3.5 Stars - this was a good quick read. The storyline was great and the characters were well developed.

What a story. Had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. This was a lot of fun with a unique twist to a classic tale. Read..enjoy... you're welcome

I liked the premise of the book, but there were a few continuity and grammar issues that took me out of the story for a moment. The three different sections, specifically part 1 and 2, were a bit trippy, but otherwise it was a good read!

This book was good, but not great. I’m not always a huge fan of horror, but I wanted to give this a try. The story follows Richard, you just don’t really know him though. The plot moves along quickly, and takes a few turns that I didn’t expect. Overall, it was good but I won’t be telling people to read it unless they love horror.

This was a good read! I'm still new into horror/thriller but I liked it a lot! I look forward to more by this author.

If you think a Stranger Things-Shutter Island mash-up in book form sounds like a good time, then this book is for you, my friend!

Our MC Richard is a big fat bully. He has been through some family trauma and takes it all out on the kids in his new school in Ballantyne. When his latest victim Tom gets sucked into the telephone after a prank call gone wrong, nobody believes him (surprise). As his life devolves into a full-on horror movie, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence or be the next victim.

The Night House cover promises creepy houses, mysterious events, and plenty of horror, and it delivers. The story was disorienting, frightening, and gory. While the first part has a distinct childish narrative voice, the plot takes a couple of left turns and shakes it up so that the story does not feel YA. Just when I thought I was in one place, BAM it takes off in another direction. A unique psychological thriller with strong creepy Halloween vibes, I plan on adding this to my Halloween collection once it's out in paperback!

Teenagers in books and television shows are portrayed as the most irritating individuals around. Yes, we were all teenagers once, but wow, these poor kids can't catch a break. So of course when they try to correct any, mistake they have made or caused, they are treated like a nuisance. Richard has been orphaned by a fire and taken in by relatives. It is not always easy for the new kid to fit in since no one really knows him. If things go wrong, it's easy to blame him. Is Tom's disappearance Richard's fault? Then it happens again. What is really going on here? Is Richard just an innocent misunderstood kid or is there a supernatural aspect at play here?
I read this asking myself why I was still reading in a good way. It was creepy and scary and oh-so good.

I received an e-arc from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

Review Copy

I almost gave up on this book just two pages in, but then I slapped myself and said to myself, "Self, come on, you know better than that!" So, I kept reading, and it DID improve. Whew! But, lemme 'splain to you, now that I have finished this. It's Strange! It's a YA coming-of-age story that's a bit on the psychotic side.

It really is a strange little story that I never would have read if it hadn't been offered to me. But, honestly, once I saw that cover, I was hooked. I didn't think it was the greatest book of the year, but I was glad I read. It's a fast read that will satisfy certain cravings. Enjoy!

I’m sorry, I am not the audience for this book. I am a huge fan of Dean Koontz and Stephen King so the horror genre drew me to this book. I can get through the first chapter.

Phrases like,
“ I had moved to live with my relatives in this little shithole last autumn, just after my fourteenth birthday, and I had no idea what shitty little kids in shitholes like Ballantyne did to stop themselves from being bored to death..”
And
“ During a break earlier today Fatso told me about castes, only he said I was in the piranha caste, and that made me think of those fish that look like they have saw blades for teeth and can strip the flesh from an ox in a matter of minutes, so I couldn’t help thinking it sounded like a pretty cool caste. It wasn’t until Fatso said that I and my caste were lower than him, the big lard-ass, that I was obliged to hit him..”
Told me I didn’t want to read anymore.

I did not finish it and won’t be reviewing it anywhere else.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley, thank you! This book was very fast paced and I didn’t want to put it down, so… I didn’t and read it in a few hours! Each of the three parts of the story was compelling on its own, but layered together, made for a really horrific and compelling account that leaves the reader not knowing what to believe. That mirrors the overall feeling toward the protagonist, who is deeply connected to the antagonist, but how much and how deep that connection goes really varies depending on which part you’re in, part 1, 2, or 3. There are some elements of magic and maybe hints of possession, as well as maybe even zombies or something? It’s really interesting to pull back the layers and find the character counterparts of each different version of events. I enjoyed this book a lot and would give it somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars.

