Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC.

DNF @ 60%

I didn't end up loving this book, I was struggling to get into this book from the beginning, but I was hoping that it would pick up at some point, however, for me, it didn't.

Normally, I like unreliable narrators, but I couldn't get behind Richard's narration of the story, and I wasn't invested in what was happening. I feel like Nesbo did a good job of making Richard an unlikable character at the beginning.

The pacing of the book was slow, and I just wasn't vibing with this book.

💥 Pub Date: 10/3/2023

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5

• this cover 😍🩸
• retro horror
• creepy, disturbing atmosphere

My first Jo Nesbo! This book is on the short side but boy does it pack a PUNCH! I couldn't put it down. Nonstop action. Bizarre, bloody, really dark, deep stuff... You're going to want to add this one to your Spooky Szn TBR!

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley and @aaknopf for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC! When it comes to creepy horror books, I don't love when books are told in different parts. Not sure why, but it's one of my things. It was so hard to tell fiction from reality, and reality from fiction and I had to reread a lot and go back and forth in the book. It was a compelling read and was a great kickoff to spooky szn for me.

I love a good horror story and I was extremely curious how this was going to go. I haven’t read any books by this author so know nothing about him. The story starts off right away with the good stuff. But then it got slow and I couldn’t tell where it’s going. And nothing is happening. Then it heads in a completely different direction. Caught me off guard and, while I liked this new direction, it went very weird. Then the story heads off in another direction and I fear I got frustrated. I finished the book but actually didn’t care for it by the end. I know there are plenty of horror buffs who will enjoy this.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing me with an eARC of The Night House in exchange for my honest review!

I want to love this book, I truly do. But the ending it chooses just ruins everything that had come before it for me. It's a shame, because when this book was starting out, I was vibing with it instantly. The body horror that the first chapter whips out—oof, it's such a grisly and unforgettable experience. The gore and the eerie atmosphere only increases as the plot moves along, and I also got invested in Richard as a teenage protagonist who's wrestling with some deep emotional and psychological baggage. Then Part 2 of the book happens, and it took an interesting direction that briefly threw me off, but then I jumped right back into the story and the new layers it's presenting. Then it entered Part 3, and that's where it lost me with a cliched conclusion that felt like Jo Nesbø trying his best to add on more facets, but instead stripped away much of the narrative's complexity. If this third act had done something different, something that didn't make me feel like the rest of the story had been a waste of time, I would have been much more satisfied.

Overall, I'm officially rating The Night House 2.5 out of 5 stars, which I'm rounding down to 2 stars on Goodreads. It's quite riveting for those first two parts, so it might be worth reading it for them, but you could do yourself a favor and skip the ending.

This was told in 3 parts. I loved Part 1. It was a great creepy horror story. The second part was a time lapse 15 years into the future. Part 3 was a little bit of a letdown but connected all the dots from the other 2 parts. I am obsessed with the cover of this book and think it’s a good choice for spooky season.

Thank you NetGalley, Knopf and Jo Nesbo for an advanced copy. The Night House comes out October 3, 2023.

unfortunately i don’t think this author’s writing style is for me. i found it very hard to connect to the main character which always pulls me out of the story.

This was an interesting read. It was my first from the author and it was almost like the movie Drag Me To Hell, that is to say; it was humorous horror. It was an alright read, but I’m not sure it was for me.

I was literally sucked in by the first chapter. This was a wild ride through the human mind. Dreams merging with reality, fact merging with fiction. Should we always trust our memories? Is it better or worse to erase traumatic events of our past? This book will certainly be in my head for awhile.

Perfect horror story for Halloween. Really enjoyed it and this will be a seasonal re-read. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

This book was so good! It gave me all the 80s monster vibes right out the gate and the story drew me in immediately.

We follow Richard, a somewhat of an outsider junior high student, as he moves in with his aunt and Uncle after the death of his parents. One afternoon while hanging out with a friend from school, they stumble upon a pay phone and decide to call a random number in the phone book. When the phone seemingly “eats” Richards friend he is stunned and confused, and most importantly- being blamed for the disappearance.

As the story intensifies, once we hit Part 2, I said WHAT? out loud more than once! So many twists and turns and surprises! Part 3 ties everything together and I was very pleased with the ending that I definitely didn’t see coming!

Highly recommend The Night House for a creepy fall read! Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the part one. It kind of had the R.L. Stine/Christopher Pike vibe that I inhaled in my early teenage years. I liked the nod to nostalgia, however this really went by the wayside in the next two parts. I feel like it just became confusing and convoluted the more I read. The very end of the book seemed to unravel the mystery as I was hoping it would. This book was just ok for me. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

This was a very intriguing and interesting read. The horror behind it is definitely more psychological. I love Nesbø’s writing and this book is another that I really enjoyed. An exploration of the mind and the horrors it can cause us.

I’m disappointed to say this really didn’t work for me.

I enjoyed Part 1 a lot. If it had been a standalone novella, I would have given it 4 stars. It was wacky and fun. It felt like if Roald Dahl had been hired to write the script for Stranger Things. It wasn’t particularly deep and the conflict wasn’t perfectly resolved, but it was definitely fun.

