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.

The Night House has so much of what I enjoy in a horror novel - a haunted house, local legends, creepy forests...I could do without the insects though.
Before I even knew what it was about, I wanted to read it because I loved the cover.

The Night House was creepy, creative and full of tension. It's a pretty quick read that is perfect for fall and has a sinister feel throughout.
It's broken into three parts with the first being pure horror - and maybe my favorite of the three. The second is set in the future and the third was such an unexpected twist which is all I'm going to say because you definitely don't want to be spoiled for this!

The twists were a nice surprise. I didn’t expect them and wasn’t quite certain at first but after thinking about it, I am very satisfied with the way they played out.

I definitely recommend adding this to your TBR for spooky season!

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t like this one. Too many “quirky” plot twists making it hard to stay invested in the story. The writing style was also just not for me. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this author so this was disappointing for me.

Richard has been shipped off to live with his aunt and uncle in a small town. He's instantly cast as the "city boy" and an outcast. Tom befriends him but then he goes missing in a horrific manner and Richard is suspect number one. The only person who believes him is Karen, and together they begin to investigate what the police won't do. Then another kid goes missing forcing Richard to prove his innocence to keep his sanity.

The twists and turns in this story were imaginative and shocking. The Night House is a quick read, divided into sections of Richard's life. Perfect fall read with keen horror elements including a creepy house!

Thank you Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the complimentary copy.

This is the first book by this author that I have read. I usually enjoy horror but this story did not resonate with me. I found it rather disjointed with a flat ending.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing and Jo Nesbo for the advanced copy of The Night House!

Richard Elauved is left orphaned after his parents died in a house-fire. He is an outcast in town and blamed for local kids' disappearances. His ally, Karen and him seek to find answers of what exactly has happened in that town and who is causing the disappearances.

This story was a fun ride. The plot was creative with an enjoyable pace. Split into sections, it allows the reader to dig deeper into the narrator from POVs from different ages. The first section really gave old-school horror vibes, then as the story continued, moved into a more innovative storyline. There were several components that could be appealing to many different horror readers.

Nothing is as it seems in The Night House by Jo Nesbo. Although this was a fairly short audiobook, I still found myself wondering when it was going to be over. I liked the twists and am still unsure of what actually happened, but the story just seemed to drag. Cool concept, just not wonderfully executed.

A surprise horror novel from Nesbo. This is relatively short (especially by Nesbo standards) and it's more in less told in three parts. The first might be the most compelling- Richard, a 14 year old orphan is sent to a youth facility because two of his pals have disappeared and no one believes his story about the phone booth. The second section takes place 15 years later, when there's a reunion and the gruesomeness amp up. And then there's the third section which makes you question what you've read. It's clever but it's also confusing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm not a big horror readers and picked this because it's by Nesbo so over to fans of the genre.

The Night House was most certainly an interesting read, not at all what I was expecting to read. A book filled with who dunnit and a child that at this point everyone thinks is a murderer and a pyschopath. He swears he watched an old telephone in a booth slurp a young man up until there was nothing left of him. He does his best to convince those in town that it wasn't him he didn't do anything that it was the man in the phone book. However the name in the phone book has vanished and when they do hear the name he is told that person is long dead and the home he lived in is a ruin.
Is it really though? A legend follows this home and its occupant, people are terrified but one young man is determined to make it known that this legend is real.
Almost like a version of The Mothman #TheNightHouse is a mind bending novel of horror and suspense.

I'd like to thank #Netgalley for the chance to read #NightHouse in return for a fair and honest review.

What a thrill ride if a book. Every chapter brings you closer and closer to what is happening and my god does it take you on the ride of your life. All I can say is grab a cup of tea and curl up to enter The Night House. You won’t be disappointed.

I was really excited for the Night House by Jo Nesbo. Its's Spooky season and I am ready for all the creepy horror books. Unfortunately, this book didn't meet my expectations. I will say it was a quick read and there were elements that were well done, but it did fall flat for me. The characters were one dimensional. The story didn't flow and was left open ended.

As we reach September, it’s officially time for my Spooky-Season reading to start. I chose “The Night House” by Jo Nesbo as my first official Halloween read and quickly devoured it.

Richard is the new kid in town – living with relatives after his parent’s died in a fire. He isn’t very likable, but admits that he purposefully puts up a wall against others so that he won’t be hurt by them first.

The story starts right out the gate, with the supernatural elements kicking in in chapter one. While highly unbelievable, I still wondered if what Richard is going through is actually true or a figment of his imagination. Either way, I enjoyed this part of the novel the most.

There are two big twists in this novel, and while I enjoyed the first one, and was really looking forward to the new direction the story was going in, the third twist – to me – seemed a bit cliched and derivative.

Overall, I enjoyed the majority this novel and finished in three days. The translation was excellent and was definitely a page turner, I just felt a bit let down by an ending that I’ve read and seen many times before.

I do like a good horror book, however this one fell a bit short. It started out good in part one. Part two and three were a bit of a disappointment. I’m sure this book will appeal to others, it just didn’t to me
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

When I heard Jo Nesbø was diving into horror, I couldn't resist. My first introduction to his work was Headhunters, an art heist thriller that I absolutely adored, but in general, spooky stories are much my speed than the (still very good) nordic noir police procedurals that Nesbø usually writes. I'm not sure what I expected from a Jo Nesbø horror, but the Night House defied all expectation.

I can't recount too much of the plot without risking serious spoilers, but the story centers on Richard, a teenage orphan who hasn't really dealt with the loss of his parents and is, much of the time, a bit of a prick. He has few friends, and those he has, he treats poorly. When his few friends begin disappearing, under grotesque and unbelievable circumstances, Richard is the only suspect. The stories he tells are simply too outlandish to be believed.

The twists and turns that follow are surreal and sometimes dreamlike, giving the feel of a David Lynch movie with a bizarre, untethered plot. And, like a David Lynch movie, I had to sit with this book for a minute before I could really tell how much I liked it.

In that sense, this book is a perfect choice for people who like Catriona Ward's novels or movies like Barbarian that give you the impression that you're watching one story, when the real plot is something else entirely. Admittedly, that sort of structure isn't for everyone, though I enjoy it tremendously.

Along the same line, early parts of the book rely on archaic literary and cinematic tropes that normally wouldn't sit well with me (e.g. dangerously insane psychiatric patients and one character who is a textbook example of the "Magical Negro"). But as the "true" story of the book develops, I came to believe that the use of those tropes was by design, giving the first part of the book the feel of an old-school movie. By the conclusion, I felt like the depiction of mental illness and trauma that you're left with is a much more nuanced and compassionate one than I'd been expecting at the halfway point.

It may not work for everyone, but it worked for me. And, honestly, I'm astonished that Nesbø could fit so much plot into fewer than 200 pages.

I really, really wanted to like this book. I like Nesbo’s Harry Hole series and was really excited about a venture into horror, but this one fell flat for me. The “horror” scenes were a bit outlandish, and there were too many instances where I as the reader questioned what was actually happening. This isn’t the Nesbo I’d recommend.

As much as I wanted to love this it unfortunately fell a little flat for me. Although I felt like I was thrown into the middle of a story, I was sucked into this book at first. I loved the horror aspect and I was reading so quickly through the first part. Then the second part came into play. I was confused and it felt a little disjointed but I was still soldiering on, convinced there was going to be a twist. And there was. And it was fine. Everything after the first part honestly just felt clunky and weird. I sped read the third part because I just wanted to get it over with. This is my first book by this author and maybe it’s just not the writing style for me. Such a bummer since I loved the synopsis and the cover. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy