The Last House on Needless Street

"The buzz...is real. I've read it and was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end." - Stephen King

"Christopher Ragland delivers a story featuring three unreliable narrators, all keeping secrets . . . Ragland's story is a discomforting listen that is difficult to pause." - AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winning review


A World Fantasy Award and August Derleth Award Finalist!
An Indie Next Pick! A LibraryReads Top 10 Pick!
A Library Journal Editors' Pick! STARRED reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly!
Named one of the "50 Best Horror Books of All Time" by Esquire!

"Brilliant....[a] deeply frightening deconstruction of the illusion of the self." -The New York Times

Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street is a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House.

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.

A teenage girl who isn't allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.

An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

“The new face of literary dark fiction.” -Sarah Pinborough

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

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The Last House on Needless Street

"The buzz...is real. I've read it and was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end." - Stephen King

"Christopher Ragland delivers a story featuring three unreliable narrators, all keeping secrets . . . Ragland's story is a discomforting listen that is difficult to pause." - AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winning review


A World Fantasy Award and August Derleth Award Finalist!
An Indie Next Pick! A LibraryReads Top 10 Pick!
A Library Journal Editors' Pick! STARRED reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly!
Named one of the "50 Best Horror Books of All Time" by Esquire!

"Brilliant....[a] deeply frightening deconstruction of the illusion of the self." -The New York Times

Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street is a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House.

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.

A teenage girl who isn't allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.

An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

“The new face of literary dark fiction.” -Sarah Pinborough

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire

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The Last House on Needless Street

The Last House on Needless Street

by Catriona Ward

Narrated by Christopher Ragland

Unabridged — 12 hours, 0 minutes

The Last House on Needless Street

The Last House on Needless Street

by Catriona Ward

Narrated by Christopher Ragland

Unabridged — 12 hours, 0 minutes

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward will keep you pinned to your seat throughout. Both beguiling and horrific, if you can believe it, Ward writes with such deep care and precision, there's no way to turn down an offer to read more. Each page a perfect layer of plot, character and mystery — we don't know of any book that makes us fear the basement, the attic, the house next door and the depths of imagination more than this novel. True rewards await the fearless here.

"The buzz...is real. I've read it and was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end." - Stephen King

"Christopher Ragland delivers a story featuring three unreliable narrators, all keeping secrets . . . Ragland's story is a discomforting listen that is difficult to pause." - AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winning review


A World Fantasy Award and August Derleth Award Finalist!
An Indie Next Pick! A LibraryReads Top 10 Pick!
A Library Journal Editors' Pick! STARRED reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly!
Named one of the "50 Best Horror Books of All Time" by Esquire!

"Brilliant....[a] deeply frightening deconstruction of the illusion of the self." -The New York Times

Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street is a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House.

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.

A teenage girl who isn't allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.

An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

“The new face of literary dark fiction.” -Sarah Pinborough

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire


Editorial Reviews

DECEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Christopher Ragland delivers a story featuring three unreliable narrators, all keeping secrets. The shifting tale suggests that no one can be trusted. Ted is a broken man who spends his nights drinking and struggling with his fractured memory; his daughter Lauren, who isn't allowed outside; and their family cat, Olivia, who reads the Bible and prays. Ragland's boyish voice adds to the unsettling nature of the story. His performance of Olivia the cat stands out as he perfectly captures the unique voice of a devout cat with aspirations of fame. Ragland’s story is a discomforting listen that is difficult to pause. J.M.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/03/2021

Ward (Rawblood) keeps readers deliciously off-balance throughout this multifaceted tale of isolation, mental illness, and child abuse. Ted Bannerman still lives in the house he grew up in, and often spirals through upsetting thoughts about his childhood while obsessing over the things he’s buried in the nearby woods. His companions are Lauren, a teenage girl with anger issues who Ted refers to as his daughter and whom he does not allow to interact with anyone but himself, and Olivia, a devoted cat who feels she has a mission from God to protect Ted. His only confidant is the “bug man,” a therapist from whom he struggles to hide his true feelings. When Dee Walters becomes convinced that Ted kidnapped her little sister from the beach 11 years earlier, she moves in next door to investigate, throwing off Ted’s routines. Meanwhile, Lauren’s anger becomes increasingly difficult for Ted to manage. There’s a creeping sense of something off with every member of the cast, even as Ward immerses the reader in each of their hyperfocused points-of-view. Subtle clues scattered throughout make terrifying sense in retrospect as the bigger picture slowly comes into focus. This masterful horror novel packs an emotional wallop that lingers. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

A World Fantasy and August Derleth Award Finalist!

An Indie Next Pick! A LibraryReads Top 10 Pick!

A Library Journal Editors' Pick! STARRED reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly!

One of Library Journal's Best Horror Books of 2021.

Named one of the "50 Best Horror Books of All Time" by Esquire!

