The Night House was most certainly an interesting read, not at all what I was expecting to read. A book filled with who dunnit and a child that at this point everyone thinks is a murderer and a pyschopath. He swears he watched an old telephone in a booth slurp a young man up until there was nothing left of him. He does his best to convince those in town that it wasn't him he didn't do anything that it was the man in the phone book. However the name in the phone book has vanished and when they do hear the name he is told that person is long dead and the home he lived in is a ruin.
Is it really though? A legend follows this home and its occupant, people are terrified but one young man is determined to make it known that this legend is real.
Almost like a version of The Mothman #TheNightHouse is a mind bending novel of horror and suspense.

I'd like to thank #Netgalley for the chance to read #NightHouse in return for a fair and honest review.

What a thrill ride if a book. Every chapter brings you closer and closer to what is happening and my god does it take you on the ride of your life. All I can say is grab a cup of tea and curl up to enter The Night House. You won’t be disappointed.

I was really excited for the Night House by Jo Nesbo. Its's Spooky season and I am ready for all the creepy horror books. Unfortunately, this book didn't meet my expectations. I will say it was a quick read and there were elements that were well done, but it did fall flat for me. The characters were one dimensional. The story didn't flow and was left open ended.

As we reach September, it’s officially time for my Spooky-Season reading to start. I chose “The Night House” by Jo Nesbo as my first official Halloween read and quickly devoured it.

Richard is the new kid in town – living with relatives after his parent’s died in a fire. He isn’t very likable, but admits that he purposefully puts up a wall against others so that he won’t be hurt by them first.

The story starts right out the gate, with the supernatural elements kicking in in chapter one. While highly unbelievable, I still wondered if what Richard is going through is actually true or a figment of his imagination. Either way, I enjoyed this part of the novel the most.

There are two big twists in this novel, and while I enjoyed the first one, and was really looking forward to the new direction the story was going in, the third twist – to me – seemed a bit cliched and derivative.

Overall, I enjoyed the majority this novel and finished in three days. The translation was excellent and was definitely a page turner, I just felt a bit let down by an ending that I’ve read and seen many times before.

I do like a good horror book, however this one fell a bit short. It started out good in part one. Part two and three were a bit of a disappointment. I’m sure this book will appeal to others, it just didn’t to me
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

When I heard Jo Nesbø was diving into horror, I couldn't resist. My first introduction to his work was Headhunters, an art heist thriller that I absolutely adored, but in general, spooky stories are much my speed than the (still very good) nordic noir police procedurals that Nesbø usually writes. I'm not sure what I expected from a Jo Nesbø horror, but the Night House defied all expectation.

I can't recount too much of the plot without risking serious spoilers, but the story centers on Richard, a teenage orphan who hasn't really dealt with the loss of his parents and is, much of the time, a bit of a prick. He has few friends, and those he has, he treats poorly. When his few friends begin disappearing, under grotesque and unbelievable circumstances, Richard is the only suspect. The stories he tells are simply too outlandish to be believed.

The twists and turns that follow are surreal and sometimes dreamlike, giving the feel of a David Lynch movie with a bizarre, untethered plot. And, like a David Lynch movie, I had to sit with this book for a minute before I could really tell how much I liked it.

In that sense, this book is a perfect choice for people who like Catriona Ward's novels or movies like Barbarian that give you the impression that you're watching one story, when the real plot is something else entirely. Admittedly, that sort of structure isn't for everyone, though I enjoy it tremendously.

Along the same line, early parts of the book rely on archaic literary and cinematic tropes that normally wouldn't sit well with me (e.g. dangerously insane psychiatric patients and one character who is a textbook example of the "Magical Negro"). But as the "true" story of the book develops, I came to believe that the use of those tropes was by design, giving the first part of the book the feel of an old-school movie. By the conclusion, I felt like the depiction of mental illness and trauma that you're left with is a much more nuanced and compassionate one than I'd been expecting at the halfway point.

It may not work for everyone, but it worked for me. And, honestly, I'm astonished that Nesbø could fit so much plot into fewer than 200 pages.

I really, really wanted to like this book. I like Nesbo’s Harry Hole series and was really excited about a venture into horror, but this one fell flat for me. The “horror” scenes were a bit outlandish, and there were too many instances where I as the reader questioned what was actually happening. This isn’t the Nesbo I’d recommend.

As much as I wanted to love this it unfortunately fell a little flat for me. Although I felt like I was thrown into the middle of a story, I was sucked into this book at first. I loved the horror aspect and I was reading so quickly through the first part. Then the second part came into play. I was confused and it felt a little disjointed but I was still soldiering on, convinced there was going to be a twist. And there was. And it was fine. Everything after the first part honestly just felt clunky and weird. I sped read the third part because I just wanted to get it over with. This is my first book by this author and maybe it’s just not the writing style for me. Such a bummer since I loved the synopsis and the cover. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy

As a horror story, this just didn’t work for me. The situations were too far-fetched, laughable in several cases. However, the structure of the novel was creative and I liked how all of the important people/things reappeared several times throughout.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

I will not be giving feedback on this title. I apologize but I don't remember asking for this book but if I did, again....I am sorry.

