I loved the cover of this book and the concept in the description. I wanted to love it but sadly I did not. It read like it was a short story in a book of stories or a middle grade book. I hate books filled with hate and revenge which I saw alot of in this. I did not hate the characters. I just did not care for them at all. I did not enjoy going through the story. by the time the plot was getting into motion I just had no connection to the characters or the town. I do not think this one was for me.

This book has 3 sections. The first section is amazing, and the author probably should have quit while he was ahead. Luckily, it's the longer of the 3 sections. Great horror with some pretty inventive ideas and monsters. It is neatly wrapped up, bow tied, and delivered.

Then the next section continues the story but invalidates what came before, which is as disappointing as a story ending with, "and then he woke up". That's not the actual situation, but it feels like that.

And then it happens again, with the final section.

I wish I could like it more, but it is a very disappointing denouement. It would have easily been a 5-star book if the author had known when to stop.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the digital ARC of The Night House by Jo Nesbo. The story is about Richard who moves to a small town with extended family after suffering a tragedy. As the new kid, he has a hard time fitting in and when two boys go missing that he was last seen with, the town is immediately suspicious of him. None believes his wild stories about what happened to them. It's up to Richard to clear his name and discover the truth of the unbelievable disappearances. But can we really trust him?
I enjoyed the majority of the book. It is fairly short so it is a pretty quick read. The pacing was constant throughout the story and was right to the point. There are plenty of twists I was not expecting! I am not sure how I feel about the ending and how it was all wrapped up. The final twist was unexpected for sure, but I am still on the fence if it was one I can say I really enjoyed. But overall I thought it was fun and imaginative! Solid 3.5/5 stars

Wasn’t really a fan of this book. Started out really good then I kinda just dragged on. The middle wasn’t really great feel like nothing happened.

I’ve read Nesbo’s Harry Hole series before and enjoyed them. I am really glad that I tried this standalone “The Night House” which is more of a thriller and more to my personal taste lately. Found it very enjoyable and well paced, hard to put down. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary DRC, my pleasure to read and review it

This book had a lot of potential that sadly did not fulfill. Felt more like a Goosebump novel, very juvenile, but without the scares & wit. Also, the story built up to have no real connection to the ending.

I got 30% of the way through this book and sadly I think it's a case of it's me and not the book. I really loved the gothic horror aspect of the house and mysterious disappearances, but I couldn't connect with the story as much as I wished to. I still highly recommend to anyone looking for an old-school horror genre vibe.

This book was a rollercoaster but more in the sense that all the cool stuff happens out of the gate and you round the last loop to discover you're only halfway done with the ride and the rest of the track resembles a train track instead of adrenaline high you signed up for.

Part 1
Well laid out, descriptive, and captivating in all the right places. I want the rest of this book. I want them to get out of the hospital only to discover its not over and they have one last stretch to discovering the truth of the it all which will be just as gruesome and freaky as part 1. Then it all wraps up with bonds forged in terror, and man that was a crazy year. Unfortunately that is only wishful thinking.

Richard, his classmates and family are all well crafted. They feel like people I went to school with, and I definitely see how the author laid the foreshadowing for the big reveal in part 3, it's a start that sucks you in from the first chapter.

Part 2
At first, I was annoyed at how "meta" this part was. As the situation in this part escalated I kept trying to reason out what was happening and try and make sense of the discrepancies in memories and such. It gave the vibes of It but less space alien and more 'we forgot to salt and burn the bones haunted house'. This left me hopeful that we just time jumped to realizing they hadn't rid them self of it as adults and banning together to defeat the . . . nope. Just another spoiler alert for part 3. As with part 1 the characters aged up was really perfection. Aren't high school reunions all the same?

Part 3
The whole end of this book is a disappointment for me. It felt lackluster in the sense, of why did I even read the first two parts? Where those were vibrate and made you feel apart of the scenes, this section focused on telling the reveal and wrapping up how everything really happened. It was very day in the life, beat you over the head with all the foreshadowing that was laid and parallels with more of that great meta

This type of ending just might not be my cuppa tea. If you enjoy bait and switch reads, you'll likely enjoy the full book. It is very much a psychological horror thriller type read that will leave you looking back at the first two parts to see if you noticed the cracks.

The Night House starts off strong, I really enjoyed part one and it honestly could have stopped there. Part two and three were pointless and made the whole reading experience way too confusing and weird. Don’t get me wrong, I like confusing and weird but it has to be done correctly. The way this book is written and the twist just make it like it was pointless to read. Like I stated, part one was the best and if it would have stopped at that, this would have gotten a much higher rating. I am giving it points for having at least an interesting plot, decent characters, and the cover alone gives it some points.

