Table Of Content
The novel explores themes of trauma, grief, and the blurred lines between reality and imagination, effectively immersing readers in the psychological depths of its characters. One of the book’s many surprises is that it is partly narrated by Olivia, a fastidious, deeply religious feline who refers to humans as “teds” and gives us an exterior perspective on her unreliable owner. (“Ted is not a very clean ted. His bathroom does not look like the bathrooms on TV.”) Olivia, Ward remarks, owes something to David Sedaris; she provides humorous respite from the otherwise harrowing narrative.
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The Last House on the Street Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Amazon Prime Video
There are also the usual lights going on and off and mysterious footsteps. Several ghosts supposedly haunt the bridge, including possibly a worker who fell into the concrete during construction. The 1906 Alexandria, now low-income apartments, has been both one of the fanciest joints in Downtown and a rundown flophouse. Several dancers are said to haunt the second-floor ballroom, an angry teenager hangs around Charlie Chaplin's old suite, and Rudolph Valentino apparently leaves the Knickerbocker occasionally and visits his old 12th-floor suite.
Stay On Main Hotel
Olivia goes into her crate, a broken chest freezer with air holes drilled into it. She loves a tabby cat that she spies on through the peepholes in the plyboard that covers all the windows in the house. She is also religious, frequently turning to the Bible for answers to questions in her life. Ever since then, they have been connected by a golden cord, which only Olivia can see.
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“It would be a bad book if I wasn't afraid of it,” says author Cat Ward about The Last House on Needless Street, this season's must-read horror novel. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the world’s hidden wonders. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Almost as if to make a point about beauty in disarray, the bookshelves are placed every which way all throughout the store, and sculptures have been custom-built from overstocked or damaged copies.
Book Reviews
The novel combines elements of Gothic literature with the thriller genre to create a claustrophobic world where the past is never far from the present, and nothing is truly as it seems. Fear in the dark is what powered her 2015 gothic horror debut, Rawblood, the follow-up Little Eve, and now her breakout third book, The Last House on Needless Street, published on 18 March. Buzz has been building for months around a dark, audacious highwire act of a novel that can be only tentatively described for risk of giving too much away. Whereas Ward’s previous novels were historical chillers set in remote corners of Britain, featuring young women traumatised by cursed families and social oppression, the new book looks at first like a contemporary American thriller. There are horrors hidden in a rundown house on the edge of a forest; a spate of disappearing children; a vulnerable woman searching for answers. Ward introduces us to Ted, a bizarre, childlike loner who lives with his daughter Lauren and cat Olivia – and then pulls the rug, repeatedly, from under the reader’s feet.
As the narrative progresses, it becomes apparent that these characters are entangled in a web of secrets and tragedies. The other denizens of Ted’s home are his cat, Olivia, who has regular perspective chapters throughout the novel, and his adolescent daughter, Lauren, whose visits with her father end abruptly and mysteriously. Further in the background are some old, scratching ghosts in the attic, and the occasionally animated memory of his mother, a disgraced nurse who looms over Ted’s life even in death. Little Eve, which won the Shirley Jackson and a British fantasy award, is set amid a cult on a tiny Scottish island after the first world war, with women and children held in thrall by the charismatic Uncle.
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Her presence brings both vulnerability and strength to the narrative. The book’s title is a clever play on words, pointing to the house’s location on Needless Street while also alluding to the unnecessary secrets and darkness lurking within. Ward’s writing style masterfully combines elements of horror, suspense, and psychological drama, creating an unsettling atmosphere that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
Lulu followed Dee as she went off on her own and ran into the young man on the beach. Dee sent Lulu to play in the water so she and the young man could kiss. Lulu fell off the rocks reaching for a pretty pebble and banged her head. She went to her in the water, but she was traumatized by snakes and fled. She returned, realizing Lulu might just be unconscious, but someone had taken Lulu’s body. She spent the rest of her life seeking revenge to assuage her own guilt, and Ted was the perfect scapegoat.
Ted’s date fails because he cannot get up the courage to approach the woman he lured to a nearby bar. The city sends bulldozers and tractors to the forest behind Ted’s house to create new rest areas. They are dangerously close to where Ted buried his “gods” (pieces of his mother’s remains and her treasured possessions); he frantically moves them to a new spot that night. Dee attempts to follow him, but she retreats due to her fear of snakes. In July of 1974, Bundy abducted and murdered two different women—Janice Ott and Denise Naslund—over the course of an afternoon at Lake Sammamish State Park.
Ward is American by birth, but studied in England and is a British national. The Last House on Needless Street follows the ill-fated lives of Ted Bannerman, a man with dissociative identity disorder, and Dee Walters, a woman driven to avenge her sister who disappeared 11 years ago. Circumstantial events lead Dee to believe that Ted is responsible for her sister’s disappearance, bringing her to Needless Street to seek revenge. Ted, meanwhile, struggles with balancing self-care with raising his daughter, Lauren, and his God-fearing cat, Olivia.
She finds evidence of a little girl’s presence and becomes doubly convinced that Ted is hiding Lulu. She makes the mistake of refitting the plyboard over the kitchen window with new nails. Dee tries to track Lulu’s kidnapper, but she has little luck. Detective Karen had helped her search, but after Dee confronted an innocent man in Oregon, Karen became more reticent. Dee manages to track Ted down thanks to a cruel rich man. She introduces herself and even gets Ted to let her in under the pretense of using his bathroom.
Whilst every scene in Ted’s home is something that literally happens, the reader will understand from the first page that they’re never quite getting the whole story, and this heavy burden of mistrust is what makes the novel so effective. A cycle of presentation and reinterpretation begins, as the events of the home are chronicled by one character and reenvisioned by another, creating a narrative that is satisfying but never comfortable. When Lauren goes away for the week, Ted’s cat, Olivia, comes out. Olivia and Lauren are never in the house at the same time.
Finally, we will address 15 common questions readers may have, providing answers to unravel any lingering mysteries. “The Last House On Needless Street” is a gripping psychological thriller that will leave readers questioning their own perceptions and pondering the complexities of the human mind. Catriona Ward’s deft storytelling and masterful execution make this novel a must-read for fans of the genre. As the mysteries unravel and the characters’ motivations become clear, readers are left with a haunting tale that lingers long after the final page is turned.
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