The Only One Left by Riley Sager | Horror Book Review

The Only One Left by Riley Sager is a book of secrets, suspicion, and the slow, creeping dread of a story that refuses to stay buried.

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on The Only One Left by Riley Sager –

When home‑health aide Kit McDeere arrives at the crumbling estate of Hope’s End, she’s just hoping to keep her job after a rough patch in her past. But the moment she had learned that her new patient is Lenora Hope, the woman at the center of the infamous Hope family massacre, she can’t help but be shaken. Lenora, now in her seventies, wheelchair‑bound, and unable to speak, communicates only through an old typewriter. And one night, she taps out a chilling note: I want to tell you everything.

Kit’s curiosity is impossible to ignore, even as it becomes clear that digging into Lenora’s past is far from safe. As the two women work through Lenora’s account of the night her family died, Kit begins to sense that the truth is far more tangled, and far more dangerous, than anyone has ever known.

OH MY GOSH. The setup here is wonderfully eerie! We have a decaying mansion that is quite literally sliding into the sea, a silent woman with a terrifying past, and a typewriter as the only voice in the room to share these big secrets.

With the setup of the story shifting between present‑day caregiving and Lenora’s typed confessions, it keeps the pacing tight and Kit’s curiosity adds a steady hum of tension with every new detail feeling like a step deeper into a trap.

It’s a fun, quick listen that kept me engaged the whole way through while I dreaded to see what the big build-up would reveal.

My Favorite Passages from The Only One Left –

You’re never alone when there’s a book nearby.

She was the same way when I took her to see Return of the Jedi, even though neither of us understood what the hell was going on. We simply enjoyed the spectacle.