Richard moves in with his Aunt and Uncle after his parents' tragic death. He's instantly an outcast. One of his only friends is reluctant to participate in a prank call but when he does, he's sucked through the phone. When another boy disappears, Richard is in the spotlight as now there are two missing boys. (NOTE: This reads VERY middle-grade)

Cut to 15 years later..... well, no. I'm not going to cut to 15 years later because it would spoil it.

I think that this writer has that something special that is necessary to write horror. While the jump 15 years is a nice element, the first part did read a bit too junior for me. Still, this had everything else I love, creep house included.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this novel before its publication date.

This was creepy. There were so many layers. I can't explain too much without spoiling all the twists and turns in this horror/thriller. It was such a change from Nesbo's Harry Hole novels, which are also great. I've been a fan of horror for a LONG time, and this one definitely hit the spot!

This was ... so boring. I'm bummed because I was really excited.... but man, I couldn't stay interested for the life of me. It was a short book though, so yay?

Can this book be ANY MORE wild. I was stuck between “letting it go” because I am not a fan of horror and it was getting gruesome, to “I can’t stop reading” because there were so many twists, especially between parts 1, 2 and 3. This book kept me on my toes, and right when you thought you were getting to an end, there was more. We meet Richard, in the beginning who is a teen and is living with his aunt and uncle after the tragic death of his parents, he’s a bully, but then when his friends started to disappear in these CRAZY ways he’s sent away because he’s a suspect, but then he saves the day when he saves the day in some way, its crazy how everything happens, and then part 2 changes how you view part 1 and part 3 seals it all, but then leaves you hanging a little, it’s a wild ride I will say that.

Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Richard is a 14 year old outcast living with his aunt and uncle after his parents pass away. When one of his classmates disappears, no one believes Richard when he tells them that his classmate was eaten by a telephone receiver. Soon more children disappear and Richard fights to prove his innocence.
This book is difficult to review without spoiling, but it was a lot of fun. It is written in 3 parts and is very short overall. The first part has the energy of an 80's horror film, with lots of tension and terrifying imagery. I did not expect the direction this book took and there were major twists. I really enjoyed this one-another spooky read just in time for Halloween! Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This is a quick read, disturbing and unpleasant. It’s an odd combination of “can’t-put-it-down” and “is-it-over-yet”. There’s an unreliable narrator, twists, and stories within stories. It should have been darkly delightful. Instead, for me, it was just unsettling. It’s going to give me nightmares but not because it was a great story. I didn’t enjoy it, but it got under my skin. I could see this working for someone looking for an 80s/90s classic horror film vibe, but it is not something I enjoyed or would recommend to friends. As much as I enjoy Nesbo’s Harry Hole novels and his version of Macbeth, I’m sorry I read this one.

Ebook/Psychological Horror: May contain spoilers of plot. I would like to thank Netgalley for a copy of the book.
I almost didn't finish this book. I was reading through Part 1 and I was getting bored because it was very much like NOS4A2. I had a stopping point right at the beginning of Part 2 and it took me a week to pick it back up. When the events went into overdrive, I figured it out; mostly because I have a sister with the same problem as Richard. My theory was proven correct in Part 3. It's not a bad tale, but makes light of the seriousness of mental health and its treatments.

One of the most ambitious, unique and impressive books I’ve ever read. This one could end up dividing BookTok, but I found myself captivated by the characters, the story and massive swings Nesbo takes with his storytelling. I don’t want to spoil anything, so check it out for yourself!

Fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved was your typical boy teenager getting into trouble and hanging out with his friends. He was a bully of sorts always daring the weaker kids to do things to make himself feel superior. Since his parents died, he went to live with his aunt and uncle in the town of Ballantyne. Every time his guardians turned around he was in trouble, but the biggest issue was yet to come.

One day while Richard was out with his friend Tom, they happened upon an old house up on a hill. Outside the house sat a phone booth. Richard, being the silly kid that he was, decided to goad Tom into picking up the phone and seeing what would happen. Tom wasn’t going to do it, but he decided he would show Richard he wasn’t a punk. In the phone booth was a directory. As they went down the page they saw a particular name come up. Richard dared Tom again to pick up the receiver and call the residents inside the spooky house.

Tom picks up the phone and the next thing you know, Richard is in the police precinct being questioned as to the disappearance of his classmate, Tom. Richard saw what happened to Tom and he advised his findings to the police, but they didn’t believe his story. Tom’s parents demanded answers and the townspeople were up in arms and worried they had some deranged teenager in their midst. Richard didn’t know what to do. The police advised Richard’s guardians that they believed Richard knew exactly what he did to his classmate. All seemed to get a little quiet in Ballantyne, that is until another classmate of Richard’s goes missing. Just what exactly was happening in the sleepy town of Ballantyne? Welp, in order to find that out, you must read further.

I absolutely loved this horror novel. What I loved about it was the many levels the reader will encounter. Just when you think you understand what is going on, you quickly realize, “that isn’t it.” 😂 You read some more and you think, “ok, I’ve got it now!” And then, boom! You still haven’t quite gotten it right. When an author can scare you, make you think and keep you engaged all at the same time, why you’ve got yourself a recipe for horror. I’m so here for it. I loved this story from beginning to end. What an interesting spin!

Awesome read!!!!

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. I’m really glad Nesbø ventured into the horror genre- this was a fun read! It makes sense, as some of his typical crime fiction can be pretty gruesome. This reminded me a lot of Stephen King, both in writing style and plot points. This didn’t blow me out of the water, but it was fun to read for spooky season!