As others have mentioned, there is animal death in here but it felt well-handled. Further note on that below.

You know that episode of Buffy where she wakes up in an asylum and gradually comes to believe that the past six years of her life as a vampire slayer were all a figment of her imagination? Yeah, that’s my worst nightmare. In fact, I have had actual nightmares about that exact episode on dozens of occasions in my life. (Thanks, broken brain!) And this little book is like that episode. Iðunn first realizes something might be amiss when her new step tracker has added tens of thousands of steps overnight. What ensues is truly the stuff of nightmares as she gradually adds more safeguards against her nightly wanderings, only to be thwarted at every turn. By what? Who can say? (As evidenced by the fact that one of the first search autofills in Google when I was searching for this book was “ending explained” lol. This is definitely not one for you if you don’t like ambiguity and want a solid answer at the end.) The potential connection between women’s pain not being taken seriously in medical situations was interesting. The dead sister connection was interesting. I actually really love that we don’t get a concrete answer, which is not always my POV. The Night Guest is upsetting, unsettling, and is going to stick with me for a good long time.

I really vibed with the writing style. I think the kind of disjointed, disconnected, sometimes short chapters really added a lot to the atmosphere and vibe. And I obviously can’t speak to the directness of the translation here because I don’t read Icelandic, but it felt seamless and natural. This novella was a stellar example of the magic that can occur between an original piece and a work in translation. I like Mary Robinette Kowal’s work in her own right, and I think it’s just so fucking rad that she is also doing work like this.

A note on the animal death: I consider myself pretty sensitive to animal cruelty and death. And that goes double for cats. Everyone should decide for themselves - in an informed way - whether they can handle that. For me, the treatment of the cats was not overly graphic and was rightly portrayed as eggregious, deranged, troubling behavior. In fact, one of the most horrifying parts of this piece for me is the questioning of what is real or not, so I was left wondering if she really did find the cats, or even if there ever were any cats to begin with.

This slim volume packs quite the punch. Slow, creeping dread that rises to an ending both inevitable and shocking. I can't wait to see what Hildur does next.

Very quick and very creepy read. I really enjoyed this, though like many other reviewers, I felt the end was a bit abrupt. But abrupt, ambiguous endings leave me thinking, and if that's the goal, then it was certainly achieved.

What on earth?! I enjoyed so much about this. You cant beat the pace- one could read this in 2 hours- but I am not sure that I’ve connected all the dots. If you dont mind more of an ambiguous ending, this could work. TW for animal cruelty.

Although very short, this novella has created quite an enthusiastic fan base with many offering their opinions as to what it was really about and what it all meant.

Reviewers have assigned all sorts of explanations for the cat murders, the sleep walking, the symptoms, and more than a few have decided that somehow it’s related to misogyny and women’s issues.

Possible spoilers…beware



The beginning of this was intriguing. What was Iounn doing when she was meant to be sleeping peacefully at home alone in her bed? She does go to a very sympathetic physician who, after listening very carefully and performing tests, tries to get Iounn to seek mental health care. Which is obviously what the woman needed. She manipulated the physician and got pills (that somehow didn’t knock her out) and refused to be admitted to the psychiatric treatment center where she could have been observed, engaged in some talk therapy, given some appropriate antipsychotics, and perhaps been saved.

I listened to the audiobook while following along in the e-book. The narrator did an excellent job with the Icelandic pronunciations, which I totally appreciated. The chapters were very short. I read it in less than 2 hours. Would have been done sooner except that I keep going back to figure out what clues I was missing as I kept asking myself what was going on.

The ending was a total let down that leaves the reader to ask — what in the heck did I just read. And why? There was no message here. And this review seems almost as long as the book.

Pure escapism! The Night Guest was fast paced, fun, and disturbing in the best way. The main character’s unreliability added the perfect amount of suspense that kept me wrapped in the story. The character development and pacing wasn’t perfect, but overall it was thrilling experience to read The Night Guest.

