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WesternSFA


The Last House on Needless Street
by Catriona Ward
Tor Nightfire, $29.99, 352pp
Published: September 2021

I expected a lot from 'The Last House on Needless Street', not only because so many people whose opinions I trust claim that it's an absolute gem but because I've read one of Catriona Ward's earlier novels, 'Little Eve'. That was a fascinating novel built on a puzzle, the story told by two unreliable narrators writing a century ago and carefully fed to us in impressionistic fashion by Ward. In my review, I talked about how I loved everything about it but could see why some readers wouldn't. That goes double for this novel. Again, it's clearly a puzzle, the story told by three characters this time but all of them unreliable narrators and not just because they may have agendas. However, it's clear from who they are that we need to figure things out ourselves.

The first is a quintessential unreliable narrator, because he has serious memory issues. He's Ted Bannerman and he lives in the last house on Needless Street. He seems much older than he actually is because his issues comes across like Alzheimer's, he likes birds and cats and he doesn't seem to do any of the things that young people tend to do. He also has secrets, perhaps even from himself. He records some of his memories as they come onto cassettes, but he doesn't listen back to them, so we're not in a 'Memento' situation. He's accepted his memory loss, it seems, and just tries to keep going with them as a handicap.

The second is rather unusual, because it's Olivia, a cat that he rescued as a kitten when its mother died. Yes, a whole bunch of chapters are narrated by a cat, which should make us wonder why from the very start, but this particular cat, as much as she does a lot of cat things, also does human things. She has religion, for one, doing the work of the LORD, and she often reads the Bible, which seems like a very unlikely characteristic for a cat. I consider her the first of many clues that Ward throws our way to tell us that things are very much not as they seem. So, what is going on?

The third may explain a lot of that, partly because of who she is and partly who she isn't. What she isn't is the third character who lives in the last house on Needless Street, who is Ted's daughter, Lauren, another clue for us to pick up on. Why do we get chapters told by Olivia the cat but none by Lauren? Instead we get chapters by Dee, for Delilah, a young lady trying to find her sister, who goes by Lulu but is really named Laura, who was at a beach not far from Needless Street when she disappeared. She's presumed dead by the authorities but Dee holds out hope that she's alive and following up on leads has brought the name of Ted Bannerman her way, so she's moved into the empty house next door to watch him.

I'm being very careful what I say here because most of the things I want to say would constitute spoilers and I highly recommend that you read this yourself, because it's certainly the masterpiece that so many others are keen to point out. I should also mention that, while it's clear from Ward's afterword how she constructed this puzzle, you shouldn't read that either until you read the novel itself. However, I'm not merely avoiding things, the way avoiding spoilers usually works; I'm framing this the way that Ward does so you're able to get an idea of what's happening without really having a clue.

Those three characters clearly tell a story. Ted Bannerman is clearly a predator who has merely forgotten how evil he is because of his condition. He clearly kidnapped Lulu and is now keeping her captive in his house, with a subtle change to her name, Lauren instead of Laura. Dee is clearly following the appropriate lead and, once she gathers the proof that she needs, will probably break into the last house on Needless Street and save her sister. All these things are clear, but so is the underlying feeling that none of it is clear at all, as every one of these characters is an unreliable narrator. Ted has memory issues. Olivia is a cat. Dee has an agenda. So, if we assume that the one clear story isn't true, what is?

Most thoughts I've seen about 'The Last House on Needless Street' talk up how impressive it is and I'm going to add my voice to theirs. There are a handful of detractors, though, and the majority of them state that the biggest problem they had is that it's reliant on its twists and they saw through those quickly, rather like I did with 'The Sixth Sense'. I'd heard that there was an amazing twist in that movie but, perhaps because I'd read and seen 'The Survivor' before it, I'd taken the truth for granted from moment one and so was disappointed. I don't buy into most of those detractors seeing through this, though.

For instance, the first detail we have to get past is Olivia. Surely we ask ourselves how a cat can read the Bible and do the work of the LORD. Either this is a fantasy rather than a horror novel or she isn't a cat. If she isn't a cat, then who is she? The obvious answer is that she's a human being, but is Ted a serial predator and he has a pair of girls in his house, probably the latest in a series of them, or is there only one? After all, Olivia tells her story but Lauren never does and, while Lauren may only be there at weekends, as if there's a shared custody in place, she never seems to actually leave, and Ted calls both of them "Kitten". So, if Laura is really Lauren, is Olivia also Lauren or is she another kidnapped girl, who may really be an Olivia even if she isn't really a cat? Or is there something else going on?

What this means is that, from the very start, Ward presents us with a story in such a way that it's completely obvious what's going on but also really isn't, so inviting us to unravel the puzzle. However, Olivia the cat is one aspect of this story and not the only one. There are many other clues and many other puzzles to figure out, so it's not as simple as deducing possibilities down to two, flipping a coin and saying, "Ha! I knew what was going on right away!" I'd suggest that there really isn't just one twist here that we can see through and win.

There are a bunch of twists bundled together, rather like a bouquet of flowers, and Ward gradually hands out individual flowers as she goes. Sure, I'd believe that most readers do manage to find themselves in the right ballpark pretty quickly, because it would be hard not to do that, but I'd be very surprised if many of them do figure out everything quickly. It's just not that straightforward and, the longer we read, the more we start to consider more clues and think up new possibilities to explain them.

For instance, Ted has his own puzzle to solve, because someone put glue onto the branches of trees in front of his house, so that the birds that visit him get stuck. Who did that and why? Who or what are the gods that Ted moves periodically from their buried hiding places in the woods? Who are the green boys upstairs who never come out to play? What is Dee going to discover first and how is that going to affect how the rest of the story unfolds? If Ted's a predator who preys on little girls, why does he arrange to meet adult women at a bar? And why does he never actually do that, watching them from a different table and then letting them leave?

Needless to say, pun not intended, there's a lot going on here in this puzzle box of a horror novel, enough that it's as much of a mystery as a horror novel. I don't mean that it's a traditional detective story, with Dee as the one character who believes in the truth enough that the story is really her figuring it out, because that is not Ward's intent. I mean in the sense that we readers become invested in solving the mystery before she does, a suggestion deepened by the fact that the mystery isn't merely her missing sister but everything Ward tells us from moment one. It's a challenge of a book, which is perhaps why some reviewers seem focused on claiming the win.

There's so much more that I want to say that I can't, because once it's all over and the last twist is unravelled, everything was for a reason. This book is about something and that something is a fascinating and important topic that Ward dug into deeply and I want to discuss, but I simply can't because it's impossible to even bring it up without spoiling the entire book. So I'll shut up and wait for this to make the schedule of a book club, so I can dive into it all afresh with others who have made the same journey I have. It's quite the journey and this is quite the book. I highly recommend 'Little Eve'. I recommend this even more. ~~ Hal C F Astell

For more titles by Catriona Ward click here

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