Table Of Content
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.
In this creepy house, no one's who you think they are — not even the cat
Review: 'The Last House on Needless Street,' by Catriona Ward - NPR
Review: 'The Last House on Needless Street,' by Catriona Ward.
Posted: Sun, 03 Oct 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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.
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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.
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Ted nearly dies, but Olivia integrates with Night-time (Ted’s most basic survival instinct), and their combined force of will keeps Ted’s heart beating. The Last House on Needless Street begins on the 11th anniversary of the disappearance of Lulu Walters, a six-year-old girl, who vanished on vacation at a lake in Washington. The anniversary hits Ted Bannerman hard; he had been a suspect, interviewed by the police and reporters.
REVIEW: The Last House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward - Grimdark Magazine
REVIEW: The Last House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward.
Posted: Mon, 26 Jul 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Their remains were found on a neighboring hillside two months later, in such a state of decay that the local forensics team were driven to test the feces of local animals to help identify them. The book is Ward’s third novel, following her 2015 gothic horror debut Rawblood and 2018’s Little Eve, both of which won the August Derleth Prize at the British Fantasy Awards. That makes her the only woman to win the prize twice, and Little Eve‘s selection for the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award establishes Ward as a new face of literary dark fiction. We follow the two college girls as they move to their new house and meet their gorgeous new neighbors, Derek and Chad.
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.
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.
'Every monster has a story': Catriona Ward on her chilling gothic novel
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.
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.
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.
An unspeakable secret binds them together, and when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees behind their house will come back to haunt them all. At the opening of this head game of a novel, Ted Bannerman, a thirty- or forty-something solitudinarian is living at the end of a cul-de-sac. Occasionally, he uses an online dating site (and fake profile pictures) to lure women into meeting him, but the outcome of these dates isn’t something the reader gets to see firsthand. The book’s starting point was the relationship between serial killers and their pets, the disarmingly upbeat Ward explains by Zoom from Dartmoor. What happens when those without empathy connect with another living being?
However, they have neighbors—two hot boys, Derek and Chad, who seem to be hiding sinister secrets. Every mission in California is said to be haunted, but only one has ghost cats! The lore goes that Father Francisco Uria kept four pet cats whom he loved so much that when he died, the “four cats solemnly marched to the chapel. Leaping to the rope of the chapel bell, they swung it back and forth, tolling out the mournful message that the padre was dead. Sometimes, you can still hear their cries and footsteps. Peg Entwistle is probably the most famous failed actress in Los Angeles history.
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