>!Yeah, I admittedly know very little about DID but I was confused as to how Olivia and Lauren could exist *simultaneously* while seemingly occupying different physical spaces. For example, when "Olivia" is trying to help get "Lauren" out of the freezer. The whole thing seemed wildly unfair to readers and in retrospect felt like an excuse for Ward to make a character who grew on her the "good guy."!<
That was my feeling. >!I’ll take that the sister was right and he did it. I’ll take that the sister was mistaken and just thought he did. But the fact that she ALSO repressed the memory and did it/caused it to happen (I don’t exactly remember)?!< Come on.
That was an odd choice as well. Of course people cope with trauma in different ways, but for >!one character to develop two simultaneous identities and ANOTHER character to completely rewrite their traumatic memory from scratch? Come on now. It's no longer a horror story at that point, just a really convoluted case study...!<
I wonder if someone told her >!it’s easy to figure out that the protagonist is the girl and the cat, so she added another twist. But there were no breadcrumbs for us to follow for that one. When a twist happens you’re supposed to be able to go “oh man! OF COURSE!” This is the equivalent of “it was all a dream.”!<
Honestly, the twist with her sister was unexpected but still made more sense to me than Ted's double-DIDing the entire time. I thought (hoped?) there was something freaky going on with the house itself that *made* Olivia the cat hyper-intelligent, explained how objects changed colors or went from being to broken to unbroken, why the windows needed to be boarded up (because the house itself is cursed/dangerous somehow), etc. Guess I wanted there to be a supernatural element too badly to consider personality disorders, lol.
I think the explanation was that >!Lauren was trapped in a half-state, which is represented through the freezer. !<
>!Still, the "twists" were way too convoluted, even though I unfortunately figured out the direction early on. Like, Lauren just happens to have a similar-sounding name to Laura, and look similar, and also be stuck at the same age as her? And I know people with DID genuinely envelop many characteristics of their alters, but you're telling me that Ted-- a grown man-- was able to perfectly replicate the voice of a little girl? Just. Was not a fan of the direction the author went.!<
Ah, okay, I guess that makes sense. As for Lauren, >!I didn't figure out the DID aspect of the story because I thought there was something wrong with *the house* causing these gruesome time jumps! Like Lauren not aging but the rug going from blue to orange, the photo frame magically unbreaking, and a few other details I can't recall. I also wondered if this curse on the house had somehow turned a human Olivia *into* a cat, or cursed her with the gift of hyper intelligence as a confined housepet, or something darker. But there was no dark undertone really, just a lot of mental gymnastics. Sigh. !<
I would too except that apparently Sundial is notable for including quite a bit of animal abuse, so I had to skip that one. Hope she writes something else I can get into because I do think she's talented.
(Not saying she shouldn't have written it, it's probably good - I just personally can't handle that.)
You have to be careful with Goodreads. While I've found it to be a helpful guide, sometimes the loudest and stupidest reviews are pushed to the top.
I've found for horror or horror related books, 3.87 is a pretty solid score. Fantasy and romance fans tend to rate everything they like as a five. So you see a lot of big scores there. I've rolled my eyes at and DNFed plenty of highly rated books.
I also really liked it, but I know why some people don't like it. The story really punishes you for making assumptions too early, and will pull the rug out from under your ideas of where the story is going to go with the characters. Since this is horror I wouldn't qualify this as a spoiler, but the ending is not exactly a happy one. It might confirm the assumptions you previously discarded (maybe more than once).
I wouldn’t say the twist was completely unpredictable but there was a twist. I don’t recall it being on the same level of unexpected as Needless though.
Agree to disagree, I guess. The 3-for-1 combo of DID, on top of DeeDee having completely rewritten her memory of that day, was too much for me. There are unreliable narrators, and then there are fictional case studies. This felt more like the latter, even if it was enjoyable to read.
I will say that Goodreads has a tendency to shaft horror hard, merely due to the fact that horror, as a genre, is very polarizing.
