The Night Guest was creepy and packed a lot into a short work. The short chapters made it a really fast read as well. The author is really successful at creating a growing sense of dread as things escalate. The one thing that some people will not like is that, like most shorter works, this serves more as a window into a life for a short time, then stops suddenly.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

🌑ARC Review 🌑
Release Date: September 3rd

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir is a thriller/ horror novel that will leave you questioning.

After waking up every night with pain in her body, Iðunn seeks medical help. After coming to no conclusion, Iðunn is forced to figure out what is going on, on her own. She comes to find out that she is getting up after she falls asleep. When she tries to stop it, things go astray.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars ⭐️

This Icelandic horror had my attention the whole time. I finished it in about an hour. The pace is very quick, but not too quick that you’re confused.

I loved that this brought up the topic of how women get brushed off when seeking medical attention. How though we know something’s wrong, doctors usually either misdiagnose or don’t care to pay attention.

In the end, we do find out what happens to Iðunn, but it happened so fast I had to reread it a few times. That was the only time the pace startled me.

I recommend reading this if you love fast pace horror, psychological horror,and women in translation.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic little unhinged gem of a book. Trigger warning for animal abuse and death. A dream like experience that takes you in and out of consciousness with so many questions. Questions drive the plot forward making it a very compelling and addictive story. Highly recommend for anyone seeking out something a little darker that loves a bit of dark mystery/horror.

The Night Guest
Wow. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I signed up to read The Night Guest but it wasn’t this.

Our heroine is suffering from very poor sleep and she is waking up with weird bruises that she can’t explain. Doctors won’t take her seriously. But then her smart watch shows 20000 extra steps one night—she knows something is up.

I quite enjoyed my first entry into Icelandic horror. The dark and the creeping horror do something being not right is very well done. The characters are lightly drawn except for our narrator, but the atmosphere is thick enough to make up for it. The translation is quite good—possibly the best I’ve read in a long time, the sentences have a lovely rhythm to them that has been I assume preserved very well. I’d definitely read more Icelandic horror and more from this author specifically

The ending is interesting and I’m not 100% sure how I feel about it but without a doubt it’s daring and I’ll be thinking about it for a while now.

I recommend this for fans of Caitlin Starling in particular. Major content warning for harm to animals.

I received an ARC for this honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for providing me with an ARC of this book for review.

Trigger warning: dead (murdered) cats.

Delightfully weird and creepy. Distinctly Icelandic. A little horror novella about Iðunn, an office worker who is constantly exhausted and bruised and she doesn't know why. But she quickly realizes that she's been sleepwalking, nightly. There's not much that can really be said without spoiling the book. But the pacing and sometimes abruptly short chapters added to the atmosphere and tension.
And, well translated to boot.

Managed to squeeze a translated work on the last day of August for women in translation month and absolutely no regrets. This book is really dividing people and in typical me style I fall into the ‘it’s incredible’ category. Chilling and gut clenching tension with an ending that was perfection (unpopular opinion according to some reviews I’ve seen). The only problem I had is that I wish it was longer but I also loved that it didn’t give you everything. Please check the trigger warnings on this book before going forward!

This was a good quick read. I really enjoyed it. It kept me interested and I read it in one sitting. I felt bad for the main character and what she was going through. I was disappointed in the ending. I feel like it stopped too abruptly leaving questions.

This was fast paced and gripping at first, but the ending was so vague and abrupt. I liked that the main character was an unreliable narrator and I definitely felt the creepy vibes. I really wish the ending was more fleshed out.

This was an excellent novella about an Icelandic woman who wakes each morning with different aches and pains, and never feeling fully rested. Believing she is suffering from a terminal illness; she seeks medical advice. Desperate to track her sleeping patterns, she purchases a smart watch and learns she is walking in her sleep. Each day, she discovers some disturbing details when she wakes such as bruising, dirt, and blood. This disturbance is causing her to miss work and interfering with her personal relationships. What is actually happening to her during the nights? And why does she walk to the same location?

