This was an interesting book, and it has its moments, but it is not the Jo Nesbo with whom I am familiar. In fact, this reads like a YA horror story, albeit a bit gorier than maybe most YA books. All that said, I enjoyed reading it but it was not what I expected. I'm okay with Mr. Nesbo toning it down a bit, and this story definitely had its moments of horror. Until near the end, when I felt like I was attending a lecture. I do not want to reveal any spoilers, so I'll end this review here. This is not a book I'm comfortable recommending to other Nesbo fans, but it's a good read if you can let go of your expectations.

My ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher; the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

While it starts off strong it eventually fizzles out with reveals that become more ridiculous and less impactful with each one all culminating in an ultimately unsatisfying ending. Still there are many awesome and horrific moments that I enjoyed. Which makes the ultimate messiness that more disappointing. Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC for an honest review.

This book had good moments, but I'm not a huge fan of unreliable narrators. It was also a bit too young adult for my tastes. I will say that Nesbø did a great job of weaving actual names and events into the fictional story at the beginning and I enjoyed the way they were revealed later. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing the ARC.

My thanks to NetGalley and Borzoi Books/Alfred A. Knopf for the ARC of "The Night House" in exchange for an honest review.
Upon completion, I did thoroughly like this book........but I'm not sure it's such a great idea to market it as pure unadulterated horror, complete with a blood dripping phone and a looming haunted house.
Here's what took me by surprise, in terms of the book not quite turning out the way its cover seems to promise.
Jo Nesbo cleverly makes use of all the familiar tropes you'd find in a Stephen King bestseller. But he deploys them in service of the book's final explanatory chapter, the third section of three major chapters. As satisfying as that climactic chapter reads, with all "i"s dotted and all "t"s crossed, you come to realize that bone chilling, nightmarish horror was never the intention here......but rather a dark, unsettling but yet heartfelt, sympathetic excursion into psychological trauma.
I realize that sounds deliberately vague and elusive, but "The Night House" is so packed to the rafters with twist, after twist, after twist that I can only risk a brief rundown of its opening.
It's a barnburner alright, pretty much the inspiration for the lurid, eye popping front cover. Imagine a typical 800 page Stephen King blockbuster compressed into novella length, You'll find all the King-ian tropes in place, all coming at you, one on top of the other. Loads of fun to read, but to me anyway, it felt almost like a sly, deadpan spoof of "It". therefore not particularly scary.
Then comes the primary reason I ended up enjoying the book.......the way the next two extended chapters proceed to repeatedly pull the rug out from under you, leaving you dizzy with surprises......right up to the final page.
So I'd most definitely recommend "The Night House" as a unique, entertaining thriller with a whole lot more on its mind (and its plot) than that blood soaked phone on the cover. You just need to hang in there for the twists.......

I've seen books by this author so many times, but this is my first read. Thanks so much to NETGALLEY for an advanced copy! Richard is just 14 but has been plucked from his home with his parents following a tragic fire to live with his aunt and ancle. It is difficult for Richard to fit in, so he operates around the periphery of the popular students. One day he bullies a young boy to make a prank call and unlocks a demon or nightmare that seems to never end. I really liked this book. It was so easy to get into and so weird and creepy and attention grabbing right from the beginning. There were so many odd things going on and it was hard to know what was real and what wasn’t. There was a story within a story and I loved the different parts of this book. Jo Nesbo is such a fantastic writer and I couldn’t read it fast enough. #netgalley #thenighthouse

In this story we follow Richard whose parents die and his aunt and Uncle decide to take him. As always, a teen in a small town he becomes bored with his new home and becomes a prankster to entertain himself. Not long after his arrival to the town other children in the town start to go missing and the catch... Richard is always the last to see them. Of course he starts to become the main suspect in the disappearances. The night house is a book about strange small town secrets and a creepy house called the Night House.

This book is so much fun and absolutely perfect for Halloween/spooky time! It put me in the perfect mood for fall and i absolutely loved it. The book was so well written! It was spooky, atmospheric, thrilling, and suspenseful in all the right ways. Its horror without all the gore and is perfect for those readers who want just a fun and simple horror story. This book comes out in October and honestly Pre-Order it now!! I cant wait to get a physical copy to share with my friends!

Jo Nesbø is primarily known as a detective novel author (the aging Harry Hole series), but this time he has a horror novella to offer to his fans, with a cynical fourteen old bully as the protagonist. Richard is having one of his usual bratty days when he forces Tom to make a prank phone call in an isolated telephone booth. But then the telephone receiver actually eats Tom. Too bad no one believes Richard, although they all do think that Richard is responsible for Tom’s disappearance.

