This book was chilling! I was hooked. The ending fell flat to me, but since I absolutely loved the remaining 98%, I still recommend this to everyone! Perfect narrator as well.

I had a fun time with this book but ultimately it felt like other books I had read before with similar premises. the ending also left me confused which seems to be a common critique. I think this would be good for anyone looking for a quick read and doesn't mind some ambiguity with how stories wrap up.

I listened to the audiobook and the narration was great. The Night Guest is a creepy horror novella that can easily be read in one sitting. I really enjoyed the book and really didn't want it to end. Iðunn has been waking up every morning feeling exhausted and her arms and legs ache. She seeks help from doctors and psychiatrists, trying everything from sleeping pills, to filming herself sleeping, to staying up all night. The Night Guest would be a terrific book club read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audioarc to preview.

Wildly inventive and utterly spine chilling! I loved the translation and narrator did the tale right!

This is a great example of my kind of unsettling horror/thriller. The feeling of wrongness filled every page and I loved it.

While I was a teensy bit underwhelmed by the ending, the overall story was RIVETING. I needed to know more. I needed to consume this novella as fast as physically possible. The narration was superb.

Idunn wakes every morning exhausted and in pain. She has seen many doctors, had many tests and they can find nothing wrong. She has taken vitamins, healthy eating advice and even buys a pedometer watch.
One night, she wears the watch to bed and wakes up seeing she has taken 40,000 in one night. She has no memory of this. Where did she go and what was she doing in the night?
This was a good mounting horror story and then the ending was just, meh. Luckily, it short enough to get finished in about an hour.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio e-arc.*

In the words of another reviewer, “if anyone knows what the hell happened at the end, please let me know.”

The vast majority of this (short) book seemed to set up an excellent story only to fall completely flat with a very inconclusive ending. Either that, or it just totally went over my head. Literally, the first 98% of the book seems so intriguing only to leave the final 2% to a very abrupt ending with the reader asking themselves what just happened.

If you enjoy throwing books at the wall in frustration, please consider this for your next read.

This was a quick, fun horror novella. I found the premise super unique and very creepy. What do you do when you can’t remember what you are doing at night? There is quite a bit of animal cruelty so check trigger warnings.

3.5 rounded up.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC.

This was such a strange story. I honestly honestly don't know what to think about it and I'm completely unsure about the ending. Maybe it's just me, but this book left me feeling more than confused! Also, I absolutely hated the graphic violence towards animals!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for allowing me to listen to an early audiobook version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I binged The Night Guest audiobook in one sitting! It is an eerie and ensnaring story set in contemporary Reykjavík where the FMC is plagued with relentless fatigue. Doctors are dismissing her symptoms until one night Iðunn falls asleep with her smart watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .

What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her? Creepy, propulsive, atmospheric and with an increasing sense of dread, this horror novella is a perfect spooky read. The audio performance by Mary Robinette Kowal is riveting and her panicked performance gave me goosebumps! Please check content warnings before diving in!

This nightmare of a book will keep you awake all night.

I love an unreliable narrator. Iðunn is having the worst sleep of her life; she keeps waking up with unexplained bruises, dirt under her fingernails and more tired than before she fell asleep.

This story is a slow unraveling as Iðunn starts to investigate what happens to her when she falls asleep. From missing neighbourhood cats, to unexplainable text messages from friends, I started to feel like I was going crazy right alongside our main character.

I've never been to Reykjavík, Iceland but I feel like I've done a mini-tour with this book. Our main character spends a lot of time walking around the city and at the waterfront. I love when settings feel like a secondary character. It really shone through and now I want to visit Reykjavík but definitely avoid our main character.

I love the pacing, the creeping dread, the insular feeing of not being able to escape your own body. The ending is perfection and fits the story perfectly.

Mary Robinette Kowal does an amazing job with the narration. This is a translated book, so a lot of the street and character names are in Icelandic, and Mary does an amazing job of flipping between the English translation and the original names with ease.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy.

This book is best read while doing shots of Red Bull, trust me, you will want to stay awake for this one.

This eerie, suspenseful read kept me warily “turning the pages” til the very end. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know how things were going to turn out for out main character, Iðunn, but author Hildur Knútsdóttir has spun such a curiously twisting tale that I finished the audiobook of The Night Guest in one sitting.

Thank goodness I was able to enjoy this story as an audiobook because I think I would have struggled with pronunciation of all the Icelandic names. However, I have never read, or listened to, a single book that takes place in Iceland, nor have I enjoyed any literature written by a native Icelandic author, so delving into the world of contemporary Reykjavik was incredibly fascinating and enjoyable. It didn’t take long for me to settle into the cultural differences and nuanced writing that made this piece of fiction even more unique.

The story itself was unsettling and beautifully creepy. There is something about the feelings surrounding sleepwalking, exhaustion, and undiagnosable mental illness that forms a very strong foundation of fear for a horror novel. Sleep is so precious to a healthy life, so when Knútsdóttir begins messing with that for the main character, a deep sense of foreboding set the mood perfectly for me as a reader. I really began to feel terrible for Iðunn and wanted for her to find a way out of her dilemma. This connection made for a very poignant read.

The audiobook narration for this story was fabulous. I often can’t enjoy audiobooks because the narrator doesn’t seem to fit the story or the main character, but the voice, tone, pacing, everything was perfect for such an unnerving, unique story.