I'm happy I waited to read this for spooky season. I really enjoyed the suspense and how quickly the story moved. When I read the text play out like a movie scene in my head. I think this would be an amazing film. I hope Hildur has more short stories up her sleeve.

I’ll keep it short and simple, because I honestly don’t have a lot to say. It has been a very very, very long time since I have read a book to completion and absolutely disliked it.

This book was weird, you still know nothing and just totally didn’t make sense. It’s one of those ones. I wish I could have my three hours back.

Iðunn has something mysterious happening to her at night that she cannot name. No doctors, diet, or routine can explain the fatigue or blood and bruises she wakes up with, and nobody believes what she is experiencing. This mysterious and eerily told horror novella is set in Reykjavík and keeps you on edge. It is an easy and fast read, leaving you with chills! I love a good, suspenseful story, and this one did not disappoint.

I loved this novella. It was really good and creepy and I flew through it, just trying to see what was going to happen next. The ambiguous ending was fine, although I would have like just a little bit more explanation. But it was a great experience.

Do I know what happened in this book? No. Did I love the vibe regardless? Absolutely. If you need a quick, unsettling read to get you out of a reading slump, pick up The Night Guest.

When Iðunn experiences numerous troubling symptoms like persistent exhaustion, body aches, and unexplainable bruises, she seeks help from medical practitioners. Unfortunately, the advice she receives consists of such vague lifestyle changes like eating better and exercising more. Nothing helps, and she seems further away than ever before from the answers and relief she seeks, until one night Iðunn falls asleep with her step-counting watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night...

I was captivated by how Iðunn's battle for a good night sleep takes her on a haunting journey to regain control of her own body as well as her sense of self separate from societal expectations and comparisons to her dead sister. This is an excellent, easy-to-read-in-one-sitting novella. In fact, that is exactly what I did! There is darkness in this book but also sharp humor. The terror and rising tension that one feels while reading interestingly comes from events that are often off page. This works really well for the story's formatting as we only have Iðunn's POV, and that is restricted to when she is awake. This limited first-person POV does mean that we as readers will not get all of the answers we may want by the book's close; moreover, the ending is ambiguous. That won't work for everyone, but I really enjoyed my reading of this.

I am so glad that Hildur Knútsdóttir and Mary Robinette Kowal (another author I have enjoyed in the past) met at a writer's conference, and their meeting led to this work being translated!!

CW: animal death

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Original Pub Date: 3 September 2024
Reading Format: print + audio

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an E-ARC copy in exchange for this honest review!

This was a very fast-paced and interesting read. I loved the angle of the descent and the unreliability of the narrator, but I found the plot itself to be a bit confusing.

I love a good horror novella and this translated work really met the mark for me. It starts with our main character having sleep issues and waking to find that she has accumulated large numbers of steps during the night. Following our main character as she tries to understand what is controlling her at night was really interesting. It is a tense and horrific mystery that leaves you very uncomfortable. This is a really dark read and very unsettling.

I will say I've seen many reviewers discuss the animal deaths in this book, which may be very triggering for some readers.

*The Night Guest* presents an intriguing premise that kept me engaged throughout, even if it didn’t fully meet my expectations. Iðunn’s journey through constant fatigue and her frustrating experiences with doctors felt all too relatable, capturing the struggle of not being heard in the medical world. Her mysterious nighttime activities add an eerie twist that made me want to keep turning the pages. The writing is atmospheric, and the exploration of Iðunn’s mental and physical state raises some thought-provoking questions about belief and trust in one’s own experiences. However, while the suspense builds nicely, I found some elements of the story a bit lacking in depth, leaving me wanting more from the character development and plot resolution. Overall, *The Night Guest* is a solid read that offers a compelling mix of mystery and psychological tension, making it worthwhile for fans of the genre. It just didn’t completely satisfy my desire for a more robust narrative. If you're in the mood for something mysterious with a touch of the uncanny, this might be the right pick for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for the chance to read this ARC and the opportunity to give my honest thoughts and review!

