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akornfan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
enjoyably dark existential horror novel with sf elements. “these bitches gay, good for them!” really love the big themes as well as the moment-to-moment tension; the sort of thing I’ll think back on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Corporate researcher Dr. Tamsin Rivers is on the cusp of a major discovery, when bizarre distortions start popping up around the city, which may threaten her life’s work and maybe even her very soul…
I still have no idea what happened, the scientific jargon went over my head, but I loved it. There's something about a shifting house that gives me chills. The reality-bending nature of this book had me questioning everything and considering my own choices and identity. Would recommend to fans of:
- Severance
- Supernatural phenomena like doppelgängers, the Mandela Effect and parallel worlds
- Corporate sci-fi
- Main characters who descend into their own depths and delusions
- Research ethics
- Books that will force you to examine your own existence
I still have no idea what happened, the scientific jargon went over my head, but I loved it. There's something about a shifting house that gives me chills. The reality-bending nature of this book had me questioning everything and considering my own choices and identity. Would recommend to fans of:
- Severance
- Supernatural phenomena like doppelgängers, the Mandela Effect and parallel worlds
- Corporate sci-fi
- Main characters who descend into their own depths and delusions
- Research ethics
- Books that will force you to examine your own existence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol
panic_at_the_bookshelf's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Complicated
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
The whole concept of the book creeped me out. However when things got explained I felt as if I missed something or was too dumb to understand, which is not a nice feeling to end a book. In a way it is rather disappointing, because I still have no idea on what exactly happened. It was a rather fast read and I was eager to pick up the book and see how things would evolve.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcohol
rosesofthespring's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Complicated
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
smolhandsdan's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
eceleste's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Complicated
4.0
this started off as a 3 stars and i was really worried it was going to take me forever to read because i was SO confused....but once prime showed up and tamsin really started to lose it it got quite good and i couldn't put it down!! (<- was nearly late to class because i was late closing at work because i was reading and had to finish my chapter.) i still don't understand what she was actually researching pre-subsidience and pre-door though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
HUGE warning for unreality -- the main character is constantly questioning what she knows is real, she's forgetting bits of her life, etclinguistique's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling, the city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, head researcher investigating the subsidence problem, is sinking even faster. One evening, a door appears on the basement wall that wasn’t there before, and out of it walks an exact copy of Tamsin. Who is she? Where did she come from? How did she get here? And how can Tamsin stop the subsidence from destroying the city?
What I love about Starling’s style of horror is how psychological and character driven it is, and Last to Leave the Room is no different. Dr. Tamsin Rivers is, I believe intentionally, unlikeable as a character, narcissistic and self-serving and cruel. But Tamsin is, at her core, a scientist, and her obsession with the subsidence felt infectious. I appreciated the care Starling took to develop Tamsin’s character and show the research process, with Tamsin hyper-focusing on meticulously collecting data and measuring the progress of the sinking. I loved the way that Starling seeded doubt about whether Tamsin was a reliable narrator, allowing the reader to wonder what was real and what was an invention of Tamsin’s mind.
While I eventually grew to sympathize with Tamsin, I loved Lachlan’s character even more. She is tough and intimidating, but her job as company muscle was portrayed in what felt like a realistic way, with excellent disability representation.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, and at about the halfway mark it gripped me so tightly that I could not put it down until I finished it. I rated this book four stars because I was left wanting a little more from the ending. The resolution seemed rushed, and I am left with so many unanswered questions. However, I grew to love the characters, and it was great to be back in another unsettling world of Starling’s creation.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for gifting me a copy of this eARC!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
booksthatburn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.
LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM is the story of a generally unlikeable person whose life is utterly upended when the anomaly she's been tracking for her work begins to have strange and personal consequences.
The narrative stays focused on Tamsin. She’s a very focused scientist with relationship-savvy and political awareness as it relates to the flow of power, but she seems not to appreciate or care about the emotional toll of her plans on the people around her. She’s very calculating, as shown in an incident early on where she maneuver someone else into a position of blame after making it seem like a positive thing for them to attempt. Because her personality changes so much over the course of the story, her starting point has to be shown in swift, bold strokes, getting at the essence of her very quickly so that a point of comparison can be established. Moreso than even her research team, her most meaningful interactions are with Lachlan, who is somewhere between a minder and an enforcer. Lachlan's background stays pretty mysterious, with Tamsin, wary of her due to her position of power and her force of personality, Lachlan has technologically enmeshed her and Tamsin's life in a way that’s skirting the edge of what can be excused based on their positions in the company. Especially early on, there’s an uncertainty over what Lachlan might do if she’s displeased, with Tamsin ranging between specific concerns about being fired and a general unease because she can't predict what the consequences might be.
One of the first signs of Tamsin's memory loss, at least the first one that I noticed called out in the text, was about an incident that happened before the book began, which put me in the strange position of not quite being able to confirm whether the memory loss is real. Gradually, however, the discrepancies and lapses in memory become decidedly less subtle as Tamsin deteriorates.
I've loved Starling's previous work, and this swiftly drew me in, holding me to the very end. Beginning with the section, "Nought", the story takes a turn from merely excellent to brilliant. As much as I was fascinated by the beginning, the ending blew me away. I love books that deal with memory distortions, or changes in personality, things that mean that someone who is nominally the same character becomes a very different person throughout a story or a series. It touches on dynamics related to ableism in the context of physical disabilities and brain damage, as well as whether memory is essential to personality.
LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM is the story of a generally unlikeable person whose life is utterly upended when the anomaly she's been tracking for her work begins to have strange and personal consequences.
The narrative stays focused on Tamsin. She’s a very focused scientist with relationship-savvy and political awareness as it relates to the flow of power, but she seems not to appreciate or care about the emotional toll of her plans on the people around her. She’s very calculating, as shown in an incident early on where she maneuver someone else into a position of blame after making it seem like a positive thing for them to attempt. Because her personality changes so much over the course of the story, her starting point has to be shown in swift, bold strokes, getting at the essence of her very quickly so that a point of comparison can be established. Moreso than even her research team, her most meaningful interactions are with Lachlan, who is somewhere between a minder and an enforcer. Lachlan's background stays pretty mysterious, with Tamsin, wary of her due to her position of power and her force of personality, Lachlan has technologically enmeshed her and Tamsin's life in a way that’s skirting the edge of what can be excused based on their positions in the company. Especially early on, there’s an uncertainty over what Lachlan might do if she’s displeased, with Tamsin ranging between specific concerns about being fired and a general unease because she can't predict what the consequences might be.
One of the first signs of Tamsin's memory loss, at least the first one that I noticed called out in the text, was about an incident that happened before the book began, which put me in the strange position of not quite being able to confirm whether the memory loss is real. Gradually, however, the discrepancies and lapses in memory become decidedly less subtle as Tamsin deteriorates.
I've loved Starling's previous work, and this swiftly drew me in, holding me to the very end. Beginning with the section, "Nought", the story takes a turn from merely excellent to brilliant. As much as I was fascinated by the beginning, the ending blew me away. I love books that deal with memory distortions, or changes in personality, things that mean that someone who is nominally the same character becomes a very different person throughout a story or a series. It touches on dynamics related to ableism in the context of physical disabilities and brain damage, as well as whether memory is essential to personality.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Suicide, and Vomit