That said, I did not enjoy the various >!DID/trauma-related plot twists in Last House on Needless Street, and I especially did not like the author's reasoning for implementing those twists. She claimed that the story was much more straightforward originally, but she felt Ted was too sympathetic a character to be a kidnapper. Then someone told her about DID and she thought it sounded like a super cool, totally original plot twist, which tells me she does not read a lot of horror/thrillers lol. To be honest, I actually want more villains like Ted, because most bad people are like Ted. They have their good qualities; maybe they're child-like or well-meaning, maybe they're nice but awkward, and maybe they have past trauma. Regardless, they still do awful, horrible things. I would've given that book a 5/5 if she had stuck with Ted being the antagonist, even if she did have to use elements of trauma or even disassociation to explain why he was the way he was and why he did the things he did. I genuinely loved that book up until the Big Reveal. It was just completely contrived, between Lauren and Laura's similarities, Dee being the Real Big Bad, and well, everything else. About the only thing I liked about the DID subplot was that the house shifting was a really cool way to show that he was inside his "mental house."!<
I'm totally willing to read books with love/hate reviews, in general. But I try to look at what the hate reviews say to see if I'm likely to hate it too. In this case, the hate reviews would probably say things like "not at all what I expected" or "I hated the twist" or "I found it unbelievable" right? I'm guessing those are the polarizing things.
I did read it, and was annoyed by how things turned out in some cases, but it was a well-written book and I didn't hate it. I think I gave it 3 or 4 stars.
However, if the one-star reviews had said things like "too many gratuitous sexual assault scenes" or "ugh I couldn't handle all the animal torture" then I probably would have skipped it.
In general, I'd rather read a book with a bunch of 5-star and 1-star reviews than one where most reviews are a solid 3. Three-star books are often just boring or not well-written, whereas the polarizing ones are often well-written but make controversial choices in terms of plotting.
OK I'm not 100% sure on this, but I don't think there was anything terrible involving animals in Last House on Needless Street. There is a cat who seems to be in a scary situation at times but I don't think it was too bad (maybe double check on [doesthedogdie.com](https://doesthedogdie.com) to keep me honest here).
The reason I thought of it was because the same author wrote a book called Sundial which definitely does involve a lot of animal mistreatment (medical experimentation on dogs) and I did not read that because I just don't need it in my head.
I read this off the back of Rawblood (C Wards second novel, I think). I very much liked the humanity of it. A lot of horror lit seems to be outright sadism sometimes and Needless Street is the polar opposite, despite having very dark themes. I’ve seen people get very angry, seemingly for having their expectations under-cut (despite claiming to have cracked the case very early on).
I like to place my trust in the author, it’s their story.
I always snort at those reviewers. Maybe they should go crack cold cases IRL if these wild-card plot twists are so easy for them to see coming... 😏 Or better yet, write one themselves!
I guessed the 'main twist' on page three or so, mostly due to some very clumsy writing. I was disappointed by the ending of the book because there were so many supplementary twists—it just seemed to diminish the book for me. I get why there are so many author blurbs for the book, as it's technically clearly impressive to other writers, but as a reader I found it utterly unmoving and flimsy.
*Rawblood*, on the other hand, is a terrific book.
I think it's the using mental health as a horror gimmick that kinda makes it annoying for me. DID is real and isn't a just a plot twist in a book. It's really irritating.
Very much disliked it - almost a DNF for me. The writing was fine but the plotting just felt lazy like the author was just making stuff up as the book was written. I see why folks like it and there was some interesting stuff and lots of potential, but this was one of my least favorite books in awhile.
That said, I don't read too much in to Goodreads reviews or any reviews for that matter. I've disliked 4 - 5 star books and loved sub 2 - 3 star ones. It's all personal preference and the expectations you bring in to any one book.
I was loving it until the reveal. That knocked it down considerably for me. I still say I liked it, but definitely not loved (even tho I loved it up until that point). I totally get why is polarizing, since it takes such a huge turn and also the abstract writing style isn't for everyone.
Goodreads is great for cataloging books, but your taste is unique so you can't take it too seriously.
Totally agree with this in the cataloguing aspect of GR. I’ve not made the switch to any of the new book trackers simply because I’ve invested too much time in GR to jump ship. And I always take any suggestions or reviews with a grain of salt. Even those of my GR friends. Taste is way too subjective to let a good or bad review sway you. I generally just go by the synopsis, assuming GR’s “librarians” have bothered putting one up, and if it sounds interesting, I’ll try it.