You will devour this book especially if you like stark settings, weird happenings at night, and tension that you can viscerally feel as you read this short and nerve-wracking horror story! Everything starts out innocently enough: our main character, Iðunn, is at the doctor for reasons that she can’t quite explain. She is tired all the time and keeps waking up from her sleep with cuts, bruises, and other injuries that she can’t explain. The doctor says everything is fine and Iðunn decides to just try exercising and eating a bit healthier to see if that helps resolve her symptoms. Everything is good for a while…until her watch says she has walked an obscene number of steps when she was sleeping. And then the cats start disappearing.

I won’t lie; I definitely should have checked some trigger warnings before I read this book (especially as an animal lover), but once I started reading, nothing was going to make me put this down until I was finished. The palpable tension and fear made it feel like you were experiencing everything with our main character and there were even points where I had to pause and take a breath to calm down my heart rate! The ending was a bit enigmatic but then again, I don’t feel like I have ever really read a horror that had a happy or ultimately satisfying ending. I am excited to see more from this author and you can bet that I will now be diligently wearing my Apple Watch to sleep and making sure I haven’t been walking excessively in my sleep!

So, I’m not usually the type of person who thinks trigger warnings should be in the book. (The opposite actually since they are usually in your face before you know what you’re reading and the triggers give away big parts of the story.) I think everyone should google a books triggers before reading one, but since this book hadn’t been published yet, I didn’t have that luxury. That being said- killing animals is crappy and I wouldn’t have read it if I’d known. Murder fictional people, murder supernatural creatures, etc. but don’t murder animals. 🤦‍♀️ I struggled to get through this because of that. It was such a turn off.

Iðunn is beyond exhausted, no matter how much rest she gets. Her friends and family give her the round of the mill advice - eat more, exercise more, take these vitamins, etc. Her doctor has found no reason for her exhaustion, dismissing her concerns and symptoms. On the advice of her friends she buys a watch to follow her steps only to wake in the morning in her bed with 40,000 steps clocked. Where does she go when asleep? And where did she get these bruises and strange wounds? What is happening to Iðunn?

The Night Guest arrived and I immediately picked it up… and then finished in two sittings. This gave me My Year of Rest and Relaxation but make it horror. I had Mona Awad and Otessa Moshfegh vibes throughout - which is basically my personality now🤣. I loved the pacing of this, it was perfect. The Icelandic nightmare atmosphere seeped through the page and while Iðunn was an unreliable narrator, I did enjoy her musings. My only qualm was that the ending confused me but perhaps this was on purpose?

I don’t typically highlight content warnings but for my cat/animal lovers, this one hit hard even though the terror was off page. Thank you @tornightfire for this advanced copy, 4✨!

I requested The Night Guest based on the cover but oh boy oh boy, was I in for a surprise!

This book is short but it manages to pack a really, really big punch. Thematically, it explores a lot - loneliness, mental health, relationships, dysfunction, with a lot of discussion on feminism stacked on top. Yet it manages to stay tight. Being that the chapters are so short, every word feels like it was chosen on purpose and not one sentence feels misplaced or like a waste of space. On top of its already accomplished structure, The Night Guest never fails to deliver atmosphere. Overall, it's a book I never wanted to stop reading and it kept me engaged on all fronts.

The only thing I would perhaps write down under CON is the ending. I liked it, generally speaking, but it felt a little too rushed to me. It almost felt violent, the way I was pulled out of the scene before it ever got to properly breathe.

But my God, whatever the authors comes out with next, I'll be reading it. One of the most surprising books of the year for me for sure.

This is HARD to rate. I wasn't a fan of the murdering of cats. I hate any murdering of animals. If i had know I wouldn't have read it.
Far to triggering for me.