THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET.......HORRORS TO BREAK YOUR HEART

 The Last House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward (2021)  *****

Like to be creeped out to the point of getting actual chills? Like to be dazzled by so many twists, your head' will spin faster than Linda Blair's in "The Exorcist"?

              Hoo boy, have I got a book for you.

               For anyone who, like me, can never get enough scary thrillers to stay up all night with, this one should go on that list titled  "Books I gotta have in my in my hands like yesterday."

                This one plunges so far down a twisted abyss of psychosis, dysfunction and heartbreak, you may never think you or the book will ever crawl out out of it and see daylight again. 

  
                 Four narrators tell the story here....There's ..Ted, a lonely, strange man living a hermit-like life in a lonely strange house with all the windows boarded up, except for a few peepholes. (Feel free to say "Uh oh....")

                 Also in the house -  Lauren, supposedly Ted's young daughter......though it seems she's most likely  the now grown older Lulu, who, at six years old, vanished from a family lakeside vacation, presumably abducted.. It's an unsolved disappearance that happened not far from Ted's house, which led to Ted being briefly questioned and suspected. 

                And also padding and purring around the premises -  Olivia, Ted's cat. (Yes, she's an active narrator too  and a character as vividly rendered and verbal as Ted and Lauren.

                Finally there's  Dee, Lulu's haunted ,driven older sister, who's moved to Ted's street in the obsessed belief that Lulu's still alive. and a prisoner in that forbidding house as a long time captive of Ted. The police may have quickly taken Ted off their suspect list, but he's been on Dee's for a lifetime.

                Is it possible that these three humans and the feline may or may not be unreliable narrators?

               Are you kidding?  This book takes unreliable narration to almost unheard of, stratospheric heights. This may be the first thriller I've read where virtually every sentence might prove untrustworthy.  You can try to make rational, educated guesses as to what's going on, but nothing can quite prepare you for the actual reveals in store for you.

                As the novel progressively turns sicker, sadder and weirder, author Ward slowly but surely peels away all the secrets and twists like multiple layers of an onion.. And it's one hell of a deep, dark onion.

                And none of these secrets, twists and stunning surprises are anything I'd expected when I started reading it.  Yes, there's horror aplenty here, but as the revelations unfold, I could see this author had way more ambitious intentions on her mind ......to move her readers emotionally.

                And she achieves that brilliantly. This story's designed to haunt and unsettle you long after you've turned the last page.

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                I dare not say one more word other than my rating. Without question a 5 star (*****) must read  all the way.  The kind of book that can give you a few nightmares and break your heart at the same time.