“The Only One Left” by Riley Sager

My first book by Riley Sager will not be my last

Lori Johnston
3 min readSep 29, 2023
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I want to tell you everything

things ive never told anyone else

yes about that night

because i trust you

From The Only One Left by Riley Sager

Voracious readers and book reviewers like myself live for books that engulf you and weigh on your mind after you flip that last page and close the cover. The Only One Left did that for me.

Set in 1983, it’s a Gothic tour de force about a young woman who is tasked with caring for her town’s version of Lizzie Borden, the infamous Lenora Hope, who, at seventeen years old, was accused of slaughtering her entire family. For Kit McDeere, the home health aide who receives the job assignment she cannot afford to turn down, Lenora Hope was the subject of a childhood playground riddle, a once teenaged murderess who has been hidden away in the once glamorous mansion called Hope’s End, for decades.

Kit finds that Lenora is an invalid, unable to speak and with only the use of her left arm. Lenora’s last caregiver, a young woman named Mary, had provided Lenora with a typewriter, as a way for her to communicate with her one functioning hand. It is through this method that not only Kit and Lenora get to…

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Lori Johnston

Writer, reader, margarita drinker. Currently looking for a “dare to be great” situation.