When Richard Alphons parents died in a fire he was sent to live with his aunt Jenny and uncle Frank. Richard was a bully and a troublemaker and although he seem to hate everyone he did appreciate his friendship with the popular girl named Karen. he had a friend named Tommy but after Tommy went missing due to strange circumstances and a story that no one believed and the town thought he did it, this didn’t stop him from making fun of his new friend Jack who he called fatso. It’s when Jack goes missing that the inspector and local police doesn’t know what to do with him but have no proof of this guilt but decide to send him away anyway. Richard believes since the police will not believe him, therefore not investigate he is going to find EMO Yanson himself. EMO Jansen is the guy Richard forced Tommy to prank call by opening up the phone book for valentine then finding a random name and told Tommy to tell him he is going to hell and he will see him there but the joke was on Richard and especially Tommy because this is win the phone sucked Tommy up. Things only get stranger after Richard and his new friend Jack go and search of Imo‘s house soon after Jack will go missing and Richard will be sent to a corrections facility unfortunately being sent away did not free Richard from being haunted by the things he saw and email himself he learns that not only did email get sent to the facility but strange things happen there this is one of the reasons Richard decide he is going to solve it himself especially after he has a nightmare where Imo called him on the phone and told him Karen Wilburn. I am not doing this book justice this was an awesome book not only the description of the house where Imo live with the way the boys went missing and even when poor Richard goes away he is still not free and clear of the strange man’s taunts and tricks. Not only did this author write a great book he has a very talented way of writing to get you engrossed in the story and keeps you turning the pages can Richard solve the case of his missing friends improve what a Tara emo Jansen is or will he and or Karen be the next victims? I also want to say I don’t know if they were supposed to but those twins gave me the creeps I don’t know if it was because it was twins in a horror story because they were creepy I couldn’t decide but either way this is an awesome book and a book I highly recommend. I want to thank Knoph and pantheon and net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

What a wild ride! Omg my brain didn't even know what to think from the halfway mark on. The first half is very Stephen King-esque, supernatural forces at work that only the young can see. That story alone was so interesting but then the real insanity starts. I don't want to say much and spoil anything so just know that it will all make sense in the end and is a fabulous story perfect for fans of horror and psychological thrillers.

3-3.5

This was the first book I’ve read by this author. I absolutely loved the cover art; it’s really what sold me on reading this story. The writing is top-notch, immersive, and descriptive. He did a great job of bringing me into this world and meeting the characters.

There are three parts to this story, and each part feels like its own short story. They all do weave together, and things make sense by the time we get to the end, but while reading each part, it did feel a bit disjointed and clunky. They didn’t seamlessly flow together, which took me out of the story as I had to acclimate to each section because they were jarringly different.

With the first part, it felt like a middle grade R.L. Stine horror story, which I enjoyed. I grew up reading R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike back in the late 80s and early 90s, and the first part of the story felt really nostalgic. However, I thought the horror scenes would keep building on top of each other and continuously get more gruesome or scarier, but unfortunately, they didn’t, which was disappointing. I wanted a lot more horror than what we got. But, it did keep my interest because I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next and get explanations of all the strange things going on.

But then, once I got to the second part of the book, it really started to go downhill for me. It felt flat and began to lose my interest. There are scenes toward the end of part two that felt like a fever dream where I was just confused and ready for the book to be over. But I still wanted to know what was truly going on and get the explanations that I had been wanting since the beginning.

Then I got to the final part of the story where everything was brought together and explained. It wasn’t what I was expecting and was a bit of a letdown. It reminded me of a few movies I’ve seen with similar plots, but I can’t give titles or it would ruin this book. It did have an uplifting, satisfying ending, but I wish the road to get there was a bit bumpier, scarier, and more thrilling. I wish we got more horror than mystery.

Overall, it was a decent story. I am interested in reading more from this author, but I don’t know if I would recommend this book to everyone, maybe to some people.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. These are my own thoughts and opinions.

