Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book! I have to say, I was very excited to read a book by Jo Nesbo that seemed so different from his usual detective thrillers. I was gripped by the storyline and very scared but oh so curious to find out what happened! I will be recommending this to every thriller-lover I know!

Book & Beer Pairing! Perfection for the Halloween season!

First the book, I won’t lie to you. I only liked the cover of The Night House. Well, that’s not true, I really enjoyed Part One. So many gory and crazy happenings and ‘WTF’ moments. I just didn’t enjoy the end. I wanted to throw it across the room. Even though I wasn’t a fan, thank you @aaknopf for sending it my way!

Now check out THAT CAN! This is All Hallows Treat from @breweryommegang. It is an imperial chocolate peanut butter stout and I’m saving it for Halloween night. I’ll report back, but I don’t know how is can’t be delicious!

Q. What was the last book you read that had a great cover but ended up disappointing you?

🖤🖤🖤

I had never read a Jo Nesbo title prior to reading the Night House, though I was familiar with his Harry Hole series, which is to my understanding a dark, police procedural. The Night House was nothing like that. Nesbo tackles the campiness of Horror in this installation.

We meet our MC, Richard, after he has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle as a result of the tragic deaths of his parents. Richard is bored in the small town he's been relegated to and quickly finds himself the subject of suspicions of his neighbors when another kid in the town disappears.

There are three parts to The Night House. I enjoyed the latter sections, but really the whole thing was tightly plotted and packed a lot of twists into such a short story.

This was an excellent creepy read for spooky season and a great introduction to horror, a genre I'm more or less unfamiliar with.

I am excited to check out Nesbo's other works now.

This was my very first read by this author but I will definitely be seeking out more of his novels! This was a bloody fantastic ride and I can't wait to read more by him!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an advance copy of The Night House. My reviews never contain spoilers and are freely provided.

Jo Nesbo has created a tale that will play with your mind a bit. Broken into three parts, I thought I understood what was happening, only to have the next section throw me for a loop. Wow. I haven’t read anything in a while that threw me off course like that. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Recommend.

I'm still not sure what I exactly think of this story. I felt confused and had a hard time trying to figure out what I thought was really going on.

3.5 stars

This is a story told over three parts, each more engaging than the last. I was not as invested in the first story so I was glad when the second came along. I think I liked this when I finished reading, but going back through my annotations, I was annoyed by the first story. It got tedious and the romance was boring, but I enjoyed the second and third parts so I didn’t mind it as much when I finished reading.

I was not relating to the first part because the main character is 14 years old and angsty. His character was underdeveloped so he ended up being tiresome and the bullying felt unnecessary and trite. However, after finishing the book, this character’s actions did feel like they fit into the larger story and that this first story was leaning on archetypes for a reason.

The most interesting part of the book to me was the commentary on the power of memory and recollection versus what we dream or create or tell and retell ourselves about the past, especially when we want to be remembered as the hero of the story.
There was also an interesting horror phone element in the beginning, but it fizzled out from there. Although, I suppose, the horrors of enduring high school in a small town speak for themselves.

I would have liked to have seen more character development, less romance, and more horror elements explored, but overall a quick and entertaining read for Halloween.

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

This book is fun, then annoying, and then downright infuriating. The author starts by building this interesting and cool horror filled landscape where an evil figure and black magic have taken hold. But by part two the author undo's all of his excellent storytelling and just starts ticking me off. Then in the final part he pretty much falls on the most common trope of all storytelling and tells us it was all a dream anyway. I understand what he was trying to do with the mental health angle but I think he failed at it miserably.

OMG, I loved this! The Night House was completely enjoyable! It has engaging characters, a story that kept me on the edge of my seat and Nesbo has a wonderful writing style! This is perfect for any horror fan!

This has a great cover and a great first few chapters. I loved the phone booth and the missing friend. The story is, initially, told a bit strange. It had few details and felt more like an outline. Part 1 didn't draw me in and I definitely didn't like the main character.

