Thank you so much Netgalley for this ARC. I really liked this book and I plan on pre ordering it soon.

Really fab horror novella
I couldn't put this one down.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book

Hildur Knutsdótir's novella, 'The Night Guest,' is an absolute blast of a story, a wild ride in deceptively plain prose and weird imagery. Dressed as a mystery of sorts (Iðunn cannot understand why she's waking up more and more tired, when there's nothing pathologically wrong with her), it soon develops into horror, a bizarre melange of a ghost and possession story. Though taking place in Reykjavík, the setting is not really a factor in the story; nor the characters themselves (I could not really relate to anyone). The story itself is the protagonist, the unfolding of a promising premise into the uncanny, the bizarre and the weird; it seemed to me that the intention is to make a point about the loss of identity and the cost of its restoration - at least that's how I read the ending, which is bound to be very divisive and controversial due to its huge ambiguity. Nevertheless, this is a must-read for horror fans, a story full of suspense and creepy horror!

Idunn is exhausted. She sleeps at night and wakes in the morning in pain with bruises she can't recall.

This thriller/ horror novella will absolutely stay with me - the only reason I can't do 5 stars is because I wish the ending had given more. I read this book in two hours and was absolutely riveted. The story is fast-paced and just creepy enough to be unnerving. The reader is given just enough clues about the 'monster' to build tension.

💭eARC review: the night guest by hildur knútsdótir
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

set in Reykjavík, main character Iðunn is constantly tired, waking up with sore muscles and an uneasy feelinh that something in her body feels off. after waking up one morning with over 45,000 steps tracked on her watch, Iðunn has to figure out what and where she’s going at night—and why.

first off, this is a quick quick quick read (less than 200 pages!) which is found to be the perfect length. i was pretty hooked from the start and tore through this in a couple hours. from the characters to the writing style and the eery, weird journey we’re on with the main character, knútsdótir’s book checked all the boxes for me. knocking it down to 4 stars only because of the ending, which i found maddening (but i think that was its intended effect?). definitely check this one out, on sale sept 3, 2024!

cw: bl00d, de*d pets, kn*ves

This is creepier than I expected. I thought it might be more of a mystery, but it was definitely horror. I think it should’ve come with a warning about animal violence and death, but it wasn’t too graphic. This is one of the few books were I really wasn’t sure where it was going to go. I really like the Iceland setting. Her parents were very annoying with the endless poultry. Do they not have vegetarians in Iceland? I did feel like the ending was too abrupt. I also would’ve liked have known a little more about the side characters.

The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottir
Pub date: September 3, 2024

Iounn wakes every morning fatigued and sore, as if she’s been up running a marathon instead of asleep in her bed all night. Seeking doctors to find something to explain this bone weary fatigue has lead her nowhere. On the advice of friends she tries a pedomoter watch to track her exercise during the day. When she forgets to remove it one night, she’s shocked to find she’s walked miles while asleep.

This quick little story is full of horror and chills with a thrilling plot that leads the reader down a merry path of speculating just what is going on. Trust me, you won’t know until you know and then it’s a horrifying discovery!

My thanks to Tor Nightfire for this gifted copy!

This was a very atmospheric, and creepy novella. I really enjoyed it and would love to read more from the author.

Iðunn is tired. She sleeps but wakes exhausted. Her body aches and feels incredibly heavy. What is wrong with her? She has friends, she has family she seems normal…except for the overwhelming sense of fatigue. But when she begins to wake up with odd bruises, dirt under her nails, and unable to remember her nights she gets scared and the story gets very creepy. It’s a short read which is great as you’ll want to read it from start to finish in one sitting! The horror builds as Iðunn realizes she has no control over her body when she shuts her eyes for the night. What happens during those dark hours? The story is suspenseful and full of dread until the very end. It’s a horror filled short read but I would have loved a bit more from the ending. I think this book could have been twice as long with a more fleshed out story and I still would have finished it in one sitting. Is it a critique of the story if the author leaves you wishing for more? If so it is my only one! I’ll look for more from this author! Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing for this advanced reader copy and this is my honest review. The Night Guest will be available September 3rd, 2024.

What did I just read? I'm honestly confused. The book was fast paced and gripping but then the last few chapters were just disappointing.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for this arc.