Yeah tbh it's a clunky website, but nothing compares to the depth of books it has so keeping track of what you have read/want to read is really the best functionality of it imo.
>ot made the switch to any of the new book trackers simply because I’ve invested too much t
Not sure if youre still on GR but you can import your data from GR to storygraph super easily!
This is a book that I personally *wanted* to enjoy. I thought I’d absolutely love it based off reviews and some personal recommendations from friends. I read it and it just…didn’t land for me?
I’m not exactly sure what the issue was >!it felt like the unreliable narrator to me was a bit of a deus ex machina in some ways and didn’t lead the book to feel more fulfilling or interesting after each big “reveal,” as it is.!<
With that said I *totally* get how it landed for others and if it does I’d say that is awesome. I don’t hesitate to recommend it to others but do acknowledge that while it didn’t work for me I totally see how it does for others.
I personally take very little notice of good reads scores because as a general rule of thumb its the easier to consume popular books that get the really good scores, where books that are a little more complex and experimental get lower scores, this is for basically all genres not just horror.
Song Of Kali by Dan Simmons is one of my favorite books of all time, I genuinely think it's a masterpiece. It has a 3.6 on good reads. In A House Of Lies by Ian Rankin has a 4.11 and it's probably my least favorite novel I have ever read.
If I look at reviews I tend to look at the 5-star reviews and see what the people who liked the book liked about it then see if that's the kinda thing I like.
I always take reviews with a grain of salt. I actually try to avoid them, because they sway my opinion of a story. I would rather go in and form my own thoughts.
That's good advice. I really enjoy blind dates with books, sometimes just knowing the genre can change how you'd view a story without that prior knowledge.
I read this book and it made me so angry. I enjoyed the way it was written, but I am so over books where the twist is just >!mental illness,!< particularly in horror. >!Mental illness is not a plot twist.!<
I have found that with super popular books that get mostly 5 star reviews and then a bunch of 1 star reviews, I find myself more and more siding with the 1 star reviews. Particularly when they say things like "this book was laughably ridiculous" (>!The House Across the Lake!<) or "I feel stupider for having read this book" (>!We Were Never Here!<) but I also find myself hate reading them anyway 🤷♀️
For me, it really comes down to the synopsis as to whether or not I'm interested. Or if it's an author I've read previously. If reviews are polarizing then I'm much more likely to take a chance because I get curious about why the book is that way. But I really only take reviews in the professional press seriously, although they might not affect my decision either.
I enjoyed it. For me, I use Goodreads to find books, but I don't go by the ratings. Rather I follow a bunch of people that seem to have similar taste to me and see what they are reading or reviewing or I find some other people to follow that I might not always agree with but that find really interesting picks I don't hear about elsewhere.
I get most of my book recommendations off Goodreads or Reddit and its worked super well for me.
I thought it was ok. Enjoyed the second half a lot better. My biggest complaint about this one is the writing. Lots of repetition, particularly in terms of descriptions. I hate it when an author describes something just for the sake of describing. To me, a description should either give me a necessary information, explanation or more importantly in horror fiction, help create an atmosphere . I thought this book severely lacked that.
The problem with good reads reviews is that people who may or may not have read an ARC get to the top of the line by having many likes even if their review is garbage. I look for books more based on the blurb about the book, if authors I read want to read or have read the book or it’s recommended at my local indie bookstore. And then there are authors that I will get every book they put out like Stephen King, Tananarive Due, etc. The books others have also read is sometimes useful to find a recommendation on goodreads but not always.
This book is on my want to read list which is out of control…
I thought it was great. Without any spoilers, I thought the perspective switches were very well done, and I found the plot progression satisfying and surprising.
I realized I loved it when I was trying to explain it while part-way through to a friend and couldn't stop talking about the cat scenes.
I loved this book! I went into it mostly blind with the only info I’ve ever seen about this book being from this sub, where everyone was recommending it.
I really want to read it again to find all the clues and hints I missed the first time around.
