You'll have to look hard to find a character as creepy and weird as Ted. He made my skin crawl. I hated him. I knew everything there was to know about him. I was wrong. Things are far worse.
Believe the hype this is a must read.
Storytelling at its most powerful.

Thank you to NetGalley, Catriona Ward and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I’m not quite sure how to review this book without spoiling it. WOW. This is not what I expected at all. There are more twists and turns then a roundabout.

Hands up, when I started reading this, I thought it wasn’t going to be for me, but it turns out I was wrong, and I was duly rewarded with a strange, dark, but unique reading experience.

Ted is something of a recluse, he lives in a tumbledown house right beside a spooky forest on Needless Street, he has his cat Olivia for company, and occasional visits from his daughter Lauren. Lauren’s visits are a whirlwind of torment for Ted, (and Olivia) she’s noisy, aggressive, and defiant, but he does his best to instil some sort of discipline, or Lauren has to pay the price for her behaviour!

I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll leave it at that, except to say that this is a tense, creepy but compelling and original storyline, that reads more like gothic horror at times!

This a completely compelling read that shook me to the core and a book that is almost impossible to describe without spoiling it for other readers so I’m not even going to try, just pick it up and read it for yourself I can assure you you won’t be disappointed.
Told from multiple points of view it’s a read that slowly gives snippets of information about what is happening but then twists it round and I was never quite sure of anything, the narrator’s were all odd to say the least but there hidden in the story there were clues and it was a pretty amazing read.
All the way through reading this book is this underlying sense of menace and at times made for some pretty uncomfortable reading but it was so compulsive I found myself desperate to try and fit it all together.
The twists were very very clever, the writing was perfection and it was a book that shocked me many times. I can highly recommend this this to all lovers of thrillers with a difference and I’m sure this will be a big hit.
My thanks to NetGalley and Serpent’s Tail/Profile Books, Viper for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Clever, eviscerating psychological noir, this is an immersive and gripping gothic novel which explores shifting voices and points of view. At times, this is very difficult to read with a confronting and unflinching portrayal of horrific abuse. I thought I could see a twist coming a mile off, this time I was wrong. Ward keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final reveal, directing the reader right up until the final shock. Deliciously manipulative!

Wow what a book! This was not at all what I was expecting, it was better. I devoured it. There were so many twists and what twists they were. This is a must read!

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 5*
Writing skill : 5*
Characters : 4*
Pace: 3*
Suspense: 4*
Big-Unexpected-Twist: 5*

So this wasn't at all what I was expecting. I expected it to be good, I'd seen a load of hype about it on twitter, but that twist. POW!
This is a hard one to review without giving anything away, so all I can really say is you have to read this. The characters are complex, to say the least, and the writing is magnificent. I can honestly say this is unlike anything else I've read. YOU MUST READ THIS!

Unfortunately after numerous attempts I have not been able to finish this book. I think the story is probably just a little too quirky for my taste.

All I can say is wow. I just wanted to say something. I’ll do a more thorough review later on closer to publication day, but my goodness, this novel is a work of art

This is an unusual novel; fantasy meets gothic horror meets creepy fairytale.
It’s ostensibly about a loner called Ted who lives at the edge of the woods, his daughter Lauren and cat Olivia, and a neighbour Dee who is searching for her long disappeared little sister, and is suspicious of Ted.
But as the novel progresses, things get stranger and more sinister.
I think you’ll like it if you like dark fantasy and magical realism - one of the narrators is the cat, Olivia.
It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea - I found it quite disturbing - but it kept me guessing and interested, and is well-constructed with a plot that’s always one step ahead of you.
Recommended.

I was so excited when I recieved a review copy of the book from the cool people at @viper.books that I abandoned all other reading plans and got stuck in straight away.

Wow, you'd better believe the hype - this book is fantastic! 😍 I read it in December and it suddenly became one of my favourite books of the year. I was gripped from the very start and literally couldn't put it down, I just had to know what happened next!

It's one of those stories that you're better approaching without knowing anything about it so I won't go into any detail. I'll just say that it's creepy, twisty and incredibly intelligent.🤓 The book has such a wide appeal - You'll love this if you're a horror fan as it's dark, gothic and deeply unsettling. Those of you who prefer psychological thrillers will be wowed by the mindblowing web of mystery and stunned by one of the most original character perspectives I've ever encountered.

The twists in this book are just... I don’t even know how to talk about it without blowing all of the surprises. There are three main narrators: super creepy Ted, in first person, his cat Olivia, in first person, and Dee, a woman searching for her missing sister, in third person. These characters are all introduced early and, weirdly, the cat’s narrative voice was my favourite, and I found her oddly trustworthy. You can laugh at that later once you’ve read the book. It did start to get to a point, maybe about four fifths in, where it started to feel a little bit too much but I’m glad I ploughed on because the payoff was worth the silliness. Give it a go, but be aware that The Last House on Needless Street is nothing like it seems.

I devoured over this astonishing, creepy novel in one long, wide-eyed night and I am still thinking about it now. The story centres on Ted, who lives in a house next to the woods with his cat and his daughter. Next door, a new neighbour moves in - a woman looking for answers to the disappearance of her young sister several years ago. What follows from there is a gothic, unsettling rollercoaster, where what you assumed was going on may be far from the truth. To say much more would be to spoil it, but I highly recommend it if you love thrillers but with the unfolding narrative writing style of Shirley Jackson. This is sure to be one of the most notable books of 2021 - it is engrossing, chilling and made me want to start reading it all over again as soon as I had finished.

