Cassie's Reviews > The Only One Left

It just wouldn't be summer without a new Riley Sager book to devour! In The Only One Left, Sager takes us to a crumbling mansion on the rocky coast of Maine in 1983, where Kit McDeere has come to work as a caregiver for her town's most infamous resident, Lenora Hope. Back in 1929, it's rumored, Lenora murdered her entire family in a Lizzie Borden-esque rampage, but there wasn't enough evidence to convict her. After contracting polio and having several strokes, Lenora is confined to a wheelchair, can no longer speak, and only has the use of her left hand. But she wants to use that left hand to type out her story for Kit -- finally revealing the truth about that infamous night 54 years ago.

Atmospheric and steeped in the Gothic tradition, The Only One Left transports readers to a tilted, decaying mansion on a seaside cliff that has a lot going on within its walls. It's incredibly suspenseful and spooky, with fascinating characters (Mrs. Baker was giving me intense Mrs. Danvers vibes). As (almost) always, Sager has given us a sympathetic, relatable protagonist to root for, and he works more serious topics into his popcorn-thriller plot: this time, complex family dynamics, parental death, the indignities of aging, and female autonomy. His thrillers always have some depth to them, which is something I definitely appreciate.

There's no shortage of twists here, and I think this is a book that will fool even the most tenured thriller readers right up until the big reveals. All of the twists worked for me except for the last one, which was a bit too coincidental and over-the top. But I absolutely loved how this ended; it actually gave me chills.

The Only One Left is my favorite of Sager's books so far, and I can't wait to see what he delivers next summer.