unending twists and turns

Okay, this was a thriller I (for the most part) can get behind! This is my first Riley Sager book too, so I'm learning my way around her writing and prose style. Overall, I think it's not five star material for me. But hey, three stars is better than two.
The eeriness of the story's first half, rife with scary house vibes, a narrator who's totally unreliable, and her improbable circumstance of becoming the caretaker for an infamous (but now geriatric) murderer, totally hooked me with its potential. In the midst of character and setting introductions, though, I felt like the writing style was treating me like a reader who needed everything spelled out for her. This kind of prose style, especially in a mystery-centric thriller novel, is not my favorite, to say the least. To say more, I started getting annoyed and talking aloud to no one as my audiobook kept narrating.  
I think it tries to remain a more straight shot "whodunit" in this first half, but it was the second half that ultimately lost me. I think this is due to the fact that, while executed pretty well and pretty cool in theory, the story begins to get clunky and cave in on itself (not unlike the Hope Mansion) due to the amount of subplots told through letters. Whether they were the letters being typed for Kit to read and learn "the truth," the flashback type chapters from Mary's manuscript, or the novel's concluding letter in the second to last chapter that introduces at least 2 other huge twists in addition to info dumping, I could feel myself losing interest in the plot as a whole because there didn't seem to be a clear central plot running as a through line for me to stay rooted and invested in. Sure, the argument can be made for the through line being Kit's internal predicament concerning what happened to her mom, but the twists and turns connected to this recurring trauma for our main character felt unsatisfying once unraveled. The amount of concealed identities and theories tossed around by Kit and the other residents of the Hope house left me feeling unsure what to believe about what supposedly transpired on that fateful night that first thrust the family into the spotlight covered in each others' blood. And while I'm aware thrillers should keep readers guessing, I was not having fun with this guesswork. A good amount of the stakes were lost for me once it was clear the main danger was the house's eventual collapse into the ocean (if we don't count the danger of the truth being revealed to all). 
I think this novel could've packed more of a literary punch if it ended at the first twist concerning someone's identity. Cause that was fantastic; my jaw dropped quite literally. From this initial big twist, too many others seemed to follow too fast. Explanations were quick. I wish I could've been more here for this pacing, but I just wasn't.
Will I try out another Riley Sager book someday? We shall see.




Some of my favorite quotes from The Only One Left:

"'You're never alone when there's a book,' she used to say. 'Never ever.'"

"Here, we give young women accused of terrible deeds the benefit of the doubt."

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