This short horror story from Nesbø was a totally unexpected style from this longtime novelist. I have been tiring of Harry Hole —he’s getting sadder with each subsequent book. Richard, however, is never really likable either, as a teen or 15 years later. I’m not sure who the intended audience is — this seems more like a book for teenage boys than any of Nesbø’s established fans. Unfortunately, this wasn’t for me — the morally bereft main character was too off-putting for me to invest time in. 3 stars.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It started off reading a bit like middle grade horror, but then morphed into what felt like a fever dream. I couldn't be sure of what was reality. Just when it seemed things were explained, I was plunged into a nightmare! Eventually, there is some clarity, and even some hope but I was left with a lingering disquiet, because I wasn't sure I could believe in what seemed to be the final conclusion. I love books that make me question my perception of events in the story as well as the narrator's reliability.
This was masterfully done, and I can't wait to read more from Jo Nesbo.
I listened to the audiobook version of this, and the narrator of the audiobook did a great job with timing and creating atmosphere. Highly recommend!

This is a short, easy read that could be a perfect spooky season book, particularly if you enjoy a little nostalgia mixed in with your horror. Personally, I stopped at about 40% because the horror elements felt like they'd work better in a movie than they do on page. The creepy things that were happening felt more like they were there to provoke a reaction rather than to tie into a plot. But if you like somewhat unlikeable (maybe unreliable) main characters and unexplained supernatural phenomenon, this could be the one for you.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the ARC!

This wasn’t what I was expecting from Jo Nesbo. It was so different than his Harry Hole series, but I knew that it would be from the description. Still, this book was a surprise.
Set in three parts, we meet Richard in part one. He is an unhappy teenager who has lost his parents and is now living in a small boring town. But when people think he had something to do with the disappearance of not one, but two classmates, well, things get very weird, very fast. Is Richard a killer or does this town hold a dark past and present.
In part two, Richard is an adult and we learn what really happens when he was younger. Or do we?
Part three was like what, everything I thought was true was turned upside down. I’m still not 100% sure if I believe my interpretation of the ending.
Only 256 pages, so it was a quick read. I’d love to know where the author’s inspiration for this book came from.

I had only read Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole crime novels, so I picked this up since it was another genre by this author. Horror - very different type of book from Harry Hole. I found it imaginative, but not really scary since it was all unbelievable and could never really happen. Still a good story with lots of surprises.

Description:
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 . . .

You know who I am. She's going to burn. The one you love is going to burn. There's not a thing you can do about it.

When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence--and preserve his sanity--as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.

Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .

My thoughts:

I liked the creativity and the story fit the weird imaginings of a young boy until the story changed. The protagonist is definitely an unreliable narrator. The twists and turns of the story were both imaginative and surprising. The book was fairly quick to read and I do have to say it kept my interest, even though much of it are things that would not and could not happen. I found Richard to be an engaging character and I like him and felt bad for him. I was not scared, though, and in a horror book I expected to be. This book had an inventive, creative plot and was well paced. It was divided into sections, with a different view in each section - although all are from Richard's point of view. There were some key horror elements like the creepy house hidden away, a correctional facility, etc.

Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on October 3, 2023.

I wanted to like this, but I really couldn’t stand the main character making fun of another characters speech impediment. The opening scene in the phone booth though was very well written

Big thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for a copy of this ARC! This cover, first of all, was BEAUTIFUL and I would love to point that out.

This starts out feeling a little bit like some classic coming of age novels we all know and love- (“It,” “Summer of Night,” etc.) but it quickly unravels and turns into something else entirely. Richard is our protagonist- he doesn’t think he’s a really nice kid. And to tell you the truth, he sort of isn’t. He says some pretty vile things to his friend of whom is dubbed “Fatso,” and he forces his friend Tom to call a mysterious number in a phone booth. It seems that everyone who comes into contact with Richard meets some deep and mysterious fate- and now, he’s being investigated for these disappearances.

Reading is about taking the good with the bad sometimes. This book is full of both elements. That’s why it was so difficult to find a rating for it. I didn’t even fully understand who the villain was supposed to be. The author attempts to provide some clarity toward the end, but I truly don’t know if I’m understanding what exactly happened here. There are multiple sections in the story set in different timelines. All of these are important and they will eventually serve much symbolic purpose and work with each other to provide a complete story. While it was fun getting to the climax, it was sort of… difficult to come to terms with what it was that actually happened here.

