The Salvation of Spot-reading & Wikipedia

Spoiler-Warning is in effect; minor spoilers are used to make my points throughout.

In looking for my next read, the highly-recommended Riley Sager came up as someone to check out - typically online. Not until I joined my current book club did I ever get the chance to read one of his books, and now I can say: I’m not unhappy that I gave it a try.

Emphasis on “gave it a try…”

Now, while this book may not have been for me in the long-run, I would encourage others to check it out, especially if you enjoy a good-old-fashioned Gothic Mystery. If I were only an avid-reader, I’d probably have enjoyed this book a lot more than I did. But as a hobbyist-writer myself, it was hard to come at this review completely objective for a few key reasons:

I hate first-person narration (especially first-person, present-tense)

I personally could not relate to the lead, or even a majority of the characters

This was actually the first book I couldn’t bring myself to finish (I had to rely on spot-reading the second half and Wikipedia to get the full picture!)

So, with my own personal biases out of the way, let’s dive in!

The Summary:

The Only One Left follows lead character, Kitridge “Kit” McDeere, as she goes to work as a live-in aid for the rich and invalid Lenora Hope, the local “boogeyman” of her hometown. Set in the 1980’s, Lenora’s potential involvement in the gruesome triple-murder of her parents and sister has been boiled down to an eerie schoolyard chant, one so incredibly chilling that it could give Lizzie Borden a run for her money.

Kit, still reeling in the wake of her own recent family tragedy, comes to the ever ominous Hope’s End, the opulent Hope family mansion, uneasy but determined to make this job work - if only as an escape from the oppressive whispers and rumors that now shadow her own reputation. Then one night, Kit receives an intriguing off from the infamous Lenora Hope: she wants to tell her everything. Just as they begin to unravel the mysteries of the past, death strikes again at Hope’s End, kicking off an equally tantalizing, and dangerous, final chapter of Lenora Hope’s legacy…

What I liked:

Now, the story on the outside is incredibly gripping: Sager, clearly drawing from the influences of classic gothic and macabre, crafts a deliciously morbid set that draws the reader in with only a few subtle gestures. Combining these classic influences with the setting of the more modern 20th century - and the 1980’s no less! - sets the stage for a curious mystery which invites the reader wholeheartedly to take as many guesses as they want…

Unfortunately, this is where my objective, high-praise must end for this novel.

And where my objective, writers-critique must make itself known…

What I disliked:

First we must address the most frustrating element in the room: Sager’s writing style.

Now, in all fairness, I personally am not very fond of first-person, present-tense narration. Despite the popularity of this writing technique, I find it rather jarring as many writers (including Sager) typically fall short of fully embracing this style. What’s more disappointing in Sager’s case is that he clearly demonstrates a strong talent for vivid character design - something that usually (in my experience) has been deeply unappreciated and underutilized with current novelists.

The sudden and comical appearance of 18-year-old Jessica, clearly a Cyndi Lauper-type forced to cosplay as an Edwardian-era maid, made me laugh so much harder than it should have and was one of my personal favorite moments of this (unnecessarily) long tale.

The fact that Sager cannot translate this sense of characterization in his actual narration leads me to be believe one of two reasons is at fault:

1. Mr. Sager is working with very outdated sensibilities as a writer…

2. Mr. Sager doesn’t have the heart to fire a clearly inexperienced editor.

I kid you not, I came this close on several occasions to tearing through the chapters with my own red-pen, as frustrated notes lined the margins of the pages within my mind’s eye.

(I managed to exercise some restraint, I am pleased to say, but for purely financial gain: annotated books typically have a lower sale-value at my favorite used-book store)

Run-on sentences, over-flowery descriptors, redundancies so numerous it’s impossible to count - and sometimes within the span of a few paragraphs! At times I got the rather uncomfortable sense that Mr. Sager is suffering from a classic case of “I’m smarter than my audience!” syndrome, as he clearly doesn’t trust his readers to be intelligent enough to pick up on important clues as they happened in real time… because Kit almost immediately points it out to us with her arduous train-of-thought.

In all honesty, this book could have easily been at least 80-90 pages shorter than its currently inflated state of 400+ pages… if Sager didn’t have to consistently try to prove to his readers that Kit is as “resourceful” as he thinks she is.