"A terrifying exploration of human consciousness that excavates character like an ice pick chipping through an ancient glacier: The deeper one goes, the chillier it gets." —The New York Times

"The most powerful narratives in the genre manage to create an unshakable sense of unease, and that's exactly what this novel does ... a must-read for those who like the kind of labyrinthine narratives that pull the rug out from under you, sending you tumbling into a dark, dark room." —NPR

"[P]erhaps the slipperiest psychological study in the annals of horror—a book with secrets as sorrowful as they are appalling." —Esquire

“This masterful horror novel packs an emotional wallop that lingers.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A stunning and immersive tale of psychological horror. It’s terrifyingly real and physically upsetting, yet, like the best of the genre, it leaves space for hope to ultimately shine through." —Library Journal, starred review

“Full of twists and turns, this high-concept gothic horror is going to be huge.” —Guardian

“The buzz building around Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street is real. I've read it and was blown away. It's a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end. Haven't read anything this exciting since Gone Girl.” —Stephen King

“Sensational….I can’t recall another novel in recent years that dares so much and succeeds so wildly.” —A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

“A chilling and beautiful masterpiece of suspense, cunningly plotted and written with the elegant imagination of a Shirley Jackson or a Sarah Waters. I was completely enthralled.” —Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman

"A breathtakingly ambitious book, gorgeously written, and never once shies away from showing you its fangs and its beautiful blood-filled heart. Stop reading this blurb already and open the damn book." —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts

"A masterpiece. Beautiful, heartbreaking and quietly uplifting. One of the most powerful and well-executed novels I've read in years." —Alex North, author of The Whisper Man

“Absolutely brilliant. This is extraordinary, high-wire-act horror, audacious as hell.” —Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Red Hands

"Dark and creepy, sad and wonderfully strange. It kept me glued and guessing right up to the end—I loved every inch of it." —Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy

"Brilliant. Breathtaking. Terrifying. A masterpiece to read at your own peril." —Alma Katsu, author of The Hunger

"A risky, gleeful descent into a house without windows or doors. It's a must-read for horror fans." —Sarah Langan, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Good Neighbors

This book was like an onion. Layer after layer after layer and then you're crying and somebody's got a knife. A brutal, twisty, puzzle box of a book. I stayed up way past my bedtime.T. Kingfisher, author of The Hollow Places

"Ward ably handles the series of nested revelations of the truth about the house's inhabitants and how they connect to Ted's own childhood, all the while maintaining a propulsive, suspenseful tone. Recommended for anyone interested in horror with well-realized characters and a claustrophobic, intense setting." —Booklist

“What did I just read?! One perfect sentence after the other ... this is a story I wish I knew how to write—and I'm thrilled that Ward pulled off this trick of a book.” —Rachel Howzell Hall, author of And Now She's Gone

“THIS IS THE BEST HORROR NOVEL I HAVE EVER READ. Even Shirley Jackson, her Majesty, would have to concede to this one.” —Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

“Books like this don't come around too often... I would say I inhaled this in one, but I think I was too busy holding my breath throughout. Bravo.” —Joanne Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Gospel of Loki

"The new face of literary dark fiction." —Sarah Pinborough, New York Times bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes

“You don’t read The Last House on Needless Street—you survive it. This isn’t just a thriller; it’s a sleek, diabolical, stress-inducing machine.” —Jonathan Janz, author of The Siren and the Specter

"It’s one eerie mind-bender of a novel in the best way." —Bloody Disgusting

"[A]n immersive, head-shaking, game of a novel that speaks to the horrors of a person’s past and how a horrific event can leave people unchanged for the worse." —SFF World

"This is a true page-turner. Just when you think you’ve figured out what is really going on, you’ll probably realize you were wrong." —Book Reporter

Library Journal

★ 06/01/2021

Ted lives at the end of the forebodingly named Needless Street, in a house with boarded-up windows at the edge of a forest. There he hosts visits with his daughter and tries hard to hold his life together by keeping to himself as much as possible. The novel opens, quite unsettlingly, on the anniversary of the disappearance of a young girl, a disappearance that Ted was initially suspected of causing. Ward's layered plot is slowly but compellingly unveiled, raising new questions at every turn. The multiple points of view, featuring vivid characters with honest but clearly incomplete narration, also draw us deeper into the various mysteries entangled within the central plot. The result is a stunning and immersive tale of psychological horror. It's terrifyingly real and physically upsetting, yet, like the best of the genre, it leaves space for hope to ultimately shine through. VERDICT Disguising itself as a straightforward serial killer story, this strikingly original work quickly evolves into a more special story. It will push readers to their limit, but also make them glad they stuck it out. It's a good match, in this way, to Stephen Graham Jones's My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Paul Tremblay's The Cabin at the End of the World, or Carmen Maria Machado's memoir In the Dream House.

DECEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Christopher Ragland delivers a story featuring three unreliable narrators, all keeping secrets. The shifting tale suggests that no one can be trusted. Ted is a broken man who spends his nights drinking and struggling with his fractured memory; his daughter Lauren, who isn't allowed outside; and their family cat, Olivia, who reads the Bible and prays. Ragland's boyish voice adds to the unsettling nature of the story. His performance of Olivia the cat stands out as he perfectly captures the unique voice of a devout cat with aspirations of fame. Ragland’s story is a discomforting listen that is difficult to pause. J.M.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID: 2940173093127
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication date: 09/28/2021
Edition description: Unabridged
Sales rank: 635,414
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