This IS original, incredibly so, and introduces some Tim Burton-esque concepts and characters. In Richard’s world, there are folks like Victor and Vanessa, the insane and mentally conjoined twins. We also have Karen, a popular and bright student who gets Richard into reading books. And then there’s Fatso- what to say about Fatso? An underestimated force is what I may describe him as.

There is a mystery present surrounding an allegedly disturbed man who lived in a dark and brooding house known as “the night house.” That’s where this title comes from. THIS was the piece of the story I had most complaints with. The situation concerning this man still doesn’t make much sense to me, and in the end, I still wasn’t sure what was going on.

There is so much content here, so much worth reading and original turning points I have never imagined would’ve been coming up. I just wish that things had been wrapped up a little neater- not that I need all my stories situated into pretty little ribbons, but I have some questions I THINK the answers were provided to, but I’m still left feeling a little whiplashed.

The journey uphill is amazing, but I feel like this book gets stuck up on a cliff.

This comes out on October 3rd, and I do think it makes for a pretty good Halloween read. If you are okay with forming your own conclusions, you should check this one out. Even if you aren’t, if only for the journey alone, this may be worth reading. Richard’s world feels like a portal to another planet, and it might as well be. It just hit a little hard when I had to leave it so suddenly!

A big shoutout to the publishers and NetGalley for granting me an early peek into The Night House by Jo Nesbo in exchange for an honest review!

The Night House took me on an emotional roller coaster ride. I must admit, I powered through just to share this review. The gruesome beginning gripped me, but the middle portion lost its hold on my attention. However, Part two managed to rekindle my intrigue. The mind-bending uncertainty of reality kept me engaged, despite the slower stretches. Jo Nesbo crafted some intriguing horror elements, including a chilling scene involving a character getting devoured through a phone – talk about eerie! The blurred lines between reality and dreams added a layer of intrigue, though occasionally it left me a tad bewildered. Part 3 did provide some clarity, which was a relief, as it helped tie the other sections together.

While I appreciated the twist, I felt a bit disheartened by the trope of associating mental illness with being monstrous or villainous. It seemed like a quick resolution.

Ultimately, while parts thrilled me, the book could have benefitted from a more captivating middle section. Moreover, the character development fell a bit short, making it tough to truly connect with or cheer for them. For those new to horror or seeking a quick read, The Night House might be worth considering, but personally, it didn't entirely captivate me.

Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor as well as NetGalley and author Jo Nesbo for the incredibly spooky and unique novel The Night House. It started out as a story of a boy that had been dealt a terrible loss and had been forced to move somewhere he never wanted to go. Once there he was the odd man out and when things begin going wrong he is the only one the authorities want to blame. Ahh, but that is only the tip of the iceberg for our young man. Just when you think you are finally figuring things out, things get shook up and it’s 15 years later and things are much different. This book keeps you guessing all the way to the end and even after I finished reading it I still was puzzling over a few things. It’s a good book to add to your TBR for the spooky season and you might want to keep a night light on lol. Enjoy!

WOW! I wasn’t expecting a book like this from Jo Nesbo. I assumed it was his newest suspense thriller and quickly realized that it was straight up horror. It took me a while to become engaged. All in all, a riveting read.

This is a nightmare of a book, literally. I don't even know how to write a review, as anything I would like to say would give too much away. But here goes...

This is a horror novel written in first person by teenager Richard. Part I starts off with a bang, as Richard watches a classmate being eaten by a pay phone. From there things get really weird. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the book.

Part II brings us Richard, still narrating the story, fifteen years later, as he attends a class reunion. It gets messy quickly. The horrors of the past come back to Richard and his friends as adults. But this time, it gets a bit boring. I found myself thinking 'Oh, this again, here we go again.' and you start to figure out a few things.

Finally, Part III; I wish I could tell you more, but I don't want to spoil anything for any other readers. Suffice it to say, dangling strings are tied up, finishing touches are quickly added and it all comes around full circle. Which is a nice way to say, the ending was a bit ho hum because, again, it merely rehashed what has already been pretty much spelled out.

This was my first Jo Nesbo novel, and obviously he knows how to write. But this story left a lot to be desired. I do plan to try some of his other works though.

I was really into this at first, and then there was a point where my mind was blown. BUT and this what really breaks my heart, theres like one or two more twisty turns and I just completely lost interest in the last 5 pages. Literally the last 5 pages or so and it felt like there was going to be another twist and at this point my head was throbbing. This book started off strong but just took too many spins to keep up with. I literally felt dizzy trying to keep up w this story. I am really disappointed .

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

This book is a nightmare. Confusing - is the main character writing a book, living the facts or is he a mental patient imagining it all.