Thank you Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and Netgalley for this gifted e-read, in exchange for an honest review! The Night House is out October 3, 2023!!

This one was 100% a cover read, I mean look at it, stunning!! I was a little hesitant to read it after the synopsis, it sounded pretty strange and it was. 😄 The Night House was a 2/5 ⭐️ for me. It has come to my knowledge that I’m not a big fan of “a book within a book” trope. I just find them confusing, a little boring and repetitive. I also just wasn’t a fan of how it ended.

Synopsis: When several kids go missing, everyone expects the outcast and bully, Richard, has something to do with it. No one believes in the stories of blood thirsty telephones and people shrinking into bugs. Richard must protect his innocence and tries to understand the dark magic he is dealing with.

Richard is sent to live with his aunt and uncle after his parents die in a house fire. Richard is 14 and forced to move from the big city to a very small town. Richard is an outcast in Ballantyne. Even more so when he and Tom are seen together, and Tom never makes it home. Richard explains what happened but no one can believe his wild story. Richard is also last seen with fats. This is an equally strange story. Is something stange going on is Ballantye or is something going on with Richard. Strange story, but enjoyed it. Thanks netgalley.

Wow wow wow!!! So this was my first read by Jo Nesbø but it definitely won’t be my last!!! This was so creepy and cool!

This had some truly excellent horror, creepy haunted house vibes, ~creatures. Basically just everything I’m looking for in a good horror story *claps*

However. I know this will be a pretty divisive read because it does have two big twists that completely change up the story. Personally it worked for me but I doubt it will work for everyone. You do have to suspend some disbelief and take some pretty big leaps for it all to work out.

But I was fine with that? It’s the ~vibes that I enjoyed the most with this and taking some liberties was totally fine with me. I cannot stress how creepy and good part one was!

Part Two had me even more hooked than part one since I was so curious to see where this would go. And part three is where this will lose some people (since it is a bit overdone). But I personally thought it was handled well and I loved that this story came full circle! Small spoiler: I thought this was an excellent portrait of schizophrenia and that was handled really well. It also spoke a lot to how schizophrenia can be misperceived which I really appreciated. Even though "oh they were actually just crazy" has been used A LOT, I thought it was well done here and really appreciated the ending.

This was a short, quick read and absolutely perfect for those spooktober haunted house vibes! I am so glad to have read this and it will definitely be living in my head rent free. I’ll have to pick up a copy for my shelves and to reread in the future!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Knopf for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first book by Nesbø that I've read, and honestly, it's hard to rate. To say that the main character, Richard, is an unreliable narrator would be the understatement of the year. Nesbø really makes you work to discern what is real and what is not, and the writing is fantastic. To say much more I think would spoil the book. If you like unreliable narrators and plots that blur the line of reality, then this book is for you.

My thanks to Knopf, author Jo Nesbø, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

This is one that's hard to rate and very hard to review without spoilers. The first part is meant to be a YA horror novel, and it very much feels like it. If you want to revisit your years with R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike, you should pick this up! If you have a young reader wanting scary but not too gory or realistic, this works *except* possibly one small section in part 3.

Overall, it is a campy exploration of the lines between reality, creativity, and madness. BUT we are missing a key part of this - the main character's actual manifestation of madness is never revealed. That's the part that falls flat for me, when it could have taken the book to another level instead of being an easy (lazy?) and quick resolution. So, read based on how you feel about campy early teenage horror.

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.