I was in the mood for something a little scary - October, right? This sounded like it could be just the thing and the cover definitely drew me in. However right from the start I struggled with the book and the character’s perspective we are thrown into. I gave it a little while to see if it would get better but it really just didn’t work for me. Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley and PRH audio for the free copies to review.

The Night House by Jo Nesbo

Short Take: Jaw, this is Floor. Floor, this is Jaw. But I see you’ve already met.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

Hello my beloved nerdlings! It’s been a crazy week, but lately, it kind of seems like they all are. There’s a staggering amount of insanity all over the news, all the time, and then a seemingly endless series of stuff coming up in Nerd World. Nothing super note-worthy, but just a sort of constant, low-level drumbeat of deadlines and events and tasks and goals and all of it set against the screaming loudness of the madness in the headlines.

It’s exhausting, you know? My attention span is practically nonexistent at the moment, but Jo Nesbo knows how to metaphorically grab me by the face and keep my eyeballs engaged. And if my brain’s a little melted afterward, well, I can live with that.

In The Night House, fifteen year old Richard Elauved is having a tough time of it. His parents have died tragically, causing him to have to move to a new town to live with his aunt and uncle. He doesn’t get along with the kids at school, and well, he’s kind of a little turd. A bully to his classmates, a thief, rude and dismissive to the adults trying to care for him, a liar…. You get the idea. So when a boy in his class disappears when hanging out with Richard, of course the police suspect him. Even though Richard has a perfectly reasonable explanation for the bizarre death he witnessed and totally played no part in. And then it happens again.

Duckies, what’s the word for when you feel like you’re inside a kaleidoscope, and at every turn, everything gets shaken around and resettled into something new and surprising? This book is that. I was at about the halfway point, and thinking I was reading a certain type of book that I generally avoid & won’t name for spoiler reasons, but then everything I thought I knew was both confirmed and denied. And then the story kept spinning out into chaos, then settling back into a tight sensible circle, until the final heartbreaking truth.

I’ll admit that it took me a little while to really warm up to this one, though. It’s hard to engage with Richard, as he’s an extremely unpleasant narrator for much of the book. The early chapters (after the first big shocker) move slowly, and so many of the characters feel one-dimensional. But ohhhhhh once that first big twist happens, I dare you to keep your face from falling open.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and a few deep breaths. We all need that right now.)

Okay this book had me thinking WTF!! I went into this booking thinking it was a paranormal thriller/horror but that was not what i got. The storyline if this book was really interesting and had me gasping at the ending because the plot twist was 🤯

This is one I can’t decide where I land! It’s somewhere between 3.5-4. This story ended up being surprisingly sad! However the ride to get to the ‘sad’ ending was absolutely bonkers. I really enjoyed this and read it start to finish in one sitting!

I enjoyed the first half of this book. It was fun, creepy, imaginative, and kept my attention.

Then, the timeline changed to 15 years later, and it turned into some messed up fever dream that lost my interest.

In the end, a twist finally helped bring the story together. Still, I would rather have had the book continue in its original direction, so I was a bit disappointed all together.

This is my first book by this author. I would definitely give his other books a try.

I gave this 3.5 stars rounded down to 3⭐️.

My thanks and appreciation to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced ebook copy of this book.

Although I did not love this book, I did enjoy the twists and turns a good bit. I also was delighted to read something so eerie and horror-ful in October- it definitely helped set the mood for Halloween! I have not actually read Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books and although I did not love the Night House, now I definitely want to check out his other novels! I'm more of a mystery than horror person anyways. Three and a half stars, rounding up because the aggravating writing in the first section is very intentional. Keep going! All will be revealed.

First things first: don't go into The Night House expecting it to be in any way like Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole crime series. The (freaking incredible) cover of this book is not lying: This is, in fact, a horror novel about a kid-eating payphone. Or is it?

