Well well well, how do I review this without giving away any spoilers? Twists upon twists upon twists. This is going to be tricky! I may have to put a spoiler break in half way, but let see how it goes.
The last house on Needless Street, is a house with boarded up windows, and no birds in the garden. In it, lives the reclusive Ted Bannerman, a strange, bulky man who struggles to date and gets confused between the past and the now. Ted lives with his bible-reading cat Olivia (yes, you read that right), and works hard to be a good dad to his daughter Lauren, a wild, angry child who doesn't come to stay often. Close to the end of Needless Street, and Ted's house is a lake, where 11 years earlier, a little girl called Lulu went missing, along with several other children. After Lulu's disappearance, her older sister's life disintegrates. Big sister Dee is fixated on finding Lulu's kidnapper, and convinced that Ted is the culprit, she moves into the empty house next door, determined to expose the truth.
As the blurb says, all of these things are true, and yet, some of them are lies. And if your reaction to that is "wait, what?", then join the club. I'm afraid that's literally all I can say about the plot without giving away even a hint of a spoiler.
When you pick up The Last House On Needless Street, the first thing you're probably going to notice is the glowing review from Stephen King. "I haven't read anything this exciting since Gone Girl" he proclaims. A bold claim - the widely regarded Master of Horror (even if he is rubbish at endings) comparing it to one of the most famous thrillers to be released in recent years. Now I admit, I haven't read Gone Girl, but I have seen the film adaptation. I really enjoyed it - there was a lot of shouting at the screen, and the twists left my head spinning. So, this is a bold claim.
At first, I was not on board. The writing style is unconventional and takes a couple of chapters to get used to, I think I had to reread the first chapter two or three times before I got my head around it. The first chapter narrated by Olivia the religious cat almost had me give up on it completely. But I persevered and once I got into the flow of it, I was certainly rewarded. There are 4 POVs, Ted, Olivia, daughter Lauren and Dee. Ted's narration is confusing and childlike and straight away we get the impression that he may be an unreliable narrator. but how reliable can Olivia's be, she is a cat after all. And what about Dee and Lauren?
Ward's writing is certainly creepy, and I was unsettled throughout, though I wouldn't call it a horror - certainly more of a thriller/mystery. I thought I had a twist figured pretty early on, but then two chapters later I'd written that one off completely, had another theory, then another, only to find out towards the book that I was both right and wrong?? The plot is gripping and intriguing, and full of twists and turns that leave you breathless trying to keep up. There are clever misdirections, shocking revelations and heart-breaking truths. When I thought I'd figured it out, I was unimpressed by what I thought was a tired old trope, but this too got turned on its head, and again I was pleasantly surprised. If you still know which way is "up" by the end of the book, then I applaud you, 'cos you've got better balance than me.
Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about it. This is definitely one of those books where the less you know about it beforehand, the better your experience. Let me know what you think- did you figure out the mystery of the last house on Needless Street?
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