For fans of James Wan's film Malignant, The Night Guest is a creepy and unsettling tale about a woman inhabited by a "night guest" which causes her to commit acts out of her control whilst sleepwalking. I appreciated the short chapters which really kept the momentum of the story going. The ending was a bit too loose and symbolic for my taste, but it's still a notable novel.

This was a fast paced quick read that was suspenseful that didn’t quite have me guessing but rather wondering which was better. We follow the main character who is having trouble sleeping, and wakes up covered in scratches and bruises and can’t remember why. This was actually very gripping and TW: slight spoiler; Mention of deaths and depictions of cruelty towards cats. I liked the way the character spoke about women and what our roles felt like in society and the slight themes of sexism in healthcare. Overall this is good, something fast paced to either get you out of a slump, hit your reading goal, or if you want a thriller that isn’t that scary.

“The Patriarchy speaks with the voice of my mother.” Literally took my breath away.

I read this as part of my 2024 goal to read more translated works, and in many ways, this one was a success! The book was engaging and I read it in one sitting, maybe 2 hours at the most—it’s about 200 pages with roughly 100 chapters, so definitely a quick and easy read. The translation from the original Icelandic was well-executed.

Hildur Knútsdóttir is a talented writer with a skill for pulling off many of the things I tend to hate the most in literature, especially the horror genre: she creates terse and eerie prose without abusing the enter key. She writes one-sentence chapters (my biggest pet peeve, and no, I’m really not sure why!) that actually add to the book’s atmosphere rather than inspiring me to pitch the entire thing off a roof. She works in a clever feminist theme without bashing it repeatedly over the reader’s head just in case they missed it the first time. The characters are minimally drawn but still feel like people.

There’s a ton of cool stuff going on here. I loved that this was also about a woman not being taken seriously by doctors; it was a great theme and very realistic—a woman with severe sleep disturbance being passed off to a psychologist rather than a sleep specialist to do some sort of testing is a prime example of the struggle women go through daily simply trying to get the same level of care a doctor would offer a man with the same complaints without blinking. I loved everything about it up until the ending.

Without spoiling anything, the last ten percent of the book seems to be missing, and I am just so desperately tired of turning the page to the acknowledgments when I’m expecting at least four more chapters, or at least one longer one to finish things off. Don’t get me wrong—a sharp ending or an unexpected cut can be a fantastic literary tool. I’ve read and adored books that use it effectively. But usually, when you use this sort of ending, it’s because your point has been made. There’s an obvious conclusion for the reader to come to at the moment it cuts. This one is not that. This one is like cutting the last few minutes off The Usual Suspects so nobody knows that Kevin Spacey is Keyser Söze. It’s just a weird thriller about an unresolved mystery.

And because of the ending, that’s sort of what The Night Guest was for me. It’s just a weird thriller about the unresolved mystery of a woman doing bad things in her sleep, and the horror peters out. There are fairly obvious hints as to what’s happening, but none of it is ever explained or resolved in a way that feels satisfying or makes sense. I do think there’s an argument to be made that this is the point, it’s meant to be enough as is, but it just didn’t work for me. I needed more from this one. I needed the explanation, or a more dramatic confrontation, or something other than all that fantastic buildup fizzling out.

Overall, a cool premise, but a disappointing execution and ending.

ARC by NetGalley and the publisher.

Iðunn is tired, more tired than she has ever been. Doctors visits don’t seem to be helping as all the tests and blood work come back normal. Friends and family advice is just about as helpful… get more exercise, take some extra vitamins, and eat better. Iðunn reluctantly tries the tips, getting a step tracker and sleeping pills. When mysterious bruises start showing up every morning along with no memory of how they got there though she begins to truly worry. Not to mention now her step counter is reading that she is taking thousands of steps while she’s sleeping.

This horror novella was a quick read taking only a few hours to complete. I found the premise to be intriguing which kept me reading. The creeping sense of dead progressively builds the farther you get into the story. There are some trigger warnings to be noted such as blood, gore, and death of pets (several actually). While the plot had me interested and eagerly waiting for some answers, they sadly never truly happen. I ended up having more questions that just added one to my unresolved ones. Overall the story had me interested but the overly ambiguousness of the ending lost me.

The Night Guest comes out September 3rd, 2024.

