The Only One Left by Riley Sager
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
After a client overdoses while under care, home-health aide, Kit McDeere, finds herself suspended from her job for 6-months. That’s a long time to be out of work, stewing on her past mistakes. Kit doesn’t like the feeling.
When her suspension is up, her boss tells her about her new assignment. Oh baby, it’s a doozy!
Unfortunately, she’s lucky to even still have her job, so Kit doesn’t put up much of a fight though. Beggars can’t be choosers. At least it will get her out of her Dad’s house.
Kit is headed to Hope’s End, a once lavish estate on the rocky coast of Maine. Set high on a cliff, the home has slowly begun to decay over the decades, leaning ever closer to the sea below.
Even so, it’s not the mansion itself that disturbs Kit the most. It’s who lives inside it. Lenora Hope, Kit’s latest client, is the sole survivor of the Hope Family Massacre of 1929. As the survivor, Lenora was the main suspect and was accused of killing her father, mother and sister.
The crimes are so infamous in the local area, there’s even a creepy little song 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
Kit knows what it’s like to be accused of something however, so she tries to stick all she thinks she knows about Lenora Hope into the back of her mind. Regardless of her past, Lenora is now a woman in her 70s, who has been left mute and incapacitated by a series of strokes.
Confined to a wheelchair, Lenora is completely dependent on Kit for her daily care. Her only means of communication is pecking out her thoughts on an old typewriter.
One night, through her typing, Lenora makes Kit and offer. She wants to tell her everything that happened back in 1929. Is Kit ready to hear the truth?
There was something about the synopsis of this story that told me that I should read it via audio. I was interested to see how the perspectives would be done and how the audio could possibly elevate the overall storytelling.
In spite of the fact that I bought a hard copy on the day of release, I did actually hold out until I was able to get the audiobook from my local library. I’m so glad I made that decision. I loved this audio. It’s actually the first Riley Sager novel I have listened too.
I may have to go back and reread some of the others that way, if they are all done this well!
The narrators’ voices were perfect for the different perspectives they were portraying. It really helped to bring this story to life for me.
The setting of Hope Manor was also fantastic. With Lenora confined to her room, it’s really just the workers that keep the property afloat, flitting about interacting with one another. Kit, as the new girl, just tries to go about her work, soaking it all in.
There’s so much history in the house, and each individual there offers their own perspective on the past, as well as the present. Trust, there’s drama.
I loved the use of the typewriter as a way for Lenora to communicate and tell Kit her story. There was something so ominous about that act. Lenora watching each letter appear as the past unfolded before her.
There’s also some unsettling things going on around the house that provided a nice, is it supernatural, is it not supernatural-feel, that I tend to enjoy so much. Oh, and bonus, this is set in 1983 and I love the 80s!!
There were a lot of well done red herrings in this, as your mind works to try to figure out the truth. I suspected a lot of people; pretty much everyone, honestly. There were also a ton of twists and I enjoyed how Sager built the intensity as the story progressed.
It felt dangerous and definitely got my pulse racing. Right after I finished though, I did struggle a bit on how to rate it. Part of me thought, it was one twist too many, but then the other part of me thought, shut the f*ck up.
As you can tell, the good side won. I loved this. Another engrossing, memorable story from Sager. I cannot wait to see what he delivers next!