The Only One Left by Riley Sager
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/5

“𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩, 𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙩? 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙞𝙛 𝙄’𝙢 𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙄 𝙖𝙢. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙚𝙨.”

At seventeen 𝙇𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙖 𝙃𝙤𝙥𝙚
𝙃𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 with a rope

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

WOAH What a book!
This one is my first Riley Sager book and I LOVED it. This one completely HOOKED me right from the beginning, and it TOTALLY lived up to the hype.

What I most loved about this book was the written story of Lenora Hope. Her writing is filled with suspense and mystery, which kept me on the edge of the seat for the whole time. It was incredible how the author manipulated us to believe one thing whilst it was something completely different. All I can say is bravo!

Dark, gripping and utterly creepy, this is a must read and a 5 star.

This will definitely be one of my top 10 books for 2023!

Having already read all of Riley Sager's works, I was really excited to get stuck into The Only One Left. This book creeps up on you, with its odd occurrences and suspicious characters, so that by the time it all ramps up, you're already too invested to quit. The Only One Left was a fantastic book and easily one of my top 3 Sager releases to date.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 disappointing stars.

Maybe my expectations were too high and I can see I am in the minority but I didn’t really enjoy this book that much.

I found it a bit slow and none of the characters were likeable. The twists when they came were too late in the book and I’d pretty much lost interest by then.

This was great!

The crumbling cliff top mansion was the perfect creepy atmosphere for this solid 4 star mystery. I lost count how many times I was convinced I knew what had happened (spoiler: I didn’t) after every twist and secret that was revealed I had to completely rethink everything. The odd cast of characters really added the creep factor, I mean you really felt like you could trust no one!

The very end after the big twist is what knocked a star off and stopped it being a 5 star read for me, but all in all a solid 4 star read and I’ll definitely be picking up more from Riley Sager in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton & Riley Sager for giving me an ARC.

Wow is the first word that comes to mind after just finishing this book only minutes ago. Riley Sager has outdone himself with this new book. The Only One Left is an amazing story with so many plot twists you're poor head will spin but readers you will be too hooked to stop.

Unfortunately I didn't like this one. It felt hastily written by an author that has already risen to fame. The prose is very straightforward with scattered, half-hearted attempts at vivid language.

The suspense is also stifled by the constant back and forth of the main character questioning herself on whether she is in jeopardy as a result of knowing too much or whether she should stay and find out more. This back and forth took so much away from building the actual plot and got old REALLY quickly... and carried on past half the book. As with most work that becomes extremely tedious, I feel like this should have been a much shorter book (although many readers already praise how short it is!)

Also, every single character in this book frustrated me. The main character was SO judgey! Idk why it bothered me so much but like… chill lady. Glass houses and such. The only person I liked was the character who couldn’t move or speak. Somehow she had the most sass and was the most captivating.

Have found this authors work to be really gripping and this story knocked it out the park. Very atmospheric and really kept me invested to find out what had happened and unravel the mystery of it all. Some twists I didn't see coming, really great read!

This is a very craftily devised novel- this was my first thought when I finished reading the book. Once you know the entire story and you go back and read the first few chapters, you realize the way the author has written the novel is itself a major clue to the ending, but one that most readers will likely miss. This is my first Riley Sager book and I was completely blown away by the first half of it. In fact I was very sure that this would be a five-star book for me, but in the second half the twists keept getting more and more implausible. While there were a few reveals that left me dumbfounded, some were a little far-fetched and felt unnecessary.

After a suspension of 6 months Kit McDeere arrives at Hope's End, a sprawling, crumbling mansion at the end of a cliff, to care for Lenora Hope. Kit's last patient died due to an overdose of fentanyl and as a caregiver, it was Kit's responsibility to keep the drugs out of the patient's reach. Something that she failed to do and blames herself for. So Kit is no position to decline the new assignment, which is what she wants desperately to do, when she comes to know her new ward, Lenora Hope, was accused of murdering her parents and sister fifty four years ago. The Hope family was killed brutally in the same mansion that Kit has to live in. But due to lack of concrete evidence Lenora was never charged by the police.

