The Last Renter
By Caleb Mason (2026, Publerati)
This review discusses sexual violence. If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741.
This book follows Mason’s previous one, Thickafog, part of an intended trilogy set on “Archer Island,” a lightly fictionalized version of Vinalhaven, in Penobscot Bay. Mason’s own familiarity with the place is reflected in myriad island names and features, as well as the community vibe. His focus here is mainly the island’s hard-working skilled laborers. From Thickafog, characters Jon, Charlie, and Linda appear again.
And we meet Hilda and Evan Olson, an elderly island couple with an out-of-town home they live in and rent a portion of to short-term visitors. As the book opens, the Olsons, with second thoughts, have agreed to rent once more. Their season’s last renter is Millicent, who shows up in an agitated mood, harried and demanding. The Olsons feel some concern letting her into their home, aware how easily their own personal space—both their privacy and safety—could be breached. Making matters worse, Hilda will be staying alone with Millicent, as Evan is needed on the mainland to help their daughter.
An early chapter supplies Millicent’s backstory. We learn that after bludgeoning to death a male Harvard University student, she became a patient at the “Coolidge Hospital for the Criminally Insane” in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She tells her psychiatrist, Dr. Cohen, that she had been raped when younger. After a particularly distressful session, Millicent escapes the hospital to confront her mother with allegations that her stepfather had sexually assaulted her, only to hear her mother attribute the claim to a “false memory,” which further enrages her. The confrontation ends badly, followed by Millicent taking her mother’s car and money from her bank account.
Her next stop is Archer Island, where she’s searching for the stepfather she knew was living there. Reaching the rental and anticipating meeting her abuser, she begins to act delusional, manifesting behaviors of what’s now referred to as dissociative identity disorder (but Mason calls by its former name, multiple personality disorder). Her stepfather, in a distinctly non-clinical way, will soon note: “You’re talking crazy, Millicent.”
An approaching storm converges with Millicent’s arrival, flinging both the readers and characters into a scary, unpredictable situation. It’s adrenaline-laced: things unravel, worsen, and unravel some more. The raging elements, a vulnerable Hilda and others, and island isolation keep the mood tense. Mason concludes the book with an action-packed series of events, some dire outcomes, and a few hopeful possibilities.
At this point, I found myself perplexed by the contrast between Mason’s earlier sensitivity to Millicent and his later portrayal of her, as he makes her a vilified example of someone in the throes of a psychotic break. I ended up thinking Millicent’s character and behaviors became hyper-exaggerated, and wondered: to what end? I could only guess Mason needed Millicent as an agent of chaos and destruction. Yet maybe the storm on its own could have served as that. Mason’s dedication of this book was “to all those who struggle with mental illness and the psychiatrists who care for them,” and “to the rental hosts who open their doors to complete strangers.”
The way the story concludes, however, made me think the book is less about a mental health crisis and more of a Stephen King-like horror story, serving as vivid caution to rental hosts about implicit risks when opening their homes to strangers.
Tina Cohen spends most of the year on Vinalhaven and has worked as a therapist with female adolescents.