Jo Nesbo is one of my favorite authors. He usually writes thrillers about insane criminals sought by the alcohol addled policeman ,Harry Hole. This book is entirely different. You need to hang up your hat and don your willingness to believe in magic and the impossible because this is a horror story written by a master of his craft.
Young Richard Elauved, is an orphan whose parents were killed in a fire. He is sent to live with his small town aunt and uncle. When weird things begin to happen and people go missing, Richard comes under suspicion. At first it feels like a magical setting fit for young readers, and THEN the story blossoms into a full fledged horror tale that is impossible to figure out. Needless to say that Nesbo’s writing is eerily descriptive. I loved reading a book by an author I adore that took me to a totally unexpected place.
Four stars for a completely creative, original and captivating story. Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf publishers for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available on October3, 2023 right in time for the spooky season!

Well paced and full of detail. Claustrophobic and thrilling I felt like I was right inside of the book.
Thank you Netgalley for an awesome arc in exchange for my honest opinion

I really wanted to like this book more than I did.

I think this book had a lot of promise but, in the end, it felt very confusing at times and just fell flat for me.
Overall, I really liked the first twist between Parts 1 and 2. However, I just felt that the "horror" aspect of the book was lacking. I am a lover of both Horror movies and books and this one just felt too weird and had me with one eyebrow raised at all times.

It was still a pretty easy and quick read and I would actually recommend this book for anyone looking to just read something a bit campy and unrelatable.

The opening of this book comes with soo much promise and each part of the story winds around the last to form a 3 part examination of peoples treatment of each other and themselves. We meet the main character as a troubled foster youth, caught up in a horrible tragedy. As the plot moves forward it dabbles in magic and unrequited love. Although the protagonist starts as a typical bully they resolve in the end to be the very definition of the sympathetic character. So even though its not easy to get into this books major struggle because the boy is so hateful, it’s the trick ending that leaves you sad for his plight. It’s a quick read and not the most rewarding for horror fans looking for one of those epic good and evil struggles. Comparing this to the classics could leave a reader wondering if the authors intent was to give them a good scare or just make them marvel at the move from enjoying a haunting to questioning the nature of dreams, nightmares and the therapy they can give.

I didn't really enjoy this one. It felt a bit like too many twists that just felt like twists for the sake of twists that were not actually beneficial to the story. The characters were so dislikeable it was hard to read. Overall, the twists at the end of the book made me wonder why I had spent the time reading the story

I've been curious to read anything by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø for quite some time, so when I heard about The Night House, it seemed like an easy place to start. After all, I have a love of horror, and it also prevented me from worrying about stepping into the middle of a series or anything like that. But now that I've finished, I'm not sure that I made the right call as to where to begin. The Night House starts simply enough, with a cruel-minded young boy named Richard bullying a "friend" of his into making a prank call - a prank which goes nightmarishly awry as the phone itself starts to twist and distort, devouring his friend in front of his eyes. (Unlike a lot of horror novels, The Night House doesn't make you wait long for its first scare.) That kicks off an increasingly unsettling series of events, as Richard continues to be at the center of surreal experiences, all of which seem to be linked to a strange house on the hill. That's about all I want to say about The Night House, except to say that the book isn't what you expect; there came a point where I realized we were building up to what felt like a climax, but at entirely the wrong percentage through the book, and that's when The Night House twisted underneath me into something else entirely...and then, a little later, did it again. The result is a really odd book, and I'm not sure I was entirely satisfied with the ending, which felt a little too clever for its own good and a little too familiar. There are plenty of comparisons I want to make, but they'd risk spoiling a book that's not even out yet; ultimately, though, the ending of The Night House is less interesting than the ride there, and it all feels a little too neatly tied up and a little too "look at what I did" for my taste. I didn't dislike the book, per se; I ripped through it pretty quickly, and there are some truly unsettling scares here. But I'm not sure that horror is Nesbø's genre, in the end; I think I feel like I still need to check out a different book to see what all the fuss is about. *** ½

A departure for Jo Nesbo from his typical dark Harry Hole series. While this is a horror type novel the thrills are not overly terrifying, in fact some of the thrills were comical. There may be some allegory with the nefarious roles some of the objects of terror play. There was a typical Nesbo twist but I felt some of the characters and plot points were underdeveloped Overall an entertaining read that will keep readers interested to see what will be revealed,

A bit weird and pretty strange.
The Night House is like the campy horror novels from the 80s that I loved to read as a kid.

This is my first Nesbø read and I was n0t a huge fan of it to be honest. While this was not the best book I have read, but it was not the worst, I do not feel like it was Horror. Definitely not adult horror, this reads like a teen horror.


Anyways, thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating 2.5 rounded to 3

Dark and weird. Reminiscent of old Stephen King but lacking the mythology and connectivity throughout

My husband read this book and absolutely loved it!! He has been a huge fan of Jo Nesbo and will continue to be an automatic reader. I was so excited to be able to share this arc with him. Thank you NetGalley!