Book Review: "The Only One Left" by Riley Sager

I've been trying to read more Riley Sager and well, so far it's been alright. I do have a few questions for this book concerning the ending but of course, I'm not going to put spoilers here so we'll leave that out. It's currently April 2025 and at this very moment, I am on my third cup of coffee after spending the morning finishing this book following a terrible night's sleep. It was so weird because every time I tried to get to sleep, I couldn't so I sat up and tried to read more of my other book. As soon as I would start reading, I'd start nodding off. But, when I went to actually put my book down and go to sleep - I lay there awake for most of the night. Ultimately, I gave up. And so, first thing this morning I decided to finish this book I was reading...

Kit McDeere is a disgraced caregiver returning to work after a scandal involving her mother’s death. Accused of failing in her duties during her mother’s terminal illness, Kit is under professional scrutiny and societal suspicion. This is a great way to start an unreliable narrator because we both feel suspicious of her because this is a thriller novel, and we also feel sorry for her because now she has had to return to work in complete shame. Her new assignment, born more of necessity than choice, places her in the eerie, crumbling mansion of Hope’s End.

Her patient, Lenora Hope, is mute and paralysed after a series of strokes and, in 1929 apparently murdered her entire family and was never found guilty. There's mirrors between Kit and Lenora here - both are living in a sense of shame the first time we see them. Lenora even admits that there would be a game in which the bedroom doors were locked (as they could only be locked from the outside) and she would lose the game, causing her to be locked inside the room for hours longer. He inability to do anything now, including leaving the house, is part of a sense of that guilt and shame in the same way Kit's inability to choose her work is.

The setting of the novel is more than just a location: it’s a decaying, Gothic character in its own right. Perched precariously on a cliff in Maine, the mansion is filled with whispers of the past, locked doors, secret passages, and the heavy air of tragedy. It is literally falling into the sea, just as the family’s legacy fell apart after the murders. I loved how atmospheric the setting was and the way it kind of became this extended metaphor for the family. Lenora talks about how this house became part of her father's narcissistic pride about himself. It is really creepy and eerie but most of all, it holds some horrific memories.

As we move through the book, we see Lenora want to tell her own side of events in order for there to be a written account of the truth. She paints a different picture of what happened on that one night in 1929, stating that her sister Virginia was not as innocent as she looked and her parents were cruel. Depicting herself as a victim of circumstance rather than a murderer initially unnerves Kit and yet, she continues to connect with the story. She begins to realise that she might be more involved with this story than she once realised - her past intertwining with that of Lenora's. But she also questions whether Lenora is quite who she says she is.

The many questions that unravel which start to move us towards the ending of the book may be at first, plenty and difficult - but as the ending begins to clear itself up, there are even more pitfalls and questions. I enjoyed the fact that Riley Sager was trying to keep the reader guessing, but the ending seemed a bit far-fetched to me. There was a lot to clear up and it was a bit here and there. However, the writing was still pretty good, so I won't knock it too much.

All in all, this book was actually pretty good. It had a lot of gothic elements and you could tell it was very much influenced by the old gothic novels as well as being inspired by the Lizzie Borden case. The ending may have been the turning point for me in deciding whether to give this book full marks, but honestly - the rest of the book was really very compelling. Sager's writing really does make you believe that what is taking place once actually happened.