This one was just doing too much. The twists were predictable and one of them just didn’t make sense. At the end it gets too convoluted.

This book felt like classic Riley Sager of “Final Girls” and “The Last Time I Lied.” Loved it. While there are of course moments that feel a little too on the nose and things got a little too convenient, I didn’t care because I still enjoyed the story. I can’t wait to suggest this one to patrons.

Hope's End is a palatial mansion built on a cliffside in Maine by the wealthy Winston Hope. In 1929 three grizzly murders occur there, there's even a little rhyme about it.

At seventeen Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother's happy life
"It wasn't me," Lenora said
But she's the only one not dead

This may top Final Girls as my favorite Sager book. Twists and turns galore! I refuse to spoil anything but I will say to read this if you life:
- book within a book
- 80's setting
- creepy decaying mansion vibes
- unreliable narrators
- twists you will not see coming

Thank you so much to @duttonbooks and @netgalley for my eARC. This one is out June 20th so preorder it now!

I will say that Riley Sager's books are always entertaining, but I can't say their original. I feel like Sager is always remixing other horror stories to create a new one. So, in this one you have Lizzie Borden layered with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (I'm sure there are other references, these are the ones that immediately stood out to me). I mean, it's fine in the sense that it's a horror pastiche. It's a good read, you'll enjoy it.

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

Bravo Riley! I will admit there was one point near the middle of this where I thought ok I might not be loving this. I was wrong. So so wrong. WOW! I pride myself in usually figuring out all of the twists before they happen but I did NOT see a lot of that coming at all. Again WOW! This is one I will be thinking about for some time and dare I say my new favorite Riley Sager book?! I think so!

Riley Sager has, once again, woven a dazzling web with twists and turns aplenty. Kit McDeere has been hired to be a caregiver for a notorious member of the Hope family. There is much suspicion surrounding this family and what may have happened one fateful night. There are so many things that happen in this book that I do not want to spoil. Let me just say that if you like Riley Sager, this book will definitely be a hit.

Thank you so much to Penguin Group and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love Riley Sager, there. I said it. I'll never *not* read something he wrote but this book fell a little flat for me. I was intrigued by the premise of Lenora, with her dark cloud of suspicion hanging over her as well as Kit's own issues involving her mom. There was the potential for an interesting group of characters, however, I found the book a bit repetitive and Kit was really an idiot. A few times, I definitely needed to suspend disbelief in order to get through and I found myself rolling my eyes but I persevered to get to the twist which was really good...overall, I'd still tell my friends to read this for a fun little thriller but I don't think it lives up to his earlier novels.

I'm torn about this book. I've read everything Riley Sager has written and I typically like it a lot. However, I found this one to be very slow in the beginning, and I couldn't really connect with the protagonist, who seemed to jump feet first into this mystery for no real reason. I mean within a week, she was all over the place, distrusting everyone, making assumptions, etc. She seemed paranoid and every single thing was described. If you were in a very shaky, very old mansion on a seaside cliff and you thought you heard a footstep, would you automatically assume someone was in the next room? I wouldn't. But she hears this maybe twice and is all over the place. She is a caretaker and has been for a dozen years, but she seems like she would be terrible in the role. We also hear basically nothing about this part of her life. The thing with her mother wasn't a secret but was treated like a secret? But I didn't guess part of the ending. One major part of the ending was hinted at throughout the book and I don't want to give spoilers, but there should have less foreshadowing because it kind of ruined the surprise. But a lot of the rest of it was a surprise, which is why I always stick with Riley Sager books. I don't think I've ever guessed an ending.

This was a solid four star book until the last like 15% where it completely secured its fifth star. SO MANY TWISTS I CANT EVEN HANDLE IT. 😵‍💫 Riley Sager continues to be a fave thriller author for me!

📖 THE ONLY ONE LEFT by Riley Sager

🕵🏻 Lenora Hope killed her family in a Lizzie Borden-esque style, nursery rhyme included. Now she’s an old lady unable to speak or move and her new caregiver, Kit, is moving into the house of her hometown monster to care for the old lady. Something isn’t right at the mansion and soon Kit is in the middle of a mystery 54 years in the making.

👩🏻‍💻 This felt like a solid return for Riley Sager. I loved the time periods - 1929 and 1983. I loved the throwback nostalgia mixed with gothic vibes that Sager brings to life in the way that only he can. I was creeped out, unnerved, confused, shocked, and thrilled in this slow burn thriller.

I had some struggles with enjoying the story as much as the writing sets readers up to due to some personal triggers related to elder care that was a huge part of the book. There were some parts that were difficult for me to read that I think for most other readers wouldn’t register as a blip. Unfortunately this took me out of the story and I didn’t love it as much as I would have liked to.

With that said, Sager is a superior storyteller and had me following along to believe every one of the red herrings and sub-plots. I have and will continue to recommend Riley Sager as a top notch thriller author that everyone should read.

Since most of this book was set in the 80s, I feel good about saying I wish my brain was a cassette in a Walkman, so I could rewind and re-read this book over and over! Full of twists and turns, it kept me guessing until the very end. Gothic mystery meets revenge thriller that is a must read!

After being disappointed by Sager’s previous two novels, coming off such a strong streak of the first four, I was a little wary of what caliber story I’d be getting in this one. I was pleased to discover that this mystery zips along and provides some great classic Sager twists.
The vibe of the story has a bit of The Haunting of Bly Manor and a dash of The Fall of the House of Usher.
Mild spoiler ahead:
There’s an unexpected happy ending that makes this more than just a dark mystery.