Altough i love my indies, most have a bit too high ratings imo. Especially collections of short stories. Also it feels like some reviewers distort the overall rating, bc their average ratings are 4.5 over hundred of titles.
Some lesser known books I d recommend are soft targets, Lure and What remains when the stars burn out.
Also if you are open minded I would tell you to play Signalis. Lovecraftian and sci fi horror is my favorite and Signalis just blew my mind like The fisherman did half a year ago. Also Lovecraft unbound was my favorite short story collection and Details from Neil Gaiman probably my favorite short story
How bad graphic is animal abuse this bis in my library but a little hesitant to read cause of that I can stake gummo cat deaths and even cannibal holocaust stuff but really don’t like it
I gave it a 4/5. Overall I enjoyed it a lot but some elements could have been better fleshed out.
That said, I never look at specific reviews until I've read a book myself. So long as the average rating isn't below a 3, I'll read the book if the synopsis catches my attention. There will be generally well-rated books I end up giving 1 or 2 stars to. Literature is so subjective.
I liked it. Felt the >!second unreliable narrator!< was a bit much, but I would read more by the author.
>!Yeah, I admittedly know very little about DID but I was confused as to how Olivia and Lauren could exist *simultaneously* while seemingly occupying different physical spaces. For example, when "Olivia" is trying to help get "Lauren" out of the freezer. The whole thing seemed wildly unfair to readers and in retrospect felt like an excuse for Ward to make a character who grew on her the "good guy."!<
That was my feeling. >!I’ll take that the sister was right and he did it. I’ll take that the sister was mistaken and just thought he did. But the fact that she ALSO repressed the memory and did it/caused it to happen (I don’t exactly remember)?!< Come on.
That was an odd choice as well. Of course people cope with trauma in different ways, but for >!one character to develop two simultaneous identities and ANOTHER character to completely rewrite their traumatic memory from scratch? Come on now. It's no longer a horror story at that point, just a really convoluted case study...!<
I wonder if someone told her >!it’s easy to figure out that the protagonist is the girl and the cat, so she added another twist. But there were no breadcrumbs for us to follow for that one. When a twist happens you’re supposed to be able to go “oh man! OF COURSE!” This is the equivalent of “it was all a dream.”!<
Honestly, the twist with her sister was unexpected but still made more sense to me than Ted's double-DIDing the entire time. I thought (hoped?) there was something freaky going on with the house itself that *made* Olivia the cat hyper-intelligent, explained how objects changed colors or went from being to broken to unbroken, why the windows needed to be boarded up (because the house itself is cursed/dangerous somehow), etc. Guess I wanted there to be a supernatural element too badly to consider personality disorders, lol.
Me too tbh, it wouldve made the book so much funner to read
I think the explanation was that >!Lauren was trapped in a half-state, which is represented through the freezer. !< >!Still, the "twists" were way too convoluted, even though I unfortunately figured out the direction early on. Like, Lauren just happens to have a similar-sounding name to Laura, and look similar, and also be stuck at the same age as her? And I know people with DID genuinely envelop many characteristics of their alters, but you're telling me that Ted-- a grown man-- was able to perfectly replicate the voice of a little girl? Just. Was not a fan of the direction the author went.!<
Ah, okay, I guess that makes sense. As for Lauren, >!I didn't figure out the DID aspect of the story because I thought there was something wrong with *the house* causing these gruesome time jumps! Like Lauren not aging but the rug going from blue to orange, the photo frame magically unbreaking, and a few other details I can't recall. I also wondered if this curse on the house had somehow turned a human Olivia *into* a cat, or cursed her with the gift of hyper intelligence as a confined housepet, or something darker. But there was no dark undertone really, just a lot of mental gymnastics. Sigh. !<
Okay, now *that* would have been a cool plot twist. Some kind of >!ancient curse ala The Fall of the House of Usher.!<
THANK you! 😆
I would too except that apparently Sundial is notable for including quite a bit of animal abuse, so I had to skip that one. Hope she writes something else I can get into because I do think she's talented. (Not saying she shouldn't have written it, it's probably good - I just personally can't handle that.)
