Negative Review | The Last House on Needless Street

[@bettywildflower106]

Hey Juan! Been watching your videos for years. I just love every one of them. I wonder if you could do a psychoanalysis video of The secret History and The Goldfinch. I watched your psychoanalysis of The Little Friend and OMG it's really amazing!!!

[@NerdyKathi]

I very much enjoyed your review, and I agree that whilst there are some positives in the book, ultimately I was disappointed in it. Perhaps it was more obvious to you what the twist was but in the beginning I was confused as to what exactly I was reading: fantasy or mystery? I particularly hated how it was resolved and agree the ending was sentimental.

[@Bryan4Hillary]

I agree with you. While reading this, I hated it. I actually dug the step up, Olivia seemed such a quirky cat character… but when the twists start to happen… and happen… and happen… it Broke my belief in the story. The narrative cheats were also a bit much too. It felt to me like a younger, teenaged writer who hasn’t had much time to hone her craft, honestly. Maybe with a better editor this could have been anything other than what it was.

[@seriouslybookedup]

Totally agree. Sundial, which I read first, is far superior in theme and execution so I was really surprised and disappointed since Needless seemed to get more praise. This felt cheap and predictable.

[@Anjianie]

i just read her book Sundial (first time reading anything by her) and it’s honestly one of my favorite horror novels now. i’m such a sucker for mother/daughter relationships and themes of generational trauma. please check it out! i’d love to hear your thoughts!

[@velmavlogs7693]

I felt the same about this one Juan. I didn’t guess the game quite as early, but I still felt it was kind of cheap and thin.

[@annieway35]

This was our bookclub pick and as a LSP, I too picked up immediately on the diagnoses. During our book discussion, some people believe the bad therapist wasn't real. I hadn't considered that. But still, the plot is not clear, the story doesn't unravel well, there's no clues, or the clues that are dropped have nothing to do with anything at the end. It was sloppy and unsatisfying.

[@justjuanreader]

Agreed! Although I have to say the sequence where the girl fights the snake and is bitten was really well paced and feverish. I like the feverish, hazy feel the book had in certain moments.

[@annieway35]

@@justjuanreader I thought that part was a metaphor for her own mental illness of denial! 😂

[@CathyHarrison-bd8vi]

Just finished this book last night and hated it. I wanted to DNF it so many times. I found it frustrating to read and the payoff at the end was not that satisfying to me.

[@jesss7930]

This book was insufferably bad. It was a tedious trudge that was predictable from the first chapter. The plot was so forced and moronic. I stopped reading at the end of the second “Olivia” chapter, and looked up the plot. So glad I never bothered to finish it. It would have been a great story from a 16 year old writer, but still not an interesting one. Also, I’m an Australian and I have never in my life been held up so often by goddamn snakes.

[@Paromita_M]

This doesn't sound good 😬 What is happening, where are all the awesome books? 😭 "I am such a positive person" 🤓. Okay, Sir, with a single "positive" emoji, please share your reaction to Legends and Lattes. 🤣 I tried some epic fantasy series, nothing has been clicking. 😔

[@justjuanreader]

Oh no!! Which fantasy series have you tried? At least warn me! 😄😄😄

[@Paromita_M]

@@justjuanreader 🤣 Every single Booktube darling? Aargh. Okay names - The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, Godkiller, Malazan (just nope), Prince of Nothing (nope), Faithful and the Fallen (grr...), Book of the New Sun (😬), Wars of Light and Shadow (started off well but then became yawn), Kushiel (eww), Black Company (why am I reading about boring criminals? 🤣). Okay don't cancel me for this but...Discworld. I am sorry but in which universe is this humour or satire? Not the universe I want to live in. 😂 Younget Literature (middle-grade, YA, whatever): Every other one has a toxic relationship which is passed off as romance, WTH? I'm so glad I'm not young anymore. 🤣 It's my fault, fine. I keep looking for something to sit alongside HP so I can alternate between the two. What did I get? Nevermoor. It was pitched as the next HP. Spoiler: it isn't. Okay I read the first book and didn't continue, Morrigan Crow is kind of sweet, I'll give her that but everything else is a big fat HUH? I'd say His Dark Materials is the next one which is at least tolerable - Northern Lights is delightful. Then unfortunately Pullman decides to lean into the metaphor of Paradise Lost (or whatever this is a response to) a bit too heavily, Lyra becomes a secondary indecisive character and the trilogy goes downhill. But it's still quite good. The prequel/sequel series however - Book of Dust is 🤦🏽‍♀️. For a duology I actually liked: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly and The Land of Lost Things, which came out in 2023. At least the writing was beautiful and there was some very good storytelling. Thank you for the space for this magnificent rant, please feel free to cancel me now. 🤣 Happy reading!

[@justjuanreader]

@@Paromita_M This comment is everything!!!! Absolutely love it!!! I simply couldn’t see myself trying many of those books - Malazan? JUST NO. Also, I have to say: Discworld sucks. I know, hot take. They’re coming to get me. But I’ve tried 3 of those books and they are simply not funny, interesting, well paced, witty, or well written enough. Just a big no. Nevermoor pffffffff. His Dark Materials I adore, though. Those books mean the world to me and I actually went to Oxford and took a picture at the botanic garden, next to the Will/Lyra statue. Please keep the rants coming!!

[@Paromita_M]

@@justjuanreader That is beautiful, I think I saw that in your HDM review video. 😊 Guess my main disconnect with a lot of fantasy is something you have mentioned in a previous video: many authors are inspired by role-playing games (RPGs) e.g. DnD or GURPS for the Malazan authors or video games to write their works. And while I like the idea of games (though I am not a player myself), it does not work for me when meshed into fiction at all. So many of the "great" fantasy series like Malazan, Stormlight Archive, even The Second Apocalypse, ASOIAF (! - didn't know that one) are penned by authors who ran regular DnD campaigns at some point in their lives. I will give points to Bakker (The Second Apocalypse) and Martin (ASOIAF) even more because their worlds do feel lived in - the historical influences are much more prominent than the "gamey" influences. But where it shows up is in plot resolution. Bakker uses overpowered entities and while Martin has avoided his world getting overpowered by the magical elements so far (points for that), it might be part of the reason why we don't have a conclusion? Another very interesting example for me is Rothfuss. Beautiful writing, English degree, veteran DnD player. And as of the end of two books, his series can be read either as a complex deconstruction of the archetypal hero in the Greek tragedy or Shakespearean sense (my preference) or as a series of quests of someone's RPG campaign in beautiful language (will be heartbroken if this is true). As of now, I am free to choose the interpretation I like but it makes me wonder again if this is why we don't have a conclusion? 🤔 Generally I prefer separation of author and work but because of this proliferation of RPG inspired series in fantasy (again more power to people who love them, it's just not for me), I have started reading author interviews to see what the inspirations for someone's works are. Tolkien, Peake, Susanna Clarke, Rowling, Tad Williams, Ursula K Le Guin remain my touchstones. Gaiman and Jeff Vandermeer are very good writers imo. But otherwise, it's not so easy to find that wow factor imo.