In his latest thriller, Riley Sager takes on a gothic tale of a creepy old manor and generations-old secrets that continue to cast a long shadow. Lenora Hope is a septuagenarian confined to a wheelchair in her family's once grand cliffside manor. She was the sole survivor of an event that left her parents and sister dead by an unknown assailant's hand, although most people in town believe that hand was hers. 60-some years later, she's become something of a local urban legend, with a morbid rhyme about her supposed crimes and everything. When disgraced home-health aide Kit McDeere gets roped into becoming Lenora's new carer only to find a lot of eerieness afoot in the crumbling Hope manor, she begins to unravel the secrets that Lenora has kept about her family's murder for all these years.

This was an irresistible premise to someone like me who grew up devouring gothic novels of suspense. But although I did like this one a little better than his last two novels, it ultimately fell a little short of the mark. My primary complaint with Sager's novels in general is that they're written in a way to mislead the reader from the beginning. While this is understandable, as it's supposed to lead to a big reveal that we've been intentionally led away from the whole time, when that reveal does happen, it suddenly makes the characters' motives and behavior difficult to explain. It all feels just a little too contrived for my liking.

Set in 1983, The Only One Left is centered around 30-year-old Kit McDeere. Kit is a home health nurse who has been assigned to care for one of the town's most notorious residents, Lenora Hope. When Lenora was 17 years old, she was accused of murdering her entire family (similar to Lizzie Borden) but was never convicted because of a lack of proof. Even though Lenora has been adamant about her innocence, the entire town believes she is guilty. Because of this, Lenora never left her childhood home, a crumbling mansion named Hope’s End.

Due to a series of strokes, Lenora can no longer care for herself and can no longer speak. Kit was hesitant about accepting the job and staying at Hope’s End not only because of its horrifying past, but also her fear of Lenora, but she soon learned that Lenora was harmless and agreed to care for her. Lenora can only communicate using a typewriter and One night Lenora types out that she wishes to tell Kit her entire story- the truth about what happened to her family

Dare I say it, The Only One Left is one of the best thrillers I've read this year. I've read all of Mr. Sagar’s books and the writing in this one was very similar to his earlier work and reminded me a bit of Home Before Dark. Even though I enjoyed reading them, I loved The Only One Left so much more than Sagar’s last two novels.

The Only One Left has the perfect combination of a gothic atmospheric setting and a nail-biting mystery. The setting was perfect and I found myself still thinking about Hope’s End days after finishing this one. I also really liked the main character and I enjoyed trying to uncover the mystery along with Kit. And wow,
readers are hit with not just one..... but three earth-shattering twists!

I just know The Only One Left will be a big hit this summer and readers will love this one just as much as I did. The Only One Left by Riley Sagar will be available on June 20. Many thanks to Dutton Books and Netgalley for the gifted copy!

Okay this was alright. A classic Sager so you know you're getting a solid book.

I really enjoyed the dual narrative, especially with the way the story played out (things get wild, y'all) and the little hints and clues encoded in the syntax of Sager's sentences are cool especially if you can figure them out.

I'd argue that this isn't his most clever, or best plotted thriller -- it's middling at best, but I also have a super high standard for a Sager thriller. Usually I can't put them down, but with The Only One Left, I found myself stopping and starting and doing that over and over.

The twists will hit for a lot of people and I have a sneaking suspicion folks will eat up the ending.

Unfortunately I'm just really really picky, lol

This one started a little slow for me, and I almost didn't finish it. The characters were bland (minus Ms. Hope!) and the mansion setting was a little dull. I wanted more action and wasn't getting it. And with 20% left of the book, everything changed course. It became fast-paced with so many twists and turns that I had to finish it. Not my favorite by Riley Sager, but it's definitely worth the read!

This book stands out from others in it's category. It's fast paced, there's never a dull moment, and the character development didn't overpower the main plot. If you're looking for a book to binge and keep you guessing this is a good one.
You follow kit, an in home caregiver, through her time at an infamous mansion taking care of an even more infamous patient; of which everyone believes is a murderer. Kit becomes entranced with finding out the truth of these murders but must be creative because her patient, Lenora, cannot speak and is paralyzed. Heavy on plot twists that can become overwhelming at times but I still would recommend to fellow fans of the genre as well as newcomers.

Talk about twists! They just kept coming. I thought I had it figured out and I didn't.
I loved the gothic, cliffside mansion setting. While I haven't read every Riley Sager book, this one is definitely one of my favorites.

(Trigger warnings: death, suicide, illness, parental loss.)

Riley Sager's latest is packed with the suspense and twists I've come to expect from his novels. And this book had me guessing down to the last page.

Due to horrible circumstances, Kit McDeere has no choice but to accept a job at a reclusive mansion located on a literal cliff's edge and caring for Lenora Hope—suspected of murdering her whole family years ago and now mute, mostly paralyzed, and confined to a wheelchair. But Lenora *can* communicate: via a typewriter, plucking away at keys with her one functioning hand. And she offers to tell Kit everything. Namely, what really happened the night of the murders so long ago in 1929.

What follows is Kit attempting to unravel this mystery, understand why Lenora did what she did, and deal with the repercussions of her own actions. And, of course, nothing's quite what it seems.

I did feel like the last 20 percent of the book was a little rushed and that the last chapter had me wanting a little more, but it was a fast-paced, highly enjoyable, suspenseful read with an ending I absolutely didn't expect.

Well, Sager has misplaced the talent he showed so promisingly in his first three books. Or, more likely, he feels pressure to publish every couple of years. Maybe take the time to write only when you have a story, not a retread with inane twists.