I would highly recommend The Night Guest, but know that it will not be every reader’s cup of tea. As a content warning, the book does contain the…untimely…end of pet cats. And quite a few of them. Anyone who cannot stomach any form of animal cruelty might want to skip this one.

A big thank you to NetGalley for allowing me the privilege to enjoy and review the Audiobook ebook of The Night Guest.

The Night Guest, by Hildur Knútsdóttir, is set to be published on September 3, 2024 through Macmillan Audio

This book was not at all what I was expecting. For a horror novel and with this cover, I was hoping for something better. I didn’t even feel like this was horror for the majority of it. It was underwhelming. I’m glad it was short, so I was able to finish. And the end was probably the most interesting and “horror” part of the story.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for my free ALC of The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir — available Sep 3!

» READ IF YOU «
⌚️ wear a fitbit or other step-counting smartwatch
🥱 have ever been frustrated by not sleeping well
🌊 don't mind a bit of ambiguity in your endings

Translated from Icelandic by Mary Robinette Kowal 🇮🇸 (and also she's the narrator, and great at it!!)

» SYNOPSIS «
Iðunn is sleeping terribly and no medical professional seems able to help her. She's waking up exhausted and with strange injuries, and her smartwatch is telling her that she's taking thousands of steps in the middle of the night. Is she suffering from some strange malady? Or is something more sinister going on?

» REVIEW «
This was firstly, relatable as heck, and secondly, a pretty disturbing ride. I struggle off and on with weird sleep issues, so I felt for Iðunn and all those annoying pieces of advice she'd get — have you tried MELATONIN?!. Oof. Anyway, I loved where this went even if I didn't fully understand how or why things turned out the way they did. I'd say it's more "horror lite" than the cover and marketing imply; more of a psychological horror than anything, but I quite enjoyed it. Also, I love an ending that leaves me with questions and fosters discussion with other readers, so hit me up to chat about it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really like the narration of the one. I felt like I was there with her. Anyone who has ever experienced a Dr. visit where "theres nothing wrong with you" comes out of their mouth, may need a trigger warning for this one. She is constantly getting dismissed when she knows there is something not right.
It's short, weird and then gets weirder. I actual wished it was a smig longer tho, just another 25 pages or so. I like open endings/ slightly open endings, but some stories I just need a bit more and this was one of them.

THE NIGHT GUEST by @hildurknutsdottir

Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher, @macmillan.audio and @tornightfire for the audio-ARC and finished copy. This one comes into the world on September 3!

🤫🤫🤫

Iðunn is exhausted. She goes to sleep every night for a reasonable stint, but wakes up feeling fatigued with sore muscles. As she works through her symptoms with a young, engaged female doctor after being dismissed by a male doctor, she is encouraged to start wearing a fitness watch to track her exercise, sleep and habits. When she wakes up to find that she has walked over 40,000 steps during the night without any recollection, her fears about what is happening to her body are wildly heightened.

This compact thriller translated from the Icelandic does not pack a punch so much as an icy cold hand that slowly closes around your throat, yet the build up is steep with a swift, satisfying ending. Many of the chapters were less than a sentence long which added to the suspense and propelled the story forward in short bursts. The cold, dark setting of Reykjavik in the winter months kept the book's atmosphere feeling chilly and spooky.

If you like thrilling fever dream books, unreliable narrators, sleep-deprivation themes, and a quick, pallet-cleansing read, pick this one up! Bonus that it is a translated title and it is #womenintranslation month and fun fact: I was in Iceland just a month ago, so this was fun to read on the heels of that.

💚💚💚

Do you ever intentionally seek out books set in places you love, places you want to visit, or places you have lived?

💚SMASHBOT💚

#bibliophile #booknerd #books #booksta #bookstagram #booklover #bookreview #thenightguest #hildurknútsdóttir
#booksintranslation #booksbooksbooks
#bookdragon #bookworm #reader

This was one of the creepiest books I have ever read. It was a bad idea to start listening to it when I was having trouble falling asleep. I listened to the entire thing at once. 98% of this book I was thinking it was a five star read. The last 2% is so confusing that I am angry. Perhaps as an American I like stories to have decisive endings. I haven’t read anything like that. She is sleepwalking and always going past the same spot. As she tries to come to terms with what is happening, she goes through different strategies we would all try. Is there going to be a night guest part two? I’m so mad.

I was given the audiobook version in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the ARC.

Seriously, though, what the heck was that?

Ok y’all, highly recommend that you go into this one blind and just enjoy the ride! I will say that this is definitely an unhinged FMC/story. The audiobook was produced well, and kept me interested. While this wasn’t my favorite story, I definitely enjoyed it and will recommend to others.

This was a creepy story about a woman who is constantly fatigued for no reason until she starts using a pedometer and discovers she has an alarming step count upon waking up. Dun, dun, dun! Great premise and I found myself sucked into this audiobook though I did find the narrator slightly grating (felt a little overdone at times).

The book definitely got eerier and more unsettling as the plot progressed and I really wanted to know what would happen. The ending was abrupt and a bit unsatisfying though I’m okay with ambiguous and I have an idea of what happened.

This story was absolutely a slow burn about a woman who is having issues sleeping. She wakes up with bruises and notices her Fitbit says she walked at least 10K more steps that she had when she went to bed. She tries doctors but finally realizes she may be sleepwalking. I loved the pace of this book, the problems the FMC faces while trying to still function on virtually no sleep. Also, there are missing cats that she used to take care of. Excellent story!