I really loved this book, and I would recommend this to anyone that wants a well written, spooky mystery to read. This book was written in a way that kept the reader engaged and always on the edge, with wanting to know more yet not wanting it to end. There were a few instances where I felt the dialogue was a little stiff, but other than that, this book was a banger and will not disappoint.

This book was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a haunted house story but ended up being very twisty turny. I found the different parts interesting and wanted to know what was going on. I have only read the first book in the harry hole series and this I think reads more YA compared to his other writing. It was entertaining and would recommend.

2.5 rounded up to 3

The narration was good on this one. It was the story that I had trouble with.

The cover is amazing…I mean, check it out, it’s just so good and gives such creepy slasher vibes.

The first 10% was decent, as was the last 10% or so.

Unfortunately the middle fell flat for me. At random parts during the middle of the book it would capture my attention again, but not for long. I was bored.

The story just seemed a bit disjointed. The characters weren’t memorable.

This cover is what immediately gripped me. It's so good. It looked like a classic horror book or movie cover to me, and I knew I wanted to read.

We start with an unreliable narrator (which we come to better understand later), and then we get the creepiest part of this book straight out the gate with Part one. The stories told from Richard's POV are creepy and scary and almost remind me of classic middle grade Goosebumps, So Weird, or Are you Afraid of the Dark? type stories. This seems to fit perfectly with a young boy relaying these stories to us.

This book is very quick, but it never lets you settle in one place, I can honestly say that I never knew what was going to happen.

This book was written for you if:
1) You love the cover (duh, you do.)
2) You'd like a creepy, scary read
3) You don't mind books that twist and turn and then twist again

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Engaging characters, a plotline that kept me guessing, and wildly imaginative storytelling prose combined for me to create a memorable experience throughout. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves horror or just good solid fiction.

I really wanted to like this and even though the very beginning was pretty horrifying/attention grabbing, I just didn't find myself interested enough to go back to it. It helped that most everyone I know was rating this pretty low, so I felt pretty justified in my gut instinct.

I love the cover of this one, it’s just reminiscent of back in the old days and seems like it was going to be a good, old fashioned horror story. There are three parts to this novel and the first part was the horror I was looking for! Parts two and three didn’t really work for me. And Richard definitely was an unreliable narrator and we know that sometimes those work for me, sometimes they don’t. In the case of this novel, it just didn’t work for me for most of the book. Richard was just not relatable and unlikable, as he is a bully and it is seen from the beginning.

You do wonder what direction the story is going to go as you are reading. It did take me way too long to read this one: a whole month. My job is trying out us working 4 10-hour days, which means an extra day off during the week! Which I’m hoping will lead to more free reading time! I am hoping for that at least!

Overall, this book was not what I was expecting. I wanted a good scary horror story for the month of October, and most of the book was not that for me. This is also a foreign author and the book was translated, maybe the difference in the countries and story is what didn’t really work for me.

Many thanks to the publisher for granting me a copy to read and review. I just wish I could have enjoyed the novel more

This was not what I expected at all.
I did not enjoy my time reading this at all. I was ready to be over so fast.
I spent a a lot of the book annoyed with the POV of the boy.

This book was definitely odd. I went into it thinking it would be more of a traditional horror story- it was anything but that. Part 1 was fine- spooky but read like a Middle Grade Stephen King. I wish that there had been more focus on the scary stuff- telephones eating people, the thing in the house, who Imu was (was it even anyone?). This is one of those rare books that could have used an extra 100 or so pages, particularly in Part 1 and 2.

Weirdly, Part 2 was my favorite. Loved the twist at the end, liked the reunion schtick, all good stuff. This actually would have been a great book if rearranged a bit, with Part 2 as the main part and Part 1 as flashbacks to the narrators childhood. Flesh out the white magic words and black magic words a bit, throw in some more back story about Imu or the concept of it, and have the narrator trying to navigate a high school reunion while remembering back to a hazy childhood. All the pieces are there. The execution though...

Part 3 could have just been left out. Just this girl's opinion.

I have to be honest and this had all the tropes I hated. Every twist made me dislike the book more. I had no connection to anyone so I just left annoyed. I am so so sick of the fat kid in books and then add them being gay and used as negative aspects.

3.75⭐
A+++ for the cover art!
A solid B for the story.
This had a lot of fun, 80's throwback, coming of age horror to begin with. Then naturally, an expected jump to adulthood with a twist... only there's a second turn of events, that I wasn't expecting which made the story more enjoyable, bringing everything full circle.

Thanks to NetGalley for.the eARC!

Richard's parents die in a fire, and he moves to a small town to live with his aunt and uncle. He struggles to fit in, and then strange things happen to his classmates. Is Richard behind it, or is something more sinister going on?

Overall, I give The Night House 3 coffees. It is a bit different from Nesbo’s Harry Hole series, but a similar style. It starts slow and builds. By about the mid to two-thirds point, you want to keep reading to find out what the twist is.

Unfortunately, in The Night House, the twist is a trope that has been overdone and not much of a twist or original.

