The Only One Left (Review)

Riley Sager is back, y’all. The Only One Left is out June 20.

The vibe

book (out 6/20) / sweatshirt / jeans / boots / cassette player / typewriter keyboard / backpack

The review

In 1929, Lenora Hope’s entire family is found dead in their mansion. While she’s never convicted, everyone in town assumes she’s responsible for the gruesome murders. Now, she’s in her 70s, nonverbal, and confined to a wheelchair. She requires constant care from a nurse, and Kit McDeere is forced to take the job.

While far from thrilled of taking care of an alleged murderer, Kit moves into the Hope mansion, which is essentially hanging on by a thread, teetering off the side of the cliff. The house, which still has the blood stains from decades before, is very creepy, and Kit can’t help but be unsettled by it. But Kit can’t leave — whether or not she thinks Lenora is guilty. Her job, like the house, is unstable following speculation on the death of her last patient.

While everyone else in the Hope mansion believes Lenora has no ways to communicate, Kit learns she has the ability to type on a typewriter that was brought in by Lenora’s former nurse, who allegedly fled the house in the middle of the night. And, Lenora is finally ready to share what happened on that dark night in 1929.

This book had such a great premise, and I had to dive into it asap. I love Riley Sager, but his last novel (The House Across the Lake) disappointed me. But this novel reminded me so much of two of my favorite books by Sager: Survive The Night (for the 80s retro vibes) and Home Before Dark (for the creepy, mysterious vibes).

The setting was *chef’s kiss* — I literally pictured the house in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Also, worth noting, neither Lenora nor Kit fall within the “unreliable narrator” category which, let’s be real, we are all kind of sick of in our thrillers. Sager doesn’t *usually* do this, but his last book did (one reason it was disappointing).

This book is creepy af and a bit of a slow burn as Kit discovers more and more clues as to what happened that night in 1929 as well as what’s going on in the house in present day. Then, with about 15-20 percent left of the book, boy oh boy do things pick up. TWISTS GALORE! All were so satisfying.

Riley Sager fans: I think you’ll like this one.

Thriller fans in general: You’re gonna wanna pre-order.