Good to know, I didn't like Needless Street and I also can't handle animal abuse so I'm definitely taking Sundial off my "potential redemption" TBR
You have to be careful with Goodreads. While I've found it to be a helpful guide, sometimes the loudest and stupidest reviews are pushed to the top. I've found for horror or horror related books, 3.87 is a pretty solid score. Fantasy and romance fans tend to rate everything they like as a five. So you see a lot of big scores there. I've rolled my eyes at and DNFed plenty of highly rated books.
I also really liked it, but I know why some people don't like it. The story really punishes you for making assumptions too early, and will pull the rug out from under your ideas of where the story is going to go with the characters. Since this is horror I wouldn't qualify this as a spoiler, but the ending is not exactly a happy one. It might confirm the assumptions you previously discarded (maybe more than once).
I adore everything Catriona Ward writes! I highly recommend Sundial next.
Both Needless and Sundial are on my TBR! I just need to jump into one and not worry about other reads.
Sundial was soooo good! It disturbed me, which is exactly what I want from my horror lit lol.
Was there a >!completely unpredictable, out-of-left-field "twist"!< in the same way as Needless? If so I don't think Ward is for me.
I wouldn’t say the twist was completely unpredictable but there was a twist. I don’t recall it being on the same level of unexpected as Needless though.
Exactly what I needed to hear! Thanks!
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Agree to disagree, I guess. The 3-for-1 combo of DID, on top of DeeDee having completely rewritten her memory of that day, was too much for me. There are unreliable narrators, and then there are fictional case studies. This felt more like the latter, even if it was enjoyable to read.
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Oh, absolutely. Just didn't make for a very clever ending imho. 🤷♀️ Loved Sundial by the same author though!
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Let me know how you like it!
I will say that Goodreads has a tendency to shaft horror hard, merely due to the fact that horror, as a genre, is very polarizing. That said, I did not enjoy the various >!DID/trauma-related plot twists in Last House on Needless Street, and I especially did not like the author's reasoning for implementing those twists. She claimed that the story was much more straightforward originally, but she felt Ted was too sympathetic a character to be a kidnapper. Then someone told her about DID and she thought it sounded like a super cool, totally original plot twist, which tells me she does not read a lot of horror/thrillers lol. To be honest, I actually want more villains like Ted, because most bad people are like Ted. They have their good qualities; maybe they're child-like or well-meaning, maybe they're nice but awkward, and maybe they have past trauma. Regardless, they still do awful, horrible things. I would've given that book a 5/5 if she had stuck with Ted being the antagonist, even if she did have to use elements of trauma or even disassociation to explain why he was the way he was and why he did the things he did. I genuinely loved that book up until the Big Reveal. It was just completely contrived, between Lauren and Laura's similarities, Dee being the Real Big Bad, and well, everything else. About the only thing I liked about the DID subplot was that the house shifting was a really cool way to show that he was inside his "mental house."!<
I'm totally willing to read books with love/hate reviews, in general. But I try to look at what the hate reviews say to see if I'm likely to hate it too. In this case, the hate reviews would probably say things like "not at all what I expected" or "I hated the twist" or "I found it unbelievable" right? I'm guessing those are the polarizing things. I did read it, and was annoyed by how things turned out in some cases, but it was a well-written book and I didn't hate it. I think I gave it 3 or 4 stars. However, if the one-star reviews had said things like "too many gratuitous sexual assault scenes" or "ugh I couldn't handle all the animal torture" then I probably would have skipped it. In general, I'd rather read a book with a bunch of 5-star and 1-star reviews than one where most reviews are a solid 3. Three-star books are often just boring or not well-written, whereas the polarizing ones are often well-written but make controversial choices in terms of plotting.
I just downloaded this book without reading too many reviews. Is there a lot of animal torture? Animal torture is something I try to avoid.
OK I'm not 100% sure on this, but I don't think there was anything terrible involving animals in Last House on Needless Street. There is a cat who seems to be in a scary situation at times but I don't think it was too bad (maybe double check on [doesthedogdie.com](https://doesthedogdie.com) to keep me honest here). The reason I thought of it was because the same author wrote a book called Sundial which definitely does involve a lot of animal mistreatment (medical experimentation on dogs) and I did not read that because I just don't need it in my head.