I enjoyed this story and was able to read it in one afternoon. Though it appears to be a horror, it reads more like an odd fiction to me, which honestly, makes the story better, in my opinion. It's a fast-paced gripping read, without any unnecessary fluff to lengthen the plot.

Trigger Warning: animal cruelty to cats

This is one of those head-scratcher books where you think you’re liking it, and then the end makes you go, “Wait. What did I just read?”

You can read this in one sitting (about 200 pages), with several pages being one or a couple of sentences. This is a suspenseful page-turner. Our main character, Idunn, wakes up every day exhausted and sore. She can’t figure out why and decides to track her physical activity on her watch, and also see a doctor about it. Things get progressively worse and you start to question her reliability. You do get hints of what’s happening throughout the book, but not in totality. The ending is open-ended, leaving the reader having to figure out what and why this was all happening to Idunn.

I can’t say I liked or disliked this book because I don’t completely know what the hell was going on or why. I suppose if you’re intrigued, pick this one up. It’s a quick read so you won’t invest too much time in it.

*Thank you @netgalley and @tornightfire for this advanced copy. This book hits shelves on September 3.

this is absolutely a one-sitting type of book & I highly recommend reading it on your kindle at 3AM to really get the full effects ya know. short translated horror is my new favorite sub-genre, and this one is no exception.

not to mention 100 chapters in a 200 page book?? need I say more. loved every single page.

The Night Guest was a creepy novella that was so captivating I read it in one sitting. I loved that the narrator felt so unreliable and in the end we really didn't get a concrete answer on what was happening but I found that almost more intriguing than if everything had been spelled out. Iðunn was a fascinating character and I feel like the author used her as a way to show what happens to women in healthcare without being too heavy handed with it. Iðunn is still as much of a mystery to me as she was in the beginning. We never really learn more about her or her motives and that adds to the unsettling nature of this novella.

This was a very strange read. I was really enjoying the first part of this book, but then the story got weird and confusing. I still don’t know what the heck was happening towards the end. It could be because I read this book when I was half awake, but that ending was just strange. There are animal deaths in this story, so beware if you’re a cat lover like me.

This was a very quick read and it did hold my interest. I read it in about an hour. I liked the writing, but the story was not for me.

Iðunn is so tired. She's tired of her mother never remembering her dietary restrictions. She's tired of seeing her ex at work. She's tired of doctors dismissing her concerns. Because she is deeply bone tired every day, and sometimes she wakes up with sore muscles and bruises.

Determined to discover what is keeping her from resting well, Iðunn purchases a fitness tracker. Soon she discovers that she is walking in her sleep -- but walking miles and miles to the same location every night. She suspects she knows what is driving these nighttime treks, but she is terrified to come face to face the truth.

I really enjoyed the bulk of this novella. I loved Iðunn's narration and her use of parentheticals and one sentence chapters. Her mysterious weariness was an interesting hook, and I was invested in discovering the cause along with her. Mary Robinette Kowal's translation work is really top-notch here.

Unfortunately, I felt that the conclusion didn't quite meet my expectations. I was confused by the climax and didn't fully understand why certain elements were including the in novella. I wish that a few more chapters had been dedicated to the climax and falling action of the story.

I also have to issue a massive content warning for animal harm in this book. If that is an element that doesn't sit well with you, then you should probably avoid this one altogether.

This review will be shared to Goodreads and Instagram (@goodquietkitty) on August 30, 2024.

I loved this book all the way through up until the ending. The final few pages did nothing to explain exactly what was going on. I was left with so many unanswered questions and felt very disappointed.

Well that was just a tad creepy. A fast paced suspense thriller, with a touch of horror, this one certainly kept me on the edge of my seat. I found The Night Guest to be a dark, mysterious and a spine chilling read and I was totally engrossed in the story, which I read at night - bad move! I slept with one eye open 🤣

I really enjoyed this one and I'll be keen to read more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an eARC of this book to read and review. Expected publication date is September 3rd, 2024.

3/5 Stars

TL;DR - A fast, creepy read that had me hooked and did not let go…until it did. The overly-ambiguous ending left a lot to be desired, and I’m still trying to make sense of it.

Big thanks to Tor, Tor Nightfire, and NetGalley for providing the ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review!

