Wyetha's Reviews > The Only One Left

CONTAINS "LIGHT" SPOILERS

“At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope.
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life.”

Where to begin? This book has been highly anticipated and discussed among my Good Reads friends and Book-Tubers all around. It’s a Riley Sager novel, so expect more twists and turns than a typical Lucey Foley.

I’m going to do this review differently. So, this review is solely what I thought. In a word, fantastic. It had me guessing until the end. How to talk about it without giving away spoilers? You can’t, really. I somehow thought a supernatural presence was creeping in under the radar, but that would be incorrect.

This is just a good old-fashioned murder mystery with updated nuances. Yes, the story takes place in the 80s. The plot …Kit (one of our main characters) gets another assignment as a caregiver after a six-month suspension due to an overdosing incident with her last patient.

This would be Kit's chance at a fresh start and to redeem herself. She has issues, we all do, but I liked this character. She does what any of us would do after a tragedy, and that’s trying to move on.

The job she takes (however) is to care for the infamous Lenora Hope, who was suspected of slaughtering her entire family. The circumstances of her needing care are suspect, but I felt for this character. She pulled on my life strings. Lenora Hope would be wheelchair-bound for the rest of her days and unable to care for herself. That’s a personal prison that no one wants.

It gets twisty because Kit is not Lenora’s first caregiver. Lenora’s last caregiver, Mary Milton, disappeared under a cloud of mystery. The ticker is that Lenora is not completely paralyzed and may have confided in her last caregiver.

As Kit settles into Hope’s End on the cliff, she begins to learn about Lenora Hope and her family. There’s something peculiar afoot, and Lenora tells Kit that she still sees her sister. (Her dead sister) Not to mention getting used to the mansion, which sits on a tilt, as years of decay start to show, and the mansion is slowly crumbling into the sea. Lenora Hope can’t speak, and her only means of communication would be a lonely typewriter.

Other players in this story didn’t immediately raise my radar, but I knew they had a part to play.

Mrs. Baker, Archie (the cook), Jessie (a housemaid), and Carter (caretaker). Right away, my radar went up about Mrs. Baker. Her character teetered on …"What is she hiding?" to “She’s guilty of something,” and the others just seemed like wayward folks all looking for a happy ending. Archie (the cook) was the most dedicated of them all, who cared deeply and looked after Lenora. He knew deep down she wasn’t guilty of killing her parents. But was she?

Even though they are deceased, there is a rich and interesting backstory about the parents, Winston and Evangeline Hope. They would play an integral part in their own demise. Affairs, addiction, and abuse are woven tightly throughout this novel, and when I found out the entire story, it blew my mind.

One can’t ignore the name that Winston Hope gave his house on a cliff, Hope’s End. I translate that as where hopes and dreams come to die. This was such a great story where the characters, plot, and storyline made sense. Nothing extra, nothing unbelievable, just a good murder mystery with all the drama of a soap opera and much more.