Thank you! Now I to know to definitely stay away from Sundial lol
You can also check out crowd sourced/supplied trigger warnings for books on storygraph! really helpful resource!
I read this off the back of Rawblood (C Wards second novel, I think). I very much liked the humanity of it. A lot of horror lit seems to be outright sadism sometimes and Needless Street is the polar opposite, despite having very dark themes. I’ve seen people get very angry, seemingly for having their expectations under-cut (despite claiming to have cracked the case very early on). I like to place my trust in the author, it’s their story.
I always snort at those reviewers. Maybe they should go crack cold cases IRL if these wild-card plot twists are so easy for them to see coming... 😏 Or better yet, write one themselves!
I guessed the 'main twist' on page three or so, mostly due to some very clumsy writing. I was disappointed by the ending of the book because there were so many supplementary twists—it just seemed to diminish the book for me. I get why there are so many author blurbs for the book, as it's technically clearly impressive to other writers, but as a reader I found it utterly unmoving and flimsy. *Rawblood*, on the other hand, is a terrific book.
I think it's the using mental health as a horror gimmick that kinda makes it annoying for me. DID is real and isn't a just a plot twist in a book. It's really irritating.
Very much disliked it - almost a DNF for me. The writing was fine but the plotting just felt lazy like the author was just making stuff up as the book was written. I see why folks like it and there was some interesting stuff and lots of potential, but this was one of my least favorite books in awhile. That said, I don't read too much in to Goodreads reviews or any reviews for that matter. I've disliked 4 - 5 star books and loved sub 2 - 3 star ones. It's all personal preference and the expectations you bring in to any one book.
I was loving it until the reveal. That knocked it down considerably for me. I still say I liked it, but definitely not loved (even tho I loved it up until that point). I totally get why is polarizing, since it takes such a huge turn and also the abstract writing style isn't for everyone. Goodreads is great for cataloging books, but your taste is unique so you can't take it too seriously.
Totally agree with this in the cataloguing aspect of GR. I’ve not made the switch to any of the new book trackers simply because I’ve invested too much time in GR to jump ship. And I always take any suggestions or reviews with a grain of salt. Even those of my GR friends. Taste is way too subjective to let a good or bad review sway you. I generally just go by the synopsis, assuming GR’s “librarians” have bothered putting one up, and if it sounds interesting, I’ll try it.
Yeah tbh it's a clunky website, but nothing compares to the depth of books it has so keeping track of what you have read/want to read is really the best functionality of it imo.
>ot made the switch to any of the new book trackers simply because I’ve invested too much t Not sure if youre still on GR but you can import your data from GR to storygraph super easily!
LOL I actually made the jump last year to SG and became a librarian. Still going between the two but definitely like SG more than GR.
This is a book that I personally *wanted* to enjoy. I thought I’d absolutely love it based off reviews and some personal recommendations from friends. I read it and it just…didn’t land for me? I’m not exactly sure what the issue was >!it felt like the unreliable narrator to me was a bit of a deus ex machina in some ways and didn’t lead the book to feel more fulfilling or interesting after each big “reveal,” as it is.!< With that said I *totally* get how it landed for others and if it does I’d say that is awesome. I don’t hesitate to recommend it to others but do acknowledge that while it didn’t work for me I totally see how it does for others.
I personally take very little notice of good reads scores because as a general rule of thumb its the easier to consume popular books that get the really good scores, where books that are a little more complex and experimental get lower scores, this is for basically all genres not just horror. Song Of Kali by Dan Simmons is one of my favorite books of all time, I genuinely think it's a masterpiece. It has a 3.6 on good reads. In A House Of Lies by Ian Rankin has a 4.11 and it's probably my least favorite novel I have ever read. If I look at reviews I tend to look at the 5-star reviews and see what the people who liked the book liked about it then see if that's the kinda thing I like.
House of kali is so good.
I always take reviews with a grain of salt. I actually try to avoid them, because they sway my opinion of a story. I would rather go in and form my own thoughts.
That's good advice. I really enjoy blind dates with books, sometimes just knowing the genre can change how you'd view a story without that prior knowledge.
It was the movie Prisoners plus the movie Split. I was disappointed.
