Ghoul Von Horror's Reviews > The Only One Left

Publishing day is here 😑

TW: toxic parent relationship, cancer, suicide, language, abortion, family drama, alcoholism, cheating, use of w*ore word, murder

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:At seventeen, Lenora HopeHung her sister with a ropeNow reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.Stabbed her father with a knifeTook her mother’s happy lifeIt’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous 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 and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.“It wasn’t me,” Lenora saidBut she’s the only one not deadAs Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale 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.
Release Date: June 20th, 2023
Genre: Horror
Pages: 368
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
1. The cover is a great
2. Kept me guessing for 50 pages

What I Didn't Like:
1. Take a shot every-time the word murder is mentioned - (101 times)
2. Some parts feel like repeats of Lock Every Door
3. Kit is stupid
4. 98 mentions of the word terrace
5. That ending is too much

Overall Thoughts:

Well here we are again. Finding ourselves in another Riley Sager book. Perhaps you're wondering what I'm doing here reading another book by this author when I've hated all his other books, well I believe in chances. Maybe this will be the one that I'm convinced is a great book. Maybe not?

If you LOVE books with so much going on than this is the book for you!


As usual we got our normal Sager setup;
✔️Poor female character (always broke)
✔️No family or friends (that care or have abandoned her)
✔️Hot handyman
✔️Creepy location/isolated location

I pause before driving away. “Thanks for helping me with the gate. I’m not sure what I would have done if you hadn’t come by.”
“I think you would have managed somehow.” Carter studies me, his head tilted in curious appraisal. “You strike me as being pretty resourceful.”

Oh does she? You've known her for like 30 seconds!

Kit's dad is a handyman too. Is Sager fucking with us? Is there a camera in my Kindle so he can see my reaction? Another handyman...

Another woman meeting another woman and instantly becoming friends with her after 20 seconds.

Mary disappearing like Erica did from Lock Every Door. One day she's there and then gone.

This book is 360+ pages and on every page you WILL read about the murder over and over again.


Mary's suicide note survived being on her while she was in the water for almost two weeks.

Kit asks Jessie if anyone else knew about the typewriter and Jessie mentions only Mary knew about it and that Lenora could type. That isn't true as Mrs. Baker did know about it because she mentions that Mary bought Lenora a typewriter.

Also makes zero sense why she didn't get the two pages she saved from her lockbox that Lenora typed to show to Detective. Vick.

Speaking of the detective. He's an idiot. Of course someone would leave in the middle of the night if they didn't want to be questioned why they had a suitcase. You leave during the day and you risk people asking questions.

I am confused. Lorena is clearly pregnant - as seen in the photo, but her family just doesn't notice she's pregnant?

Mrs. Baker comments that the house was built in 1913 when Lenora was born but Lorena was born in 1912.

The gross way Riley Sager writes about a girl who just turned 17 in sexual situations made me creeped out. Talking about them having sex and her grabbing this grown man's penis. No no no. Can men just stop writing about underage girls having sex in an enjoyable way.

So I know that the police thought she killed her family but what happened that she got off of the murder charge? The book hasn't mentioned anything about that. Was someone else arrested? They just her be free and didn't charge her?

Here I am actually somewhat enjoying this book but Riley Sager gotta Riley Sager and of course the trespasser on Lenora Hope's property is Kenny. The fucking fuck chance that it would be Kenny that happens to come torment this ladies house while Kit is there for only 4 days is like win the lotto chances. Not only that but he couldn't have been that far from her and not have noticed it was her if she could jump off the porch and catch him in a few strides. I eye rolled. It makes no sense that Kenny would go make fun of the lady who was accused of murdering her family if he's already sleeping with a woman who's also accused of the same thing.


You know a good way to know if someone is sneaking out and walking around?... Look at their feet. If they are dirty she's been walking. Plus if she was walking wouldn't she have some kind of muscle mass on her legs?

I don't know how they kept all this typing quiet. Typewriters are not quiet at all. Nothing about a typewriter is quiet. When you reach the end of the row it's loud and then you have to slide it back.

It feels so outlandish that all this stuff happened in a week;
-Kit finds Mary dead
-House is completely falling into the ocean (every night)
-Dragged Lenora downstairs
-Everyone went to a funeral
-Lenora writing so much in 4 days with like one hand
-Her dad showing up
-Kenny showing up

I don't get why Mrs. Baker left the typewriter there if she was worried about Lenora being able to communicate with it or even letting Mary bring it into the house.

Honestly I don't know why I always feel like I'm reading the same book by this author. There's always some woman that's in financial trouble, finds a way to make money/house, finds out this mystery there, won't leave, has to solve mystery, and then gets fucked over by person she thinks she can trust who she thinks she is helping.

So the house had a 17 year old cook with no experience cooking for them? This rich family and this is what they had.

Berniece holding onto the secret of what happened that night in 1929 for fifty-four years only for Kit s to sit down for 2 seconds and say she has to tell her is stupid. Like why would she tell this stranger everything???

So everyone thinks this 17 year old girl killed her parents and somehow was able to hang her sister all without anyone fighting back and her sister just standing there letting herself be hanged.

Don't let Detective Vick solve your murder. He thinks a hand typed message as a suicide note is a confession. Like anyone can type that message. Also detective just walking around with a copy of it. Like he has no other cases going on.