At the beginning of the book we meet 14-year-old Richard Elauved, who has recently moved to live with his aunt and uncle in the town of Ballantyne after his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire. He quickly becomes an outcast at school, and he is the prime suspect when his classmate Tom goes missing. Because, you see, Richard was with Tom when he disappeared -- and no one believes him when he insists that Tom was eaten by payphone. When another classmate disappears in Richard's presence, Richard must set out to prove his innocence by any means necessary -- even if it means venturing into the Night House...and venturing deeper into his own mind.

Part I of this book reads like a love letter to vintage YA horror, reminding me strongly of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. It was silly and creepy and campy, and I was riveted and happy to just go along for the ride. In Parts II and III, things get very twisty and bizarre, and there is some genre-jumping. While I appreciated the twists and the unpredictability, the execution was a bit muddled. I also felt -- and maybe this was due to the translation -- that the writing was too much telling and not enough showing, which made the story lack tension for me. Even the sections where Richard is an adult read as very YA.

Ultimately, I'm not sure all three of the sections worked together as well as they could have. I had a different expectation in mind for this book, and the direction Nesbø took in Part III wasn't entirely satisfying for me.

If you're a fan of Catriona Ward's books, you'll probably enjoy The Night House as this has very similar vibes to her work. As for me, I think I enjoyed the idea of this book much more than its execution. Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for the complimentary reading opportunity.

I've been a long time fan of Jo Nesbo but didn't know he also write in the horror genre as he's most known for his action thriller series. I'm glad I came across this novel because Nesbo is a VERY capable horror author. The horror spreads to every single page and you find yourself never wanting to put the book down. A very rewarding read.

This book is about a young malcontent named Richard Elauved in a town called Ballantine. And a phone booth that eats people. Well, it ate Tom, that’s for sure. And then things get a whole lot worse.

Honestly it’s hard to say a lot about this book without giving too much away. If you know anything about Jo Nesbo you know she is a clever writer and that is on display here. If you like horror and a good coming of age story, you’re probably going to find a fair amount to like here. Or maybe not. Some people won’t like it. I liked it.

Jo Nesbo has made a name for himself writing wildly successful dark crime thrillers. That’s not exactly my genre, but when I heard that he was taking a stab at a horror novel, and promising a unique twist, I made the leap.

And at first, I was pleasantly surprised.

The Night House opens with Richard, a first person narrator who would fit in alongside the narrators of The Wasp Factory or The Butcher Boy: dangerous, bullying, violent, and vulnerable. But Richard is immediately put off balance after he bullies another student into making a prank phone call and then watches the phone receiver (quite literally) eat the other boy in a scene that is incredibly well drawn and perfectly filtered through Richard’s very unique sensibilities.

Things get weirder from there. Another boy is transformed into a bug, and soon the police are involved, and all eyes are on Richard. Eventually he is shipped off to an institution.

Oh, and there’s a creepy old house in the woods that Richard believes is at the center of all of the strange goings on.

I was pleasantly engaged with this delightful batshittery, but then part one ends, and we shift into a new narrative in which all of part one is revealed to be the dark children’s book the now adult Richard has written, and we meet all of the characters from part one, but now in their supposedly “real” forms, as opposed to the way they have been artistically transformed through Rihard’s creative process.

I think that The Night House could have pulled this off, and there’s another version of this book that is a meditation on trauma and art, but Nesbo isn’t really interested.

Instead, this second story almost immediately goes off the rails, sliding into a kind of free-for-all of surreal horror. But unlike the horror of the first section, there doesn’t appear to be anything at stake. I’m no longer reading to find out what’s going on or if Richard is successful, but rather to see what trick the writer plays next.

The answer, unfortunately, is that the final trick is almost unforgivable, barely rising above the cliché of “It was all a dream,” and shockingly close to the classic I am the Cheese.

This is especially disappointing to me because there are genuinely great passages within The Night House, and Nesbo is clearly a capable writer, but in the end, this felt like horror written by someone with only a vague idea of what that designation might mean. In another situation, that blindness might make for something unique and fascinating. Unfortunately, here it’s a misfire.

