This was my first Jo Nesbo and I’m sad to report that . . . . eesh. I understand that horror is not his typical bag and mad props to him for venturing into a new genre, but oooooooof was this not great.

The story here is about Richard, a boy who has come to live with his aunt and uncle after his parents’ deaths. He’s unliked by most of his classmates and a bully to boot. Everyone aside from Tom, that is, another unfortunate member of the same caste of students Richard belongs to. When Tom goes missing, it is Richard who is blamed – especially given the fantastical story of Tom being eaten by a public payphone. And when another student Jack never arrives at home Richard is once again the last to have known his whereabouts leaving the police with no choice but to send him to lockdown.

So that’s all I’m going to give as far as synopsis go. Just know for me the first 2/3 of this book read VERY young adult (aside from the foul language). Part 2 attempts to explain the reasoning why, but it was waaaaaaay too late after slogging through such horrible writing and then Part 3 takes another turn. Hopefully others will like this more than I did, but eesh it’s a 1 Star for me.

Advanced copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

In all honesty I have never been the biggest fan of Jo Nesbo's books, not that they are bad, they just are not a genre I normally enjoy. I was very excited to see this standalone horror novel by him though, and it does not disappoint. This is such a great horror novel and perfect for any 90s horror fan!

A short novella that definitely gives me old school early 90s horror movie vibes .

Thank you NetGalley for the arc

I'm a big fan of Nesbo's Harry Hole series. Big fan. So I was excited to dive into this standalone horror novel. Nesbo nails the teenage boy bravado and angst. Richard is a fourteen year old, a self-professed bully, with the mouth and actions of his age. I think it's taking place in the 80s or 90s, but it's a classic Stand By Me small town world with a side of cheese. The action begins immediately as one of Richard's classmates goes missing and he finds himself at the center of the investigation.

There as an homage to Night of the Living Dead, Richard's favorite movie. There are creepy stories about creepy boogeyman type characters from the small town. There's a library with a kindly librarian, an asylum and a creepy house. Not really knowing what's going on and just going along for the ride that just barely holds together is the best way to enjoy The Night House. You'll be rewarded.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the ARC.

The Night House by Jo Nesbo reminds me of 90s horror which I love! This is my first Jo Nesbo but my friends and family have raved about this author. I absolutely fell in love with the main character, this story gave me classic 90s horror vibes and I was there for it.

I received a review copy of this book from the author/publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

👻 Out Today!

The Night House by Jo Nesbo
🖐 Takeaways

Richard has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle. He’s starting at a new school in a new town, and it’s not proving to be a bright new beginning. When a classmate disappears, Richard falls under suspicion. When a second classmate disappears, Richard’s story takes a turn.

👻This starts so quickly. I’m used to a few false starts in horror, but Nesbo jumps right in.

🧛‍♀️ Were you a Goosebumps reader as a kid? You can relive those spooky middle grade vibes with this story. (But it’s still written for adults!)

🎃 There’s a bit of a surprise turn in the novel. I wasn’t sure about it at first but then really liked it.

🐈‍⬛ The story is quite captivating. It easily propels you forward—you need to know what happens next. (It’s easy to picture this as a movie.)

🕯️If you’re looking for a fun, supernatural slasher, this is for you. I don’t think it’s overly sophisticated, but it’s an enjoyable read when you go in ready for that nostalgic Goosebumps vibe.

3.5/5!

Potential Spoilers Ahead: This book is very hard to talk about without including some spoilers, so reader beware when reading my review!

I’ve long been a fan of Jo Nesbø’s crime fiction writing and was thrilled to see that he was going to take a dive into the horror genre with The Night House.

From the start Nesbø throws the reader into a fast-paced series of mysterious and horrific events that all seem centered around our main character, Richard. I thought these events were very unique and Nesbø did a fantastic job of writing them so vividly that I could easily imagine them for myself. While I loved this part, I didn’t love Richard. I think Nesbø wrote him this way on purpose, but he’s extremely unlikeable. There’s a lot of cringey opinions that come from him regarding other people that were a turn-off for me.