Kit has thee weakest case as to that Virginia is alive and Mrs Baker is Lenora - the urn is empty (they could have put her ashes over the edge of the cliff) - and she has blue eyes (lots of people have blue eyes). Ah and how easy everyone just admits things to Kit is laughable.

The baby was born but he was only 6 months old. How was he eating? How was he okay enough to be wiggling around and crying? A baby thst small couldn't even eat on their own. Okay we'll pretend it's just a normal full term baby.

How did the detective not notice Virginia and Lenora looked similar? He worked at the house and didn't recognize them in the least? He even watched Virginia in the room and never thought it was weird. It's even the same room they put Virginia in before.

Also Berniece gets all that money and is blackmailing the family for that long but she never goes anywhere, just stays in the same town? And once Lenora aká Virginia was unable to do anything for herself why did Mrs. Baker continue to pay the ransom? It's not like she could go to prison as she has no idea what's going on? Also once Virginia was ruled dead how would Berniece had known the truth that she was still alive if the doctor was in on the lie? How deep does this cover up go... Are the grocery people in on it too that they don't think it's odd that adult diapers are being delivered to the house. Who's filling the medicine if the old doctor is dead?

Oh Kit - she's so fucking dumb! She suspects it's Carter that killed Mary. Does she wait until she's away from him and in a safe place to accuse him? No! She does it right in her car. She then threatens him with a fucking corkscrew opener lol. How ridiculous. Dude is right there and could just grab it from her. And once she has Carter out of the car does she drive away somewhere safe and not led what she believes is a killer to her dad's house? No again! She drives the few feet to her dad's and jumps out so he knows where he lives.


Oh and once Kit goes to her dad's and finds the house empty you just KNOW her dad killed Mary because even though he KNEW she was coming over (she LITERALLY called him like probably an hour before) he decides to leave this suitcase out and leave the house. Like wtf??? Oh let's talk about how she just now remember that everyone calls him Pat - Patrick McDeere aká Ricky!!! Ricky!!?? Who would ever tie those together?

"On the phone, I gave away that Virginia was alive, accidentally leading him right to her."

No she didn't. He knew she was alive when he saw Virginia and when he read the notes that were typewritten.

Don't worry... Kit doesn't pick up any weapons once in the house, she's got her trusty corkscrew. She puts it next to Virginia's bed - I'm sure that won't be used later to go into Ricky (It did!)


Why would Mary go to Ricky's house to get blood work when she already had Virginia's blood? She didn't need his. She had the woman's and Virginia never mentioned the kid being someone else's so why would she need to prove that? Not only that Pat(ricky) mentions that Virginia write the store when Mary got back from talking to him do if that's true why would she still leave the gate open? Why wouldn't she had let Carter know everything that happened? She knew at that he was a murderer, but she did nothing to protect herself?

Why did Kit's dad run into the house while it was crumbling? What was the point of that?

So Virginia could walk (not shocked it was mentioned in chapter 33)

"For a restless girl like me who lost every time my father forced us to play the game in which he locked us in our rooms, I shockingly had no trouble spending most of my time in bed. Very quickly, I learned how to lay very still, sometimes for hours, while my mind roamed the world, going wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted."

So stupid. Imagine pissing and shitting yourself for over 50 years just to spite your sister. The other reason is that incase her son found her she'd be there... Dude that's how she'd want him to find her? Living life like she was paralyzed and then what was her game plan just get up and tell everyone she was joking?? What would her son think of her then? She's a nutcase.

How did caregivers not notice that Virginia had legs that were toned from walking? Were her feet never dirty from the ground and walking? She just walked around in the dark with no lights.

Omg now we find out that Jessie is really Virginia's granddaughter. Are you kidding me???! Why would Mrs. Baker tell Jessie anything about the past? She knows what a messed up family they are but she'll put her in danger telling her about them.

Apparently Jessie can make fake passports.. I mean who can't honestly?

How Kit just forgives Virginia is weird to me. Like no no no she was pretending to be sick for so long and even months after she knew she should tell her everything but she just disappears one day.

So Virginia becomes a superstar because of her life. She gets to travel. Gets married in her 70s. And lives this grand life.

Wow what a convoluted ending.... So Ricardo was actually sleeping with Archie. They were going to run away that night. Ricky was some random local help that left that night too. Lenora is pretending to be Mrs. Baker and had Virginia killed off but told people that the real Virginia was Lenora. They were being blackmailed by Berniece because she thought Virginia was sleeping with Ricardo and thay was his baby. The real Mrs. Baker moved to Canada with the baby. Virginia tried to kill herself. I'm sorry this plot is one step away from the evil twin did it and switch places with the good twin and took her life. Jessie is really Virginia's granddaughter. Kit's dad is Ricky and Ricky was paid off to leave Virginia alone. Ricky killed Virginia's mother. Virginia's mother killed Virginia's father.

Final Thoughts:
Sometimes less is more. There was just too much going on in this book and not in a good way. This book read like one long soap opera. I'll admit the beginning of the book started interesting for me and I was enjoying it but then somewhere down the line just too many insane things kept happening. Sadly the things happening were pretty predictable so I wasn't ever shocked when they did in fact happen.

Thank God this is the last book that the author has to write for his contract because I'd be curious to see what he comes up with when he isn't forced to write a book every year.

Recommend For:
• Mysterious stories
• Soap operas
• Complex storylines
• Timelines

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Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own thoughts

previous review
ANOTHER book from a female perspective. Maybe this one the main character will fall in love with a male handyman ghost. 🙄