In the present due to a series of strokes, Lenora is paralyzed and unable to speak. But when strange noises awaken Kit in the middle of the night, she starts to question the events of that fateful night when the entire Hope family was massacred and Lenora was the only one left.

The book is fast paced and gives all the creepy thrills of an old gothic mansion, a hint of supernatural and the suspense of a unsolved cold case. Riley Sager gets all the formulas right. I enjoyed reading this book so much, that I now want to discover more of the author's book.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publishers, Hodder & Stoughton and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was packed with mystery and intrigue, really interesting concept with I thoroughly enjoyed there’s was lots of different aspects to the story some which I had guessed and others I didn’t see coming.
There did seem like a lot packed into the end and some bits left me needing to read further back again to match it all up.
Overall I really enjoyed this and loved the atmosphere of the whole book.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this arc.

Riley Sager is a must-buy author for me. His plots are clever, his stories entertaining - and his latest effort is no different.

The Last One Left is Sager’s take on a ‘whodunit’. It’s set in the 80s in coastal Maine (hello, Stephen King fans), it’s very gothic, and it has real Lizzie Borden vibes. So, straight away I was invested!

Kit McDeere has been assigned a new post at Hope’s End, a huge mansion on a cliff edge that slopes towards the sea. She is caregiver to the elderly Lenora Hope, a local legend who in 1929 allegedly murdered her entire family. After a series of strokes, Lenora is bed-bound and requires constant care, but with the remaining use of one of her arms, she begins to type messages to Kit - one of the first being, “I didn’t do it”. As the details of that fateful night become clear, Kit has to learn who she can trust.

This is a moody and tense book. It’s very atmospheric - mostly owing to the great setting - and it’s propulsive enough to make it a real page-turner. There are some implausible or even clichéd turns, and I really have an issue with villains who confess easily in overly long speeches, but this is common in thrillers like this one and it didn’t take away too much from my enjoyment of the novel.

Overall, this is a fun, entertaining and slightly camp read, but that’s the beauty of Sager’s books - they are nothing if not a fun ride!

If you love horror films you're going to want to read The Only One Left! Before I started reading it, I already knew that it had that classic horror vibe - the cover is a dead giveaway and the synopsis sounded right up my street. You've got a big old house on a clifftop that has almost been left to ruins, a decades old murder mystery, a suspect who no longer has the ability to defend herself after having a stroke, and a carer who is determined to find out the truth.

Creepy, cinematic, full of suspense, twisty and gripping. This book was just so fun to read, I actually think it's my favourite Riley Sager book so far!

Wow did this keep me on my toes! You think you have it sussed, then bam, it changes direction again! I'm a big fan of Riley Sager, and this new novel didn't let me down. It's descriptive, suspenseful, and just the right amount of creepy. Would definitely recommend. Will now just have to wait patiently for his next release!

Riley Sager does it again with another twisty, atmospheric tale! This had me unwilling to re-enter the real world, reading late into the night.

Kit's sad backstory leads to her sticking it out as carer for an accused murderess in a creepy, lonely spot. Sager's crumbling house teetering on a cliff imbues the whole atmosphere with the sense that everything is off kilter.

Highly recommend 👌

Thank you Netgalley & Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC of The Only One Left by Riley Sager! This is hands down my favorite Sager book of those I've read so far. I binged this book in a day and have been recommending it left and right for my thriller-loving friends.

Everyone thinks Lenora Hope is a mass murderer of her very own family, decades ago. She was quite literally the only one left after that night. She's now muted, paralyzed and confined to a wheel chair - And has never been able to tell her story.

Her new caregiver, Kit, has her own complex background and needs this job with Lenora. She brings her a typewriter, and Lenora writes: I want to tell you everything.

I loved this book so much! You're uncovering multiple stories at once here - Kit's background and what happened to her, but also what happened the night Lenora's family was brutally murdered. I was not expecting the twists and turns that took place in this book. Everything was masterfully written and the perfect definition of an atmospheric read.