***Trigger Warnings for: medical gaslighting, chronic illness, brief implied eating disorder, brief on-page sex, mentioned death of a sibling, blood/gore, animal abuse and death (cats), vomiting, mentioned drowning, first-person depiction of being drugged, and implied/off-page attempted rape.***

‘The Night Guest’ by Hildur Knútsdóttir is an Icelandic novella-in-translation about Iðunn, a young woman living in Reykjavík who begins to wake up every morning exhausted, in pain, and covered in bruises and scratches. Everyone tells her to eat better, set a sleep schedule, and count her steps with a pedometer, but nothing helps. And then, one morning, she realizes she’s been walking in her sleep…

Oh, the conflicting emotions on this one!

The writing is clean and concise, and with a dry sense of humor that I really appreciate, and the author does an incredible job of slowly amping up the tension, building layer upon layer of dread and unease. The pipeline from “oh” to “oh no” to “OH NO!” is absolutely flawless.

Iðunn herself is an interesting and relatable character — as a chronic illness girlie myself, I really empathize with the gaslighting and dismissal she faces while trying to figure out what’s going on.

But then the ending! Or, really, lack thereof. There’s just the barest hint of creepiness that’s not at all explained, and the ending is left extremely ambiguous, which is not at all my cup of tea. If we’d just gotten tiny bit more explanation, this could have been a 5-star read for me, but as is, I can’t in all good conscience give it higher than a 3. It’s such a shame, too, because everything else about this book is executed so masterfully and is right up my alley.

(I couldn’t find any solid theories in other reviews, so if you’re confused like me, here’s what I think: the creature is her sister who drowned and came back as something other, and was…mind-controlling her? Using some kind of sympathetic link? Best I can do.)

Final Thoughts:

I heartily enjoyed the first 99% of this book, but that ending is probably the biggest let-down of any book I’ve read this year. Super bummed. Will not be purchasing a physical copy.

What can I say, but this book is Nordic psychological horror at its finest. The Night Guest is eerie. It's foreboding. It's unsettling. It peels layer after layer until the very end. It's chilling to the core.

Iðunn wakes up every day exhausted. Her life if Reykjavik is straightforward - work, friends, parents, home- and since she appears to be sleeping fairly well, she has no idea what's causing her body fatigue. Doctor after doctor fails to find anything wrong with her. But when she sleeps with a monitor on her one night, she finds she's walked nearly 40,000 steps in her sleep. More concerning is that blood on her face and hands that doesn't appear to be hers...

I was hanging on every word from the very first page. I was enthralled. I was terrified. I devoured it in one sitting. I couldn't look away but at the same time I was wondering 'wtf am I reading?'. When I started to get an inkling of what was causing Iðunn's sleep deprivation, I had an idea of what was happening, and I couldn't wait to see it play out.

What else made it so bingeable?
✨️ Fast paced
✨️ <200 pages
✨️ Short chapters

My only wish for this book would have been an ending that felt less abrupt... I was surprised to turn the page and suddenly find it over. It left me wanting just a little more.

Thank you to tor nightfire and netgalley for my earc/arc. Consider adding this book to your spooky season tbr when it pubs Sept 3!

It’s interesting to read this as a young adult woman. Within the first 2 chapters I truly understood the way the main character was feeling. Feeling ill and having your symptoms dismissed. I think turning this experience into a horror novel is brilliant.

The setting is wonderful! Iceland!! I enjoyed the tension but I did think that it was slow at times.

I could have lived without the dead cats. That was upsetting. Also wish there was a trigger warning. I think that is a general thought for all books to have trigger warnings.

Over all a very interesting horror novel.

The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottir is a chilling horror novella that masterfully builds suspense through its portrayal of a woman suffering from severe sleep deprivation. The protagonist, isolated and struggling to make sense of her worsening condition, begins waking up with mysterious bruises, leading her to question what is happening during the hours she can’t remember. Knutsdottir expertly crafts a narrative filled with dread and uncertainty, making readers question the reliability of the protagonist’s experiences. This novella is a gripping exploration of fear, insomnia, and the blurry line between reality and nightmare.