The Only One Left

Paperback, 368 pages

Published June 20, 2023 by Dutton.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-47447-1

(1 review)

Everyone believes that Lenora Hope is a mass murderer. When the Hope family was massacred decades ago, she was the only one left after that tragic night. Mute, paralysed and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora has never been able to tell her side of the story. Until her new live-in caregiver Kit brings her a typewriter. And with one working finger Lenora begins to type: I want to tell you everything.

3 editions

Sandra reviewed The Only One Left by Riley Sager

Perfect trash

5 stars

I've compared The Only One Left to a mashup between We've Always Lived In The Castle and Saint Maud but those are works of art and this is pageturner trash without merits beyond being a tense gothic read. But it's a perfect tense gothic read. Great characters, every chapter has a revelation or clue, the milieu is awesome, there's nothing superfluous, just every puzzle piece perfectly assembled, and it's simultaneously a Gothic classic and a by-the-book golden age whodunnit cozy.

The 1985 setting is perfect in how it's no tech, it's still creaky old stairs and typewriters; no Memphis Design in sight; this is 1985 as a bridge to 1929. Loved it. Maybe I ought to dock it a point because of the "when you reread it some things don't make sense" flaw. So maybe some of the jigsaw pieces were a li'l forced. But I don't care. It was …

I've compared The Only One Left to a mashup between We've Always Lived In The Castle and Saint Maud but those are works of art and this is pageturner trash without merits beyond being a tense gothic read. But it's a perfect tense gothic read. Great characters, every chapter has a revelation or clue, the milieu is awesome, there's nothing superfluous, just every puzzle piece perfectly assembled, and it's simultaneously a Gothic classic and a by-the-book golden age whodunnit cozy.

The 1985 setting is perfect in how it's no tech, it's still creaky old stairs and typewriters; no Memphis Design in sight; this is 1985 as a bridge to 1929. Loved it. Maybe I ought to dock it a point because of the "when you reread it some things don't make sense" flaw. So maybe some of the jigsaw pieces were a li'l forced. But I don't care. It was a great summer read.

The translation was good too. Full Swedish rather than "svengelska" i.e. they correctly translated "so?" to "och?" and when the numbers of words in sentences and letters in words matter, they did a good job with that. Verse not so much. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't wanna understate how dumb the book is! But that's fine.