When I was approved for Sager's latest release, I was beyond giddy! Then life happened and I've only just gotten around to reading it. Guess who is now kicking herself for not picking it up immediately? Yep, that's right, it's me!

In 1983, Kit McDeere takes a new job caring for the infamous Lenora Hope, long thought to have murdered her entire family back in 1929. Still living in the cliff side house where her family met their end, Lenora is now bed bound yet upon meeting Kit, confesses that she is ready to tell her story. In true Sager fashion, nothing is as it seems and we are taken on one hell of a ride!

I loved this book SO fricking much! It felt like I was reading classic Sager again, every aspect of this story just clicked for me! You couldn't trust anyone in this novel, the setting was so eerie, there was an increasing sense of dread throughout. I also loved the dual timelines, giving you little snippets of the past to keep you hooked! And the amount of times I gasped when reading! I think it's safe to say I saw nothing coming, and it was the best!

Anywho, thank you so much to NetGalley and Hodder for this copy! You have made me one very happy gal and I adored every second of reading this book! A new favourite Sager!

* Please look up trigger warnings before reading *

Oh boy this was one hell of a ride! Major book slump incoming I think!
I cannot stop thinking about it. AND THAT is what I adore about books, that shows it was a winner, when you constantly go over and over the story… and the ending!
Highly highly recommend. Such a talented author!

“ At 17 Leonora hung her sister with a rope “

In 1929 it was believed (but not proven) that Lenora killed her mom and dad by stabbing them to death and hung her sister in their home.

Lenora is not able to take care of herself so a new caretaker, Kit, comes to live with her at her creepy mansion.

Kit hears things in the night & Lenora just wants her story to be heard.

But believe me when I tell you, TRUST NO ONE.

This was such a vibe reading. I just love the creeepy crawly feel of a old home with a bad past & we have to figure out the truth!

I had so much fun reading this and all the twists and turns and not trusting no one was such a good vibe!!


*I received this book in enchanted for a unbiased review from Net galley, thank you Net Galley!! *

It was a wild ride, a tense trip into darkness and secrets.
Riley Siger deliver a gripping and highly entertaining story that I read i. One sttting
Highly recommended
Many thanks to the publisher, all opinions are mine

Everyone believes that Lenora Hope is a mass murderer. The Hope family was killed many many years ago, she was the only one left after that tragic night. Lenora is mute, paralysed and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora has never told tell her side of the story, that is until her new live-in caregiver Kit brings her a typewriter. And with one working finger Lenora begins to type: I want to tell you everything.

This was amazing, 5 stars! This starts a little slower that Sagers other novels but there is enough entrigue and mystery to keep you turning the page to find out what happened. Sager also created a really good atmosphere. This has so many twists and turns and once they start to be relieved they just do not stop so be prepared to stay awake to finish that last 30%.

Thank you to Netgalley, Hodder and Stoughton, and Riley Sager for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

trigger warning
<spoiler> mention of suicide, trauma, grief, mention of child loss, misogyny, gore </spoiler>

1983: After six months of suspension, our protagonist gets a new live-in placement as a caregiver. She needs the money badly after having had to live on her meagre savings, and thus has to take the job, even if she does not like it - after all, the woman she is supposed to care for is rumored to having killed her whole family 50 years ago, and now being the only one left.

I liked the atmosphere and the first half of the book, but then it went increasingly downhill, just like the mansion did. The proud man who build it considered himself too awesome to think about what he did, so not only did he name the thing Hope's End - his own name being Hope - he also build it far too close to a crumbling cliff.

We have a first person narrator who hides things, or just doesn't mention them. We also have a narrator within in the narrator, as we get typed narratives by Kit's charge, Lenora Hope.

Small aside, everytime I saw the name Lenora I thought of Lenor laundry detergent and pastel pink and blue sweaters, but I can see that this probably was a very me-problem.

What wasn't a me-problem was the predictability of it all. Handsome garden hand? She'll fall for him. And especially the plot twists were no real twists due to foreshadowing.

All in all, I feel that my rating is very, very generous and that in the future, I just should ignore this author's books no matter how hyped they are.

The arc was provided by the publisher.