Thank you again NetGalley and Tor Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Night Guest is such a fun and fast read I highly suggest this novella for many reasons. First, it's set in Iceland, while the setting isn't extraordinarily descriptive within the narrative, I always gravitate towards books set in Iceland and it does amp up the spooky feel if you've been to Iceland you know the feeling. Our main character is also very relatable, she is a woman who is experiencing non-descript physical symptoms that have been dismissed time and time again by doctors. Nothing is showing up in her blood work and all she wants is answers or even just a doctor who cares and takes her symptoms seriously. Everything changes after she takes the suggestion to walk more and increase her physical activity, she buys a step-tracking device and discovers that her nighttime activity is through the roof. This novella is the perfect length for this fun little story!

This book is utterly bizarre.

It’s one of those book that you read compulsively, always wondering what on earth is going on, and ending with “What the (insert your favorite expletive here) did I just read?!?!”

I also think it’s one of those book that people will either really like or really, almost violently, dislike.

It’s a brutal nightmare of a book with an ending that will definitely surprise you – for good or bad.

I really enjoyed the experience. I hope you will too.

• ARC via Netgalley

In so many thriller/horror stories, there's a tendency for the main character to be a step behind the reader....a pandering I've never quite understood. What I loved most about The Night Guest was that the MC seemed to be in step with me, the reader. A rich, compelling story besides that, too.

Woooooo, this is creepy! Iðunn keeps waking up as bone tired as if she hasn’t slept at all. She gradually starts to realize that something is happening at night after she falls asleep, something seriously wrong. And if she tries to stop it…she gets punished.

The less said about this novella, the better, although I will put a very heavy trigger warning on this for multiple violent animal deaths. If you’re a cat lover, especially, you should never read this.

There are a couple of open door sex scenes, and the gore content is way up there.

Still, it’s a quick, intense read, and it sufficiently creeped me out, enough to start a more innocuous book before I try to get to sleep. 😉😱

I received an advance eARC from NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group/Tor Nightfire in exchange for my honest feedback (thanks!). Also, Mary Robinette Kowal not only introduced the author to her own agent, but Kowal translated this from Icelandic! Thanks for helping to get this published!

”I walk into the darkness.” Iðunn’s body is struggling: it keeps hurting, and she doesn’t sleep very well. She keeps waking up more hurt than the night before. After one doctor’s visit after the other, she tries to find someone who will understand and help her. But how come her watch tells her she walked over 40k steps while she was asleep? What is happening?

…this was chilling to read. I liked how short the chapters were, making the story more fast paced. It was easy to read. It kept me wanting to read more and oh dear the plot twist? Mind boggling. I definitely want to read more from Hildur Knutsdottir!

Happy reading!♥️

What a spine-chilling read! This novella is truly unique, with its fast-paced horror narrative that kept me on the edge of my seat. While I was prepared to give it a full five stars for its scary and unconventional storyline, the ending left me slightly disappointed, leading to a slightly lower rating. However, don't get me wrong! The book is still a thrilling, smart, and surprising piece of work, with a well-executed translation that perfectly captures the dark and sarcastic tone of the characters and the overall creepiness of the story.

I devoured this novella in less than two hours, completely engrossed in the story even as my husband complained about the burned dinner. After finishing the book, I found myself losing my appetite and feeling a spine-tingling sensation on my neck, as if the main character, Iðunn, was watching me with her vacant, sleepy eyes!

Now, let me give you a quick recap of this dark and bleak novella that you definitely shouldn't read before bedtime:

The story unfolds in the starless nights of Reykjavik, where Iðunn lives, suffering from clinical fatigue that she fears may be a symptom of something terminal. However, blood tests reveal she's physically healthy, suggesting her situation may be psychosomatic, related to stress. She has a dysfunctional relationship with her family, who are also grappling with the death of their elder daughter, and her relationship with her coworker ended on a sour note.

Iðunn tries to control her sleeping habits by tracking her sleep patterns with a new watch, but each time she wakes up, she finds herself in disturbing situations, such as blood covering her face, a black swollen eye, or broken nails, with her body covered in dirt. She discovers that she sleepwalks at night and always ends up in the same location. But why is she walking there? What is happening to her?

I may have revealed too much already, but if you're up for an ultra-bizarre ride that will send shivers down your spine, I highly recommend diving into this unputdownable journey!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group/Tor Nightfire for providing me with a digital review copy of this riveting horror novella in exchange for my honest thoughts.