The Night House was a wonderful read that kept me on the edge of my seat.

The book is split into three parts, following the story of a boy named Richard who is the new kid in a small town called Ballantyne. He is an outcast who becomes tied up with the disappearance of a boy...a boy who was last seen with him.

Part one was a slower build-up of the characters and the mystery that shrouds the whole town. As the story transitioned to parts two and three, I was consumed with nothing but confusion, fascination, horror, and then, back to confusion.

I enjoyed the twists and turns the story took because it kept me guessing what was actually happening from beginning to end. I will be looking forward to any new books that Jo Nesbo has in store for us in the future!

I’ve never read any of Jo Nesbo’s other books (probably because they were all crime thrillers). So if you are blindly choosing this book expecting it to be another crime thriller then you will be disappointed. This description sounded like a good horror novel (which I thought it was!). Horror novels don’t scare me anymore so it needs a good story and keep me interested and this book did that. I didn’t reread the book description when I started reading so I forget that it mentions an unrealizable narrator so I was surprised when I realized it. I thought this made the book more enjoyable. The story had a good pacing and was a pretty quick read that kept my interest. I won’t say anything about the ending except it wasn’t what I expected.

A nostalgic, nightmarish horror adventure, not only is The Night House an unusual output from Jo Nesbø (for whom I primarily associate with gritty crime thrillers), it also surprises me with how its overarching plot unfolds. Divided into 3 parts, the synopsis only encompasses the events in Part 1. If the premise sounds interesting, I would suggest going into it knowing very little for the best experience.

With its teen-led cast and small town setting, The Night House gives off major Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Goosebumps vibe; evidently it's catering towards adults with sentimental attachment on childhood horror medias they've consumed (similar to the approach of Stranger Things), through that lens, this novel is fully successful: the horror imagery grandiose and outlandish, and the wooded town atmosphere spot on. The main protagonist is intentionally unlikable (justified later on in the book), but worth pointing out if you don't enjoy reading from the perspective of a bully.

Where The Night House stumbles slightly is its lack of depth; while providing ample opportunities for bonkers, grotesque imagery, for me it doesn't have enough emotional grounding for readers to sympathize with its characters (particularly critical with what the narrative evolves into), so the terror comes across as mere spectacle, rather than something more symbolic and emotionally engaging.

Overall, The Night House over-delivers based on my initial skepticism (seeing less-than-positive reviews and an author writing outside his typical genre); it's nothing ground breaking (similar narrative arc has been done before), but with in the right mindset it's a quick, immersive horror ride—perfect for Halloween season.

What a fun book! A little bit horror, a little bit common of age, a little bit paranormal mystery, and a lot of weird! I had no idea where this story was going and that's partly due to our unreliable narrator, Richard, but also because of the twists that were woven into the story. A simple and enjoyable and strange read! Very original.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

This book is a whole lot of fun, but not much substance.

And, I’m sorry to say, the ending is what lowered my rating so much.

The Night House is a great bit of twisty turn-y supernatural horror fun that straddles a really fine line between YA and NA. I personally don’t subscribe to censorship of reading materials for any age (that’s the way I was raised), but this is just the right amount of scary and creepy I would have loved when I was in my early teens and was inhaling Dean Koontz novels like they were candy.

The vibe going on in this book in the beginning is that whole, “F*ck around and find out” one we all know and love from some of the most tried and true urban legends and scary stories from campfire tales and our youths: don’t go and knock on the door of that old house, don’t prank call weird numbers in the phone book…you know the type. The vibe shifts and morphs as the story moves along, though, with this game of consequences and consequences (I said what I said) getting worse and worse and our main character, Richard, spiraling further and further downward into a horrible situation that feels like a quicksand pit he just keeps sinking further into.

I’m afraid I can’t say much more than that without spoiling the story, and this book would be easy to spoil. So let’s just say I enjoyed the story until the very last part of the book and leave it at that.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Horror/Psychological Thriller/Supernatural Horror/Suspense Thriller

The Night House was different than any other Jo Nesbo story I have read. The detail of the horrifying elements of this novel allowed the reader to fully imaging the events. Although I should have seen the twist coming, I suspended all disbelief to go on this wild ride. Nesbo should continue reaching out of his comfort zone and experiment with more horror themes!

The Night House:

Y’all know when something is supposed to be scary or horrific and you just can’t stop laughing because it’s so freaking weird? Or, it seems problematic today that you have to think this is from the 90s? Hello, The Night House.

There’s a character he calls Fatso and says he’s going to lure him to dinner because fat people love food. Then yells incessantly “Jack the cockroach” like a 5 year old. The audio had me in tears because WTF. I loved listening but it really had me thinking this was a new YA horror. It honestly gave me Goosebumps type horror to where if I were younger, I’d be scared, but this was just entertaining. (But not like gripped scared entertaining)

The twist was actually disappointing. I felt it started so strong and then we try to push it on.. that? No. This is a joke right? The audio was amazing but the twist and the end was disappointing. Keep the first part, brand it middle grade horror, take out all the problematic stuff, find a good ending and voila this would be better.

Out 10/3.