Thank you so much to Knopf and Jo Nesbo for my copy of The Night House. This book was about Richard, a fourteen year old boy who is sent to live with his relatives in the small town of Ballantyne after his parents are killed in a fire. He is labeled an outcast and when his classmate Tom goes missing, everyone thinks he is responsible…especially when he says that the telephone booth on the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like a horror movie.

The only person who believes him is fellow outsider Karen, and with her help he starts to investigate what the police won’t. He traces the number from Tom’s prank phone call to a creepy house in Black Mirror Wood, and sees a terrifying face in the window. Soon after, he starts to hear a voice whisper in his ear, and when another classmate disappears, he needs to both prove his innocence and keep his sanity.

Thoughts: I LOVED this book. It was so easy to get into and so weird and creepy 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.

I loved that the action started near the beginning and didn’t let up. Richard’s character development was great and I thought the setting was both fun and creepy. I didn’t enjoy the homophobia, fatphobia, or sexism in this book, and though I see why it was included, it was a turn off for me. However I loved this story and thought it was a thrill from start to finish- 4.5 stars!

So riveting, I read it in one sitting. The only way it could be closer to everything I love in a story is if I’d written it myself.

This book was amazing I loved it 5 stars everything about this book reminded me of a 80s horror movie

This novel follows fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved, whose parents were killed in a fire and sent to his aunt and his uncle in Ballantyne. Quickly, he finds himself the outcast of the town, but when his classmates start disappearing, the town starts to turn on him. Richard believes the number he called has something to do with the missing students and he is determined to prove himself innocent of the murders. But Richard's narrative may or may not always be reliable.

With pages under 290 pages, this creepy novel is a perfect read for the Autumn season especially during the month of October. The beginning of the book will be a bit confusing plot but as the story goes further into the novel, things start to make sense and it starts pulling you in with its twists and turns until everything you believe changes in the final pages.

The way the majority of the book is written makes much more sense once something is revealed, but the majority of the book reads like a surreal, young adult horror novel and that wasn't really my jam. I do think that once there is some light shed on the reasoning it makes the whole thing work.

Thanks to Netgalley and Jo Nesbo for this advanced reader copy. This book is a tough read and I tried a few times to get into the story but had to give up.

It sounds so good but it wasn't for me. I didnt like the writing style and I couldn't keep focus. This may be a book for someone but it is not me.

No thank you to constant and casual fatphobia, homophobia, and misogyny, among other derogatory actions and language towards other things. I stopped reading at 20%, but our main character is derogatory from the very beginning.

Excellent! This book was downright creepy! The author's style reminded me of early Stephen King novels. I read this in two days because I could not put it down. Just when you thought you had figured it out, everything changed again. Great suspense!

I've been planning to read Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series for a while. When I saw this novel on NetGalley in the horror section, I decided to grab it while I could. Nesbo is better known as a crime writer, but horror has had a resurgence in popularity lately, and I was curious to see if he could be successful in this other genre. And the answer is ... Mostly. The concept of the book was reminiscent of early Stephen King: a kid witnesses his friend getting eaten by a telephone. When he tells the authorities what happened, no one believes him -- and why would they? The bizarre and brutal supernatural killings continue through the first sixty percent of the book; then suddenly there is a shift in the timeline. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll focus on the first part of the book. The protagonist is not always the most likable kid, but it's understandable because he's experienced a lot of loss in his early life. In spite of the nonsensical murders, the story was intriguing enough for me to continue, but I didn't always feel connected to the plot. The violence was just too ... strange ... for me to relate to. King's books horror novels function as metaphors for the human experience (alcoholism and abuse in The Shining, for example). And this book eventually does that, too. Again, I don't want to spoil anything by over-explaining the story. But it does pick up in the third and final section of the book, when everything starts to click into place and the reader understands what is really happening.

I still intend to read Nesbo's crime thrillers at some point. And if he writes more horror novels, I'll probably pick those up, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my opinions.