Nesbo does a great job setting the scene. I feel like I am in a small town and meeting all these interesting characters. The first two-thirds of the book has a creepy atmosphere and leaves you feeling unnerved. It does not carry through to the final third. The setting for the end of the book felt forced and sterile.

There were two interesting climaxes, but the resolution left me feeling unfulfilled. It was too much of a cheap trope.

The characters feel well-developed, and I wanted to know more about them. The characters were detailed, and the dynamics and growth were great. Richard seemed like a reliable narrator, but was he? I do love a good, unreliable narrator.

Nesbo references literature (Lord of the Flies, Metamorphosis) and movies, mostly classic monsters such as Frankenstein and Swamp Thing. It was an interesting way to show Richard’s interest and thoughts. A few things felt like foreshadowing, but you aren’t really sure where it is going to go.

I would recommend this book if you like unreliable narrators and great characters. However, without giving any spoilers, the ending may annoy you.

I just finished The Night House and my brain is spinning from all of the twists!

The Night House has Hell House vibes, but with a super unreliable teen narrator. It's scary right from the start and then kinda gets confusing...which I blame partially on the translation and partly on the unreliable narrative. Every time I thought I had the story figured out another twist would come. The further into the book I got the quicker the twists came...you're left with whiplash at the end going "wait, what just happened?!"

It made me want to go wandering the woods to look for gothic houses!

It's a quick creepy read perfect for this spooky season!

Thank you so much to @netgalley for the chance to review The Night House by Jo Nesbo. Spooky, moving between paranormal and darkness that young men can possess, was a fun read. It was spooky, and left me guessing the entire time. There are prank calls, voices, and a missing classmate, and newly orphaned 14 year-old Richard has to navigate a new life in a remote town.

I thoroughly enjoyed this!

First off, props for such a great and creepy cover! I must say as far as inventive deaths go, being slurped up by a telephone receiver is going to stick in m y mind for a long time! So there is that and other creepy black magic and then because Richard may or may not be a reliable narrator, it is hard to know what the truth is, especially with the twist that turns everything on its side and then another twist and nothing is what it seems.

This was a good horror book and I shall have bad dreams about that slurping telephone! Now even more reasons not to answer the phone!

This is my first Jo Nesbo book and I did enjoy the writing style and the cover of the book really drew me in! I absolutely love how the book started, I was absolutely hooked from the first chapter. Like other reviewers have said, it did not end the way that I expected to, and it really dragged on the last couple of chapters. I’m not quite sure why the author took it in a different direction at the end when it really could’ve been a great book if that twist didn’t happen. I am looking forward to starting the Harry Hole series!
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

This was my first book by this author. It was creepy and definitely held my interest. Richard has been orphaned by a tragic fire and is living in a new place with his aunt and uncle. He doesn't fit in and strange things keep happening around him. It leaves the reader questioning what is real and isn't. The ending was definitely a surprise.

This was… something. It was wild, but kind of predictable? An unreliable narrator has you never quite knowing what is actually happening, and there is some weird AF stuff that is on these pages. Honestly, I was kind of let down by the second half. I enjoyed the first part and when it moved into the predictable area is when it started losing me. This was a fairly quick read though, and it was a good choice for spooky season.

This is a horror novel in three acts, you could say. The first act is basically a novel, written in first-person, with a decidedly young adult feel to it -- it took me back to my tween and teen years of reading Fear Street and Christopher Pike books. The second and third acts each give us a new pivot, resetting the story and reintroducing us to the characters.

The cover is excellent, definitely attention-getting. I'm glad I stuck with the story for the payoff, but without having that framework in mind, I can see how readers might tire of the YA-ness of the first part. All in all, it's an enjoyable enough read, solidly in the horror genre, but that requires patience.

I CANT SHUT UP ABOUT THIS BOOK! I’m OBSESSED!!
This book was not what I expected at all, and I really feel like you should go into it as blind as possible. I read the blurb/description and that’s all I knew. So I’m not going to spoil anything in my review. This is definitely one of those books that is enjoyed best if you let it take you on a ride. And what an intense and thrilling ride it is. After I’d finished the book I had a huge adrenaline rush that eventually calmed to just feeling like gently crying . 10/10 reading experience. I absolutely loved this book. Spooky scary thriller with big emotions.

The Night House gives off some Stephen King I.T. vibes, some 80s/90s horror vibes for sure. The writing is captivating, the plot moves at breakneck speed. Being a horror novel, I was bracing myself for something really bleak. But instead there were moments I teared up at, and moments that made me smile. And terrifying, thrilling moments of course. This is a very unique story, the plot was constantly changing I never knew where it was going next. I can’t say I had any favorite characters because things changed my perceptions of characters several times. Except Feihta, because he’s a treasure.
This book contains one of my least favorite tropes but it was done so well I ended up loving it. As soon as I finished I wanted to read it again. I’ve been thinking about it for days and days and talking about it to anyone who will listen! I can not recommend this book enough!