is up with Ted.

You follow these three throughout the book and really not a whole lot happens and your confused trying to figure out why your following these POV’s up until you get the whole picture of what happened. I wanted to like this but I just wasn’t a fan of the writing style, I am never a fan of being confused till the end. Confusion makes me want to not read it. I only kept going because I was using this for a challenge.

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward starts out disorienting. It’s hard to get a handle on what’s going on.

As it continues and more is revealed, it becomes even more disorienting. But I don’t want to tell you how!

I fear that telling you *anything* about the plot points of the book would be to spoil it. So I’ll just give you the bare basics.

It involves three main characters who live in a big, somewhat ramshackle house on Needless Street:

>>Ted Bannerman, a man with mental delays, or issues, or both

>>Lauren, Ted’s tween daughter

>>Olivia, Ted’s sentient, foul-mouthed, Bible-reading cat

Ok, that’s all you get. Just read it. Go in blind. Trust me on this. All of the reviews praising this book are correct.

Everyone loves this book. Everyone except me.

This book was touted as "revolutionary" and a "new horror classic", but I found it very difficult to wade thru and not at all satisfying. I would probably have not even finished it if not for all the glowing reviews that loved the twists in the end. I, however, saw them coming a mile away. The real thing that put me off this book, however, was the writing style. Most of the book is from the perspective of a man, a cat (yes, really), and a little girl. It really reminded me of Room by Emma Donahue (another one that everyone loved but me). I just don't connect with that writing style. So, this was not the perfect October book I'd been hoping for. I'm glad it's found it's audience; that just doesn't include me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.