Book Review - The Only One Left by Riley Sager

Title: The Only One Left
Series: -
Author: Riley Sager
 
Description: The murder of the Hope family shocked the Maine coast one bloody night ins 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old daughter Lenora was responsible, the police where never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, not has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.
 
Its not 1983, and caregiver Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her pervious nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes an can only communicate with Kit by tapping sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer – I want to tell you everything.
 
As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the fate than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth – and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.
 
Review: I’m a big fan of Riley Sager and I have loved all but one book that I have rea by him. My favorites are “Lock Every Door” and “Home Before Dark”, with a more gothic vibe to them. If that’s your thing, and these are also your favorite by this author, “The Only One Left” is right up your alley. Sager most definitely does gothic thriller best.
 
From the first page I was hooked. The atmosphere is set immediately and the setting of Hope’s End is perfect for a thriller. It’s an old, decaying mansion, set on a coastal cliff, far away from everyone. If that doesn’t get peak your interest, this book is not for you. Because this book relies on atmosphere for a big portion of it. Just like Sager did in the aforementioned books with the same gothic vibes.
 
Kit is new in this big house, where she has to take care of Lenora, the woman everyone thinks has killed her entire family when she was seventeen. Kit stays professional, but is still curious and tries to figure out what really happened that night. Kit is not the only staff member, they are also keeping secrets of their own.
 
We follow the story through Kit’s perspective, but also have chapters dedicated to the story that Lenora is typing. The book wouldn’t be a really Riley Sager book if it didn’t have some twists and reveals that you wouldn’t see coming. And most of them are really good, unexpected and surprising. There were two things I kind of predicted, but they weren’t  obvious. And that finale is insane. It is absolutely crazy and I loved it.
 
When I’m excited for a new book by an author I love, I’m always scared to be disappointed. Sager did not let me down, loved every minute of reading this insane thriller. An new all-time favorite and my best book of 2023.
 
Rating: 5/ 5