Having read the award winning Catriona Ward's incredible debut, Rawblood, it is not surprising that her latest novel, an atmospheric gothic horror, the darkest of fairytales, is one of the books of 2021. In a place that echoes with lost boys, 11 years ago, the haunted Dee lost her little 6 year old sister, Lulu, the Popsicle Girl, disappearing, never to be seen again. Unsurprisingly, Dee's family disintegrated, and her father is now dead. Dee is left petrified of snakes, thinking she knows who took her sister, she fixates on Ted Bannerman, even though there was CCTV showing he was in a store, with scores of witnesses at the time, proving he had nothing to do with the taking of Lulu. The determined and watchful Dee takes up residence next to Ted's dilapidated home, intent on locating Lulu, convinced of Ted's involvement. At the end of the street are the eerie Woods where the gods are buried.

The unprepossessing, oddball and bulky Ted is a strange man, a prisoner of his reclusive and lonely life, living for the times when his young daughter, Lauren, comes to visit, accompanying her as she trundles and tears round the house on her bike. The novel opens with the menacing act of someone massacring the birds in his garden, leaving Ted devastated and upset, trying to work out who would do such a thing. He is often drunk, visits the bug man, is terrified of the green boys in the attic, and has issues with his memories and there are indications that they are unreliable. Ted is desperate for close contact, going on dates, assuming right from the start that he will be rejected. One of the main perspectives comes from Olivia, Ted's beloved cat, an indoor cat all too conscious of the dangers of the outside world, her god given mission to take care of and protect Ted, although there are occasions when she is so furious with him that she looks for her own forms of revenge, although she can never manage to dislodge and smash the picture of Ted's parents. As the story progresses, the ever creeping feelings of unease, tensions, dread and fear, build ever stronger.

Ward's storytelling veers towards the genius in its unsettling structure, the never ending spiral of twists and turns, the complexities and layered depths of the characters are a marvel to behold, including that of Olivia, at no point did I feel secure about understanding what was going on. The author is remarkably adept at keeping the reader off kilter, underlining and compounding the strong sense and threads of continuous instability with the indeterminate circles of time. This is a riveting, standout and utterly unforgettable read that grabs you by the throat and never lets go until the final pages, a tale of terror, trauma, mental health issues, survival and hope. I have absolutely no doubt that this is going to be a book that will do amazingly well, an absolute must read. Hugely recommended! Many thanks to Serpent's Tail/Profile Books for an ARC.

I like the analogy that reading is like dating. Sometimes you click with a book, but sometimes you don’t and that’s okay. I’m afraid for me - this date didn’t go too well. We’re far too different. I’m not a big fan of whimsical and quirky characters. These ones were too out there for me; and that’s okay, because someone else will love this. Unfortunately that person just wasn’t me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. I was intrigued by the quotes by Stephen King and the comparison to Gone Girl. I thought this would be a psychological thriller with some horror strands. Unfortunately I’m afraid I had to DNF this, as I just wasn’t getting on with the book. There is some plot. The story opens with Ted seeing the newspaper which has a story about an anniversary-11 years ago a girl went missing and Ted was a suspect. Ted goes to garden where he keeps a bird-keeper and sees that someone has deliberately put glue and birds have died. He starts to think maybe the anniversary and this incident are connected.
I just couldn’t get on board with the writing style. I felt Ted was autistic, with the child-like view he has of the world and I found his relationship with his daughter weird. Then there was a chapter from a cat’s POV and I couldn’t stand it any longer. I’m afraid the just wasn’t for me.

4.5 stars

This was on my most wanted list for a while. Well it was the entirety of my most wanted list,so I was really excited to read it.
I cant find the words to describe it well without spoilers.
But it took every assumption I made and turned them completely on their heads,leaving me wondering all too often what and how?
Absolutely cracker of a book,that's going to stay with me a long time I think.
Believe all the hype you've seen.

Wow...where to even start with this one? I knew very little about the book before going in, just some hype - but it's completely well deserved. This is the kind of book that's impossible to pin down, it's truly unique and off in it's own little world. It's wonderful though, the writing it so gorgeous and completely draws you and and keeps those pages turning. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this very special book.

To say this book was not what I had expected is an understatement. I had expected gothic horror - what it delivers is rather more fanciful and infinitely more complex than that. That it is part-narrated by a cat explains the 'fanciful' - at least initially. But what could have so easily been an attention-seeking device settles into a surprisingly delicate study of loss and 'lost' people of every sense. It is gentle where it could be salacious and kind where it could simply be cruel. By the end, the only character I really didn't buy, even as a 'type' (as Mummy rather is), was Dee, who was written with the same oddball pace and behaviour as some of the more extravagant characters in the novel. But it's a good read - dark and funny and compassionate and far, far more humane than its positioning might suggest. Recommend.

This is a unique book told by different voices, Ted, Olivia the cat and Lauren the young child. The story is disturbing and also left me quite often scratching my head! With some excellent descriptive writing, I felt as though I was there and also could smell the places, like the forest.

It did take me a while to get into the book but once I did, I found I couldn’t put it down. This story is well written and I found myself thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading it.

My thanks to Viper Books and NetGalley for my copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.