The book unfolds in three parts and each one takes the story on a twisty path that I didn’t initially see coming. I loved the idea of a story within a story within a story. The Night House gave me very Black Mirror vibes with the way things unfolded (ironic considering the Black Mirror Woods are a major setting for the book). The pacing of the story is overall quite quick with a few parts that slow down here and there to catch the reader up on Richard’s revelations.

If you’re looking for a book that feels like a classic horror movie from the 1980’s, I think Nesbø’s The Night House hits this mark and would make a great TBR addition!

A huge thank you to Knopf for my gifted copy!

Proof that sometimes less is more, packs a punch for 224 pages for sure!! For Horror definitely didn’t give me keep the light on vibes.

Enjoyed this quick read and am slightly wondering at the end exactly what just happened to me BUT it definitely kept my interest, wanted to know what would happen and enjoyed the characters.

That COVER!!! It’s exceptional and found the story to match the cover well. My first by this author and definitely plan to check out other works!!

Thanks to Netgalley for my electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

Wow, this was a great story! Suspenseful, twisty in a good way, and richly developed details that come together in great ways. I was very drawn into the story, thought the pacing and details were excellent, and loved how the story wove in and out and back into itself (that will make sense if you read it).

Great for fans of themes found in Stand By Me, the recent Catriona Ward book Looking Glass Sound, and for deftly told, fast paced, horror stories (with some story in a story themes).

This book really jumps in at the beginning and keeps moving until the end. I liked that there wasn't a ton of build up to the action and really just went for it. To be honest, at first I really didn't like the character of Richard. I just thought he was so mean and got really tired of him being mean to his some of his classmates. But, I think you do end up actually caring about him as the story goes on, which I feel is really needed.

I liked that the book was split into three parts and that we weren't stuck with him as a child. I didn't realize how young the characters were going to be at the beginning and was kinda thrown off, but that got better as I kept reading.

I think it's really great if you go into it not knowing much. There are a lot of twists and turns and it will keep you on your toes until the end.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing a copy of the book.

Jo Nesbo has found international fame with his Harry Hole thriller series. (I have thought about trying them more than once but my twelve-year-old brain cannot get passed the name “Harry Hole”. Immature, I know.) The Night House is billed as a stand alone horror novel, and I was interested without reading anything about it. The cover of a bloody phone dangling in front of a creepy old gothic house. This was enough for me.

The story starts with Richard Elauved hanging out with his friend Tom. They are just goofing around, being boys, when they find a telephone booth. Richard dares Tom to make a prank call. While Tom is on the phone, he literally gets sucked into the telephone. Tom’s disappearance and the unbelievable story that Richard tells about his demise, mixed with the fact that Richard is adopted and not from the town, makes it hard for anyone to believe Richard. The adventure of Richard trying to prove his innocence mixed with a large amount of strange and gruesome things happening to Richard’s friends, makes for a horror story that really is captivating.

Then this story folds in half.

Then this story folds in half again.

The Night House is very good. There are some elements that are a well worn when it comes to horror tropes, but I feel like Jo Nesbo uses them with an innocence and sincerity, like someone who does not read horror or watch 100 horror movies a year. The tone of this story, which grows weirder and weirder as it goes along, does not waver. Richard is a character that feels trustworthy, even when everyone around him shows him evidence that he is wrong. Jo Nesbo has written a character that starts as a bully and a jerk, but he is someone that you are cheering for. You want him to succeed in his situation because you cannot help but like him. I do not know if Nesbo has more of these types of characters in his writing, but I am certain that it is now time to find out. I look forward to diving into the Harry Hole stories based on the strength of his writing in The Night House.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the opening of this book and thought it was the perfect way to settle into spooky season reading. However in the end I did not love that the antagonist of the story ended up being a trope that we have seen way too many times in this kind of novel. The book read very quickly but at the same time it left a lot to be desired as far as character and story development for me. I think this might be the right book for some people but ultimately it fell flat for me.

This was my first Jo Nesbo story so I really didn't know what to expect. Are all of his books this cuckoo for cocoa puffs (I mean that as a compliment)??