This was an imaginative and extraordinary story with many fantastical events! This book immediately pulls you in with a teen named Richard and a scary even that happens to his friend Tom. We learn that Richard has moved in with his aunt and uncle after a fire took his parents' lives. He is going to school in a new, small town. As the story progresses, we find Richard having to overcome many paranormal obstacles, including The Night House with its creepy inhabitant and a tree whose roots with a mind of their own.
I definitely recommend this book as a spooky read. The ending was bittersweet, and I highly enjoyed the twists and turns throughout the book.

DNF at 21%. I had trouble getting into the story enough to want to continue. The storyline felt very flat to me. I also didn't enjoy the fatphobia present.

I am going to start with saying that this book read more like YA than "adult" horror. The beginning of it was great and I kind of liked the main character - Richard. But as the story unfolds I was getting more and more confused. Some things were just bizarre, almost paranormal and it was hard to tie them to the story. Second half of the book left me even more confused and at that point I lost interest in it. I just rushed through it to finish it.

Overall I think the book was OK I just wasn't the right audience for it.

Thank you NetGalley, the published and the author for a copy of ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Blurb: In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Black Mirror Wood. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for the ARC.

This was quite a departure from the author's well known Harry Hole series. This one reads more like a YA novel in parts but that was fine with me. The book is actually written in three distinctive parts, each with the same theme but coming from different perspectives and all from the same narrator. Richard is somewhat of an unreliable narrator and I thought at the end of the first part I knew what was happening, then I read the second part and went "ahhh, now I've got it" but low and behold along comes part three just to mess with my head a little more, but all in a good way. It's a relatively short book that reads very fast and kept me engaged. All in all I'll say it's not my favorite from this author but I was still very entertained and look forward to any book Mr Nesbø puts out.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for granting me an e-ARC through NetGalley to read, review and enjoy.

This book was on my ARC TBR for a few weeks before I was able to get to it, but I was very excited to read it. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. There were parts that I enjoyed, and some good characters, but all in all, the story was disjointed and rushed.
Three stars because I finished it.

Really interesting format. Written in three parts that are like different, but related stories. Back and forth between totally bizarre and somewhat normal. Kept me guessing on what was real

As the cover suggests, this book felt very much the dime store paperback almost campy kind of book you'd expect a teen boy to have secretly purchased and to carry around in his back pocket. (Wow that is a lot of projected assumption on my part!) So, if you are looking for Nesbo's more traditional offerings, I fear you will be disappointed. This was, however, a wonderful quirky horror story, maybe one that would be good for an extended Twilight Zone, where the main character keeps losing people around him to horrible fates. The first part of the book lays the foundation and is the strongest in terms of both writing and plot. The second and third parts of the book, combined still much shorter than the first part, provide big ol' twists to what the reader had previously assumed. I liked this concept, however execution didn't hold up. The first part was a 5 star for me but the rest of the book was 3 stars, thus a blended rating of 4. Still a worthy read.

Delightfully twisted. A compelling read that I couldn’t put down. Even after I finished, I couldn’t stop thing about it and am still not sure what to believe. Amazing!

Jo Nesbø is the brilliant author behind the Harry Hole book series. The Night House is nothing like his book series. This is a coming of age, horror, mystery thriller. It has a YA feel to it, which is not a bad thing at all, but as the book is classified as ‘adult’, be aware that it feels more on the YA side.

Richard Elauved was fourteen years old when he went to live with his aunt and uncle after his parents’ deaths. He is an outcast but makes friends with his classmate, Tom. When Tom goes missing no one believes Richard when he tells them that he saw Tom being sucked into the receiver of a phone in a phone booth. Then another classmate disappears....

Richard is not the most reliable narrator....


This is a short book and can easily be read in 1 to 2 days. Nesbø threw in a couple of twists along the way, giving readers bits of information at a time. I thought I knew where things were going, I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I like it when that happens. But even thought I did not figure out where this book was heading, it did not wow me as I was anticipating.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but didn't love it quite like I have his Harry Hole books. I was hoping for scary and creepy. There are some creepy moments; how could there not be with someone being sucked into a phone, but I was hoping this would be heavy on the fright. The first part of the book was my favorite section. I have to give Nesbø props for branching out in a new genre and keeping me guessing.

Plus, that cover!!!!!

📞📞📞 / 5

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I really wanted to love this one, but I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it as a whole. I was hooked in the beginning because I loved all the horror and creepy elements. The POV is from the young boy’s perspective in the first part of the book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I’m not sure I appreciated the other two parts of the book as much due to some of the twists. I’ll keep it at that because I don’t want to spoil anything. If you’re a horror fan, I’d still encourage you to check this one out because it’s a unique story—and I believe a first for Nesbø, as he typically writes crime fiction. I loved THE SNOWMAN by him, so I’m excited to check out more of his backlist books!

Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy. This cover was the absolute selling point for me. Then I read the plot and I was like okay heck yeah… let’s do this. I feel like this could’ve been really good. But, it just wasn’t for me. I’m still left with some questions concerning the disturbed man who lived in the dark house. The story was fine, but I’m not going to lie that I was a little bit bored.

WOW! This book was so different than Jo Nesbo's other books. Very relatable to Stephen King's work and I loved it.

There were a few times where I was completely lost in the time changes and wondering what the heck I was reading, but isn't that kind of the point of a horror book? And the best part of all... I didn't see the end coming. Not even close. Not at all! After reading so many books over years and years, that is hard to come by.

It takes a special author to write a book like this and do such an amazing job. Another Jo Nesbo book I will be recommending to friends and followers for years to come.