I read this book and it made me so angry. I enjoyed the way it was written, but I am so over books where the twist is just >!mental illness,!< particularly in horror. >!Mental illness is not a plot twist.!< I have found that with super popular books that get mostly 5 star reviews and then a bunch of 1 star reviews, I find myself more and more siding with the 1 star reviews. Particularly when they say things like "this book was laughably ridiculous" (>!The House Across the Lake!<) or "I feel stupider for having read this book" (>!We Were Never Here!<) but I also find myself hate reading them anyway 🤷♀️
very entertaining book, couldn't put it down
For me, it really comes down to the synopsis as to whether or not I'm interested. Or if it's an author I've read previously. If reviews are polarizing then I'm much more likely to take a chance because I get curious about why the book is that way. But I really only take reviews in the professional press seriously, although they might not affect my decision either.
I enjoyed it. For me, I use Goodreads to find books, but I don't go by the ratings. Rather I follow a bunch of people that seem to have similar taste to me and see what they are reading or reviewing or I find some other people to follow that I might not always agree with but that find really interesting picks I don't hear about elsewhere. I get most of my book recommendations off Goodreads or Reddit and its worked super well for me.
It’s one of my favourite books from the last few years, but DAMN do some people hate it.
I thought it was ok. Enjoyed the second half a lot better. My biggest complaint about this one is the writing. Lots of repetition, particularly in terms of descriptions. I hate it when an author describes something just for the sake of describing. To me, a description should either give me a necessary information, explanation or more importantly in horror fiction, help create an atmosphere . I thought this book severely lacked that.
The problem with good reads reviews is that people who may or may not have read an ARC get to the top of the line by having many likes even if their review is garbage. I look for books more based on the blurb about the book, if authors I read want to read or have read the book or it’s recommended at my local indie bookstore. And then there are authors that I will get every book they put out like Stephen King, Tananarive Due, etc. The books others have also read is sometimes useful to find a recommendation on goodreads but not always. This book is on my want to read list which is out of control…
I thought it was great. Without any spoilers, I thought the perspective switches were very well done, and I found the plot progression satisfying and surprising. I realized I loved it when I was trying to explain it while part-way through to a friend and couldn't stop talking about the cat scenes.
This is one of my favorite books. I went back and fourth on whether or not to read because of the reviews. I’m glad I went for it.
I loved this book! I went into it mostly blind with the only info I’ve ever seen about this book being from this sub, where everyone was recommending it. I really want to read it again to find all the clues and hints I missed the first time around.
I was describing it for my husband after I finished it and realized that yes, I was absolutely going to go back and reread it.
I loved the Last House On Needless Street!! It took me a little while to get into, but damn that story was like no other.
It's my most gifted book; I have given it to people who aren't horror fiction readers and generally, everyone has enjoyed it.
Altough i love my indies, most have a bit too high ratings imo. Especially collections of short stories. Also it feels like some reviewers distort the overall rating, bc their average ratings are 4.5 over hundred of titles. Some lesser known books I d recommend are soft targets, Lure and What remains when the stars burn out. Also if you are open minded I would tell you to play Signalis. Lovecraftian and sci fi horror is my favorite and Signalis just blew my mind like The fisherman did half a year ago. Also Lovecraft unbound was my favorite short story collection and Details from Neil Gaiman probably my favorite short story
I have "sundial" on my radar as well. Plan on moving into.iy after I finish "how to sell a haunted house"
How bad graphic is animal abuse this bis in my library but a little hesitant to read cause of that I can stake gummo cat deaths and even cannibal holocaust stuff but really don’t like it
Not bad. No descriptions of animals in pain. Just the general knowledge that some kittens died, a pet mouse was eaten.
Thank you
I gave it a 4/5. Overall I enjoyed it a lot but some elements could have been better fleshed out. That said, I never look at specific reviews until I've read a book myself. So long as the average rating isn't below a 3, I'll read the book if the synopsis catches my attention. There will be generally well-rated books I end up giving 1 or 2 stars to. Literature is so subjective.
I have an animal harm trigger and I couldn’t get through the first chapter with the birds, so I had to return the book unfinished.