I'm going to keep this short because I do think this is one of the ones you have to go into a bit blind. So I will say this: if you're looking for a really wild, weird, gory, creepy, unique book for spooky season... one that makes you feel like you're 11 again, reading a Goosebumps book WAY past your bedtime... and you enjoy an ending that makes you rethink ALL of the pages you've just read... then guys, I've got a recommendation for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this eArc!

I’ll admit that I haven’t read all of Jo Nesbo’s books. In fact I’ve only read a few from of his Harry Hole series so I don’t know if he’s ever written another book quite like The Night House before, but it was one heck of a mind trip. I’ll keep this vague to avoid some rather large spoilers, but if you’ve the books blurb than you can already tell you’re in for a wild ride as the book starts off with a kid getting eaten by a telephone! But as I said, that’s just the start of Richard Elauved’s adventure…and yes it does indeed get stranger. You might be thinking, how can I take a story like this seriously? Well…honestly you just do. Start reading and you’ll find yourself getting lost in the adventure, completely accepting the insanity of it all. The crazy thing is just when you think everything is over (and Nesbo certainly could have ended things a certain way and I’d have been completely content), but then he completely flips everything. I honestly said ‘no way!’ out loud while I was reading it. And then a short time later he flips things again. The expression ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’ was made for just such a story. I’d like to thank Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Night House.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2S0A5JX1M8GF2/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Release October 3.

THE NIGHT HOUSE is an amazingly complex fantasy/Horror/Psychological Thriller. I read it in one sitting and still am not sure which aspect to think is "fact" (in the context of the story). Jo Nesbo is quite a prolific author and I've enjoyed several of his novels, yet I've never read one like this.

Part One is contemporary Fantasy/Fairy Tale/Horror, and terrifying it is! Part Two spins Part One on its head, riffs on the nature of Perception and Consciousness, then ramps up the Horror meter and delivers par excellence. Then Part Three strolls in to convince readers (and Unreliable Narrator) "all this was just a Dream!" [Was it?]

No matter what, THE NIGHT HOUSE is a novel I'm going to spend a lot of my nighttime wakeful hours pondering. Thanks for that, Mr. Nesbo!

When my expectations are high, I am bound to be disappointed. Not everyone can carry the weight of expectations. This book tried to. It just slightly missed. I wasn’t as scared as I wanted to be. But am I jaded? Maybe I am. There were children involved, so I cannot be mad at their bad decisions. Only that I didn’t get the scare I expected. There was an obvioud presence throughout. I wish I could have had what I walked in wanting. Sometimes we don’t get thart but are still happy. Here, I was ok.

The night house is nesbos first foray into the horror genre and it is a solid outing. The story starts with a telephone eating a young boy and the twists keep coming from there. There are parts where you wonder what the hell you are reading but nesbo always keeps it grounded in reality. A fun, fast-paced palette cleanser for the Halloween season! I still prefer nesbos harry hole crime novels, but this is a solid outing into a slightly different genre.

This is the first horror book by this author and I must say that it was really good. The book was about a loop of some sort and boy I was just as confused as the protagonist. I cannot say to much because then there would be spoilers and I do not write spoilers. I was definitely spooked while reading this novel. I feel though I never got the answer about who exactly Imu Jonassen was.

I won’t be using a payphone anytime soon.

This book has everything: hungry telephones, magicadas, high school reunions, hamburgers, librarians

What a ride! The beginning of this book has a 90’s Goosebumps feel to the point that I think this technically could be suitable for a younger audience. However, I honestly don’t see this as a downside, and the storyline kept me intrigued to the very end. The twists and unreliable narrator reminded me a lot of Catriona Ward’s writing (specifically Looking Glass Sound).

There were definitely parts where I wasn’t sure where this book was going, but I’m glad I stuck with it. Trust the process with this one!

This book is out now! Thank you NetGalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

Check TW’s before reading.

Jo Nesbo's The Night House is weird, but, while strange and mystifying, it's also completely and totally fabulous. There will be some readers that just won't get it, that will think it's fragmented and disjointed, but I loved Richard's story, every weird minute of it. He's the ultimate unreliable narrator, and The Night House is the perfect keep=you-up-at-night guessing at what might happen next spooky tale!