The Last Room on the Left by Leah Konen

The Last Room on the Left – Leah Konen

The caretaker at an isolated mountain hotel finds herself fighting for her life.

Kerry’s life is in shambles: Her husband has left her, her drinking habit has officially become a problem, and though the deadline for her big book deal—the one that was supposed to change everything—is looming, she can’t write a word. When she sees an ad for a caretaker position at a revitalized roadside motel in the Catskills, she jumps at the chance. It’s the perfect getaway to finish her book and start fresh.

But as she hunkers down in a blizzard, she spots something through the window: a pale arm peeking out from a heap of snow. Trapped in the mountains and alone with a dead, frozen body, Kerry must keep her head and make it out before the killer comes for her too. But is the deadly game of cat-and-mouse all in her mind? The body count begs to differ…

Review

Leah Konen’s The Last Room on the Left had potential, but ultimately, it left me feeling frustrated rather than thrilled.

It started off at a breakneck pace, throwing us into the plot before we even had a chance to get to know Kerry, our protagonist. Exactly because of this I found it hard to truly root for her.

This was especially frustrating since the book felt more character-driven than plot-driven; so if we’re meant to be invested in what happens to Kerry, how are we supposed to do that if we don’t know her?

One of my biggest gripes was how overdone and exhausting the “…or did it? …or did they?” questioning became. It felt like the book was constantly circling back, with unnecessary repetition instead of genuine suspense.

And speaking of tired tropes, the entire premise felt like yet another The Woman in the Window copycat. When that book became a phenomenon, a flood of similar stories followed, all relying on the “drunk, unreliable female protagonist – oh no, is she hallucinating? Is she just crazy?” angle. Unfortunately, The Last Room on the Left leaned heavily into this overused trope, and honestly, I did not enjoy that at all.

I saw the killer coming from a mile away, it was so obvious and at that point I was just tired and underwhelmed.

Click for spoilers!

The body that Kerry found was actually Alyson, not Siobhan. Kerry was the one who slept with Siobhan’s boyfriend, Charlie, which is why she cut contact with Siobhan—she felt guilty about her alcoholism and self-sabotage. The “real” killer was Tyler, but Jeremy saw Alyson when she was injured and left her to die.

The police were in on it because they were Tyler’s family, except for the female officer who came to the rescue in the end.