I found this to be a really odd book. I don't love books with unreliable narrators, and this was my least favorite one I've read in a while. The marketing made it sound like a horror novel, which it really turns out not to be. I feel like it probably could have been a short story, rather than a novel. Getting dragged through the narrator's delusions for over half the book gets kind of boring after a while. I liked that the narrator had a happy ending and managed to get over what had happened to him as a child (at least somewhat), and was possibly going to have a career and a future with Karen. However, if I had known it was going to be more of a psychological novel than a horror novel, I probably would not have read it. This was the first book I've read by Jo Nesbo, and it didn't make me want to ready any more of his novels. It was okay, but not great.

I love horror and looked forward to reading this book. I was in for a surprise. Not only was it a horror story, but it was also a love story, a mystery story, and a look at how trauma can affect a person's life.

A young man moves in with his grandparents after losing his mother and father in a fire. As he tries to adjust to a new school and new friends he experiences one horror after another. When he tries to explain what happened to his friends he is not believed. He is a suspect in their disappearance. Struggling to come to grips with what has happened he finds himself in even more trouble.

This is an engrossing read. I highly recommend this book to mystery and horror fans as well. But be ready for some surprises.

This was my first read from this author and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

There are three main parts to this story and each part felt like its own isolated horror story even though they all revolve around the same MC. I didn't love our MC, in fact, I didn't even like him. He was quite a jackass IMO. But I felt like a lot of that was the point. Normally I don't know if I would have put up with the MC but I was enjoying the horror descriptions so I kept reading. By the end I was ok with the MC. I think the author made the right choice for the story. Overall a decent thriller to add to my October reads.

"If you have to be fucked up, you might as well be properly fucked up."

The Night House by Jo Nesbø is a classic style horror novel that has been translated by Neil Smith. The audio is narrated by Michael Crouch with the flair of an 80s style horror flick. If you're a lover of writing style's like Stephen King with layers to the narrative, than you'll enjoy this!

The book is told in three distinct parts. Each section is as weird and outlandish as the next, that is, until all the pieces come together. I felt like I was thrust into a fever dream of nightmares only to come out the other end whole and slightly disturbed.

Nesbø shows his talent as an author with this novel. He embraces the elements that craft a horror novel and builds on an ever evolving narrative. The characters are not what I'd call likable but they are hard to turn away from. The atmosphere breathes urban legend at its core and touches on a more psychological horror it its heart.

Released on the 3rd, I recommend adding this twisted dark rabbit hole to your spooky tbrs!

As someone who very much enjoyed Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series, I was excited to get my hands on a copy of The Night House.
Unfortunately the author's first stab at a horror novel left me a little dazed, confused and a little furious.
Part one of the story was super fun, campy, very reminiscent of horror movies I watched as a teen.
Part two sent my head spinning, as I found the abrupt change in plot disorienting at first, but grew to appreciate it along the way.
Alas, where it really went of the rails for me was when part 3 tried to clear things up in a tidy package, but to me it just felt cheap and convenient, which is all I can say without spoiling the ending (even tho I really have some strong opinions about the theme and how I think it is best avoided in this day and age).
I would have enjoyed the book a lot better if part 3 had never happened to be honest. I believe there was a great book in there somewhere. Maybe next time!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy of this book. This is the first Nesbo book I've read and I guess he is just not for me. There are supernatural elements to the mystery and the twists do not exactly make sense if you are not realizing that. Might be a great read for science fiction or supernatural fans, but only getting 2 stars from me.

As I read this book my review was going to be about how this reminded me of the great coming of age horror novels I’ve read and loved in the past. Then there was the twist which made it more intense and elevated the genre and THEN there was another twist that made this a horror book that will be sure to stick with me. A great novel that I plan to recommend to others.
Thanks to #Netgalley and Knopf for this ARC in return for my honest review.