Book Review: One House Left by Vincent Ralph

Title: One House Left

Author: Vincent Ralph

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publishing Date: August 27th, 2024

Read: December 13th, 2024

Pages: 320

Audio Length: 9 Hours 9 Minutes

Genre: YA horror thriller

TW: death of a child, gore, bullying, schizophrenia, mental health issues, abandonment, toxic relationships

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

What it's about:

“Ready or not. Whatever you do. The Hiding Boy is coming for you.”

Sixteen-year-old Nate Campbell grew up in the shadow of Murder Road – a street cursed by the vengeful spirit of the Hiding Boy.

Every few years, for nearly six decades, a different house on that street has been the scene of a tragedy.

Nate and his family move to a new town as they try to outrun the curse once and for all. But, when he is pulled into his new friends’ urban legend club, new ghost stories merge with old until there is nowhere left to run.

What I thought:

Vincent Ralph is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I was a little bit bored at the beginning of this, but I had to know what was going on, everything was kind of hush hush at the beginning and even through out the book, they'd almost tell us something then change it up, which was both annoying and made me HAVE to keep reading.

The ending though, like the last third of the book made up for the whole thing. I ended up really enjoying it, even though it's not my favorite of his, I would say it's probably either my second or third favorite. I did like it.

Cover:

I actually really like this cover, I love how all of his are bright and creepy at the same time. They seem to fit the book well.

Story:

I love anything urban legend. Like really love. This is one I hadn't heard before so it's not just like a lot of other books I've read about urban legends that use pre-existing urban legends. How many times can I say urban legends?
Anyway.

I think it was a unique story, it's something I would love to read more about if it were a real urban legend (There I go again) and I think it felt like it was a realistic one even if it wasn't ACTUALLY realistic. It read like it could've really happened.

Pace: 

Ehhh, like I said before it was a bit slow. Once it picked up it was fine, it was just rough getting there. 

Writing: 

I kind of love Vincent Ralph's writing. He has the same style for all of his books and they just work.

Characters: 

I uh, didn't really care for any of the characters. The love interest was almost a manic pixie dream girl, like "She's not like most girls" type, and I feel like we were supposed to love her, but I didn't. The MC was okay, I didn't like or dislike him, the family was okay. Just all kind of okay.

Ending: 

The ending made the whole book. That's why I rated it a 4 because that ending.

Narrator:

Overall:

Overall I really enjoyed this book, even if it was a bit slow. It was unique and the ending left me crazy.

A little Snippet:

“The first murder—like most murders—took everyone by surprise.”

― Vincent Ralph, One House Left

Possible books of likeness:

Author's info:

Vincent Ralph is the bestselling author of YA thrillers 14 Ways to Die, Lock the Doors and Secrets Never Die. All three novels are New York Times bestsellers and Lock the Doors is also a USA Today bestseller, an Edgar Award nominee, and the winner of the Southern Schools Book Award. His fourth book - One House Left - is out in August 2024, as is his first story for younger readers - A Boy Called Book.

Other books I've read by this author:

Book Review: Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

Title: Dungeons and Drama

Author: Kristy Boyce

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publishing Date: January 9th, 2024

Read: January 6th, 2025

Pages: 304

Audio Length: 7 Hours 55 Minutes

Genre: YA contemporary romance

TW: N/A

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

What it's about:

When it comes to romance, sometimes it doesn't hurt to play games. A fun YA romcom full of fake dating hijinks!

Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...

What I thought:

My first book of 2025!!! I'm SO glad I chose this one, I'm a sucker for anything with DnD or geekery and this was such a sweet and funny romance. I also love fake dating and enemies to lovers so hello. It was perfect for me.

Cover:

The cover is SO cute. As some of you might know my parents are HUGE board gamers, so I showed my mom the cover to see if she could name the board games on it, and I was even texting her the board games mentioned in the book.

Anyway! I really like the cover, it's super cute and bright. 

Story:

Enemies to lovers and fake dating are my favorite tropes, so good. 

I really liked this because while there was drama, there wasn't DRAMA. It wasn't annoying whiny teenage BS.

Pace: 

This book had a really good flow, I was into it from the beginning.

Writing: 

It was a well written book, I didn't feel like it was immature or too informative. It was just right.

Characters: 

Besides Sophie (Gag) and Ben (Double gag) I loved every character of this book. Is it weird to be over 30 and absolutely love Nathan? In my mind they weren't teens so I think this is fine. Anyway.

The romance even between the two main characters? Swoon worthy. The nerdy DnD friends? *chefs kiss*

Her hot geeky dad? Yes please. 

Ending: 

Such a cute ending, of course this kind of book is super predictable but you know? I don't mind.

Narrator:

Overall:

This book gave me a warm squishy feeling and that's exactly how I wanted to start my year out.

A little Snippet:

“I decided having something fake with you was better than having nothing at all. I would have faked it forever rather than give you up.”

― Kristy Boyce, Dungeons and Drama

Possible books of likeness:

YA:

Adult:

Author's info:

Kristy Boyce lives in Columbus, OH and teaches psychology as a senior lecturer at The Ohio State University.

When she’s not spending time with her husband and son, she’s usually writing, reading, putting together fairy gardens, or watching happy reality TV (The Great British Bake-Off and So You Think You Can Dance are perennial favorites).

Kristy is the social media coordinator for Central and Southern Ohio SCBWI.

Website https://www.kristyboyceauthor.com/

Twitter KristyLBoyce