I wasn’t the hugest fan of the end of Riley Sager’s last book, so I went into his newest with some trepidation. What did I think? Check out my review of The Only One Left, which I named as my Favorite Gothic Mystery of 2023!
The Only One Left by Riley Sager: Overview
- Published by Dutton on June 20, 2023
- 385 pages
- Goodreads Nominee for Best Mystery/Thriller 2023
- Also by Riley Sager: The Final Girls (2017), The Last Time I Lied (2018), Lock Every Door (2019), Home Before Dark (2020), Survive the Night (2021), The House Across the Lake (2022), and Middle of the Night (2024)
The Only One Left: Jen’s Quick Take
- I LOVE a modern Gothic. Love!!!
- Not always a fan of epistolary elements, but in this book they worked
- What a fun twisty book. My Spoiler Discussion Guide will help you make sense of it all!
Review of The Only One Left
I was very excited by Riley Sager’s 2022 book, The House Across the Lake, which sounded to me like The Girl on The Train, with an unreliable narrator who drinks too much. But that book got really, really weird at the end. My spoiler post for The House Across the Lake explains it all.
I also excited to read the description of The Only One Left, about a young woman sent to be the caretaker of an elderly woman who was thought to have killed her entire family as a young woman in 1929. (This is NOT a paranormal with a 110 year old character; the book is set in 1982.)
I’m happy to report that, for me, The Only One Left did NOT disappoint.
It’s a classic Gothic: young woman who comes to a crumbly old mansion to be a governess or companion and realizes that she’s in terrible danger.
Kit, the main character, gets a brand-new job: the full-time care of Lenora Hope. Lenora is famous in their town from an old schoolyard rhyme reminiscent of that one about Lizzie Borden.
Kit arrives at Hope’s End (ha!) which is a red brick house in Maine. I kept picturing Stephen King’s house, probably because I just read a sad story about a deer and his fence.
Kit is told that Lenora suffered some strokes and requires constant care. The stern housekeeper (there is often one of those in a Gothic, like Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca) tells Kit that Lenora is completely paralyzed on one side.
But Kit soon realizes that Lenora is mentally sound, can type, and wants to tell her story. Okay, but Mary, the caregiver that Kit replaced, also mysteriously disappeared…
What I Liked About The Only One Left
As I said, I love a good Gothic story. While it takes some time for Lenora the truth about what happened to the Hope family in 1929, Kit does start to investigate what happened to Mary. And all the suspects are the household staff. Yes, it feels a little like the game of Clue, billiard room and all!
I’ve also read a couple books recently narrated by young women taking care of patients who can’t move and can barely speak. Like this one by a very popular romance writer and this one by a popular writer on TikTok . The Lenora character and the past/present storyline and the setting also reminded me a little of this popular suspense book.
The Only One Left was also a locked room mystery of sorts, with a limited number of suspects, all in the house together.
There were a lot of good twists. One of them I figured out (I’ll probably be doing a spoiler post very soon, so don’t worry!)
Happily, I thought The Only One Left delivered: good spooky atmosphere, an overall sense of danger and suspense, a main character with an interesting backstory of her own, and a solvable mystery with some surprises. Everything worked together.
My only criticism was that the book didn’t really feel like it was set in the 1980s. I’m not sure what the point of that was, except to make sure there was no technology that could help Lenora communicate besides an old typewriter (?) If you have theories, tell me in comments.
Most people seem to be loving this one, but I have seen some Riley Sager fans say they disliked it. As I said before, it’s Gothic suspense rather than a thriller, so be prepared for that. If, like me, you really like a Gothic plot and atmosphere, I think you’ll enjoy The Only One Left.
If you’ve read it, tell me what you thought in comments!
I loved it! I suspected a couple of the twists, but the way everything played out was just *chef’s kiss.* My family is glad that I’ve finished it and won’t be loudly gasping, “No WAY!!!” at odd intervals while they’re minding their own business. This is the Riley Sager Final Girls set me up to expect, and he came through big time. I know some people think that the ending is overly convoluted and improbable, but I like that in my Gothic novels.
Thanks so much for this comment! I’ve seen a few people say it was terrible and I was shocked, so glad to hear why. Love a Gothic and I also suspected one of the reveals (I should have my spoiler discussion post up later this week) but I really enjoyed it too.