But Part 2 started to pull the story together. It had more meat the story and gave us a better understand of who everyone was. . .until it, too, went off the rails. By Part 3, I wasn't invested in the story anymore. Parts 1 and 2 just left me so confused, I was just going through the motions to get the book finished. I really wished I'd liked it more. If there had been more phone booth and less relationship drama, I may have enjoyed it more.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

What an unsettling read! I'm not sure what was most frightening, the initial story, or the real story. Either way, this was such a well written, fast read that was perfect for a spooky afternoon read!

I've never read any Jo Nesbo, and have always meant to! I thoroughly enjoyed this! It feels like a classic King or Bradbury-esque horror story, and I read it in one sitting. I predict this to become a modern classic.

This book started out amazing. Through all of part one and the first half of part two it was reminiscent of Dean Koontz and Stephen King and I was invested. Then, quite frankly, it went to hell. What held such promise turned into a different story completely that was beyond disappointing. It would have worked if this hadn't been presented as a horror story. Unfortunately the last part of this story came from nowhere and tore apart the amazing story that was unfolding.

I really loved this book, and I would recommend this to anyone that wants a well written, spooky mystery to read. This book was written in a way that kept the reader engaged and always on the edge, with wanting to know more yet not wanting it to end. There were a few instances where I felt the dialogue was a little stiff, but other than that, this book was a banger and will not disappoint.

This book was not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a haunted house story but ended up being very twisty turny. I found the different parts interesting and wanted to know what was going on. I have only read the first book in the harry hole series and this I think reads more YA compared to his other writing. It was entertaining and would recommend.

2.5 rounded up to 3

The narration was good on this one. It was the story that I had trouble with.

The cover is amazing…I mean, check it out, it’s just so good and gives such creepy slasher vibes.

The first 10% was decent, as was the last 10% or so.

Unfortunately the middle fell flat for me. At random parts during the middle of the book it would capture my attention again, but not for long. I was bored.

The story just seemed a bit disjointed. The characters weren’t memorable.

This cover is what immediately gripped me. It's so good. It looked like a classic horror book or movie cover to me, and I knew I wanted to read.

We start with an unreliable narrator (which we come to better understand later), and then we get the creepiest part of this book straight out the gate with Part one. The stories told from Richard's POV are creepy and scary and almost remind me of classic middle grade Goosebumps, So Weird, or Are you Afraid of the Dark? type stories. This seems to fit perfectly with a young boy relaying these stories to us.

This book is very quick, but it never lets you settle in one place, I can honestly say that I never knew what was going to happen.

This book was written for you if:
1) You love the cover (duh, you do.)
2) You'd like a creepy, scary read
3) You don't mind books that twist and turn and then twist again

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Engaging characters, a plotline that kept me guessing, and wildly imaginative storytelling prose combined for me to create a memorable experience throughout. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves horror or just good solid fiction.

I really wanted to like this and even though the very beginning was pretty horrifying/attention grabbing, I just didn't find myself interested enough to go back to it. It helped that most everyone I know was rating this pretty low, so I felt pretty justified in my gut instinct.

I love the cover of this one, it’s just reminiscent of back in the old days and seems like it was going to be a good, old fashioned horror story. There are three parts to this novel and the first part was the horror I was looking for! Parts two and three didn’t really work for me. And Richard definitely was an unreliable narrator and we know that sometimes those work for me, sometimes they don’t. In the case of this novel, it just didn’t work for me for most of the book. Richard was just not relatable and unlikable, as he is a bully and it is seen from the beginning.

You do wonder what direction the story is going to go as you are reading. It did take me way too long to read this one: a whole month. My job is trying out us working 4 10-hour days, which means an extra day off during the week! Which I’m hoping will lead to more free reading time! I am hoping for that at least!

Overall, this book was not what I was expecting. I wanted a good scary horror story for the month of October, and most of the book was not that for me. This is also a foreign author and the book was translated, maybe the difference in the countries and story is what didn’t really work for me.

Many thanks to the publisher for granting me a copy to read and review. I just wish I could have enjoyed the novel more