Then Part 2 took a bad twist, and Part 3 another bad turn. If Part 1 was Stranger Things, by the end of the book we’re somehow on Shutter Island, and I don’t have a clue as to why. It all felt unnecessary, and it was certainly the most ineffective use of these common plot twists I’ve seen in a while. I lost the thread of who the narrator was and was confused about the purpose of this book.

This was my first book by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo and boy did it ever start off with a bang!! Twisty, a bit gruesome at times and creepy AF, this horror story was fast paced and great on audio narrated by Michael Crouch. It had me on the edge of my seat wondering where things would head next with a great last line!! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!!

Reviewed for NetGalley:

When a phone consumes a child, the story can only get wilder.

Some real leaps of imagination, with a nice twice at the end.

I definitely enjoyed Nesbo's style of writing as well.

Blurring the boundaries between originality and absurdity…..

Book Information

“The Night House” by Jo Nesbo, is a 256-page horror novel scheduled to be published on October 3, 2023. It was translated by Neil Smith. Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book for review.

Summary

Following the tragic demise of his parents in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote town of Ballantyne. He becomes an outcast and is accused of a classmate's disappearance. Only Karen, another outsider, believes his claim that a mysterious phone booth sucked Tom into a horror movie scenario. Richard investigates, leading him to an eerie house in Mirror Forest and unsettling voices foretelling doom. As more classmates vanish, Richard must clear his name and battle the dark magic gripping Ballantyne.

My Thoughts

"The Night House" by Jo Nesbo is a book that skillfully weaves between reality and the paranormal, delivering a story that is very odd, sometimes absurd, yet anything but predictable. While it has its moments of genuine creepiness, the narrative can be hard to follow in some parts, making it a bit like R.L. Stein without the charm that often accompanies such tales.

One of the standout aspects of the book is its originality. However, it sometimes leans a bit too deep into the bizarre, testing the boundaries of what readers may find acceptable. The writing style, though not necessarily intended for young adults, reads like middle-grade fiction, which may affect its appeal to some readers.

The novel is divided into three parts, with the first part being the strongest in terms of storytelling and engagement. Unfortunately, the second leans heavily into the bizarre, and not necessarily in a favorable way.

Part three didn’t resonate with me. Nesbo makes use of a trope that I just don’t appreciate—others’ opinions may vary. It felt to me like an attempt to salvage a disjointed and implausible narrative, coming across as a shortcut in the writing process rather than a satisfying resolution.

This is a hard book to review. I read it all the way through. There were certainly parts I enjoyed, but also lots of “come on—really?” parts.

Recommendation

"The Night House" offers a blend of the paranormal and reality, with moments of genuine creepiness and originality. However, its unpredictable nature, young adult writing style, and occasional disorientation may leave some readers with mixed feelings about the book. Recommended if you enjoy quick but bizarre reads.

Rating

3 Killer Phone Stars

This was a clever little retro horror read. It definitely starts out that way, a bit like 'Nightmare on Elm Street', where you are thinking, 'is this really happening, or a dream'? We meet Richard, who now lives with his aunt and uncle in Ballantyne, a small town. He lost both his parents in a house fire, and his father was abusive and schizophrenic. He's a bit of a bully in school, to everyone, then one day a phone prank goes wrong and he witnesses his friend Tom, get eaten by the receiver. Shortly thereafter, another friend disappears mysteriously and due to Richard's explanations of what happened, he becomes a prime suspect. Since he's only 14, he gets sent to a rehabilitation home for troubled youth.
This is where the supernatural events continue to occur when he finds out a former resident there might be responsible for both his friends' disappearance. You might be wary to answer a ringing phone at night after reading this one! It reads like a young adult novel, but still has enough interesting elements to entertain older adults as well. Just when you recover from one twist, another one quickly comes on it's heels and you are really taken aback. Nothing is what it seems. I didn't find it scary at all, since all the events are implausible, but very imaginative. For an author who strictly writes crime novels, this is a big change and a refreshing entre into the horror genre.

This is a book in three parts. It started off strong, and then I disliked each part more than the previous.

The premise is very interesting. A haunted payphone swallows up a kid and the only witness (with a troubled past) because the prime suspect. But this book quickly devolves into something I did not quite love. I think it has all the elements of a great story, but some additions of not so great storytelling overshadowed them.

I think if this was a novella with only part one of the story, it could have easily been a 3.5 (maybe higher) rated read for me. The premise is interesting and although we follow the MC and know what happens, the negative reactions that he receives are pretty plausible. You want to root for him because we know the horror, and it makes for an overall likeable MC.

What didn't work for me is that the second and third part seem to try to keep building on the initial part but in a way that overly complicates (and me eventually ruined) the initial part. This book also pretty heavily leans into negative stereotypes of mental illness, in a way that seemed completely unnecessary to the plot of the story.

Disclaimer: I received a gifted print ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Knopf for letting me read THE NIGHT HOUSE early. This book publishes on October 3.

This one started super scary and I got super into it but then it just lost me as it slowly slowed down. I just didn't have the patience to stick with it. There was nothing that made me want to keep reading, so I didn't.

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