Segwaying into the characters, I can honestly say they weren’t as annoying as Sager’s chosen writing style. Some of them were rather entertaining (Jessie will always be best-girl in my mind); others were kind of non-characters, enlisted to fill out the overstuffed roster (I’m looking at you Kenny - dear lord, I so hate Kenny). Others are blatant red-herrings (Carter - and only Carter), which is not really too much of an issue as this is a murder mystery, after all.

And then there’s Kit - our alleged “heroine.”

Now to be fair, I can’t begrudge Kit’s personality too much; losing a loved one in such a way that literally destroys one’s reputation, it’s normal that such an experience can bring a touch of nihilism to one’s life. Kit’s only issue is that she just kind of stays there through the course of the story. And it leads her to make incredibly frustrating life-choices:

From shacking up with jail-bait Kenny, to defending herself with only a corkscrew against an alleged killer (wtf?!), to every single vapid, self-loathing thought that filters through her head. Kit isn’t just an uninteresting character to inhabit for a time, she’s also genuinely the least qualified to try and solve a round of “Clue,” let alone an actual mystery. Even though Sager is clearly trying to sell us, the readers, on this great life-affirming journey for Kit, it comes across as totally flat due to her obvious lack of significant growth.

But as frustrating as our lead may be, she’s at least one step up from the actual “professional” Detective Vick, who, in my humble opinion, is just stupid. Objective assessment is clearly not his forte - which always bodes well for a literal detective - made evident by the fact that Detective “Dick” can’t put aside his own feelings regarding Kit for even five minutes. Not long enough to consider any and all of the equally plausible motives and suspects as the mystery abounds. Frankly, I think he’d be the only person worse than Kit at that game of Cluedo.

And then there’s Lenora herself, the ever-dreaded boogeyman made manifest.

Okay, to be completely honest, I actually like Lenora as a character. Out of the main cast, she’s clearly the one who Sager put the most thought into crafting. Filled with personality, even in such a debilitated state, I would’ve preferred following the story exclusively from her perspective. Now there are things about Lenora that frustrate me, like many of the other characters in this book. However, in her case, they are mostly plot related; chalked up, in my opinion, to writing a mystery from the “Start” instead of the from the “Finale” (believe it or not, the worst way to craft a mystery).

I’m not ashamed to admit that I guessed Lenora (Virginia's) secret during the first third of the book. In fact, I actually guessed it from reading the synopsis on the back-cover - and that’s actually not Riley Sager’s fault. The ‘big reveal’ of a main character being perfectly healthy from the start, or the true mastermind behind certain machinations, is a staple so old in mystery fiction that it's pretty much cliched at this point. The only thing that really bothers me about this decided “twisted” is the fact that Virginia was literally faking her own illness.

That she just, literally, stopped moving around people - for over 80 years…

She was not low-keyed drugged by her sister (the real Lenora cos-playing as Mrs. Baker) - which was perfectly set up given how many pills the woman was given daily…

She did not slowly regain her mobility over time, preferring to keep it a secret as she didn’t know who she could trust…

She did not spontaneously regain her mobility prior to the start of the story, preferring to keep it a secret as she wanted to bring the real killer to justice…

The woman literally just stopped walking and talking for the majority of her life… (Seriously, WTF!?)

It actually would've been more interesting if Virginia were the culprit behind Nurse Mary’s death, due to a disagreement over plans for revenge or justice. In this space of less than a page, we’ve already come up with much more plausible reasons for this major plot point - so I am left wondering, why exactly didn’t Mr. Sager’s editor offer them to him in the first place?

Ultimately, I believe my experience with this book was less-than-enjoyable for this reason: Riley Sager is really great at set-up, developing atmosphere, and crafting strong character-designs… It's the follow-through and pay-off he clearly struggles with the most. Rather than having a slow-burn mystery that builds tension faster and faster as the climax reaches its inevitable crescendo, we are left with an arduously-paced tale of deceptions upon deceptions, and all presented to us by a cartoonish cast of individuals lacking personalities (and at times concise motivations).

Meant to explore the themes of truth and lies, and old mysteries resurrected, the book ends, ironically enough, not with a bang but with a multi-vehicular collision of unnecessary twists and lackluster plot contrivances. The token “happy ending” reduced to a few more contrived plot-twists that serve no other purpose than to convince the readers, in a last ditch effort, that Riley Sager can write a captivating mystery… sans depth, nuance, and vision.

Ultimately, I give this book a 2 out of 5 stars, and with this message to Riley Sager should this review ever reach his eyes: fire your damn editor - they clearly give no effs anymore.